16 CORES FULL REVIEW OF AMD'S RYZEN 9 5950X Wg ELIANG MAG FOR|PCHARDWARE, OVERCLOCKING, GAMING & MODDING / ISSUE 209 Bake ce] 3g 240Hz GAMING MONITORS A + HOW TO TEST WATER-COOLING SYSTEMS FOR LEAKS BiTIME TO SHINE! 2 PURE LOOP Quiet and superior cooling The Pure Loop Allin ur PC, featuring a styl and silent cooling whenever y cooling block that shines here! *= Impressively high cooling performance Doubly decoupled pump for quiet operation lent Pure Wings 2 PWM fan with high air pressure sh white LED illumination and black a ailable in 120, Available at: an.co.uk » overclockers.co.uk » ebuyer ch.60.uk ara.co.uk eclonline.com - an be quiet!Welcome Custom PC Issue 209 7 FROM THE EDITOR ICY aes hepeteenonhshaebenenomouiexting T ean poensereenan antenna roareberioimiseereee ohne pearaienntanarienieerar one ieee iti Soe toreeem tana perkaeran nentenaeeneanee Peereeirmeannnicienermnarninn Lerpieirnancnsnunrannrounnnenatte pes ar apie any eitersatebarine eateries ein Riecenenianarireennaneny eee a cen oeermnoniti ferelienaen donner Foiveentnendenh rants Fmtinuapieensunterunnrs Pecan eer pres craumndaairenrnar nl pennants thr Peesahentenny cairo ern Fyaerimatearassnnnorintonn scene creel ere vsieiipneeieeerereenaniipuieret Sra een LATE prainarrinieririeemarne int pomnirereernnniattinem acetate earn Pr asieilinrnsrerneriritaaeis et per nbacesnnrnrss viene von ert eee ine Parshannsboans ainennnmirananae Seems eererreenreenet in aaa ee) end | ree Be Toto) Pres Pret patenn sexo or oesion jhe ten Destowens peed bled er ees ADVERTISING Peretti ores “Smee erie Peery paiement FesmsoretrotnenaaE Urge racecars Freres Lice tcc Ste oe ia Petree perce Pacteeias rt Evie ee eed poe a Sens een ee ee rer Eerie en tet ere eee ee eter) Recenter eect mca etn ecm erence ies peter Pcie eae Pn DEed rai Sk eet Era aa Pee eer tet Perera eer Ener eaeted Erector QrrecycleContents Highlights 08 Ripinpeace ‘withthe arvalof ever more powerful mainstream CPUs Richard Seénbume ponders whether we'reseeing theend ‘ofhigh-end desktop processors such asTneacrpe. 10. Riseofthemachines Anew Amazon patent could separate hasty gamersfrom’rice’ gamers, butTracykingquestonshow such asystemmight work SgNevsnere AMO strstr spats cardsbasedontsONA tecture romseperomance partes cartier power consign 22. NvidiaGeForceRTX3070 Founders Edition Completing thet of vidas newest ‘raphics cards wepautthe cheapest Ampere-based GPU troughits paces 24 Water-cool your RX 6800XT Managedtogettothefrontofthe tne andbag aRadeon RX 6800 X12 Antony Leather shows youhowta keepitevencoolerandueter 30 AMDRyzen95950X and Ryzen55600X ToppingandtatingthenewRyzen '5000series wetest AMD'latest 6-coreand6-core processors Welcome to Issue 209 39 Buzzword ‘WetestCorsai’snewHS60Haptic headsetthat providesskul-shaking ations toenhancertsbassresponse, Mincepiemegatest \Weptémincepiesagainsteach other tofindtneperfectpasty treat this Chnstmas, Fastaslightning 240Hegamingmortorshavecome a longwayinacoupleof years. Edeard CChesterputsfourofthelatestmodels tothetest Inside RDNA \Wesequencethe genome of teray tracing-enabledarchtecture powering [AMO's new Radeon RX 6000 GPUS. Christmas Gift Guide Picking outthepertectpresentstfor tech-loving fiends andfamiy canbe tricky We've drawmupalistof options tosuitalbudgets large andsmal, 98 104 MeettheJetson CaethHalfacreerevewsthenew 'NuidaetsonNano2GBand thrips throughthememoiroffamed game ‘developer Sid Meter Installamotherboard ‘monoblock “Makethe mostofyourwater-cooting setup withaful otherboardand CPU. coatingblock ‘Supply strain James Gorboldshowsusbehindthe scenesofthe Zen3retallaunch.Cover guide Regulars 3 Fromtheedtor emer Po i Ey 16 AMDRadeon RX 6800 8 Richard Swinburne 48 AMDRadeonRX6800XT ‘0. Trcyking a eesermem 12 Incoming 30 AMDRyzen55600X eee Letters aes 55. Customki ieee ent sone 62 Howwetest 38 TTBTeamgroup T-Force Cadea7er02440 64 Eliteproducts PERIPHERALS 39 CorsarH#S60Heptc 42 CorsarK6ORGBP LO 70. Inverselook 76 Reality check 43 AsusROGSWixScopeRX Laprops 96 Hobbytech ‘44 AcerPredatorTiton300 102 Customised PC pee 46. Scan3xSAbsorbere 104 Howto guides 50 PCSpedalistObsidant 109 Folding@home Customkit M10 Readers’ drives 55. RedstomPC GamePad '55_ Mobile Game FingerSleeves M4 James Gorbold 240HzmonitorLabs 57 Acer PredatorXB253Q 58 AOCAGONAG2SIFZ2E25 59 AOCCa2G22 60. AsusTUF Gaming VG2790M ————— 1 Meer's_ rs ma) wis rem 74 Sociriy? 75 AmnesiaRebitn Hobby tech ‘96 Raspberry PiCompute Module ‘98. NudialetsonNano2GB 100 SdMeler's Memotta Windows 10 Pas) a Windows 10 Home perenne eee Pee) ei etc) pee vais Cece er Poe nc) ee Dea ee ed Peet eee) ein) Setter eee rd ace ee ed careers CyberPowerPC recommends Windows. Ce ieee ae Windows 10 Home pieireaereeimeeed Poe revue Soa eene tread Pe rr) ee ed eed in 65 0 Poe Supt eee] Re eee ed Cee ter perce ferret eats 24068 rgsan MoD SATA 0 ei Ce od erty cornet = BC Psy peed eee ed See Coe eel eta Pe neere ty ems) pe a/ ea oe WWW.CYBERPOWERSYSTEM.CO.UK \ Follow Us! €) © G @CYBERPOWERUK | © @CYBERPOWER_UK (on Rtn ois ECU Kah 7 Fite lela) COREi7RICHARD SWINBURNE / VIEW FROM TAIWAN HEDT WILL ROLL Richard Swinburne can't see Threadripper S000-series CPUs reaching your local computer shop her eenalitt fare abou AMD‘ Zen 30 | eee era Chesand eases ofresard theatsastopedecserattstine heespomentonet AND steed on syne apopandsew atoms inetd Ths year AMD rade gis nba hese Thai asaya pod andaND nro lng nec that eg expe AD te won eases seoosncsTheariyerngeortiotwoecshey Sinope buble ate fan reste rea ‘with a refreshed W-series, However, the lustre of the HEDT market had dulled by the time the 64-core Threadripper 3990X launched in early 2020. Compared with the awe surrounding the Threadripper 2990X reveal, the receptionofthe3990X more along the lines Cf but why do we need it?’No games benefited from ,sothe ‘whole enthusiast market just shrugged its shoulders. Since SU and CrossFire are now largely retired, ludicrous numbers Cf PCL lanes are no longer requited for most people ether. A ‘bog-standard Ryzen 9 3950X is really more than enough for anyone except high-performance computing (HPC) centres, The story at Intelis alsoadead end. Going back to Nehalem 1n2008.its HEDT platform usedtoshowcase theentire high-end desktop (HEDT) market No games benefited from cutting-edge tech, but its now antiquated isteaching retirement X299 platform hasn't been updated since Retrospectvely, AMD fist generation of it, Sothe Whole enthusiast 2517 while its two LGA2066 CPU refreshes ‘Threadripper chips offered a~now modest eight, 12 0r16 cores, and sold on their huge ‘number of PCLE lanes and quad-channel memory support The second generation superseded this with a doubling to 32 cores.1 remiemnber this revealonstagebeing an epic ric drop moment for AMD CEO, Lisa Su,with peopleinthe audience literally gasping AMD had doubled the core count year on year when Intel was only just ticking upwards every now and then. It continued to make the Threadripper platform feel special Intel fought back few months later with ts Xeon W-3175X ‘which was exclusive to system builders and offered fewer cores (28 vs 32} lacking the same spark. Then in late 2019, AMD really nailed the Intel HEDT coffin shut with its Threadripper 3000-series chips, which started at 24 cores and scaledall the Way toa whopping 64, Intel didnt even bother to fight back marketjust shrugged its shoulders ‘were met with lacklustre reception. Outside ofthe langest retailers, Threadripper PUavailability in many countresislimited or non-existent. While Amazon US and UK both stocka wider range than average, the numberof customer ‘product reviews for Ryzen vs Threadripper is telling of the respective popularity there are over 1oox morefor the former, It’snot surprising, because HEDT snow so unaffordable that ‘even an entry-level CPU and motherboard runs into several ‘thousand pounds even before youadd four channelsof memory plus sufficient power and cooling for these 280W beasts, With the accelerating cost, the very niche appeal and uncertain roadmaps all considered, I don't think most of us enthuslasts would mind if the HEDT market went into retirement. Instead, pooling resources into a single, focused platform should benefit us all re Richard has worked in tech for over a decade, as 2 UK Journalist on Asus! ROG team and now as an industry analyst based in Taiwan [) GrisnS oo] ee CORSAIR MAKE YoUR NEXT BUILD Te aN LL , CO SEE ae aD Orne Cau ke ae Rc ee et oe cea) exceptional cooling, with two included CORSAIR AirGuide fans. Keep your system running at peak efficiency with an CUE ELITE CAPELLIX Liquid CPU Cooler, delivering powerful, low-noise cooling along with ultra-bright dynamic. ergy CN ae oR igTRACY KING / SCEPTICAL ANALYSIS MATCH MADE IN AMAZON Amazon has patented a system that reportedly matches ‘toxic’ gamers, to separate them from’nice’ gamers, but Tracy King has questions B gorithms are often blunt instruments. I have fairly niche shopping interests that can be well served by smart algorithms, but I often laugh at the results. It doesn’t bother me because its based on my shopping history and I'mdaft enough tallow tracking What's mote sinister ar ‘targeted’ ads that know I'm a child-fee woman of a certain age, and therefore I must want adverts for fertility treatments This is intrusive profiling, not based on my actions but on other aspects of my online behaviour or personal life, and the stereotypes associated with them I shouldn't have to use ad blockers to preserve some privacy around my ‘tea life, s opposed to my online shopping behaviour Itfelslike crossing the ethicalline.But hey. is justadvertising Icanand probably should To deal with this situation the patent describes two sets of attributes-a negative preference fora behaviour maybe’ doesn't lke swearing}, and a positive preference (okay with swearing) But what's the source of that data? There are obvious avenues, such as actual gameplay behaviour. If you get reported a lot, or age-quit mid-game_alot yyouttexpect the algorithm toknow that andtake tito account It's basi stuf, but it's also an extremely blunt instrument, and there'salmost certainly not enough data tocteate well-matched ‘gamingsessions. The algorithm will want more behaviour data so whete will it get it? The patent has a depressingly 2020 answer ~ social ‘media. From the patentIn certain embodiments, preferences and behaviours are further lve without it But what i that so of profing Thesite Protocol calledit —Getermined based on player association withone wereusedtoaffectmyonlinegamingespetience? ‘a godsend for gamers’, of more external systems, incuding non game That's a question raised by the discovery of a patent filed by Amazon, positioned by media coverage as an algorithm that matches ‘toxic {gamers with other toxic gamers leaving all the nice gamers toplay among ourselves without being bothered by ‘rolls or rage quitters. Protocol,the tech website that discovered ‘thepatentfiing,calledit'a godsend for gamers. Iread the patent myself and, well, no ‘What's considered toxic behaviout? The patent acknowledges that one gamer’ swearing might offend one person, but not another one. This s where gets complica Inordertomatch players who exhibit one type of behaviour with players who behave the same way, ou also have to be sure those players are okay with it. In other words, just because someone swears alot while playing that doesn’t mean they're okay with other players who swear a lot Iread the patentmyself systems For eampe. pa and, well,no- pation ina specific social networking site (or group on the social networking site) can be considered a behaviour. In some embodiments, players associated with an external system are also assumed to have a preference for participation inthe external system by other players In other words, you could be matched with ot based on your politics, interests or other attributes that have nothing to do with the game or your play-style- And of course, if this sort of data collection is opt-out then the matching won't work, because the tclls wil simply deny access to thelr behaviour data Perhaps this is why (as far as I know), no developers have Implemented this system. However, its a creepy warning ‘that the lines between online gaming and our ‘real’ lives are becoming blurted, which | find truly toxic. are Camer and science enthusiast Tracy King dssects the evidence and statistics behind popular media stores surrounding tech and gaming [7 tkinadotUNLEASH YOUR POTENTIAL C27G2ZU 1920x1080 (16:9) nee SEMEL eee OLY aocgamingcom J eacc_gaming @aacgaming @aocgamingIncoming hea Ua STR hk od co crore ts Te ea ea ee Poe ret ete en eects eet eee) Ce eat roo ee er eet hs Carr east eee ns earner AOCAND PORSCHE DESIGN UNVEIL 240HZ GAMING MONITOR AOC andPorsche Designhaveteamed upto ale anew garning moniorthat combines theaters eye for ashy design wath the former's gamingmontor pedigree. The standout features ofthe display are ts 240}, 27. CD panel and tubular rollcage rspired polshed stainless steel stand ‘Aswellasafingerprnt magnet of astand, thePO27incudes RGBlightng on therear as wellasmini AOC andl Porsche agos that projectonto your desk. edlsplayitselthas 2560x1440 solution making Rone of relatively low nurber of moniorstohavea240H2refresh ate andaresolutionigherthan 1080p. also boastsa ims GTGresponsetime and Ce eae ers Seen Sd Ponte ene) at Se en ro) tee oi re esa ithnine Peon) ed Seat uid fend Pen es Peete ane s Se cee oa ey eee ta Ree re (.Smsmotionpicture response time(MPRM). AVA-typeLCD panel hasbeen chosen for thi play whichallowsittootferan wve2500 Icontrastratio alsohas asightly extended colour gamutof 19 per cent sRGB, buts only rated or isplayHDR 400HOR whichis thermost basic level ‘ROC isknownforinclucing wiredremotes Initshigh-end AGON monitors forcontrating theon-screenalsplay With the POZ7, thas stepped up anateh, though addinga snazzy looking wirelessremote. Despite the modest screensize, the P02 alsohasacuved screen witha very tight ]OOOR radius. The ‘ROC AGON PD27\savalablenow fora} ‘eye-watenng MSRP of £720 ne VATRADEON RX 6900 XT INCOMING AMD has another GPU nits RONA2 arsenal that's due tobe released on 8 December Witha claimed price of S999 US around £890 inc VAM), the Radeon RX 6900 XT looks setto occupy auniqueprice league nthe current GPUmarket sitting tween Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 and top-end 3090, he Radeon RX 6900 XTisbasedonthe sameNavi21GPUasthe Radeon RX 6800 and 6800 XT (see p16),buthas 80 computeunits enabled, gvingt stream processors and 80 Ray Accelerators. AMD quotes a game frequency of 2015MHz fr the GPU, wit a maximum boost clock of 2250MHz However itstilhas the same memory system heaper RDNA2 cards, with 16G8.0f GDORG memory running at GHz (effective), connectedtoa256-bitwide memoryintertace, ‘We hope to have areviewof the new PUinournext issue, butin the meantime you canread our deep cveinto AMD's new RONA2 GPU architecture on p78, 20 en eo eee si peer: Seen Sey een eee 2nd-gen optical mouse switches, ae res ea ere eee eed eee Aoooea no Creme tea Pree netic)Letters Please send us. your feedback. and correspondence to Where’'sthe Ryzen5. 5600X? IwasteadingIssue208 of Custom PCandi couldn'thelpbut notice thattherewasno indepth article aboutthe new Ryzen 55600X CPU. Isthereareason for this,or did just not eadtthat you were only testing some ofthe newZen3 CPUs? Either way.Lalsowantto mention how much! love reading your magazine, sojust keep up the good work! ‘LANE WILKINSON Ben: Thanks for yourkind comments, Lane. We worked together wth AMD tomakesure CustomPC was on sale onthesame dayasthe Zen 3launch which was agreat achievement forus, butalsomeant wehnad to compromise. There were four CPUs atlaunch but coniy wo of them were avalablefor AMID to send ous fortestingbefore ourprint deadline -samplesofthe other two wouldntbeinthe country untl after we'd gone topress. You be pleased toknow thatthere's full reviewof he RyzenS S60OXinthis issue, though.on p30. AMD Ryzen 5 5600X custompc@raspberrypi.com When's thenextissue out? CUSGOMPG oe Issue 210 Onsale on Thursday, 7 ran wn Ben: |pologise onbehalf of eam seepooncana _ustomPC,Davd. One aspectof Fetewormeamp working onprint magazinesis that RyzenS5600xX——_youoftenhavetoworksilyhours Inocdertogetthelatestkttested andreviewed, while sll meeting the eadine atthe printer and that means wemiss this sortofthng sometimes. Sadly, youalso can'tgobackand correctamistake once t's been printed, > AMD 2 —_ and these sorts of technical typos ec are he onesthatwont get nicked up byaspell-check oranon-technical proofreader However we're going to vee-poaaegons leave tne misspeling of ise in your Sicivateasee? lettertomakeusteelbetter! che r Your articleon building DOS gaming rigwith original hardware caught rmyinterest! lwanttobuildalegacy computer but formy old software aswellas gaming, and withatleast cone PCislot for my beloved Yamaha SW1000XG sound card. Ialsohave other hardware that Windows 1ocan'thandle, such as anexcellent high-resolution Epson scanner.Idehave access toanld Pentium4CPUwithan Intel D8soGB motherboard Tmnotsure whether t's worth reviving ortojustjumpa litle closer tothe present fora better spec. [hate waste,even ifthe end product might not bea brand new computer. DANNY HATHAWAY Ben: Ay the SWIOOOXG, thatwasa kates synthesiser card! Motherboards stilcamewithPCIslotsuntirelatvely recently therewasone atthe bottom ofthe ASRock 2370 Prod, which came outin2017. The bigger problemilbe driver support ether foranoldoperatingsystemvth thenew motherboard, orfor your ‘SWI000XG with Windows 10. Foryoursetup,thatoldPentium4 systemané850 motherboard sounds Ideatif you put Windows XP on 5 longas youalsohave some RORAM spare, and youdor'tconnectttothe Intemet. One otherideaistodtcnthe ‘SWIO0OXG, andpick upanexternal Yamaha one generator on eBay the MUIOORas the sameintemal hardware as the SWIO0OXG, and you canconnectittoamodem PC wath standard MIDIto USB adaptorand treatitke anormalMIDI synthesise Te only downsides ae that you cant run XGWorks on Windows 10,ocuse the seriatintertace controler.Sh in the moment rae ltoliie oa fol] ‘Momentum 32” 4K UHD, LCD display with Ambigiow Srv} ray poe + ees oe vitra HO Li ae Let asm ee amazon ReelGRAPHICS CARD AMD RADEON RX 6800 SPEC rapics processor /AMDRadeonRX6800,81SMHe game lok 20S maxboost cock Prpetine $3840 streamprocessors,96ROPS Ray Accelerators 60 Memory 6CELCBORG TeGhrettectve Memeryinterace 26-00 Cordintrtace woxrcres Banca Soa/see Outputsinputs 3x DsplayPort 4a PeHOMIZY Power conection: 2x8-pn Number of ots 2 ardent 26mm £530 revar \ospoeao econo gaessae Day eer ccesssesan coo metvante Zensen DCEO UsaSuesetoonsHinA? chisnanoine person shoumgfsertarerats tne conoeuon sao SCUwro forery ali rerun tst teomonote eco ho crust e800=rd tne6800RT scp) Tesco txeB0orss0 cubed cae vnts eon wehcnan Sreomperesosoncfay eco ADs twonstee Theeonton croattvatas ere oa tasustotrswoting ononewant srg ts Poche nayck sinoio0.ss Mowe hoc 6800 oreston rote bene ovtasenaelertyced Cesrce Ao70 mpc fovea eon COORG rmrerecB oro 8 rots cocedsanetee speed arse conparcato Mourn tess S07 atas9256 3 wacom nia athe faster memory means yougetatotal respectableremory bbandwicth of 52GB sec, comparedto 448GB/sec forthe Nvidia car, ‘Thecard The RDNA2 aunchalso sees AMD moving toanew reference cooler design and, unke Nvidia's Founders Edition cards, thiscoolerisalsobeing usedty AMD's board partners.I'samassive improvement over AMD'sprevious reference blower coolers, and bears apassingresemblance tothe classy metalbrick-lke designs of Nvidia's RIX 20-series Founders ation cares. There's ared Radeon ighton the top edge. and three fans {rawing air through the bottom of the cardand expeling t foutofaventatthe tap Yougeta chunky backplateas well Its decentcooler and waleit'saudBle when the fans spin Uup,tlsalow-frequency consistent breeze, rather than an annoying rebty whine that oscillates up anddawn. There are two8-pinpower connectors onthe edge, and no vents onthe rearl/Opiate, Performance ‘Socan AMD new GPUs compete with the equivalent 'Nuiia GPUs on performance? Let's start withthe good news, whichis thatin standard, non-ray-traced games, the Radeon RX 6800 tsaqood deal quicker than the GeForce RTX3070.I'snot far off beingtwice he speedo the Radeon RX S700 here either ‘AL2.560. 1440, the Radeon RX 6800 rarety drops below OOtpsin thesetests- that's some awesome raw shader ower for the money itcancomfortabWy play Doom Eternalat 4K with Ura Nightmare settings as well. fyoure one cf those people who loudly proclaimsthat you don'tcare about ray tracingon Twter, then yes, tis s the card tobuy inthis price league Whereit starts to get complicated is when youaddray tracing to themix and thats important you want to run CCyberpunk2077 wthallthe bells and whistles went comes out for example. There'sareason why AMD hasn't iscussedray-tracing performance inmuch depth, andits becauseitcan't compete withNvida on this front The most striking example's Battlefield V whichdrops down toa 99th percentle frame rate ot 43fpsandaverage of S8fpsonthe RX 6800, butthisjumasto S6fpsand 69ipsrespectvety onthe GeForceRTX'3070. The gapis leven widerat 1080p inthis game. and youseeasimiar performancegapin Shadow ofthe Tomi Raider with ray-traced shadows enabled Insome othertests the performance gapisnt quite as pronounced, withthe 99th Percentile results drawing even some cases inMetro Exodus although the RTX 3070's average'sstilnotceably auickerinthis game. These performance numbers arentterrble-theyre arguabiy a reasonable counterpointtothefactthat he Radeon RX 6800 has moreraw shader power thanthe RTX 3070. Thebigger problem for AMD that tdoesrit have an equivalent of DLSS ints graphics arsenal fyouenable LSS, youcan improve the RTX 3070 (already good) ray tracing frame rates eventurther, making 60fpsray-traced gaming at2.560x1.40a solid proposition ‘No, whiebath the new Radeon cards ran our ray-traciag benchmarks fine, we couldnt get ther workingin games that specticaliy used Nvidia's ray trace extensions, such as (Quake IRTX.Nviclahas the advantage of being acouple of vears ahead ofthe gam here. Onmore than one occasion, AMD's Radeon Software applocked up onus soon after peningitas wel The software now alsoinclaces an automatic ‘overclocking tool which quickly stresses your GPU and ‘memory to find high stable frequencies. On our test sample, that equatedto 2324MHz and 21S0MHz memory (17 2GH2 cffective) Annoyingly, though, youcan onl apply one ot these tweaks onits own - if youwantto overclockboth the memory and the GPU together, youhave toheadtothe manual section ‘There's some decent overclocking headroom here though - we keptthe automatic memary overclock frequency.andthen clockedthe GPU to 2355MHz, which ‘added another couple of frames per secondtotheaverage ‘on Shadow of the Tornb Rader. ‘Conclusion tt already clear thatthe Radeon RX 6800 stock tuations die, ith cards avaliable at any ofthe usual UK eta. {With thatin mind, we'rebasing our conclusion onrmakinga purchase ance the stack problems have died down Based ‘ontheir standard retail prices, rather than eBay, te Radeon RX 6800 i alitle pricier than Nvidia's RTX 3070Founders Editon, buthas a similar priceto third-party RTX 3070 cards If youtenotbothered aboutray tracing. and your top priontyis maximising frame ates then that sareasonable price although i's arguably bumped upby anextra 868 ‘of memory thatwlrarely getused atths card's target resolution Also, while the Radeon RX 6800 isntasquick at ray tracingas the RTX 3070, isnt fa offinsome tests ‘The bigger problem for AMD atthe moments that Nvcia’s DLSS tec really reduces the burden of ray tracing, resuitingin decent ramerates withamazing vsuals Ifyou ‘wanta card that does tall at2,560x 1440 then you want theRTX 3070 rather than the Radeon RX 6800. great tohave some decent compettioninthe GPUmarket again, ‘an the Radeon RX 6800 is ook, btitisnt gute theal- ‘outwanner that AMD needed. VERDICT ‘Atop buy if you want to maximise frame rates, but the TX 3070's superior ray-tracing performance and DLSS tech make ita beter all-rounder inthis price league. + Decent cooler ‘sn “+ Ampsealyhos RADION = Nous PERFORMANCE 32/40 7/20 VAWE 34/40 Corer CEEGRAPHICS CARD AMD RADEON RX 6800 XT / £680 weve SPEC Graphics processor /AMDRadeon 6800 X7205Miegame flock 2250Memaxtboos lock Pptine ‘4608 stearprocessors 128 ROPS Ray Aceerators 2 Memory 1SCELCDORG,r6GHeettectve Memeryintertace 256-5 Condintrtace Woxrcres Stce/see Outputs inputs 3x DsplayBort a, HOMIZTXUSB, Tyoe-c Power comectons 2xe-pn Number of ots 25 Cordiengn 2mm Te end results thatthe AMD's total memory bandwith of SI2GB/secisupagainstthe RTX 3080's figure of 760GB/sec, as wells Nvidia's superb Ampere GPU architecture. On the plusside, the Radeon does atleast have 16GB of memory, comparedto just 1OGBon the RTX 3080, although i's debatable nowmuch of anadvantage this will giveitin current games, Tne RX 6800 XT doeshave significantly beefer specs than AMD's cheaper RDNA2 ard though. thas 72 of the Navi21GPU's computeunits enabled, giving t 4,608 stream processors, compared 0 3,840 inthe Radeon RX 6800, That also means you get 12 more of AMD's Ray Accelerators for real-time ray tracing in games that supportit. Thecard Thanks to alarger cootng system, the Radeon RX 6800 XT hasmuch higher clock speeds than the vanilamodel, with [AMD quatinga game clock the realistic frequency you're Uelytoactually seein games) of 2015MHz,comparedto just 1815 MHz on the standard RX 6800. We'rehoping this, Imghtalveus some decent overclocking headroom too. The cooleritself has a very similar layout to that ofthe Radeon RX 6800, but wth tallerheatsink plate, This pushes the card into thi expansion slot tertory, even the /0 plate ony occupies two slots It works remarkably \wellthough We foundittobe exceptionally quetfora reference cooler,even when running demanding game tests -'sahuge upgrade aver AMD's previous biower coolers andi’s quieter than the standard RX 6800 cooler too. It makes abit morenoise if you overclockitorenable Ragemode, buts never entating/Aswe dscussinthe RONA2 deep diveonp78, AMD has focused hardon performance per watt wth tis generation of GPUs, andthis card requires the same pair of 8-pin power connectorsasits cheaper sibling This'salso.a benef ofthis carclovertheRTX 3080 -at stock speed, our system drew 29W less from the mains with the Radeon RX {6800XT installed Performance ‘AMD has clearly workedhardon RDNA2,andit represents huge step up from the frstNavicards we reviewedlast Year, massivetyimproving performance and bringing hardware suppor forthe DirectX 2 Utimate feature set Butts this enoughto take on the RTX 3080? Sadly the ansiver is no, While the Radeon RX 6800 clearly has lots more raw shader power than the RTX 3070, the sameisntirue forthe Radeon RX 6800 XT againstihe RTX 3080. Performance in Doom Eternal s similar forthe ‘wo GPUs at 1080p, but he GeForce pulls away at 2560 x 1440 anda, Te Radeon's stock speed performance was slightly behindthe GeForce in Shadow of the Tomi Raider as well Onthe plus side, the AMD GPU took the leadin BatleietdV, butnotby ahuge margin The'situation sadly becomes more iv when you Introduceray tracing, The Radeon RX 6800 XTi competitive wth the RTX3080in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p with High ray-traced shadows, butthe Nuiia GPUs wellin rontin our other game tests. The ‘gap was massivein BatlefielaV with High OXR and Uta settings, where theRTX 3080 managed.a 99th percentile resultof75fps at2.560x1,440, compared oust Stfps for the Radeon RX 6800 XT, Exacerbating the problem furtheristhefactthat AMD currently doesn't have an answer toDLSS, which gives, the TX 3080 a substantial helping hand inray tracing at higher resolutions, ‘Onthe plus sie. thereissomeheadroomto push the Radeon RX 6800 XT further asitshetty cooler provides plenty of overclocking headroom. Thiscard also supports AMD'snew Rage mode, which careully tweaks thermals, GPU voltage and lock frequency togive you ‘anautomatic speedboost onthe fy wthout crossing into the danger zone. Sadly. timprove performance inour tests although youllberewardedifyougo fora manual overclock ‘Wewere abieotake the GPU clock right up to2500MHz, ‘while also adding another OMHz to the memory clock Thismakesa large diference. wth the Radeon RX 6800 XTevenbeating the stock speed RTX 3080in some tests If youre prepared to water-cool your card (see p24, and overclock t youll berewarde ‘Conctusion ‘We don't wantto beat up the Radeon RX 6800 XT. because itisa decent card tt might not beat the RTX 3080, butit does stil churn out ver 400fpsin Doom Eternal at 1080p, anditalsohas.a good stab at ray tracing, beating Nvidia's last-gen Turing GPUs. The problem's hati’ pncedata simiarevelto the GeForce RTX 3080, anditdoesnit have the shading power, ray-tracing performance or memory boandwicth tojustfy thatprice. Yes ithas ]6GB.of memory, but that doesnt franslate into winning performance. The Radeon RX 6800 is fa off the RTX 3070, butthe Radeon RX 6800 xTis further away fromthe RTX 3080 i's good to see AMDbackin the high-end GPUgame, though, and we're looking forwardto seeing how the top-end RadeonRX 6900 XT performs. Ifthe 6800 XT hadacheaperpricet wouldbe muchmaore competitive Of course there's no stock of any ofthese cards athe moment anyway, butif the pricing stays the same wien the dust setlestheRTX 3080 willremain the GPU to buy. VERDICT AMD's most compettive high-end GPU for along time, but t's not powerful enough to propery take on the GeForce RTX 3080. RAGING + Quetcaner + Ht + Low poe craw + Decerttame AGING = Sty t09 PERFORMANCE 34/40 eaTURES 7/20 VALE 30/40 Corer eHGRAPHICS CARDS BENCHMARK RESULTS -Reviewedinthisissue Power drawGRAPHICS CARD NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 FOUNDERS EDITION / £469 neve II ‘Wadmitthatitfeetsrather sly reviewing thiscard when we already know the stock levels areso miniscule. As such, wee going toreview this card SPEC Graphics processor Na GeForce T3070, ISOOMHrbase Clock T2SMHe boost cock Prpetne SBEBCUDA cores 96ROPS Rrcores {46 (2nd-gend Tensorcores 1waCsre-gen) Memory 8G COORG, oH ettectve Memory interace 2s6-ot Cordintrtace woxreres Banca 44488 /e0c Outputsinputs 3x DesplayPort 4a, PeHOMIZY Power connections eid pnt padoptr ined Number of ots 2 ardent 242mm onthe basis that youilbe abletobuy itatthspriceatsomepontinthe futureviten lithe stocksiiness des down butwe'rewellaware that itsimpossible tobuy atthe moment ‘Withthatoutofthe way let's take alook at what Niia's practically non-exstentmid-range GPU hastocffer Unike te RTX3080 3763090, whicharebaseson Nvidia's top-end GAIO2 Ampere desktop GPU, the RTX 3070 uses the muchsmaller GATO4 chip it hhasa392mm de containing 4 bilan transistors, compared wth the GAIO2' 628mm? dle with 283 bilontransistors TheRTX3070 doesnithavea fullyenabledGAt04 GPUeither as ithas one texture processing cluster (TPC)tumedoft Thatmeans you losetwo streaming multiprocessors (SMs)comparedvwathafully enabied chip, Accordingly. the RTX 3070 hhas5,888 CUDA cores, uta uly enabled GATO4 GPU woulghave 6,144 of ther, potential paving the way orafully enabled GAI04GPUIN the future Youalso get 46 2nd-gen RT cores foray tracing, and 184 3rd-gen Tensor cores. Tne RTX3070 smemory system steps down from the (GAI02 cards. as well with 8GE.of GODR6 memory athe than GDDR6X,anditsattachedtoa256-bxt wide memory Interface. he memoryisclockedat 7SOMH2 (l4GHe effective), making for atotalbanewleth of 448G8/sec that's substantial narrower than the RTX3080.2n6 3090, butit should befine for the RTX 3070'stargetresolutonof 2560x1440. Mean, the GPUhas a base clack of SOOMHz. and boosts ta1725MH2.although some thicl-party cards push thelatter muchhigher For example, AsushasaROGStrx cardthatboostsallthe way to 1905MHz, so there could be ‘some good overclocking patentialhere Thecard swath the RTX 3080 Founders Edtion, Nvga's new RTX 3070 cardhasarevisedcooler design butitsaiitle afferent from theRTX3080 flow-through system. The RTX3070's cooler looks mare conventional, with two fans onthe fant rather than one on the frontand one ontheback. The alow systemhas atwo-prongedapproach here, witharbeing pushedoutofboth the /Oplate,as wellasa vented section ontheback of thecar I'snotquiteasrelantonbottom-to-topcase alow as theRTX 3080, buts stilcleary optimised forsucha setup Ityour case nasa different aetiow design suchas am ITX casethatuses PCL-Ensers.youlikely better of witha third-party card witha conventional cooler, where youte nat Indanger of locking ake airflow outletOthenvse.the cardhas neat design There's nolightn, butitiooks classy andminimalist Like the TX 3080 Founders tion, power alsocomes froma 12-pn socket butNvcla proves an 8-pin-o-12-pin adaptorinthebox and youonly neecone 8-pin plug, However, the T2-pin connectorisrightinthe micaleofthetop edge, whichmakes for awkward cable tidying -unless yourPSUhasaT2-pin alingacrossthe connector yout goingto have an adapt middle of yourcase, Performance Initsonginal announcement. Nvciaclamedthe TX 3070's, faster thantheRTX2080 T. anditcleary hasa seni level of performance (see the fullresutts on theRTX3070'snarrowermem ‘aay fromthe 2080 Tinsome tests. Last month that would havemade the RTX3070a clear winner butthe stuaionis now complicated by therelease of AMD's Radeon RX 6800 If yourtop pronty is geting he fastest framerates possible, and youdont stay tracing then the Radeonis the card youwant twas consistently weli front ofthe RTX3070in DoomEtemal andinShacowofthe Tori Raider withray-traced shadows InBattefeid¥but he Radean was again the winner here Ir youwantte maxooutthe eye candy, though, the RTX 3070isthebettercard. The situatoniscompbcated however In Battlefield V, for example theRTX 3070 Is ‘much quicker than the Radeon withray tracing enabled Itparticulaty noticeable at 260 x1.440, where the RTX 3070's 99thpercentie framerate of S6fpsisweilinfrantof the Radeon RX 6800's 43fps, The pictureisrtquiteasstark Inourotherteststhough What te TX 3070 reallyhas goingforit, howeves Is support for vidas DLSSant-aiasing mode which improves the framerate wthray tracing, and with tte visualimpactat2;560 1440 and 4K. WithDLSS ‘enabled the TX 3070 maintained a 67fps 99thpercentie 10-2, However interface meansitfalls nthispriceteague, GEFORCE RTX frameratetn Shadow ofthe Tomb Raider averaging &7fps that's smoothiyplayable. Likewise, ts 43fps 99th percentile and 7fps average in Metro Exodus 32560 x ,440isa decentresultin this highly demanding test - cropping from Ura toHighray tracing wll make the game smoathly playable. Without LSS, the Raceon RX 6800 couldonlymanagea 35tps 99th percentileresultinthisqame al this resolution which \sonly borderine playable. There’salso scope tosau outofthe RTX 3070, as t'srealy overciockable We were sly able to adel an extra250MH2 to the memory clock andanother MHz othe GPU Boost frequency This, sghtthe Shadowof he Tomb Raider 99thpercentle framerate up 3Ips to S6fpsat 2560x1440 withray tracing enabled, Conclusion via’ de stock situation andthenew ¢ AMD complicates the RTX3070's standing butif oucan ck buy f youwant to play the atest games with ray 2560x1440, Thete'scertaniyne pointinbuyinga’ cardat current pricesriow That said, withthe exception of Battlefield, AMD'Sray tracing performancelsnttoo ar behind, andthe Radeon RX 680 latter's your pronty then the Radeon cleartyabetter buy However, the RTX 3070's DLSS support and superior ray tracing performance means just about inches our choice forthebestall-round sub-£500 card f youcan findane, blemsare sorted, thisisthecardto ngat ring Sfasterinterms ofraw shading power Ifthe VERDICT ‘The RTX 3070 is the new sub-£500 all-round graphics king, f you can find one. [RAY TRACING + uetcoke RAY WINSTONE = Row-tougn Penronmance 33/40 FEATURES 19/20 VALUE 35/40 Cee CeWater-cooling the Radeon RX 6800 XT INSTALLING THERX 6800 XT WATERBLOCK Instaling GPU waterblacks canbe tricky dueto thenumber of screws and cables usedonmoder graphics ards, butwe'e pleasedto reportthat the RX 6800 XTisarelatwely easy cardtodsmantieand ‘water-cool inthis quite well show youhow to dortstep-by-step, and theonty the onty extra gear youl needis amicroscrewudrwer, some thermalpaste cleaner andalint-treecloth, ‘1/ REMOVE BACKPLATE The Radeon RX 6800 XT hasalargebackplate onthe op side ofthe PCB, which youll need to remove in ordertoaccessthe heatsink-securng screws undereathi. Lay the car fan-down on afta, sturdy surface andlocate te backplate's mounting screws. Femovingalof them, 2 / REMOVE SCREWS “Tere are fourscrewsina cross-shape bracket which securethe coolertothecoreof the GPU, ancthese screwsneedtobeleft unt lasttopreventthe heatsink rom fling away atone end, Remove al theother screws aroundthe PCB, and useacontanertostorethem soneneot them ros away. 3 / REMOVE BRACKET SCREWS ‘The waterlock comes withasingle-slotbracketthatcanreplace thecard'stwo-stot bracket This mght be use youhave avertial ‘raps card mount 2s youcan thenplace the card closet youre nel There are several screws atthe endothe racket. which need toberemoved inorder to dislodge the stock bracket.4/ REMOVE EXTRA PCB SCREWS ‘There aresome other screws round the bracket which attachto the CB, securing both he cooler andthe bracket Youtineedtoremave 5 / REMOVE CORE SCREWS “Making sure the cara placed on aflat surface remove the four screws andbracket surrounding the GPUcore. Whenifing the card the cooler wil now be loose, <0 take caret support the cooler from ‘underneath Nt doings could see alot the cara potentially damaging the cables stiattachedtort 6 / DETACH CABLES Cent ite cocertrom the bracket en toreveal where the cables attachto the PCB. Use aplasticpckorthin-noseplerstogenty {lodge the cables Apptyany frcetothe connector tthe cables, ‘oryoursk damaging hem. 7 / LIFT OFF THE COOLER ‘The cote shouldcome away easly not. check forscrews younay hhaverissed The thermalpasteon he core canalsosetand makeit tricky dislodge. Ahaiaryercanwarmithe paste, makingremoung thecoolereasier-use ahighheat setting for 20 seconds, bowing 6 ‘nay fom theresrof the er amingatthe cove area, v 8/ REPLACE THERMAL PADS Youttwantto keep any thermal padsthat are dslodged onthe cooker soyoucanreplace ti you decide tosellyour card inthe future orf you cotherwiseneed to replace the cooler Use aflat plastic tol suchasa rediaraotftthemoft the PCB mone piece, and thence tem backontothe cooler