XFX Sneak Peek at Radeon RX 6800 with Oversized Cooler

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XFX Sneak Peek at Radeon RX 6800 with Oversized Cooler

The Radeon RX 6800 XT and 6800 will hit retailers on November 18, and the 6900 XT on December 8. Ahead of the retail launch, custom designs are appearing from AMD's add-in board (AIB) partners, like Sapphire's gorgeous Nitro+ series. But none will be as big as the custom variations XFX is teasing on social media.

XFX posted a short video on its Facebook and Twitter pages, telling both, "Arriving soon. Are you ready? #XFX #6000 series." The actual card is revealed in the last two seconds of the 14-second clip, but you need to pause at the exact frame to see it almost clearly.

I would venture to guess that XFX is very likely showing off the "THICC" series, which XFX confirmed in a Twitter thread by saying "soon" in response to someone's comment that they "can't wait for THICC." [The side and top of the card clearly reads "6800 XL," which I don't think is a reference to the newly announced SKU. Instead, this is an oversized version of the Radeon RX 6800. Or it could be a typo in "XT", but I don't think so.

Whatever the final name, the card has three cooling fans and a sleek black shroud with silver accents. In addition, there is a cutout in the back plate that reveals a finned cooling block visible through a gap in the fan blades on the front.

Overall, it resembles the Radeon RX 5700 XT THICK III and THICK III Ultra models, both of which are 2.8-slot designs. This means that they essentially occupy three expansion slots. The custom 6800 model will no doubt do the same.

Also, although AIB has been tight-lipped so far, I expect that whatever XFX unveils will have factory overclocking; AMD's reference blueprints show the 6800's base clock at 1,700 MHz, game clock at 1,818 MHz, boost clock is 2,105 MHz, with 16GB of 16Gbps memory.

AMD lists MSRPs at $570 for the 6800 and $649 for the 6800 XT ($999 for the 6900 XT); THICC models are expected to cost a bit more.

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