keyword: Radeon

amd-radeon-rx-6700-xt-review

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT Review

Introduction

The Radeon RX 6700 XT is the new kid on the block from AMD, and arguably its most important RX 6000 series graphics card launched to date as it’s the most affordable (on paper) and targets the heart of the performance segment. The card is designed for high refresh-rate 1440p gaming and capable of real-time raytracing. It introduces the company’s second discrete GPU based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture, the 7 nm Navi 22. AMD also claims that the RX 6700 XT should disrupt the sub-$500 graphics market, taking the fight to two of NVIDIA’s popular Ampere products, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070.

The new RDNA2 graphics architecture from AMD breathed life back into the consumer graphics market by competing with NVIDIA at the highest market segments with the RX 6800 series and the flagship RX 6900 XT Big Navi. It offers full DirectX 12 Ultimate readiness, including real-time raytracing, variable-rate shading, mesh shaders, and sampler feedback. Raytracing is the holy grail of 3D graphics, and while fully raytraced interactive 3D is beyond the capabilities of consumer hardware, it’s possible to combine conventional raster 3D graphics with certain real-time raytraced elements, such as lighting, shadows, reflections, global illumination, and so on, to significantly increase realism.

Even this much raytracing requires an enormous amount of compute power. The most compute intensive task of ray intersection is handled by special hardware AMD calls Ray Accelerators, while shaders handle other related tasks, such as denoising. A side-effect of this approach is that AMD has had to boost shader performance significantly over the past generation, which means most games that only use raster 3D graphics should see enormous performance gains over the previous RDNA generation.

The Radeon RX 6700 XT debuts the Navi 22 silicon, which is leaner and more space efficient than the Big Navi silicon powering the larger RX 6000 series cards. The chip physically packs 40 RDNA2 compute units, working out to 2,560 stream processors and 40 Ray Accelerators. The number of stream processors is identical to that of the RX 5700 XT Navi, but the performance uplift comes from the higher IPC of the RDNA2 compute unit, besides much higher engine clocks—2424 MHz vs. 1755 MHz (game clocks).

AMD has made a significant yet frugal change to the memory setup. You now get 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, which is 50% higher than the 8 GB of the RX 5700 XT, but at 192-bit wide, the memory bus width is 25% narrower. AMD has tried to make up for this by using the fastest JEDEC-standard 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory chips, resulting in 384 GB/s bandwidth. This is still much lower than the 448 GB/s of the RX 5700 XT. The company deployed its new Infinity Cache technology that it debuted with Big Navi. A 96 MB fast cache on the GPU die cushions memory access, and operates at 1.5 TB/s.

AMD is pricing the Radeon RX 6700 XT at US$479 for the reference design, undercutting the $499 price of the GeForce RTX 3070, but $479 is higher than the $399 starting price of the RTX 3060 Ti the card is extensively compared against in AMD’s marketing materials. The card also faces some internal competition from the $100 pricier RX 6800, which AMD is marketing as a 4K-capable 1440p card. All these prices are pure fiction; real-world graphics card pricing is completely whack right now. In this review, we’ll focus on how the card competes with others in its vicinity on our swanky new March 2021 test system.

Our Radeon RX 6700 XT launch-day coverage includes six articles including this one. Do check them out!

PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 XT Red Devil | MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X | ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 6700 XT OC | Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT NITRO+ | XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster Merc 319

Radeon RX 6700 XT Market Segment Analysis
  Price Shader

Units		 ROPs Core

Clock		 Boost

Clock		 Memory

Clock		 GPU Transistors Memory
RX Vega 64 $400 4096 64 1247 MHz 1546 MHz 953 MHz Vega 10 12500M 8 GB, HBM2, 2048-bit
RX 5700 XT $370 2560 64 1605 MHz 1755 MHz 1750 MHz Navi 10 10300M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2070 $340 2304 64 1410 MHz 1620 MHz 1750 MHz TU106 10800M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 $600 3584 48 1320 MHz 1777 MHz 1875 MHz GA106 13250M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2070 Super $450 2560 64 1605 MHz 1770 MHz 1750 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
Radeon VII $680 3840 64 1400 MHz 1800 MHz 1000 MHz Vega 20 13230M 16 GB, HBM2, 4096-bit
RTX 2080 $600 2944 64 1515 MHz 1710 MHz 1750 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2080 Super $690 3072 64 1650 MHz 1815 MHz 1940 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 Ti $700 4864 80 1410 MHz 1665 MHz 1750 MHz GA104 17400M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6700 XT $700

MSRP: $480		 2560 64 2424 MHz 2581 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 22 17200M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2080 Ti $1000 4352 88 1350 MHz 1545 MHz 1750 MHz TU102 18600M 11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070 $800 5888 96 1500 MHz 1725 MHz 1750 MHz GA104 17400M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 $1000 3840 96 1815 MHz 2105 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT $1300 4608 128 2015 MHz 2250 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080 $1300 8704 96 1440 MHz 1710 MHz 1188 MHz GA102 28000M 10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RX 6900 XT $1500 5120 128 2015 MHz 2250 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3090 $2000 10496 112 1395 MHz 1695 MHz 1219 MHz GA102 28000M 24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
asus-radeon-rx-6700-xt-strix-oc-review

ASUS Radeon RX 6700 XT STRIX OC Review

Introduction

We have with us the ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 6700 XT O12G, the company’s top custom-design RX 6700 XT graphics card. AMD today launched the RX 6700 XT along with the new Navi 22 silicon, to take the fight to NVIDIA’s sub-$500 performance segment, including popular SKUs such as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and the RTX 3070. It establishes 12 GB as the new memory size standard, and promises full DirectX 12 Ultimate capability, including real-time raytracing. The target buyer is a serious gamer looking to play both AAA and e-sports at 1440p with maxed out settings.

The Radeon RX 6700 XT is based on the latest RDNA2 graphics architecture that brings a compelling feature set to the PC market, nearly leveling up to NVIDIA. AMD’s approach to real-time raytracing is the use of special purpose components called Ray Accelerators, which calculate ray-intersection, while compute shaders handle everything else, including de-noising. To achieve this, AMD significantly bolstered the programmable shaders of this architecture, improving their IPC, and running them at extremely high engine clocks. A side-effect of this is the card’s high performance outlook with games that don’t have raytracing.

The Navi 22 silicon at the heart of the RX 6700 XT physically features 40 RDNA2 compute units, working out to 2,560 stream processors, 40 Ray Accelerators, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The increased 12 GB memory size over the past generation comes with a catch—the memory bus width is narrowed to 192-bit. AMD attempted to overcome this by using the fastest standard GDDR6 memory chips that run at 16 Gbps, and the use of Infinity Cache, a fast on-die 96 MB cache memory that cushions data transfers between the GPU and memory.

The ROG STRIX RX 6700 XT OC comes with the latest generation DirectCU III cooler that’s used across RTX 30-series and RX 6000 series ROG cards from ASUS. It features a meaty aluminium fin-stack heatsink that’s ventilated by a trio of Axial-Tech fans. You also get goodies such as dual-BIOS, a blinding amount of RGB LED illumination, additional fan headers to let you sync your ventilation to the card; and an additional RGB out. ASUS hasn’t provided any pricing info yet, we suspect it will end up costing close to $800 at current market conditions.

Our Radeon RX 6700 XT launch-day coverage includes six articles including this one. Do check them out!

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (reference) | MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X | Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT NITRO+ | PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 XT Red Devil | XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster Merc 319

Radeon RX 6700 XT Market Segment Analysis
  Price Shader

Units		 ROPs Core

Clock		 Boost

Clock		 Memory

Clock		 GPU Transistors Memory
RX Vega 64 $400 4096 64 1247 MHz 1546 MHz 953 MHz Vega 10 12500M 8 GB, HBM2, 2048-bit
RX 5700 XT $370 2560 64 1605 MHz 1755 MHz 1750 MHz Navi 10 10300M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2070 $340 2304 64 1410 MHz 1620 MHz 1750 MHz TU106 10800M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 $600 3584 48 1320 MHz 1777 MHz 1875 MHz GA106 13250M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2070 Super $450 2560 64 1605 MHz 1770 MHz 1750 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
Radeon VII $680 3840 64 1400 MHz 1800 MHz 1000 MHz Vega 20 13230M 16 GB, HBM2, 4096-bit
RTX 2080 $600 2944 64 1515 MHz 1710 MHz 1750 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2080 Super $690 3072 64 1650 MHz 1815 MHz 1940 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 Ti $700 4864 80 1410 MHz 1665 MHz 1750 MHz GA104 17400M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6700 XT $700

MSRP: $480		 2560 64 2424 MHz 2581 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 22 17200M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
ASUS RX 6700 XT

STRIX OC		 $800 2560 64 2424 MHz 2629 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 22 17200M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2080 Ti $1000 4352 88 1350 MHz 1545 MHz 1750 MHz TU102 18600M 11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070 $800 5888 96 1500 MHz 1725 MHz 1750 MHz GA104 17400M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 $1000 3840 96 1815 MHz 2105 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT $1300 4608 128 2015 MHz 2250 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080 $1300 8704 96 1440 MHz 1710 MHz 1188 MHz GA102 28000M 10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RX 6900 XT $1500 5120 128 2015 MHz 2250 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3090 $2000 10496 112 1395 MHz 1695 MHz 1219 MHz GA102 28000M 24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
msi-radeon-rx-6700-xt-gaming-x-review

MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X Review

Introduction

We have with us the MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X, a premium custom-design graphics card based on the new RX 6700 XT AMD is debuting today. With this, AMD is taking the fight to NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070, heating things up in the sub-$500 market segment. With the new RDNA2 Radeon RX 6000 series, the playing field is mostly leveled, as AMD now supports real-time raytracing. AMD took everyone by surprise with its Radeon RX 6800/6900 series launch, spring-boarding the company back to the high-end segment, and the company is planning a similar move on the performance segment.

The Radeon RX 6700 XT debuts AMD’s new 7 nm Navi 22 silicon that’s roughly as big as the GA104, with a similar transistor-count. It packs 40 RDNA2 compute units, which translate to 2,560 stream processors running at speeds in excess of 2.40 GHz; 40 Ray Accelerators, which are specialized hardware that accelerate raytracing by calculating ray-intersections; 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. AMD has also raised the standard memory size with this generation, and the RX 6700 XT comes with 12 GB of it—a 50% increase over the RX 5700 XT. The only gotcha is the narrower 192-bit memory bus width. The memory clock is increased to 16 Gbps, and AMD deployed Infinity Cache, a fast on-die 96 MB cache that works to improve the overall memory system bandwidth. We get into the details in the next page.

The MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT features a the company’s latest MSI Performance Gaming Twin Frozr cooling solution. While this is smaller than the triple-fan Tri Frozr, it’s one of the heavier cards in our lab today, with a chunky triple-slot heatsink. You also get plenty of RGB goodness. As a Gaming X SKU, MSI has given the card factory-overclocked speeds of 2.63 GHz max boost, compared to 2.58 GHz reference. MSI hasn’t provided any pricing info, we expect it to end up selling for $750, or higher.

Our Radeon RX 6700 XT launch-day coverage includes six articles including this one. Do check them out!

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (reference) | ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 6700 XT OC | Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT NITRO+ | PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 XT Red Devil | XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster Merc 319

Radeon RX 6700 XT Market Segment Analysis
  Price Shader

Units		 ROPs Core

Clock		 Boost

Clock		 Memory

Clock		 GPU Transistors Memory
RX Vega 64 $400 4096 64 1247 MHz 1546 MHz 953 MHz Vega 10 12500M 8 GB, HBM2, 2048-bit
RX 5700 XT $370 2560 64 1605 MHz 1755 MHz 1750 MHz Navi 10 10300M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2070 $340 2304 64 1410 MHz 1620 MHz 1750 MHz TU106 10800M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 $600 3584 48 1320 MHz 1777 MHz 1875 MHz GA106 13250M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2070 Super $450 2560 64 1605 MHz 1770 MHz 1750 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
Radeon VII $680 3840 64 1400 MHz 1800 MHz 1000 MHz Vega 20 13230M 16 GB, HBM2, 4096-bit
RTX 2080 $600 2944 64 1515 MHz 1710 MHz 1750 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2080 Super $690 3072 64 1650 MHz 1815 MHz 1940 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 Ti $700 4864 80 1410 MHz 1665 MHz 1750 MHz GA104 17400M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6700 XT $700

MSRP: $480		 2560 64 2424 MHz 2581 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 22 17200M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
MSI RX 6700 XT

Gaming X		 $750 2560 64 2424 MHz 2634 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 22 17200M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2080 Ti $1000 4352 88 1350 MHz 1545 MHz 1750 MHz TU102 18600M 11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070 $800 5888 96 1500 MHz 1725 MHz 1750 MHz GA104 17400M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 $1000 3840 96 1815 MHz 2105 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT $1300 4608 128 2015 MHz 2250 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080 $1300 8704 96 1440 MHz 1710 MHz 1188 MHz GA102 28000M 10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RX 6900 XT $1500 5120 128 2015 MHz 2250 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3090 $2000 10496 112 1395 MHz 1695 MHz 1219 MHz GA102 28000M 24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
sapphire-radeon-rx-6700-xt-nitro+-review

Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT Nitro+ Review

Introduction

Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT Nitro+ is the company’s most premium take on AMD’s new RX 6700 XT graphics card that’s debuting today. Positioned bang in the middle of the performance segment, with a starting price under $500, the RX 6700 XT launches AMD’s second, smaller silicon based on the RDNA2 architecture, and brings the full DirectX 12 Ultimate experience from the AMD stable to this segment, including real-time raytracing. Although targeting the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in performance, AMD claims that the card can trade blows with even the pricier RTX 3070.

The new RDNA2 graphics architecture powers not just AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 series discrete graphics, but also the latest consoles, including the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, making it easier for game developers to optimize for the cards. The company has mostly leveled up to NVIDIA on the features front, thanks to DirectX 12 Ultimate. Its approach to real-time raytracing involves using special hardware called Ray Accelerators to calculate ray intersections; and a hefty compute muscle for everything else, including de-noising.

The Radeon RX 6700 XT maxes out the new 7 nm Navi 22 silicon, which packs 40 RDNA2 compute units, working out to 2,560 stream processors, 40 Ray Accelerators, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The company went with 12 GB as the standard memory amount, and uses fast 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory chips, however the memory bus width is narrowed to 192-bit. The card now only needs six 16 Gbit memory chips. This bandwidth deficit over the previous-gen RX 5700 XT is claimed to be overcome by the Infinity Cache technology—a fast 96 MB scratchpad directly on the die, operating at over five times the speed and much lower latencies, than even the GDDR6 memory.

The Sapphire RX 6700 XT Nitro+ comes with the slimmest iteration of the company’s Nitro+ cooling solution that has many innovations, such as dedicated memory/VRM heatsinks with aluminium fins, wave-shaped aluminium fins that add turbulence to improve heat-dissipation, double ball-bearing fans, and a generous amount of addressable RGB bling. Sapphire has given this card its highest factory-overclock, with the maximum boost frequency set at 2.65 GHz (compared to 2.58 GHz reference). Sapphire is pricing the card at USD $579, a $100 premium over the $479 baseline price.

Our Radeon RX 6700 XT launch-day coverage includes six articles including this one. Do check them out!

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (reference) | MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X | ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 6700 XT OC | PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 XT Red Devil | XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster Merc 319

Radeon RX 6700 XT Market Segment Analysis
  Price Shader

Units		 ROPs Core

Clock		 Boost

Clock		 Memory

Clock		 GPU Transistors Memory
RX Vega 64 $400 4096 64 1247 MHz 1546 MHz 953 MHz Vega 10 12500M 8 GB, HBM2, 2048-bit
RX 5700 XT $370 2560 64 1605 MHz 1755 MHz 1750 MHz Navi 10 10300M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2070 $340 2304 64 1410 MHz 1620 MHz 1750 MHz TU106 10800M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 $600 3584 48 1320 MHz 1777 MHz 1875 MHz GA106 13250M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2070 Super $450 2560 64 1605 MHz 1770 MHz 1750 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
Radeon VII $680 3840 64 1400 MHz 1800 MHz 1000 MHz Vega 20 13230M 16 GB, HBM2, 4096-bit
RTX 2080 $600 2944 64 1515 MHz 1710 MHz 1750 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2080 Super $690 3072 64 1650 MHz 1815 MHz 1940 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 Ti $700 4864 80 1410 MHz 1665 MHz 1750 MHz GA104 17400M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6700 XT $700

MSRP: $470		 2560 64 2424 MHz 2581 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 22 17200M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
Sapphire RX 6700

XT Nitro+		 $750

MSRP: $580		 2560 64 2424 MHz 2649 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 22 17200M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2080 Ti $1000 4352 88 1350 MHz 1545 MHz 1750 MHz TU102 18600M 11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070 $800 5888 96 1500 MHz 1725 MHz 1750 MHz GA104 17400M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 $1000 3840 96 1815 MHz 2105 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT $1300 4608 128 2015 MHz 2250 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080 $1300 8704 96 1440 MHz 1710 MHz 1188 MHz GA102 28000M 10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RX 6900 XT $1500 5120 128 2015 MHz 2250 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3090 $2000 10496 112 1395 MHz 1695 MHz 1219 MHz GA102 28000M 24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
xfx-radeon-rx-6700-xt-merc-319-black-review

XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Merc 319 Black Review

Introduction

XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster Merc 319 is the company’s premium custom-design Radeon RX 6700 XT card debuting today. With this, AMD intends to dominate the performance segment, taking the fight to popular NVIDIA Ampere SKUs such as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and even RTX 3070. The card is targeted at serious gamers seeking maxed out 1440p gaming, and also supports real-time raytracing, as it supports the full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature-set. It’s based on the same RDNA2 graphics architecture as the RX 6900 XT “Big Navi.”

The latest RDNA2 graphics architecture debuted with next-generation consoles, making its way to the PC with the Radeon RX 6000 series. This gives AMD a unique advantage as game developers optimizing for console also end up doing so for Radeon. AMD’s raytracing architecture involves specialized hardware called Ray Accelerators, which compute ray intersection; while much else of it is handled by the enormous compute muscle of these cards. This also means increased performance in non-raytraced games, as these programmable shaders can be made to do anything.

The Radeon RX 6700 XT is based on the new 7 nm Navi 22 silicon, and maxes it out. The chip is equipped with 40 RDNA2 compute units, which means 2,560 stream processors, 40 Ray Accelerators, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The company has also generationally increased the memory amount to 12 GB, which is certainly welcome, however, the memory bus is narrower at 192-bit. The company worked to overcome this bandwidth deficit by using the fastest 16 Gbps JEDEC-standard GDDR6 memory chips, and deploying its Infinity Cache technology, a fast on-die 96 MB cache located in the GPU, which operates at much higher bandwidths and lower latencies, cushioning data-transfers between the GPU and memory.

The XFX RX 6700 XT Speedster Merc 319 features a large triple-slot, cooling solution with a heatsink that outgrows the PCB not just lengthwise, but also in height, which means a significant amount of airflow from the three fans flows right through, resulting in much better ventilation. The design has certainly come a long way from the THICC series. XFX is giving the card its highest factory OC, running it at 2.65 GHz max boost, up from 2.58 GHz reference. The company is pricing the card at $570 USD, a $90 premium over AMD’s reference price. Both these prices are fantasy in today’s market situation, and one can expect to pick this up closer to $750. In this review, we take the card for a spin across our brand new test bench.

Our Radeon RX 6700 XT launch-day coverage includes six articles including this one. Do check them out!

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (reference) | MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X | ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 6700 XT OC | Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT NITRO+ | PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 XT Red Devil

Radeon RX 6700 XT Market Segment Analysis
  Price Shader

Units		 ROPs Core

Clock		 Boost

Clock		 Memory

Clock		 GPU Transistors Memory
RX Vega 64 $400 4096 64 1247 MHz 1546 MHz 953 MHz Vega 10 12500M 8 GB, HBM2, 2048-bit
RX 5700 XT $370 2560 64 1605 MHz 1755 MHz 1750 MHz Navi 10 10300M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2070 $340 2304 64 1410 MHz 1620 MHz 1750 MHz TU106 10800M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 $600 3584 48 1320 MHz 1777 MHz 1875 MHz GA106 13250M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2070 Super $450 2560 64 1605 MHz 1770 MHz 1750 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
Radeon VII $680 3840 64 1400 MHz 1800 MHz 1000 MHz Vega 20 13230M 16 GB, HBM2, 4096-bit
RTX 2080 $600 2944 64 1515 MHz 1710 MHz 1750 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2080 Super $690 3072 64 1650 MHz 1815 MHz 1940 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 Ti $700 4864 80 1410 MHz 1665 MHz 1750 MHz GA104 17400M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6700 XT $700

MSRP: $480		 2560 64 2424 MHz 2581 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 22 17200M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
XFX RX 6700 XT

Merc 319		 $750

MSRP: $570		 2560 64 2424 MHz 2581 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 22 17200M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2080 Ti $1000 4352 88 1350 MHz 1545 MHz 1750 MHz TU102 18600M 11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070 $800 5888 96 1500 MHz 1725 MHz 1750 MHz GA104 17400M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 $1000 3840 96 1815 MHz 2105 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT $1300 4608 128 2015 MHz 2250 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080 $1300 8704 96 1440 MHz 1710 MHz 1188 MHz GA102 28000M 10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RX 6900 XT $1500 5120 128 2015 MHz 2250 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3090 $2000 10496 112 1395 MHz 1695 MHz 1219 MHz GA102 28000M 24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
powercolor-rx-6700-xt-red-devil-review

PowerColor RX 6700 XT Red Devil Review

Introduction

PowerColor announced its top custom design AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card, the RX 6700 XT Red Devil. After surprising everyone with competitive graphics cards in the enthusiast segment with the RX 6800 series and the flagship RX 6900 XT, AMD is turning its attention to the segment that earns NVIDIA the most attention from serious gamers—the sub-$500 performance segment, where it’s looking to take on established rivals, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and the RTX 3070. Unlike the last time, AMD has largely leveled up to NVIDIA on the features front, with the RX 6700 XT being full DirectX 12 Ultimate capable, including real-time raytracing. The target user of this card is someone who games at 1440p with settings maxed out.

At the heart of the RX 6700 XT is the new 7 nm Navi 22 silicon by AMD, has half the compute muscle of the Navi 21 powering the RX 6900 XT. The chip has 40 RDNA2 compute units, which mean 2,560 stream processors, 40 Ray Accelerators, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. AMD also increased the memory size to 12 GB compared to the previous generation, but the memory bus width is narrowed to 192-bit. The company attempted to make up for this by increasing the memory clocks and using the new Infinity Cache on-die cache memory that the company claims to significantly improve effective bandwidth. The new RDNA2 graphics architecture uses fixed function hardware to accelerate raytracing intersections, but the tech also heavily relies on the compute shader. A side-effect of this is a massive raster 3D performance gain over the previous generation. We detail the silicon in the next page.

The PowerColor RX 6700 XT Red Devil uses a lavish triple-slot cooling solution that looks a segment above when installed in your case. Thick aluminium fin-stack heatsinks peek through the cooler shroud, giving it an industrial look. All this cooling muscle comes together to support factory overclocked speeds of up to 2.65 GHz max boost engine clocks, a roughly 100 MHz increase over the reference design. You get plenty of goodies, including RGB LED lighting, dual-BIOS, including a noise-optimized Silent BIOS, and a 3-pin addressable-RGB header, letting you sync your lighting to the card. We expect PowerColor to price the card at a roughly $100 premium over the $479 reference MSRP, like most other custom RX 6700 XT cards we’re reviewing today.

Our Radeon RX 6700 XT launch-day coverage includes six articles including this one. Do check them out!

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (reference) | MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X | ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 6700 XT OC | Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT NITRO+ | XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster Merc 319

Radeon RX 6700 XT Market Segment Analysis
  Price Shader

Units		 ROPs Core

Clock		 Boost

Clock		 Memory

Clock		 GPU Transistors Memory
RX Vega 64 $400 4096 64 1247 MHz 1546 MHz 953 MHz Vega 10 12500M 8 GB, HBM2, 2048-bit
RX 5700 XT $370 2560 64 1605 MHz 1755 MHz 1750 MHz Navi 10 10300M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2070 $340 2304 64 1410 MHz 1620 MHz 1750 MHz TU106 10800M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 $600 3584 48 1320 MHz 1777 MHz 1875 MHz GA106 13250M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2070 Super $450 2560 64 1605 MHz 1770 MHz 1750 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
Radeon VII $680 3840 64 1400 MHz 1800 MHz 1000 MHz Vega 20 13230M 16 GB, HBM2, 4096-bit
RTX 2080 $600 2944 64 1515 MHz 1710 MHz 1750 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2080 Super $690 3072 64 1650 MHz 1815 MHz 1940 MHz TU104 13600M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 Ti $700 4864 80 1410 MHz 1665 MHz 1750 MHz GA104 17400M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6700 XT $700

MSRP: $480		 2560 64 2424 MHz 2581 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 22 17200M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
PowerColor RX 6700 XT $750 2560 64 2424 MHz 2649 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 22 17200M 12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2080 Ti $1000 4352 88 1350 MHz 1545 MHz 1750 MHz TU102 18600M 11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070 $800 5888 96 1500 MHz 1725 MHz 1750 MHz GA104 17400M 8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 $1000 3840 96 1815 MHz 2105 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT $1300 4608 128 2015 MHz 2250 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080 $1300 8704 96 1440 MHz 1710 MHz 1188 MHz GA102 28000M 10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RX 6900 XT $1500 5120 128 2015 MHz 2250 MHz 2000 MHz Navi 21 26800M 16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3090 $2000 10496 112 1395 MHz 1695 MHz 1219 MHz GA102 28000M 24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
amd-radeon-rx-6700-xt-review:-nvidia-wins-this-round

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT review: Nvidia wins this round

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

Unless AMD actually sells them for $479, of course

AMD and Nvidia are pretending they live in a fantasy world, one where you can buy a state-of-the-art graphics card for under $700. Heck, a fantasy world where you can buy a new AMD GPU at all — though AMD has repeatedly promised it would stock additional RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT graphics cards at its website for $579 and $649 respectively, I’ve seen no evidence the company has ever replenished those supplies since those cards first debuted four months ago.

Today, the company’s launching a GPU that might change that: the $479 Radeon RX 6700 XT. AMD tells The Verge it will have “significantly more GPUs available.” If that’s true — if this is the moment the clouds part, the GPU shortage recedes, and you can actually buy a RX 6700 XT for $479 for even a limited time — you absolutely should. It’s a solid performer at 1440p.

But amusingly, in the fantasy world where we’re pretending a $400 GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and $500 RTX 3070 still exist, the RX 6700 XT actually feels outgunned. It’s not the clear-cut Nvidia competitor you might have hoped for.

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT comes with a simple pitch: a way to max out your 2560 x 1440 monitor with the latest games at maximum settings, all for $100 less than the RX 6800 I reviewed late last year. If that sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same playbook Nvidia used last fall, where its $400 RTX 3060 Ti undercut the $500 RTX 3070 by the same amount.

So in our fantasy world where those prices held, this would be the lay of the land:

Mid-range desktop gaming GPUs in 2021

Price Product Promise
Price Product Promise
$399 Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti Solid 1440p
$479 AMD RX 6700 XT Maxed 1440p
$499 Nvidia RTX 3070 Maxed 1440p / entry-level 4K
$579 AMD RX 6800 Maxed 1440p / decent 4K

Given those prices, I’d expect a $480 AMD card to soundly thrash a $400 Nvidia card. (That’s what the $580 Radeon RX 6800 did to the $500 RTX 3070, after all.) I’d also expect it to be within spitting distance of the $500 Nvidia card if there were only a $20 bill between the two.

But running AMD’s card through my 15-game gauntlet on my own 1440p monitor, AMD’s new card sometimes lost to Nvidia’s 3060 Ti — sometimes by a lot — and it can even lose to Nvidia’s vanilla $329 RTX 3060 in tests where I had ray tracing turned on.

1440p gaming (with Core i7-7700K, 32GB DDR4)

Game RTX 3060 RTX 3060 Ti RX 6700 XT RTX 3070 Does AMD pull its weight?
Game RTX 3060 RTX 3060 Ti RX 6700 XT RTX 3070 Does AMD pull its weight?
AC: Odyssey 57 66 58 72 No
AC: Valhalla 50 63 75 70 Yes
Arkham Knight 126 147 140 156 No
Borderlands 3 (Badass) 50 65 82 81 Yes
Borderlands 3 (Ultra) 55 69 87 86 Yes
CS: GO 231 236 225 238 No
Control 50 63 65 76 Not quite
Control (RT) 29 37 25 42 Definitely no
Control (RT+DLSS) 51 64 N/A 68 N/A
Cyberpunk 2077 38 49 52 55 Yes
Cyberpunk 2077 (RT) 18 22 N/A 27 No AMD RT support yet
Cyberpunk 2077 (RT+DLSS) 39 45 N/A 52 N/A
COD: Warzone 87 102 114 120 Yes
DX: Mankind Divided 57 74 89 88 Yes
Metro Exodus (Extreme) 27 37 38 44 No
Metro Exodus (Ultra+RT) 35 47 46 64 No
Metro Exodus (RT+DLSS) 46 61 N/A 72 N/A
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 78 99 105 105 Yes
SotR (RT) 47 59 55 72 No
SotR (RT+DLSS) 57 72 N/A 82 N/A
Star Wars Squadrons 125 151 167 165 Yes
Watch Dogs: Legion 46 61 64 70 Not quite
WD: Legion (RT) 27 35 25 42 Definitely no
WD: Legion (RT+DLSS) 50 62 N/A 62 N/A
Valheim 60 81 70 89-91 Definitely no

Frames per second; all games tested at highest graphical preset unless specified.

As you’ll see in the chart above, AMD does notch some wins, and in many cases lives up to its promise of maxed settings at 1440p. Shadow of the Tomb Raider looks glorious on my G-Sync / FreeSync monitor at an average 105 frames per second with all the eye candy turned up, and the difference between 120 frames and 114 frames in Call of Duty: Warzone at max settings (probably) isn’t worth quibbling about.

With a beefier processor, you should be able to get 60+ frames per second in a maxed-out Cyberpunk 2077 experience, too — I’m still testing with my old Core i7-7700K, which is more than good enough for most of the games on this list (SotR shows I’m 100 percent GPU-bound), but a few titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator and Cyberpunk are still notoriously CPU limited and more cores could help. As another example, my colleague Tom Warren saw identical framerates to me in Watch Dogs: Legion and Metro Exodus pairing the 6700 XT with a far newer Intel chip, but slightly higher in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

Is that a 3060 Ti or 3070 on the left? Both can beat the RX 6700 XT in some games.

But look at Valheim. Look at Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Look at Control. How is AMD underperforming or merely tying these lower tier cards? Things aren’t any rosier at 4K resolution, in case you’re wondering: while I still recommend Nvidia’s 3070 for entry-level 4K, the 6700 XT just doesn’t have the same oomph. In games like Control and Metro Exodus, I had to drop the settings to a comparatively dull “low,” where the 3070 managed to play those games at 4K and medium-spec without trouble. And of course, AMD doesn’t yet have a DLSS competitor if you’re a fan of AI-upscaled resolution.

It’s not like AMD is winning in any other particular way, either. While I’m actually fond of the company’s new two-slot design (clearly inspired by a certain late 1960s muscle car) and I don’t hugely mind going from three to two axial fans, the RX 6700 XT is just as chunky and nearly as power-hungry as the RX 6800 (230W vs. 250W) without as much to show for it. AMD still recommends a 650W power supply, a pricey proposition for those of us with tall PC cases, and you’ll need both 6 and 8-pin PCIe connectors, while Nvidia’s comparable cards make do with a single 8-pin.

I also saw the 6700 XT hit 89 degrees Celsius on one occasion. While I don’t have enough evidence to say that’s a problem, I’ve yet to see Nvidia’s 3070 cross 82 degrees C even with my case fans unplugged.

But as I alluded to in my intro, very little of this will matter if you can actually find this card for $479.

All modern AMD and Nvidia cards have plenty of display support, with one HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPorts.

In December, I reported that the true street price of a $399 Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti was actually $675, and that the street price of an $499 RTX 3070 was actually $819. Those were the average prices people actually paid on eBay that month.

If you think that sounds unbelievable, hear this: the street price of the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070 are now approaching $1,200 each. People are paying triple for what should have been Nvidia’s bang-for-the-buck graphics card now, and the launch of a “$329” RTX 3060 didn’t slow that at all.

To me, this indicates two things: First, AMD probably isn’t going to be able to make anywhere near enough RX 6700 XTs to hit anywhere near that $479 price for the vast majority of buyers, even if it produces “significantly” more cards. I wouldn’t expect today to play out any differently than any previous GPU launch since the pandemic began. It’s a well-established pattern now. Second, none of these fantasyland prices will necessarily keep the RX 6700 XT from being a hit if the supply is there. As you can see from the similar street prices for the 3060 Ti and 3070, the market has a way of balancing prices out.

If you miraculously see this card for its list price, buy it, because you won’t get anything better for anywhere near that price in the near future. But it feels inferior to every Nvidia GPU that can compare — and I wouldn’t trade my 3060 Ti for one.

msi-mpg-artymis-343cqr-review:-extreme-1000r-curve-for-maximum-realism

MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR Review: Extreme 1000R Curve for Maximum Realism

Our Verdict

Tightly curved monitors like the MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR can really enhance gameplay, especially in first-person environments. With class-leading contrast, accurate out-of-box color and superb HDR, the 343CQR should be on everyone’s curved screen short list.

For

  • High contrast
  • Accurate out-of-box color
  • Solid gaming performance
  • 1000R curve

Against

  • Slightly light gamma
  • Blur reduction feature makes the screen too bright
  • Higher input lag than some 144 Hz screens

Features and Specifications

In the world of curved monitors, there are more things to consider than just screen size. Not only are there three different aspect ratios, 16:9, 21:9 and 32:9, they also come in a wide variety of curve radii. This number is expressed in millimeters like 1500R or 1800R. Larger numbers indicate less curvature. When you see 1000R, you know the curve is as extreme as it gets

MSI has jumped on the 1000R train with its MPG Artymis 343CQR. In addition to that tight curve, it sports a high-contrast VA panel running at 3440×1440 resolution with USB-C, HDR support, Adaptive-Sync and an impressive 165 Hz refresh rate worthy of competing with the best gaming monitors. Selling for a premium price ($900 as of writing), the 343CQR is a sharply focused display that is at its best when gaming — going even as far as to include an aim magnifier for shooters.

MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR Specs

Panel Type / Backlight VA / W-LED, edge array
Screen Size, Aspect Ratio & Curve 34 inches / 21:9
Curve radius: 1000mm
Max Resolution & Refresh 3440×1440 @ 165 Hz
FreeSync: 48-165 Hz
Native Color Depth & Gamut 10-bit (8-bit+FRC) / DCI-P3
DisplayHDR 400, HDR10
Response Time (MPRT) 1ms
Brightness (mfr) SDR: 350 nits
HDR: 550 nits
Contrast (mfr) 3,000:1
Speakers None
Video Inputs 1x DisplayPort 1.4
2x HDMI 2.0
1x USB-C
Audio 3.5mm headphone output
USB 3.2 1x up, 2x down
Power Consumption 32.6w, brightness @ 200 nits
Panel Dimensions WxHxD w/base 31.3 x 16.5-20.5 x 12.4 inches (795 x 419-521 x 315mm)
Panel Thickness 6.5 inches (165mm)
Bezel Width Top/sides: 0.4 inch (9mm)
Bottom: 0.9 inch (22mm)
Weight 20.2 pounds (9.2kg)
Warranty 3 years

The 343CQR is all about gaming with support for AMD FreeSync from 48-165 Hz. It’s not G-Sync Compatible-certified, but we still got Nvidia G-Sync to work (see our How to Run G-Sync on a FreeSync Monitor article for instructions).

MSI’s specs sheet includes nearly 85% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut. You’ll be using that gamut for all content, SDR and HDR alike, because there is no sRGB mode available.

MSI designed the 343CQR with consoles in mind too. It will accept 4K resolution signals and down-convert them to 3440 x 1440 resolution. The 343CQR is also the first monitor we’ve seen with HDMI CEC (Consumer Electronics Control). Originally developed to support universal remotes, the CEC implementation in this monitor is designed to sense whether the incoming signal is coming from a PC or a console and adjust its picture mode based on designated profiles. The feature supports both PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.

Assembly and Accessories of MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR

To assemble the MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR, the panel and upright are mated with four fasteners, so you’ll need to have a Phillip’s head screwdriver handy. Next, you attach the base with a captive bolt. The resulting package is rock-solid and shows impressive build quality. It certainly meets the standard one expects for the price.

Bundled cables include IEC for the internal power supply, DisplayPort, HDMI and USB. A small snap-on cover hides the panel’s mounting hardware. And if you’d rather use a monitor arm, the bolt holes are in a 100mm VESA pattern with large-head bolts included. In a nice touch, a small hook snaps onto the bottom of the panel to help manage your best gaming mouse’s cable.

MSI MPG Artymis Product 360

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(Image credit: MSI)

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(Image credit: MSI)

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(Image credit: MSI)

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(Image credit: MSI)

From the front, the MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR is all business with a thin flush bezel around the top and sides and a molded strip across the bottom adorned only with a small MSI logo. A tiny LED appears red in standby mode and white when the power’s on. Around the back right is a joystick and two buttons. One activates the Gaming OSD (on-screen display) app, and the other toggles power.

The upright is very solid with a stiff-moving 4-inch height adjustment. You also get 30 degrees swivel to both sides and 5/20 degrees tilt. There isn’t even a hint of slop or wobble. A small hole helps tidy up cables. The base is solid metal with thin legs that go more than 1 foot deep. That, combined with the fact that the panel’s 6.5-inch thick means you’ll need a bit of extra desktop space to accommodate the 343CQR.

From the top, you can see the 1000R curvature clearly. That radius means that if you made a circle from 343CQRs, it would be just two meters in diameter. If you have the room for three of them, they’ll wrap around almost 180 degrees. They would make a great flight simulator or, perhaps, a solid solution for a Zwift (cycling virtual training app) setup.

The back of the MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR is styled nicely with a variety of different textures and an RGB effect that shows as a strip and MSI shield graphic with a dragon. The color breaths gently through different shades. You can turn it on and off in the OSD and control it ever further with the Gaming OSD app. You can also sync up the lighting effect with that of other MSI products that support the vendor’s Mystic Light-branded RGB. That way, you can create a custom light show with everything working in concert.

The input panel includes two HDMI 2.0 ports that support refresh rates up to 100 Hz with Adaptive-Sync and HDR. Meanwhile, the DisplayPort 1.4 and USB-C inputs accept 165 Hz signals, also with HDR and Adaptive-Sync. There are no built-in speakers, but you get a 3.5mm audio port for headphones.

OSD Features of MSI MPG Artymis

Pressing the joystick brings up the MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR’s OSD,which is divided into seven sub-menus. There are plenty of gaming features as well as most of what you’ll need for calibration.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The Gaming menu offers five picture modes. Four are game genre-specific, and there’s also the default mode, User. User’s the mode to pick because it delivers solid accuracy with no need for calibration. There are a few minor flaws, but the 343CQR definitely makes our Calibration Not Required list.

The Night Vision option is a shadow detail enhancer. We didn’t need it because the monitor’s black levels are both deep and richly detailed. Response Time is a three-level overdrive. Fast, the middle setting, is best. Next, MPRT is a backlight strobe that reduces motion blur and cancels out Adaptive-Sync. 

It also pegs the brightness at over 860 nits, which is unusual. You can reduce this with the contrast control, but that removes much of the picture’s depth and quality. We recommend sticking with Adaptive-Sync and leaving MPRT off. Finally, Zero Latency should always be turned on for the lowest possible input lag.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Additional features include a frame rate indicator, alarm clock, aiming points and an Optix Scope feature. This is geared at fans of first-person shooters and lets you magnify the area underneath your crosshair in multiple levels using hot keys. As this will take some finessing to execute smoothly and without slowing down your gameplay, it won’t be for everyone.

The OSD will always show you the MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR’s signal status at the top with resolution, refresh rate, HDR status, FreeSync status and the active video input.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The Image menu offers three color temperature  presets, plus a User mode. Normal is the default and best choice. We were unable to make a visual improvement to the color temp with calibration. The test numbers show a tiny gain but not one that can be seen with the naked eye. The only thing we wished for was a gamma control. The default luminance curve is a tad light, though that’s somewhat mitigated by the 343CQR’s extremely high contrast.

Calibration Settings of MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR

You can simply unpack the MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR, plug it in and enjoy. The image is very accurate by default — even the brightness is already set close to 200 nits in the User picture mode. We attempted a calibration and made no visible improvement. 

Our settings are below if you want to try them. Note that in the User color temp, the RGB sliders start at 50%, which reduces brightness by roughly that amount. We turned them all up to 100%, then adjusted from there to achieve maximum dynamic range.

Picture Mode User
Brightness 200 nits 49
Brightness 120 nits 6 (min. 109 nits)
Contrast 70
Color Temp User Red 100, Green 93, Blue 93

HDR signals lock out all picture controls. You can still access the modes, but changing them does not affect the image. HDR grayscale runs a tad red, but the EOTF is spot-on, as is the color tracking. The 343CQR also uses dynamic contrast to achieve tremendous contrast for HDR content.

Gaming and Hands-on with MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR

At 1000R, the MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR is as curvy as a gaming monitor gets today. At first, we noticed a little image distortion when working in productivity apps, like word processors and spreadsheets. However, we got used to the look after a short time. 

When browsing the web, that distortion became unnoticeable. The monitor’s image is sharp and contrast-y enough to overshadow any horizontal line curvature. It’s best to set the panel exactly vertical with no back or forward tilt. By adjusting the height so our eyes were centered, it made all parts of the screen equidistant from the body. The 343CQR is perfectly usable for workday tasks.

Color was nicely balanced with slightly more than sRGB saturation but not so much that it looked unnatural. MSI has tuned the gamut so it renders SDR content more accurately without the need to switch color spaces, a capability the MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR lacks. When HDR was on, color looked  far more vibrant, as it should. This is one of the few monitors that you could leave in HDR mode all the time for Windows apps. Brightness is reasonable with the highest levels reserved only for small highlights.

The monitor also supports 10-bit color, though the panel uses Frame Rate Conversion to achieve this. Despite the internal upconversion, we didn’t see any banding artifacts.

Gaming tests started with our usual trip through Tomb Raider, which clipped along at a sprightly 165 fps on a Radeon RX 5700 XT and GeForce RTX 3090. Both FreeSync and G-Sync worked without a hitch. The MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR’s middle overdrive setting, Fast, struck the best balance between ghosting and blur reduction. The MPRT backlight strobe feature also worked well at reducing blur without artifacts but at the cost of a very bright and overly harsh image. Playing games at over 800 nits peak grew tiring after a short time.

Engaging HDR for a few hours of Call of Duty: WWII proved to be a singular experience. The MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR nears equalling a FALD display when it comes to HDR contrast and color. Every hue, down to the murkiest greens and browns, leapt from the screen. Black levels seemed almost OLED-like in their depth and detail, offset by perfectly balanced highlight areas. Color accuracy was also top-notch. Though we noted a slight red tint during the grayscale tests, it did not affect games or movies we played. This is one of the best HDR monitors we’ve seen in a while.

If you download MSI’s Dragon Center software, you can also use the 343CQR’s Sound Tune feature which uses “AI calculations” to block out background noise coming through a plugged in headset. Since it requires software and many of the best gaming headsets include similar tech on their own, its usefulness will vary depending on the gamer.

Another unique feature comes in what MSI calls Mobile Projector. It lets you display your phone’s screen in a 5:9 column on the side of the monitor. Although having your phone on your computer screen could generally be distracting, if you have a specific task that requires using both your smartphone and PC, this could come in handy.

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