The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Liquid Cooled Is As Impressive As Its Name

Graphics cards are still very difficult to find thanks to a global parts shortage combined with big demand, but that isn't stopping AMD from rolling out a new version of its top-of-the-line Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU. This new version, called the Radeon RX 6900 XT Liquid Cooled, gives away its main new feature in the name, as the GPU is outfitted with a liquid cooler that should help it boost performance over its air-cooled counterpart.

Unfortunately, we don't have full details on this card's launch, pricing, or even confirmation of its specifications just yet. As Videocardz reports, that's because only a handful of pre-built PC retailers have announced the card, while AMD has stayed quiet on the 6900 XT LC's impending launch.

The good news is that those retailers – Maingear is one of the retailers here in the US that is advertising the card – have listed some specifications, but the bad news is that we don't know how much this card will cost DIYers who are interested in buying it on its own. The standard 6900 XT has a list price of $999, but we're seeing manufacturers raise their prices above standard MSRP by a significant amount because of the parts shortage. It stands to reason that the 6900 XT LC will have a higher MSRP than the standard 6900 XT and that the difference between the two will get even larger after price hikes.

In any case, some of the specifications these retailers have released show that the 6900 XT LC offers the same number of compute units (80) and the same amount of video memory (16GB). However, it does offer a higher game clock and boost clock speeds – 2250MHz/2435MHz compared to the standard 6900 XT's 2015MHz/2250MHz. The liquid-cooled version also has a total board power of 330W, 30W higher than the standard 6900 XT's 300W. Finally, memory is speedier in the liquid-cooled model, climbing to 18Gbps.

So, it sounds like we can probably expect a noticeable performance boost in the 6900 XT LC, but of course, we need to wait until this card is out in the wild and some real-world testing is performed on it to make that call for sure. It'll also be interesting to see how AMD prices the 6900 XT LC, though again, the price AMD announces probably won't be the price people actually pay for this card until the current parts shortage clears up.