PowerColor Reveals VRAM Configurations for RX 6700 and 6700XT

[harlan4096]

It seems a 6GB RX 6700 is going to happen

PowerColor has filed a list of model names for the yet unannounced RX 6700 and RX 6700 with the Eurasian Economic Union. Interestingly, the listing shows potential memory configurations for both GPUs: The RX 6700 XT features 12GB of VRAM and 6GB for the RX 6700. This information comes just a week after ASRock shared product names with the EEU, listing a 6GB RX 6700 and a 12GB RX 6600 XT. This makes PowerColor the second company so far to suggest an RX 6700 6GB could be on its way.

Even with PowerColor and ASRock backing each other up, the only evidence for a 6GB RX 6700 comes from the EEC and EEU. We've seen plenty of product names enter the Eurasian Economic Commission/Union that turned out to be false. So take this info with a grain of salt. Still, there's plenty of reason to suspect it's viable.

Will the RX 6700 be bottlenecked due to the low VRAM capacity? We've discussed how low VRAM capacity cards will be affected in the past, and we're reaching the point where 6GB is becoming a minimum requirement to run the latest titles at high or ultra detail settings. Perhaps if AMD does a ton of optimization for this card, and you run games without ray tracing (which is a VRAM hog), that might make 6GB okay for a mid-range RDNA2 card.

This could also be a temporary measure. GDDR6 — along with most computer parts — is experiencing massive shortages, forcing graphics card production to slow down for Nvidia and AMD. AMD could be decreasing VRAM capacity to the absolute minimum to keep production going as much as possible. Plus, there's nothing stopping AMD from making a 12GB RX 6700 in the future by using higher capacity memory chips.

The good news is that it seems like the RX 6700 XT will feature 12GB of VRAM, which should be perfectly adequate for 1440p and 4K gaming without encountering memory capacity issues. Plus, given these will be mid-range (or lower high-end) cards, 4K isn't really a major concern.

Let's hope AMD can create product volume for these future mid-range cards once they arrive. The RX 6800, 6800 XT, and 6900 XT are already super hard to come by. If more SKUs are coming soon, AMD will need to figure out a way to produce these cards in large enough quantities to maintain at least some adequate supply. Considering everything else happening right now, including Ethereum mining, delivering adequate supply on any graphics card seems unlikely.
...

Continue Reading