XFX Speedster RX 6800 XT MERC319 Review

Introduction

There are many partner manufacturers on the market, many of whom tend to work primarily with one of the big three companies - Intel, Nvidia and AMD - rather than spread their load. When we think of AMD Radeon graphics cards two companies spring immediately to mind thanks to their lengthy close ties with AMD, and one of them is XFX.

We've already seen how capable the Radeon RX 6800 XT is when it's in stock AMD guise, but because we're never satisfied we have been eagerly anticipating what the big boys can do with such a high performance platform, and XFX are here with their Speedster range and the card we've got in for review today, the MERC319. Curiously on the back of the box it's listed as the Mercury 319, as you'll see on the next page and that's what it's called in our graphs.

Anyway, regardless of whether you call it the informal Merc, the 319, the Mercury, or it's full title, we know that what you're getting from the newest card in the XFX range is the latest RDNA 2 GPU wrapped up in a gorgeous heat sink and some serious performance. Just take a moment to soak in the image at the top of this page. Mmm lovely. You want to look at it in more detail, we know, so let us run through the specifications before we get down to some close ups of it in the flesh.

Technical Specifications

The XFX Mercury 319 has a big triple slot design, but what really catches the eye is the dual BIOS modes with one that is hardly a slouch and one that's truly for the people who want to squeeze every last drop of juice from it that they can. Naturally we're running in the latter mode, although we've had a fiddle with the overclocking options too. We're getting ahead of ourselves though. Picture time. Are you sitting comfortably?