Sapphire RX 6800 XT Nitro+ Graphics Card Review
Peter Donnell / 4 years ago
A Closer Look
Cooling is everything with this card, and that comes courtesy of an enormous heatsink and fan configuration. Sapphire cards have always been a little on the large side. However, since it allows for two larger outer fans and a smaller inner fan, it’s going to be able to move a lot of air at lower RPM.
It seems all the top brands are coming up with similar fans these days. These fans have that little bit of trim on the edges that join the blades, or at least, almost joins them on this GPU. It’ll help drive more air downwards to the heat sink.
The card sits at 2.5 slots thick, which is pretty common these days. However, judging by the heavyweight of the card, that it’s mostly heatsink and not wasted space under the shroud.
There’s a good space between the PCB and shroud, allowing for heat to be pushed away from the card. You can see some pretty hefty heatpipes are running through the length of the card too.
Power comes from two 8-pin headers, so pretty much the same as the “stock” AMD card.
A hardware BIOS switch is included. Position one is performance mode, and two is the silent mode. However, there’s a third position which will allow the TriXX software to control the BIOS mode.
Wow… that is one of the coolest backplate designs I’ve ever seen. It’s mostly an off-white, but with black and grey highlights that really make it pop. There’s a range of cut-outs and openings, allowing airflow to pass through the card to maximise performance.
There’s some branding here too, with the RADEON logo, and the Nitro+ logo on there.
The rear outputs consist of a single HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4. The card comes with support for 8K output and VRR.
RGB on the card is gorgeous, with really vibrant colours and smooth transitions.
There’s a strip here between the PCB and the backplate, as well as the matching Sapphire logo on the side.
However, it’s the stunning backplate that steals the show, which lights set under the shroud and behind the logo.
It gives the card a stunning aesthetic that lights up most of the GPU, without flooding your while PC with light.
As I said, this is one of the best backplate designs I’ve seen. Of course, all that extra metal helps keep the card rigid, and also provides additional cooling performance too!
