Overclocker Der8auer set a new world record with the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT. In a YouTube video released Wednesday, the German overclocking legend used a liquid nitrogen cooling rig to push AMD’s flagship Big Navi GPU to 3.2GHz, setting a new world record for graphics card speed. The 6900 XT is already an absurdly fast graphics card with a boost clock of 2.25GHz, but Der8auer was able to take the card 1GHz beyond even its fastest speed.
The clock speed goes beyond the artificial clock limit of 3.0GHz on the 6900 XT. That’s because Der8auer was using a PowerColor LiquidDevil Ultimate card, which has a clock limit of 4GHz. It uses the updated XTXH variant of the Navi 21 processor inside the 6900 XT, upping the previous version’s frequency limit.
The LiquidDevil Ultimate uses binned GPUs — meaning silicon that has been vetted for high overclocking potential — and features 16-phase VRM for excellent power management. It’s a card made for this kind of extreme overclocking, so it was inevitable that someone would set a world record.
Der8auer
Although the LiquidDevil Ultimate comes with a water block pre-installed, Der8auer stripped the PCB to attach an LN2 cooling chamber, pushing the card to sub-zero temperatures to create an optimal overclocking environment. He also used a custom BIOS, as nearly all extreme overclockers do, and said it will be released into the wild soon.
It was only for a split second, but Der8uer achieved a clock speed of 3,225MHz on the card before crashing. At the end of the video, he said the card has “enormous potential, at least for extreme overclocking,” and that other cards may be able to hit speeds as high as 3.5GHz.
But that’s getting into the territory of high-end, heavily-binned GPUs, and most gamers and hardware enthusiasts would be happy getting their hands on a 6900 XT at all. Like previous world records, this one is cause for celebration. However, it comes amid one of the worst GPU shortages the market has seen, which may not fully recover until 2022.