Credit: Brad Chacos/IDG
Power draw, thermals, and noise
Quick programming note: We included the MSI RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio in these power and thermal results to show how an overclocked, highly customized RTX 3080 stacks up against the overclocked, highly customized XFX Radeon RX 6800 XT Merc 319.
We test power draw by looping the F1 2020 benchmark at 4K for about 20 minutes after we’ve benchmarked everything else. We note the highest reading on our Watts Up Pro meter, which measures the power consumption of our entire test system. The initial part of the race, where all competing cars are onscreen simultaneously, tends to be the most demanding portion.
This isn’t a worst-case test; we removed the Core i7 8700K’s overclock and specifically chose a GPU-bound game running at a GPU-bound resolution to gauge performance when the graphics card is sweating hard. If you’re playing a game that also hammers the CPU, you could see higher overall system power draws. Consider yourself warned.
Brad Chacos/IDGGPUs this powerful take a lot of power. AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture is efficient enough that the overclocked XFX Merc 319 manages to draw less energy than even the stock GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition, though. Regardless, make sure your power supply is up to snuff before you upgrade.
We test thermals by leaving GPU-Z open during the F1 2020 power draw test, noting the highest maximum temperature at the end.
Brad Chacos/IDGGPUs this powerful take a lot of effort to stay cool, too. The XFX Merc 319 stays roughly as cool as the other enthusiast-class graphics cards in this category.
Its best features aren’t represented on this list. First, while you can hear the reference versions of these cards during gaming sessions, the XFX Radeon RX 6800 XT Merc 319 stays utterly silent under load, joining the similarly priced MSI RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio. We couldn’t hear it make a peep over our case fans and closed-loop liquid cooler. That’s seriously impressive.
Also, XFX’s thoughtful cooling tweaks help beyond the raw GPU temperature. All graphics cards report a core GPU temperature, and that’s what we report here. But RDNA-based Radeon graphics cards come with significantly more sensors embedded throughout. AMD uses the hottest of those spots to adjust clock speeds as needed—a metric reported as the “GPU junction temperature.” This hotspot is significantly cooler in XFX’s graphics card. While the reference AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT hits a 103-degree Celsius hotspot temp, the Merc 319 tops out at 93 degrees C.
A ten-degree difference is massive for keeping boost clock speeds higher, longer. The extra headroom would come in very handy indeed during any overclocking endeavors.
Next page: Should you buy the XFX Radeon RX 6800 XT Merc 319?
