RX 6900 XT vs HD 6950

Place in performance ranking	525	18
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Value for money	0.52	18.65
Architecture	TeraScale 3 (2010−2013)	Navi / RDNA2 (2020−2022)
GPU code name	Cayman	Navi 21
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Design	reference	no data
Release date	14 December 2010 (13 years old)	8 December 2020 (3 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)	$299	$999
Current price	$320 (1.1x MSRP)	$957 (1x MSRP)

Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 6900 XT has 3487% better value for money than HD 6950.

Technical specs

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	1408	5120
Core clock speed	no data	1825 MHz
Boost clock speed	800 MHz	2250 MHz
Number of transistors	2,640 million	26,800 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	500 Watt	300 Watt
Texture fill rate	70.40	720.0
Floating-point performance	2,252.8 gflops	no data

Size and compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus support	PCIe 2.0 x16	no data
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	267 mm	267 mm
Width	2-slot	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pin	2x 8-pin

Memory

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	16 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1250 MHz	16000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	512.0 GB/s
Shared memory	no data	-

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort	1x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort, 1x USB Type-C
Eyefinity	1	no data
HDMI	+	+
DisplayPort support	-	no data

Technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

AppAcceleration	-	no data
CrossFire	1	no data
Enduro	-	no data
HD3D	-	no data
PowerTune	-	no data
TrueAudio	-	no data
ZeroCore	-	no data

API support

List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	DirectX® 11	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.0	6.5
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.1
Vulkan	no data	1.2
Mantle	-	no data

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

HD 6950 6.74

RX 6900 XT 69.34
+929%

RX 6900 XT outperforms HD 6950 by 929% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

HD 6950 2612

RX 6900 XT 26857
+928%

RX 6900 XT outperforms HD 6950 by 928% in Passmark.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

HD 6950 3230

RX 6900 XT 50587
+1466%

RX 6900 XT outperforms HD 6950 by 1466% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD	18−20 −972%	193 +972%
1440p	12−14 −1017%	134 +1017%
4K	8−9 −938%	83 +938%

Advantages and disadvantages

Performance score	6.74	69.34
Recency	14 December 2010	8 December 2020
Cost	$299	$999
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	16 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	500 Watt	300 Watt