Is it worth buying refurbished graphics cards? Let’s take a look at the Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+

Almost unwanted at release and so desirable now, the Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ has indeed become a compromise flagship for 2022, but this has not affected the rationality of buying it in 2024. Using this video card as an example, let’s figure out whether it makes sense to buy Factory Recertified models, what risks you can expect, how much you can save, and what you need to know before buying.

We tested the Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ in synthetics, desktop applications, demanding 4K games, checked the temperature, noise level, power consumption, and determined the relevance of the previous generation flagship two years after its release.

Technical characteristics Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+

Specifications of the Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+
Interface	PCI-E 4.0 x16
Technical process	7 nm
VRAM frequency	18000 MHz
GPU frequency	2324 MHz
VRAM capacity	16GB GDDR6
Memory bus	256-bit
Streaming processors	5120
Exits	DisplayPort x 3 (v1.4)
	HDMI  x 1 (v2.1)
Power connector	8+8+6 Pin
Energy consumption	390 W
Recommended power supply	850 W
Dimensions	320x135x58 mm
Takes up space	2.7 slots

 

Test bench

• Motherboard MSI MPG B650 CARBON WIFI
• AMD Ryzen 9 7900 processor
• AMD Wraith Prism cooling (BOX)
• RAM DDR5 2x16GB/6000 Kingston Fury Beast Black
• Video card Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+
• Power supply MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 1000W
• Body MSI MPG QUIETUDE 100S
• MSI 27″ MPG 274URF QD Black monitor

Package and packaging of Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+

Some refurbished graphics cards don’t come with the original box, but not in this case. The Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ is packaged as if it were a new, unused card. Inside is the video card itself without any additional accessories. There are no plugs for the video outputs or PCI-E plug.

The Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ heatsink is large (320 mm) and of medium density. The back is covered with a metal casing, except for the area of the GPU itself. For power supply, the manufacturer has placed 2×8 pin and 1×6 pin connectors.

This model is slightly larger than the reference AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, but the length and thickness of the video card still allows it to be installed in most cases. Since the radiator is heavy and large, a support is required, which is not included. The MSI MPG QUIETUDE 100S case has this option by default.

The video card is equipped with RGB backlighting, and it’s quite beautiful. The manufacturer has put a lot of LEDs in different parts of the device. You can control the light only with the help of a proprietary utility, which we will mention in the review.

Work productivity

In Geekbench Sapphire’s synthetic benchmarks, the Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ significantly loses to the new flagships RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT, with a minimal gap to the RX 6900 XT. What is surprising is that the Vulkan test scores less points than Open CL. This behavior is quite unusual for Radeon graphics cards.

The Cinebench 2024 test shows the advantage of the Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ over the Apple M1 Ultra by almost two times. The only nuance is that the power consumption is 4-5 times higher. Moreover, this benchmark did not load the video card completely, but only up to 90%, while the entire 16 GB buffer was filled.

In Blender Benchmark 4.1, the results are quite expected. The Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ performs well among internal competitors and has no chance against Nvidia’s budget graphics cards. The conventional RTX 4060 with 120W power consumption renders the picture faster.

Gaming performance of the Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+

Video games were tested in Ultra HD 2160p and Quad HD 1440p resolutions. First of all, Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ should be considered as a model for 4K gamers because thanks to the 256-bit bus, it has insignificant losses with increasing resolution.

Conventional notation:

• ULTRA/EXTREME — maximum graphics settings;
• HIGH — high graphics settings;
• FSQ, FSB, FSP, FSR NN% — quality profiles of AMD FSR upscale;
• FG — frame generation FSR 3;
• RT/PT — Ray Tracing and Path Tracing;

Alan Wake 2 works great until you turn on Path Tracing. It should be noted that in this particular project, ray tracing is perhaps the most difficult of all games. Lowering the resolution to Quad HD doesn’t help the situation.

Given all this, there was no point in setting the path trace in Cyberpunk 2077. To play with ray tracing in 4K, you need to set FSR in the Performance profile. It is optimal to play at 50 FPS with Ultra settings and FSR Quality in Ultra HD 2160p.

У F1 2022 It’s difficult to see the obvious advantages of Ray Tracing because at 300 km/h there’s no time to look at the details. But in the screenshots, you can see the picture tearing with vertical synchronization turned off. The performance of the video card is more than enough for 4K or 2K without FSR.

Forza Horizon 5 never disappoints with its optimization. With the Extreme profile (includes ray tracing) and without FSR, we have 150+ FPS for 1440p or 110 FPS in 4K, but with FSR Quality.

Two years old «new» (Sony PlayStation 5 owners say hello to PC fans) Horizon Forbidden West The default setting is 60% FSR scaling. We increased this parameter to 80% and with the maximum graphics settings, the frame rate is still high, and the picture is super clear. When switching from 4K to 2K, the FPS grows smaller than the cheeks of the red-haired heroine compared to the first part.

Manor Lords looks really beautiful for a dying strategy genre, but it has high requirements. For Ultra 4K, it is recommended to use FSR in Quality mode.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is still the most demanding simulator. In Quad HD, we rely on the capabilities of the processor, and Ultra HD resolution (without upscaling) clogs up more than 13 GB of VRAM.

Robocop Rogue City works in 4K without any problems if you use the FSR Quality or Balanced profile. There is no point in turning on the upscale for owners of Quad HD monitors because there is enough power.

Starfield supports frame generation, which helps a lot to get a smooth picture. It is worth praising the developers for the high-quality implementation of FSR 3, although the game itself does not look like its system requirements at all.

The Callisto Protocol was received ambiguously at release due to the exploitation of the Dead Space idea, but there are things to praise the project for. The detailing of objects leaves most AAA games released in 2023-2024 far behind, and FSR 2.2 is implemented here in the best way possible.

Finally, we leave a small comparison of Starfield and The Callisto Procotol. Pay attention to the level of facial detail: the protagonist’s stubble, sweat, blood, skin texture versus a plastic face like a doll. And this is despite the fact that Starfield, even though it is an open-world game, consumes three times more computer resources.

The Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ video card is enough for a comfortable game in resolutions of 2560×1440, 3440×1440, 3840×2160, 5120×2160. For owners of 4K TVs, this video card will be enough to launch new products for another 6–10 years.

For the adherents of the «sect of the video memory» sect, we collected statistics from these 10 games, and you can see the results in the diagram. For 90% of the games, 8-10 GB is enough, and that’s at very high resolution and with only the maximum graphics settings. In fact, 16 GB as of 2024 is 4K Ultra HD Overkill with room for the future. That’s exactly what the Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ graphics card is.

Energy consumption, noise, heating

Monitoring programs do not display the consumption of the entire video card, but only its chip. This can give the impression of economy, although it is not true at all. We finally dispelled this myth with a wattmeter. So, in the FurMark stress test, the GPU power consumption is 290 W.

In downtime, we have as much as 40 W, which seems to be true. An entire PC from a power outlet requires 130-140 W, and without a discrete graphics card around 80-90 W. That’s a lot for a modern PC, but it’s quite normal for an AMD AM5. Without load, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 processor has terrible energy efficiency, but in operation it is economical compared to competitors.

In the FurMark stress test, the computer needed 490 W, that is, the video card accounts for about 400 W in the game Cyberpunk 2077 with a low CPU load (4K Ultra). The wattmeter showed 510-520 W. The release of such a huge amount of heat does not go unnoticed. So all components in the system began to heat up.

All classic video cards (without water cooling and turbine) emit heat directly into the case, but here we have an almost full-fledged oil cooler or infrared heater inside the ATX case.

Because of this, the 90W AMD Ryzen 9 7900 processor heats up to 80-90°C with the AMD Wraith Prism cooler, while it was impossible to warm it up to 70°C with integrated graphics in the Cinebench 2024 stress test. The motherboard temperature also increased by an incredible 20 °C. This is the price of high-powered gaming graphics cards.

Of course, for ideal advertising tests, we would have used a liquid cooling system MSI MEG S360 on the top and three more MSI MAG fans on the front panel. This would give a beautiful picture on the monitor and idealize the top video cards. Like: «there are no problems, you can put it in and play in «any» computer, you don’t need economical graphics cards, power consumption doesn’t matter, let’s buy faster».

This is a top-of-the-line video card for top-of-the-line PCs with good components and quality components, although the current price makes it desirable for budget-conscious fans «buy as much FPS as possible for as little money as possible». The portrait of a potential buyer of a video card that has the best power-to-price ratio on the market (and this model is exactly that) can be described as follows:

A computer enthusiast with an average level of awareness, likes to watch gaming video tests on YouTube and does not take into account energy consumption. It usually saves money on components and definitely does not have a liquid cooling system, probably has an inexpensive case (because it does not affect FPS) and a budget motherboard with weak power supply.

Why is it so important to have a dropsy or 4-6 case fans with top-end 400W video cards? The air inside the case heats up quite a bit and at some point, a mid-range air cooler starts to suffocate due to the circulation of the same hot air. Popular cheap case fans will not be able to remove heat in time or will be too noisy.

A huge radiator of some conditional top-of-the-line tower for 3000 UAH will absorb the heat generated by the video card, and the inside of the case will be so warm that you can literally heat food. That is, a potential owner of a refurbished and inexpensive Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ should have good, expensive cooling for the entire PC.

It’s a bad idea to just replace your Radeon RX 580 with a cheap Chinese motherboard, an Intel Xeon E5-2696v3 processor, and a 650W power supply (with 2×8 pin and a Sata/Molex > 6 pin adapter). You need to be well-prepared to deal with heat because it is one of the most power-hungry graphics cards of today.

The video card itself is well-cooled and only heated up to 76 °C during the not-so-long FurMark stress test. The hottest point was 92 °C. The fan speed went up to 1500 rpm.

In most games, the video card kept temperatures low, often no more than 65-70 °C at fan speeds up to 1600 rpm. The pyrometer recorded an average of 55-60 °C on the rear panel of the video card during game scenarios.

The noise level is insignificant — inside the case near the video card itself (as if you put your ear to the fan) we recorded 47–49 dB, and a meter away from the system unit with the lid open 35–37 dB, close the lid, and we have 33-36 dB. An excellent result for such a mastodon.

Software

During testing, the Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ video card did not have any serious problems with drivers, except for the already mentioned high-power consumption in idle mode. In addition, it is worth mentioning minor nuances such as incorrect display of power consumption (only the chip itself, not the entire board) and false load statistics in the Task Manager.

For example, when you watch a video on YouTube, the task manager shows 100% of the GPU load, when in fact it is not. The proprietary program from Sapphire is as simple as possible, moderately functional and understandable.

The utility displays detailed information about the video card, allows you to select the BIOS, set the virtual resolution, increase sharpness, check the health of the fans, and control the RGB backlight.

Since this is a refurbished video card with an unknown history, we were prepared for surprises with the stability of the device, but our fears were in vain. Two years after its release, the drivers are stable, so there are no complaints about the device’s performance.

Experience of use

After the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (which is permanently installed in the test PC), there was no noticeable performance drop, if you don’t look at the numbers in the benchmarks. The Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ video card handles everything, and also pleasantly surprised us with adequate temperatures and low noise, although the throttles like to whistle under load.

The only unpleasant moment was the additional 6-pin power connector. Because of it, I had to connect another cable to the modular power supply because the flagship RX 7900 XTX only needs 2×8 pins in the original design. If the PSU has only 2×8 pin, buying Sata>6 pin adapters is the only way out, although it is unreliable.

Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ price and competitors

Refurbished at the factory Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+ is sold for 19,000 UAH in the Telemart store. Similar offers can be found for other models. For example, the RX 6900 XT with liquid or air cooling from other manufacturers is offered for about the same price.

Prices on the secondary market are close to 17-19 thousand UAH, but the seller’s warranty will be only in words. Let’s consider new alternatives that consume significantly less power, are more compact, and at least have not been refurbished at the manufacturer’s factory.

Asus Radeon RX 7800 XT Dual OC has 16 GB of memory and is considered the most successful AMD graphics card of the latest generation. The power is one hryvnia less than that of the hero of the review, for obvious reasons, but the power consumption is much lower. The price is 22,900 UAH.

Compact Palit GeForce RTX 4070 Dual has serious programmatic advantages, is noticeably faster in working environments, and consumes half the power. The price is UAH 24,300.

Sapphire Radeon RX 7700 XT PULSE is well-cooled, has 12 GB of memory, and a more modern architecture with AV1 support. It’s also very quiet (review here). The price is 19,800 UAH.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4060 Ti WINDFORCE OC 16G — is a good option for gaming with Ray Tracing and working in professional programs. Although this model loses to the RX 6950 XT in terms of «net» performance, it tramples it into the ground with DLSS 3 + Path Tracing. The price is 19 200 UAH.