Gigabyte announces custom Aorus GPUs for Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800
That’s a high markup
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If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on a newAMD Radeon 6800 XTthen you may be in luck. Gigabyte’s gaming division Aorus live-streamed a launch event toYouTubeand Facebook on December 14 to announce the latest AIB (add-in-box, or custom)Radeon RX 6800series cards.Versions of both the 6800 and 6800 XT were unveiled for the Aorus Master and Gaming OC lines, but if you were hoping for some low-cost gaming from this announcement then you’re set up to be disappointed. To try and coax cash from your pocket, Gigabyte did a performance comparison against the last generation ofRX 5700 XTcards, with new graphically demanding games such asWatch Dogs: LegionandAssasins Creed: Valhalla.
Big power, big pricetag
First up, we have the RX 6800 Aorus Master version coming in at $719 (around £540, AU$1,000), which makes it the cheapest of the lineup. Note that this isn’t the XT version of the Radeon card, and the price is still a good bit over the reference card MSRP of $579 (around £599, AU$820).The next upcoming GPU (graphics processing unit) announced is the Gigabyte Gaming OC 6800 XT at $849 (around £635, AU$1,130), also sporting a hefty price increase with a 31% markup from the founder’s edition card. Gigabyte has also included their ‘screen cooling’ tech in this card, promising a cooler and quieter gaming experience.Finally, we have the premium option for the Aorus Radeon RX 6800 XT Master Type C. This GPU comes with all the bells and whistles, with an LCD monitor where you can display custom graphics or information (even your favorite gifs), and a USB-C output option. This will cost you $899 (around £670, AU$1,200) over the $649 (around £649, AU$960) MSRP of the referenceAMDcard, a 38.5% increase.The cards have launched on the Gigabyte website, however we cannot locate any stock for them at this time.
Whilst the prices aren’t in the region of those being seen for customGeForce GTX 3090cards, it still stings to see the premium being charged for these non-reference GPUs. It’s standard for custom GPU manufacturers to increase the price of reference graphics cards, but that doesn’t make the pill any easier to swallow when the AMD cards were marketed as ‘affordable’.With the high demand for next-gen hardware for both console and PC gaming, it’s also likely we will see more of these high prices going forward. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that the stock shortages are resolved soon.
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Jess is a former TechRadar Computing writer, where she covered all aspects of Mac and PC hardware, including PC gaming and peripherals. She has been interviewed as an industry expert for the BBC, and while her educational background was in prosthetics and model-making, her true love is in tech and she has built numerous desktop computers over the last 10 years for gaming and content creation. Jess is now a journalist at The Verge.
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