Liquid-nitrogen-cooled Radeon RX 6800 XT busts single-GPU 3DMark record

AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
(Image credit: AMD)

Remember that air-cooled AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT that set a new single-GPU record in 3DMark? Yeah, well, it's toast, consigned to history, an ex-record (not really). All hail, just a few days later, the new king. We give you overclocker Takakou from TecLab who cranked his reference AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card to a merciless 2.8 GHz using liquid nitrogen.

Your next upgrade

(Image credit: Future)

Best CPU for gaming: the top chips from Intel and AMD
Best graphics card: your perfect pixel-pusher awaits
Best SSD for gaming: get into the game ahead of the rest

He also ramped his Ryzen 9 5950X to 5.6 GHz, again using LN2 liquid nitrogen.  The net result? 48,890 points in 3DMark Fire Strike overall score and 61,831 points in Graphics officially logged in the all-important HWBOT register. That's up from the 47,932 points achieved by one LUCKY_NOOB last week.

Not a huge uptick in return for LN2 cooling, you might think. Then again, it's early days for AMD's new Big Navi GPU. Almost certainly,  this new target will be surpassed in the coming days and weeks. And the previous record was only using air cooling for the GPU. LUCKY_NOOB used LN2 cooling for his Ryzen chip. 

Anyway, the near-certainly that Takakou's new record (via Videocardz) won't last long will no doubt transmogrify into a nailed-on fait accompli when AMD releases the fully unlocked Big Navi GPU, AKA Navi 21, in the upcoming Radeon RX 6900 XT chipset.

Arguably all not terribly relevant for real-world gaming. But it doesn't hurt AMD's rep to be seen taking back these records.

Jeremy Laird
Hardware writer

Jeremy has been writing about technology and PCs since the 90nm Netburst era (Google it!) and enjoys nothing more than a serious dissertation on the finer points of monitor input lag and overshoot followed by a forensic examination of advanced lithography. Or maybe he just likes machines that go “ping!” He also has a thing for tennis and cars.

Latest in Graphics Cards
Nvidia App
Hmmm, upgrades: Nvidia App gets an optional AI assistant and custom DLSS resolution scaling
A close-up photo of an Nvidia RTX 4070, with its heatsink removed, showing the AD104 GPU die and the surrounding Micron GDDR6X VRAM chips
With Nvidia Ace taking up 1 GB of VRAM in Inzoi, Team Green will need to up its memory game if AI NPCs take off in PC gaming
A collage of Radeon RX 9000 series graphics cards, as shown in AMD's promotional video for the launch of RDNA 4 at CES 2025
AMD's CEO claims 9070 XT sales are 10x higher than all previous Radeon generations but that's just for the first week of availability
Colorful iGame RTX 5070 Ti Vulcan OC graphics card from various angles
The RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti are rumoured to be mere weeks away, with board partners reportedly required to ensure at least one MSRP model at launch
Nvidia headquarters
Nvidia CEO sets sights on making 'several hundred billion' dollars worth of electronics in the USA over the next four years, increasing the chance of your next GPU being made in America
The Asus ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 Dhahab Edition, a gold-plated graphics card on a sand dune background
A Jensen Huang-signed version of this golden Asus RTX 5090 will be auctioned off to support relief efforts for the California wildfires
Latest in News
gta 6 trailer
Publishers 'don't want to be anywhere near' Grand Theft Auto 6 when it launches: 'It's proving to be very stressful'
A female Zoi making two hearts with her fingers.
Following 24 hours of Denuvo-based backlash, Inzoi is taking a surprising step and removing it entirely: 'We want to sincerely apologise for not aligning more closely with player expectations'
An image of a Helldiver from Helldivers 2 shooting at a red dragon from Dungeons & Dragons.
'Ok, so dragon builds are a thing now': galaxy-brained Helldivers 2 player incinerates a bile titan with a hover pack and a flamethrower
An ancient, angry stone mech from No Man's Sky's new Relics update
No Man’s Sky lets you unearth ancient, angry mechs in the astro-archaeology filled Relics update
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses