AMD Radeon PRO W6600 and W6800 GPU Launched

Computer News

by Jeff LochJune 19^th, 2021

AMD recently launched two new GPU with an AMD RDNA 2 architecture: the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 and W6800. The W6600 version boast 8GB of GDDR6 memory, while its big brother, the W6800, comes with 32GB of memory. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 will replace the previous W5700 model that is an option on current 2019 Mac Pro models. So does it mean Apple will soon offer more options for Mac Pro owners? Let’s take a closer look at it!

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti GPUs were announced at the beginning of this month, and it didn’t take long before AMD responded. Indeed, AMD recently launched two new GPU options, which will be good news for Mac users since NVIDIA ones have not been supported (natively) by macOS for quite some time now.

AMD Radeon PRO W6000 series

The AMD Radeon PRO W6000 series of GPUs are based around the AMD RDNA 2 architecture with a 7nm fabrication process. All graphics cards feature a PCIe 4.0 x16 connector, and GDDR6 memory.

Also, all cards support DirectX 12, OpenCL 2.1, and OpenGL 4.6. As a bonus, you’ll get native support for 4K H264 encode and decode, AV1 decode, and H265/HEVC encode and decode capabilities. You got it, these cards are mostly made for content creators in quest of a lot of computing power.

AMD Radeon PRO W6600 features

Let’s start with the AMD Radeon PRO W6600, which is the “less powerful” GPU of this new series. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 is a desktop graphics card, but a mobile version, the W6600M, has the same specs.

This W6600 card uses AMD’s Navi 23 GPU, it features 28 compute units, it has a total of 1792 cores, 32MB of Infinity Cache, and 8GB of GDDR6 memory.

At the back of the card, you’ll find four DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC connectors. According to AMD, you can plug in up to four 5120x2880px (5K) displays, or one 7680x4320px (8K) display to the card.

As you can tell, the specifications of this AMD Radeon PRO W6600 card are pretty decent, and a good update over the previous W5700 GPU that can be purchased as an MPX module for the Mac Pro. If Apple continues to produce the Intel-based Mac Pro in the future and update its machine, I wouldn’t be surprised if the W6600 becomes the new “most-affordable” GPU upgrade for Apple’s flagship computing monster.

AMD Radeon PRO W6800 features

The AMD Radeon PRO W6800 is the flagship model of the W6000 series of GPU. Indeed, this card is based on AMD’s latest Navi 21 GPU and it has very serious specifications:

• 32GB of GDDR6 RAM with ECC support and 128MB of Infinity Cache.
• 60 compute units and 3840 stream processors.

• At the back of the card, you’ll find six Mini-DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC ports.
• The Radeon PRO W6800 supports up to six 5120x2880px (5K) displays, or two 7680x4320px (8K) displays.

You got it, this GPU is a true workhorse, and it could be a nice alternative to the very expensive Radeon Pro Vega II currently found inside Apple’s 2019 Mac Pro. Indeed, according to AMD, this new Radeon PRO W6800 is 79% faster compared to GMCN-based cards – like the Radeon Pro Vega II – so you should get a significant performance improvement in software like DaVinci Resolve or Adobe Premiere Pro.

Price and availability

The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 should be available during Q3 2021 for $649. The high-end Radeon PRO W6800 is available now for $2249.

For more information, please visit AMD’s website here.

What do you think about these new AMD GPUs? Are you using an NVIDIA or AMD graphics card? Do you think the new W6000 series will make its way to the upcoming Mac Pro? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!