Radeon RX 6000 GPUs can get a huge boost with this new software - but there’s a catch
We’ll be interested to test this ourselves
If you’ve got one of AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards and are looking rather longingly at the RTX 4090, we might have good news for you. New third-party utility software is claiming to provide huge performance boosts for RDNA 2 GPUs, enough to potentially outstrip Nvidia’s current-gen flagship RTX 3090 Ti, and all without the crazy price tags now attached to Team Green’s cards.
‘Radeon Monster Profile’ (RMP) comes from coder and overclocking enthusiast Yuri Bubliy, who claims to have created a utility software that delicately modifies the voltage and frequency curves of RDNA 2 cards to improve performance.
Bubliy is well-known in the hardware enthusiast space, having already created AMD-focused software for monitoring and overclocking components (most notably his HYDRA software for Ryzen CPUs, of which RMP is a utility extension). RMP is his latest piece of work, and will be available later in 2022.
In a post on Twitter breaking down some of the details, Bubliy explains that RMP enables the RX 6000 cards to reach their ‘maximum potential', with special attention paid to areas such as the VRAM subsystem, where a reduction in operating voltage allowed for reduced heat generation to keep the card as a whole running within safe a temperature range.
Fall plans. You already heard about my new calculator for DDR5 (demo soon), today it's time to tell you about the presets for RDNA2 video cards which could surprise you. 🔴 RX 6800XT > 🟢 RTX 3090TI this is reality.🔥RADEON MONSTER PROFILE (RMP) More in the slides...😎 pic.twitter.com/WnVUJOdmuRSeptember 24, 2022
Analysis: This is impressive, but let’s not get too excited just yet
Bubily claims that the Radeon Monster Profile can boost the performance of the RX 6800 XT by more than 13% without thermal throttling issues, which makes that card slightly outperform a stock-settings RTX 3090 Ti - with significantly less power draw, too. It’s a serious performance leap, but as always we’d be wary of using third-party software to tweak your GPU.
It’s also important to note that the performance figures listed are from the 3DMark Time Spy GPU test - a synthetic benchmark often used to gauge graphical performance. We don’t know what other components Bubliy used for testing, nor do we know how well this overclocked RX 6800 XT performs in real-world gaming and rendering benchmarks.
Using third-party software to tweak your GPU - especially in such an aggressive manner as this - can also potentially void your warranty, so tread carefully if you choose to test out RMP when it releases. AMD does have its own software, Radeon Adrenalin, for tweaking your GPU, which may be a safer bet. You can also check out our guide to overclocking your GPU.
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Still, we’re quite intrigued by RMP, since it does represent a way for RDNA 2 GPU owners to close the performance gap somewhat once RDNA 3 arrives later this year. Sure, the RX 6800 XT isn’t one of the best graphics cards out there, but if RMP can safely improve its performance, then it’ll become a far more reasonable choice of GPU.
Christian is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing Editor. He came to us from Maximum PC magazine, where he fell in love with computer hardware and building PCs. He was a regular fixture amongst our freelance review team before making the jump to TechRadar, and can usually be found drooling over the latest high-end graphics card or gaming laptop before looking at his bank account balance and crying.
Christian is a keen campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights and the owner of a charming rescue dog named Lucy, having adopted her after he beat cancer in 2021. She keeps him fit and healthy through a combination of face-licking and long walks, and only occasionally barks at him to demand treats when he’s trying to work from home.