Just yesterday, AMD announced that it would be winding down the production for its Radeon RX 6800 series reference PCBs, a decision that was met with fan disapproval shortly after. Due to the public outcry, the CPU and GPU maker has decided to rescind the decision.
For context, AMD’s Scott Herkelman mentioned back in November that AMD would continue to manufacture reference boards for its current Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs, well into the first half of 2021. To that end, Herkelman was also the representative who announced AMD’s U-turn, announcing on Twitter that his company will continue churning out the RX 6800 series reference boards indefinitely.
why not longer? will that be enough? many waterblocks are built for reference design!!
— 🇪🇺 🌻 (@arthur_0795) November 19, 2020
One reason behind the fan’s outcry was because several custom waterblocks for the RX 6800 and 6800XT were designed specifically to fit the reference PCBs. Had AMD followed through with the discontinuation and left it to its AiB partners to get their own custom PCBs out to the market, those waterblocks would’ve been made obsolete.
Of course, none of that currently matter if a consumer still can’t get a 6800 or 6800XT; like NVIDIA and its GeForce RTX 30 series, stock for AMD’s cards are in limited supply and getting one can prove difficult. It also doesn’t help that units sold online are being snatched up by bots and scalpers, who then proceed to sell them back to the consumers at cutthroat prices.
On a related note, you can check out our review for the Radeon RX 6800XT if you’re planning on purchasing the card as an alternative to its direct competitor, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080.
(Source: Hot Hardware, Twitter)
