Welcome again to the excessive finish, AMD.
For the primary time because the days of the Radeon R9 290X—seven lengthy years in the past—AMD’s Radeon group is ready to unleash enthusiast-level graphics playing cards that may do battle with Nvidia’s greatest and brightest. During the corporate’s second “Where Gaming Begins” occasion on Wednesday, AMD revealed a trio of Radeon GPUs primarily based on a brand new RDNA 2 structure, all armed with “revolutionary Infinity Cache” know-how, sky-high clock speeds, and fascinating synergies with Ryzen. They take direct goal at Nvidia’s RTX 30-series choices, culminating in a $999 Radeon RX 6900 XT that seeks to grab the gaming crown from the monstrous $1500 GeForce RTX 3090 when it launches December 8—for $500 lower than Nvidia’s beastly GPU prices.
The $579 Radeon RX 6800, in the meantime, will go toe-to-toe with the $500 RTX 3070 releasing tomorrow, and the $649 Radeon RX 6800 XT intends to problem the $700 RTX 3080. Both launch November 18, about two weeks after AMD’s Ryzen 5000 CPUs hit the streets.
AMDWhile Nvidia’s latest gaming GPU releases went mild with uncooked reminiscence capability, choosing an improve to sooner GDDR6X VRAM as an alternative, AMD geared up each high-end Radeon RX 6000 card with a considerable 16GB of normal GDDR6, lots to deal with 4K gaming properly into the long run. And whereas Nvidia’s RTX 3080 and 3090 devour way more energy than earlier GeForce incarnations, AMD claims it’s achieved its lofty objective of a 50 % performance-per-watt enhance in comparison with the unique RDNA structure, which makes the Radeon RX 6000-series XT graphics playing cards much less power-hungry than their Nvidia rivals.
Yes, you learn that proper: Radeon GPUs will want much less energy than competing GeForce playing cards. My, how the tables have turned.
We’ll begin by diving into the uncooked specs and efficiency claims for the Radeon RX 6800, 6800 XT, and 6900 XT, as a result of we all know that’s what you’re right here for, however stick round afterward once we dig into key adjustments within the RDNA 2 structure and new Radeon ecosystem options, like Smart Access Memory that ties into Ryzen 5000 CPUs and AMD’s new Infinity Cache. Those present essential further context for among the slides you’re about to see.
Radeon RX 6800 vs. GeForce RTX 3070
AMDLet’s begin on the extra inexpensive finish.
The Radeon RX 6800 packs 60 compute models and a 1,815MHz sport clock—90MHz larger than the rival GeForce RTX 3070’s rated Boost velocity. More importantly, AMD’s card triumphs in reminiscence capability, packing a full 16GB of GDDR6 RAM versus the 3070’s 8GB. Nvidia pitched the 3070 as the final word 1440p graphics card, however it will possibly do properly in 4K video games, too. That 8GB reminiscence buffer most likely gained’t maintain up properly for 4K gaming because the years go on although, as some video games already exceed it. The Radeon RX 6800 gained’t endure the identical drawback. Nvidia’s card enjoys a barely decrease whole board energy score.
Radeon RX 6900 XT vs. GeForce RTX 3090
AMDNow we get to the battle of the (virtually) Titans. The Radeon RX 6900 XT packs an identical specs to the Radeon RX 6800 XT besides one, boosting the vital compute unit depend from 72 to 80. Yes, it nonetheless runs over 2GHz, and sure, it nonetheless sticks to 300W of whole board energy—50W lower than the power-sucking GeForce RTX 3090.
Nvidia’s advertising and marketing for the 3090 revolved round 8K gaming and the cardboard’s huge, creator-friendly 24GB of GDDR6X reminiscence. The firm even calls the step-down RTX 3080 its gaming flagship—not the 3090. AMD is preserving the give attention to regular players with the Radeon RX 6900 XT. This card comes with 16GB of normal GDDR6 reminiscence, similar to the opposite Radeon GPUs revealed in the present day. It’s not as spacious and never as quick because the RTX 3090’s reminiscence, however 16GB of GDDR6 ought to maintain up properly for 4K gaming over the long run nonetheless. Opting for a much less excessive VRAM setup means AMD can preserve the price of the Radeon RX 6900 XT a lot decrease in comparison with its rival.
AMDSo many individuals thought this was unimaginable, however…
