AMD Radeon RX 6800 series hits market on November 18 - $649 XT promises to match RTX 3080

Posted on Wednesday, October 28 2020 @ 17:59 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
AMD
AMD's Big Navi announcement has hit the web. Lets take a look at the main points of the event:
  • Navi 21 promises 50 percent higher performance/Watt versus previous gen (Radeon RX 5700 series).

  • The 7nm chip features 26.7 billion transistors.

  • InfinityCache promises 2.17x higher bandwidth.

  • 30 percent higher clockspeeds.

  • Support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, the cards are ray tracing ready but not a lot was said about ray tracing support.

  • AMD's benchmarks show the Radeon RX 6800 XT matches the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 in 4K gaming performance, at a lower TDP too.

  • AMD teases Smart Access Memory and Rage mode, combined these features can offer 2-13 percent higher performance on Ryzen systems.

  • AMD is in the early stages of developing a rival to NVIDIA's DLSS. The company also has its own version of NVIDIA's Reflex.

  • Radeon RX 6800 is pitched as faster than the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070.

  • Radeon RX 6800 has 60 CUs, 1815MHz game clock, up to 2105MHz Boost, 16GB GDDR6, 250W total board power.

  • Radeon RX 6800 XT has 72 CUs, a 2015MHz game clock, up to 2250MHz Boost, 16GB GDDR6, and 300W total board power.

  • AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ships on November 18 for $649, Radeon RX 6800 hits market on the same day for $579.

  • Saving the best for last, AMD CEO Lisa Su revealed the Radeon RX 6900 XT. This model has 80 CUs and features 65 percent higher performance/Watt than the Radeon RX 5700 XT. It has a 2015MHz game clock, 2250MHz Boost, 16GB GDDR6, and 300W total board power.

  • AMD's 4K gaming benchmark show the RX 6900 XT beats NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3090. Launches on December 8 for $999.




    • Today, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) unveiled the AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series graphics cards, delivering powerhouse performance, incredibly life-like visuals, and must-have features that set a new standard for enthusiast-class PC gaming experiences. Representing the forefront of extreme engineering and design, the highly anticipated AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series includes the AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 and Radeon™ RX 6800 XT graphics cards, as well as the new flagship Radeon™ RX 6900 XT – the fastest AMD gaming graphics card ever developed.

    AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series graphics cards are built upon groundbreaking AMD RDNA™ 2 gaming architecture, a new foundation for next-generation consoles, PCs, laptops and mobile devices, designed to deliver the optimal combination of performance and power efficiency. AMD RDNA™ 2 gaming architecture provides up to 2X higher performance in select titles with the AMD Radeon™ RX 6900 XT graphics card compared to the AMD Radeon™ RX 5700 XT graphics card built on AMD RDNA™ architecture, and up to 54 percent more performance-per-watt when comparing the AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 XT graphics card to the AMD Radeon™ RX 5700 XT graphics card using the same 7nm process technology.

    AMD RDNA™ 2 offers a number of innovations, including applying advanced power saving techniques to high-performance compute units to improve energy efficiency by up to 30 percent per cycle per compute unit, and leveraging high-speed design methodologies to provide up to a 30 percent frequency boost at the same power level. It also includes new AMD Infinity Cache technology that offers up to 2.4X greater bandwidth-per-watt compared to GDDR6-only AMD RDNA™-based architectural designs.

    "Today’s announcement is the culmination of years of R&D focused on bringing the best of AMD Radeon graphics to the enthusiast and ultra-enthusiast gaming markets, and represents a major evolution in PC gaming,” said Scott Herkelman, corporate vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit at AMD. “The new AMD Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT graphics cards deliver world class 4K and 1440p performance in major AAA titles, new levels of immersion with breathtaking life-like visuals, and must-have features that provide the ultimate gaming experiences. I can’t wait for gamers to get these incredible new graphics cards in their hands.”

    Powerhouse Performance, Vivid Visuals & Incredible Gaming Experiences
    AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series graphics cards support high-bandwidth PCIe® 4.0 technology and features 16GB of GDDR6 memory to power the most demanding 4K workloads today and in the future. Key features and capabilities include:

    Powerhouse Performance
  • AMD Infinity Cache – A high-performance, last-level data cache suitable for 4K and 1440p gaming with the highest level of detail enabled. 128 MB of on-die cache dramatically reduces latency and power consumption, delivering higher overall gaming performance than traditional architectural designs.
  • AMD Smart Access Memory – An exclusive feature of systems with AMD Ryzen™ 5000 Series processors, AMD B550 and X570 motherboards and Radeon™ RX 6000 Series graphics cards. It gives AMD Ryzen™ processors greater access to the high-speed GDDR6 graphics memory, accelerating CPU processing and providing up to a 13-percent performance increase on a AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 XT graphics card in Forza Horizon 4 at 4K when combined with the new Rage Mode one-click overclocking setting.
  • Built for Standard Chassis – With a length of 267mm and 2x8 standard 8-pin power connectors, and designed to operate with existing enthusiast-class 650W-750W power supplies, gamers can easily upgrade their existing large to small form factor PCs without additional cost.

    True to Life, High-Fidelity Visuals
  • DirectX® 12 Ultimate Support – Provides a powerful blend of raytracing, compute, and rasterized effects, such as DirectX® Raytracing (DXR) and Variable Rate Shading, to elevate games to a new level of realism.
  • DirectX® Raytracing (DXR) – Adding a high performance, fixed-function Ray Accelerator engine to each compute unit, AMD RDNA™ 2-based graphics cards are optimized to deliver real-time lighting, shadow and reflection realism with DXR. When paired with AMD FidelityFX, which enables hybrid rendering, developers can combine rasterized and ray-traced effects to ensure an optimal combination of image quality and performance.
  • AMD FidelityFX – An open-source toolkit for game developers available on AMD GPUOpen. It features a collection of lighting, shadow and reflection effects that make it easier for developers to add high-quality post-process effects that make games look beautiful while offering the optimal balance of visual fidelity and performance.
  • Variable Rate Shading (VRS) – Dynamically reduces the shading rate for different areas of a frame that do not require a high level of visual detail, delivering higher levels of overall performance with little to no perceptible change in image quality.

    Elevated Gaming Experience
  • Microsoft® DirectStorage Support – Future support for the DirectStorage API enables lightning-fast load times and high-quality textures by eliminating storage API-related bottlenecks and limiting CPU involvement.
  • Radeon™ Software Performance Tuning Presets – Simple one-click presets in Radeon™ Software help gamers easily extract the most from their graphics card. The presets include the new Rage Mode stable over clocking setting that takes advantage of extra available headroom to deliver higher gaming performance.
  • Radeon™ Anti-Lag – Significantly decreases input-to-display response times and offers a competitive edge in gameplay.

    • About the Author

    Thomas De Maesschalck

    Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.


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