Conclusion
AMD has finally made a worthy comeback in GPU land. We can finally state that AMD has a worthy 4K video card. AMD has put its target on the high-end gaming enthusiast-level, and they have hit the mark. Today marks the launch of the Radeon RX 6000 Series video cards. These video cards are based on AMD’s next-generation RDNA 2 architecture built on 7nm. The Radeon RX 6800 XT launches at $649 and the Radeon RX 6800 launches at $579.
The RDNA 2 architecture is truly AMD’s next-generation architecture, and it has been a long time coming. We have completely moved past any legacy remnants of GCN or Vega architecture. With RDNA 2 there are new features and new hardware support. AMD has introduced Infinity Cache, which seems to be a big win in moving the architecture forward. AMD has also introduced its first hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing support. With Ray Accelerators the Radeon RX 6000 Series is able to run DXR Ray Tracing in real-time. There’s also a myriad of other fantastic new technologies focused on gaming. We have to give AMD a big kudos for RDNA 2, this is a very exciting architecture for AMD and makes them more competitive.
Radeon RX 6800 XT
We feel the Radeon RX 6800 XT is priced perfectly with the performance we experienced today. Let’s face it, the main competition today is the brand new GeForce RTX 3080/Founders Edition. At $699 the video cards are within $50 of each other.
In our performance evaluation what we found out is that the two video cards dance around each other depending on the game at 1440p. In some games the Radeon RX 6800 XT is faster, and in some games the GeForce RTX 3080 FE is faster. In some games they are similar or even. What really matters is the game in question, the game is doing to determine which one is technically the best for performance. At 1440p the Radeon RX 6800 XT offers a very playable gameplay experience in every game at the highest settings. There is no compromise with it, it blasts through 1440p gaming easily.
At 4K the Radeon RX 6800 XT is finally AMD’s first real 4K card that we can say is recommended for 4K gaming. In 4K it managed to provide playable performance for every game we threw at it, at the highest in-game settings. If any game was on the edge, all you have to do is bring down the quality by one notch and performance will be much higher if you need performance. In all regards it beats the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti by a lot. However, in every single game we tested it always came in under the performance of the GeForce RTX 3080 FE at 4K.
The GeForce RTX 3080 FE was technically faster at 4K in every game. But, the Radeon RX 6800 XT is priced cheaper at $649, and that’s what we mean by it is priced right for the performance. Yes, it is under the RTX 3080 FE, but also it is priced cheaper. So, If you want the fastest performance at 4K the RTX 3080 FE will provide it, but it will cost just a bit more for that.
At this price range though it is typically easier to splurge the extra $50 for the better performance. The performance aspect at 4K is very interesting because the Radeon RX 6800 XT has more VRAM with 16GB, but right now, in these games, it doesn’t seem to make a difference. We cannot say that will be true in the future though, it very much could in future games. So, if you want to prepare for that future, at $50 less, you can get a 16GB video card for potentially better 4K support. They are already very close and we really don’t know how the VRAM difference is going to play out yet at 4K.
Radeon RX 6800
The Raden RX 6800 is very interesting at $579. It is not price comparable to the GeForce RTX 3070 FE at $499, nor is it price comparable to the GeForce RTX 3080 FE at $699. We had no idea where it would sit performance-wise when we started. We were therefore excited to see that it is actually the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE that the video card competes with on performance. That’s a $579 video card, giving us the same performance as a $1200 video card and with much more VRAM.
However, when you bring in the GeForce RTX 3070 FE at $499 its performance sits just under the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE performance, and that’s much cheaper in price. In that comparison, it doesn’t make the Radeon RX 6800 look as good by price. The $579 price tag on the Radeon RX 6800 may be a bit high considering where it sits compared to the GeForce RTX 3070 FE which is $80 cheaper.
By the numbers we experienced, the right price tag for the Radeon RX 6800 should probably be $549 at the most. That said, the Radeon RX 6800 does offer a capable 4K gaming video card. It sits at or above where the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE did at 4K, and that was a capable 4K card. You will have to lower in-game settings to make it playable in today’s games though. At 1440p though, the video card dominates that resolution and provides plenty of performance for 1440p gaming. We just think the video card may be a little overpriced when you compare it to the $499 GeForce RTX 3070 FE.
AMD Smart Access Memory
What we have learned is that what AMD calls Smart Access Memory is actually a PCI-Express feature specification that was added years ago. Up to now, no one has used it. AMD is the first to implement it. But because this is a PCI-Express feature set called Resizable BAR, NVIDIA can also add support for it. It is unclear yet in what capacity, but even AMD says it isn’t proprietary and can work with other hardware. Gains can be in the single-digit to maybe up to 10% in games. It’s something that if it can provide a free performance upgrade everyone should want.
As it is right now, it’s very confined, and you have to manually turn it on. Once it becomes turned on by default, then it’s a no brainer, it’ll just be there. NVIDIA also states that they can support it, and will, and that performance gains are about the same. Therefore, when it does get supported both cards will kinda be a wash with similar uplifts. However, the end result for gamers is a little faster performance, for free, in games, and who doesn’t want that.
Ray Tracing
To the topic of Ray Tracing the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 run it just fine. AMD’s implementation of Ray Accelerators is pretty solid. Denoising is handled through compute shaders, and there is a software component. In the games that currently support Ray Tracing, we had no issue turning it on and enjoying the feature. It just works. If you are worried about compatibility with Ray Traced games that are already out, and that are to come, don’t worry. Compatibility is not an issue as long as game developers implement Ray Tracing via the DirectX DXR API, and that has been the case.
What won’t work, naturally, are any games that utilize custom extensions to enable Ray Tracing. Some of those games are Wolfenstein Youngblood, and Quake II RTX. In these games, they utilize the Vulkan API, and because the DXR equivalent for Vulkan is not out yet called Vulkan RT NVIDIA had to put out the effort to make custom extensions to enable Ray Tracing on its GPUs. AMD can do the exact same thing; nothing is stopping them but themselves. But instead, AMD is going to wait for Vulkan RT to implement Ray Tracing via that API. When that is released then these games will be able to be experienced with Ray Tracing on the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800. Right now the GeForce RTX video cards can run Ray Tracing in those games for you to benefit from.
To the performance of Ray Tracing on the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 well there’s some good, and some bad. First the good, AMD’s implementation of Ray Tracing seems to at least on par with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE or Turing Ray Tracing performance. The bad, however, is that NVIDIA is on its 2nd generation RT and Tensor Cores.
Sadly, for AMD, this is faster than AMD’s first attempt. NVIDIA has had an entire generation to improve and has enjoyed years of game optimizations. With this being AMD’s 1st generation of Ray Accelerators, it is falling behind NVIDIA’s implementation, and performance. If the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 had been launched earlier this year, that wouldn’t have been a problem, and it’s Ray Tracing performance would appear at least on par with NVIDIAs. However, now that Radeon RX 6000 Series is launching post-RTX 30 Series it has a much tougher time competing on Ray Tracing performance.
We can only hope game developers and AMD’s driver team work on optimizations to squeeze the most out of Ray Tracing performance. It will be interesting to see what future games like Cyberpunk end up performing like. Watch Dogs Legion for example wasn’t too far apart between them in the end, so that could be the trend, we just have to wait and see how it shapes up. What we are worried most about is when multiple levels of Ray Tracing start to be used in games, for example when Global Illumination RT, Shadow RT, and Reflection RT all are combined in a game, will AMD’s RT performance hold up? We will have to wait and see.
BTW, we did experience one game where we saw some Ray Tracing glitches on the RX 6000 Series, and that was Watch Dogs Legion. On some of the materials, they were not reflecting the surrounding environment correctly and appeared very dark in tone. You can see this in the comparison screenshot. We made AMD aware, and hopefully, a driver fix or game fix will get that fixed. That is the only game where we saw a visual difference.
The DLSS Comparison
We did not include DLSS performance comparisons from NVIDIA GPUs in this launch today because there is nothing comparable from AMD at the moment. AMD is working on its own method of something similar. We have no idea how it will be implemented or work. We just know AMD is going to have something to compete with DLSS in the future. When that happens we will compare performance and image quality.
For now, there is no question that turning on DLSS in DLSS supported games will provide a performance advantage to the GeForce RTX 30 Series. In the games with Ray Tracing enabled, for example, enabling DLSS will make the GeForce RTX 30 Series video cards all perform faster than their AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series equivalents. This is also true without Ray Tracing. Basically, DLSS is an easy ‘dominate Radeon RX 6000 Series performance option’ that NVIDIA has in supported games. It also makes Ray Tracing playable in games that are very demanding, and right now AMD doesn’t have anything to combat that yet.
Final Points
AMD is back. This is the comeback we’ve been waiting for, and AMD entered with all guns blazing. We’ve been waiting to see what AMD’s answer was for the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE for the longest time. We’ve all been wanting to see AMD’s RTX 2080 Ti “killer.” It is clear that the Radeon RX 6800 XT is that “killer.” It does what everyone wanted, provides a better gaming experience compared to the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE.
But the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE is the last generation now. NVIDIA stepped up with the GeForce RTX 3080 FE before AMD could shoot their shot. That means the Radeon RX 6800 XT now has to compete with the GeForce RTX 3080 FE. This means the competition is hot between these two, both video cards trade blows, and depending on the game can give the other one the run for the money. 4K is interesting because we mostly saw the GeForce RTX 3080 FE taking the lead, despite 16GB on the Radeon RX 6800 XT. But the game is hardly over, as new games with new demands come out, and driver optimizations, and Ray Tracing support, it will be interesting to see how it shapes up, but the heat is on, for sure.
The Radeon RX 6800 gives us similar, or better, performance to the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE at $579. But then so does the GeForce RTX 3070 FE at $499, and well that’s just a cheaper price. It makes the Radeon RX 6800 look a bit overpriced. Though this is true, the Radeon RX 6800 is a very capable video card and also offers a 4K gaming experience, and does very well at 1440p.
We are happy to see AMD back in the mix when it comes to competition, competition is good for everyone. AMD can finally claim to have a good 4K gaming card, something new for them. You can actually get a great 4K gaming experience with Radeon RX 6800 XT, and a decent experience with Radeon RX 6800. At 1440p both video cards are great for the gaming experience. Ray Tracing performance is still an open book, and we will have to see how that plays out.
Kudos to AMD’s engineering team for moving the architecture forward, providing a large performance per Watt gain, efficiency and latency improvements, and a video card that is appealing for gamers and enthusiasts. Remember, Add-in-Board partner video cards with factory Overclocks from both AMD and NVIDIA will be constantly shifting the needle between them, so this will be interesting, and fun, to experience. It’s good times in GPU land. If you can find the video cards to buy of course 😉 Yeah… that’s happening.
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