AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 Review

AMD has for several years now lagged behind Nvidia in the graphics performance race, particularly at the high end where ray tracing has become the new must-have feature to show off, and buyers always want the latest and greatest. The company's problems are compounded in India, where unfavourable pricing and limited distribution often tip the scales in Nvidia's favour even when performance is comparable. Just like it did with its Ryzen desktop CPUs a few years ago, AMD has been working on turning its fortunes around with new Radeon GPUs built around the RDNA architecture and its successors.

With the new Radeon RX 6000 series based on the RDNA 2 architecture, AMD thinks it can take Nvidia on even at the very top end. Three GPUs have been launched so far: the flagship Radeon RX 6900 XT which hopes to take on the GeForce RTX 3090; and the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800, which are for gamers who want great quality at 4K but don't have infinitely stretchable budgets. This is the most confident that AMD has been in a very long time, and yes, there's even ray tracing – or at least an early implementation of it.

Today, we're testing and reviewing the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800. These GPUs were launched in late 2020 but as expected, availability in India has been rather constrained. Does their performance justify going against the grain and choosing them over competing Nvidia offerings? Can AMD pull off a decisive victory after all? Let's find out.

AMD RDNA 2 architecture :- 

whilst it'd have lagged in phrases of computer market share, AMD's pics department has ruled the high-end gaming console space for years now. The current and previous generations of Sony's ps and Microsoft's Xbox consoles have all used a few form of Radeon GPU, which does provide AMD some benefits and insight into what abilities gamers and sport builders will be using over the subsequent several years. 

ultimate 12 months's Radeon RX 5700 XT, primarily based on the RDNA 1 structure, changed into a great improvement over its predecessors, turning in 50 percentage better performance in keeping with Watt. AMD now says that RDNA 2 can achieve 54 percentage better overall performance according to Watt than even that. The RDNA2 chip on which those two GPUs are based totally has over 26 billion transistors, even though each GPU version makes use of unique amounts of those sources.

at the structure stage, the number of Compute gadgets (CUs) has doubled, going from forty to 80, and new ray accelerator blocks were delivered for ray tracing. despite the fact that RDNA 2 makes use of the equal 7nm manufacturing manner as RDNA, optimisations to electricity handling, the processing pipeline itself, and boosting clock speeds by using up to 30 percentage has resulted in this generation-on-technology performance uplift.

A massive a part of that comes from what AMD is asking “Infinity Cache”. This excessive-density 128MB L3 cache is based totally on AMD's Epyc server CPU designs. it's stated to be an awful lot quicker than gaining access to GDDR6 RAM and is included into the on-die Infinity fabric interconnect for high-bandwidth, low-latency conversation. The Infinity cache allows preserve facts geared up for the GPU so it may paintings at high frequencies without getting bottlenecked, that is an advantage when coping with 4K-fine game property.

another new feature, which AMD calls “smart get admission to memory”, basically allows a computer's CPU to at once get right of entry to the whole contents of the GPU's reminiscence. This has to date been restrained to 256MB because of the nature of the PCIe connectivity protocol, however PCIe 4.zero now allows for what is referred to as a resizable base address register (BAR). clever get entry to reminiscence will require a Ryzen 5000 series desktop CPU and Radeon 6000 series GPU, plus a 500-series motherboard, and of route all the modern-day BIOS and driver updates. that is stated to deliver as much as 11 percentage better overall performance in a few video games, and builders ought to optimise higher for it within the future.

along with ray tracing, the DirectX 12 last API introduces DirectStorage, which shall we a GPU load recreation assets immediately from a excessive-pace SSD to GPU memory, with out going through system RAM or requiring CPU resources. this is being applied in subsequent-gen consoles and have to enhance loading time for stages and transitions in video games.

The up to date HDMI 2.1 widespread will allow for 4K 144Hz or 8K 60Hz video output, and AMD says it's prepared for show move Compression (DSC), which have to allow for even better resolutions. if you stream your gameplay on line, you might gain from 8K AV1 decode and 8K HEVC encode in hardware.

The Radeon software program application now supports automatic in addition to fully manual overclocking. further, performance Tuning Presets will let users practice optimised according to-sport profiles, which AMD says will no longer void a photos card's guarantee. Radeon Anti-Lag and Radeon enhance are both features that may probably make video games experience more responsive through optimising input latency and dynamically lowering resolution in small patches.

AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 specifications:- 

4K is the goal resolution for all video games at excessive exceptional, even for the Radeon RX 6800 – lower-priced GPUs will possibly be released later this 12 months for folks that are targeting 1440p and 1080p, however the three models released up to now all target fanatic-elegance game enthusiasts. The baseline for the Radeon RX 6800 is 4K 60fps in nearly all modern-day video games, and it is placed as an improvement over the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, because of this it'll take on the GeForce RTX 3070. You ought to additionally see over 90fps at 1440p, in keeping with AMD.

The better-priced Radeon RX 6800 XT is ready to compete with the GeForce RTX 3080, staying above 4K 60fps in present day AAA video games even at the highest best settings, or handing over one hundred forty four-240fps at 1440p in many esports titles.

but, permitting ray tracing will take a toll on these figures. Even AMD's respectable projected overall performance numbers imply that 1080p and 1440p are greater practical expectations if you want to live at or above 60fps. Nvidia gets round this using its gadget-studying-powered upscaling algorithm DLSS (Deep gaining knowledge of Supersampling), which we could its GPUs render decrease resolutions after which stretch them out without dropping pleasant. AMD has some thing comparable within the works, but it isn't geared up but. the coolest news is that the GPU's ray tracing hardware isn't always just for video games; it will assist speed up paintings in content introduction programs together with Blender and Autodesk Maya.

The Radeon RX 6800 functions 60 active CUs with one ray accelerator and sixty four stream processors each, for a total of three,840 flow processors. It runs at burst speeds of as much as 2105MHz. Its larger sibling, the Radeon RX 6800 XT, has seventy two CUs with an same wide variety of ray accelerators and 4,608 circulation processors, and runs at as much as 2250MHz. both feature 16GB of 256-bit GDDR6 RAM with a height bandwidth of 512GBps. the 2 have rated TDPs of 250W and 300W, and AMD recommends 650W and 750W energy supplies respectively.

AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 reference design :-

AMD's partner brands, which consist of Asus, ASRock, Gigabyte, MSI, Sapphire, XFX, and Powercolor are unfastened to design their own pictures playing cards featuring Radeon GPUs, which includes ones with AIO liquid coolers. however, pretty many of the playing cards you may see inside the market will use AMD's reference layout. Sapphire specially, that is one of the more easily available manufacturers in India, may be selling cards equal to the reference gadgets that we're reviewing nowadays.

AMD doesn't promote its very own cards like Nvidia does with its Founders version models, however a number of work nevertheless is going into their layout. The Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 reference playing cards are heavy and feel solidly constructed. They both have vapour chamber coolers and a die-solid aluminium shroud with 3 custom-designed axial enthusiasts. The fanatics can spin down completely when the GPU is not being stressed.

All this is to optimise acoustic as well as cooling performance, and also you need to discover those cards quieter than the previous generation. nevertheless, this layout is also claimed to permit for a few degree of overclocking to preserve lovers glad. AMD says it has used a graphite pad to interface between the GPU itself and the cooler, as opposed to thermal compound that may dry out over the years. There also are thermal pads among the cooler, GDDR6 reminiscence, and energy circuitry for higher warmness conductivity.

AMD has used general eight-pin PCIe electricity connectors, in preference to Nvidia's current shrunken widespread that requires an adapter. both the Radeon RX 6800 XT and the Radeon RX 6800 have  eight-pin connectors going through upwards at the rear.

The Radeon RX 6800 XT reference layout occupies 2.5 slots whilst the RX 6800 is rather slimmer. each are a fashionable 10.five inches lengthy. AMD has used its signature red colour as an accent across the uncovered heatsink vents at the top and there is a red illuminated Radeon emblem on each card.

each cards have one HDMI 2.1 port,  DisplayPort 1.four ports, and oddly, a USB type-C port. AMD says this permits for unmarried-twine connections to go-established displays for the reason that it is able to deliver a video signal plus as much as 27W of power. if you have already got a triple-monitor setup, you may need some adapters. The decision to go along with USB paves the way for destiny video display units that can be daisy-chained and feature a USB hub or different integrated peripherals, but it is an thrilling preference seeing as how the VirtualLink trendy is effectively lifeless, or even Nvidia eliminated this port from its Founders version playing cards after just one generation.

AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 overall performance :- 

All assessments have been run the use of an AMD Ryzen 2700 CPU, ASRock X470 Taichi remaining motherboard, 2x8GB of G.talent F4-3400C16D-16GSXW DDR4 RAM, a 1TB Samsung 860 Evo SSD, and a Corsair RM650 electricity deliver. The screen became a 4K Asus PB287Q. home windows 10 changed into updated to the 2H20 launch and all drivers have been up to date inclusive of the Radeon software program Adrenalin 2020.12.2 launch.

artificial tests let us compare one-of-a-kind GPUs immediately. 3DMark is the apparent area to start. The current-gen Time secret agent and Time spy excessive checks display performance scaling pretty predictably with rate across the Nvidia and AMD camps. The GeForce RTX 30-collection does pull in advance in the Port Royal DirectX 12 take a look at, at the same time as the Radeon RX 6800 siblings have the benefit inside the older fireplace Strike checks. Unigine's Superposition benchmark, strolling at its 4K Optimised preset, also scales with rate. If all pix playing cards had been available at their MRPs, there could be no awful picks, best feature- and price range-related decisions.

Coming to in-game benchmarks, far Cry five at 4K the use of its ultra preset, and controlled to hit averages of 80fps on the Radeon RX 6800 XT and 72fps at the RX 6800. center Earth: Shadow of conflict additionally ran smoothly at 4K with its ultra nice preset, averaging 73fps on the Radeon RX 6800 however leaping as much as 82fps on the Radeon RX 6800 XT. Metro: Exodus additionally ran at 4K with its extremely preset (which isn't the very best in this case), with out ray tracing enabled, at 61fps and 52.35fps on the 2 cards respectively.

In guide gameplay, Doom: everlasting was extraordinarily smooth at 4K at ultra Nightmare pleasant, attaining a hundred and fifty-160fps at the Radeon RX 6800 XT and a hundred and twenty-125fps at the Radeon RX 6800, as measured with the aid of the in-recreation frame counter even in heavy battle scenes. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt averaged 84fps and 73fps respectively, at 4K extremely.

I then turned to Battlefield V to check how AMD's ray tracing implementation influences performance. without a DLSS equal, there may be no way to elevate the body charge to compensate for the extra strain that ray tracing places on the new Radeon GPUs. With the decision set to 4K and using the extremely fine preset, the Radeon RX 6800 XT managed round 105fps in a hectic scene with masses of gunfire and running round. With ray tracing enabled, that fell steeply to round 60fps. The Radeon RX 64800 showed a sharper drop, from around 95fps to simply 40fps. you'd ought to decrease the resolution and compromise on nice in case you want ray tracing effects, at least for now.

AMD's new cooler layout does seem to be effective, and neither of the 2 cards examined changed into noisy even beneath heavy load.

Verdict :- 

AMD has genuinely carried out very well with this generation of Radeon GPUs. they're certainly effective sufficient for modern fans who demand clean visuals at 4K and at very high high-quality settings. The reference design playing cards are slick and unobtrusive. but, the problem of whether or not the brand new Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 are able to difficult Nvidia's dominance comes down to 2 elements – functions and pricing.

In terms of functions, ray tracing of path stands out. AMD's implementation isn't fully realised yet. lots of video games do aid AMD's method, and it is in all likelihood that future upscaling tech will make things plenty extra even among the 2 competition. For now even though, in case you need to experience all the graphical bells and whistles, and declare bragging rights, Nvidia has the gain. One small note here is that 16GB of GDDR6 RAM is plenty greater than what Nvidia's present day offerings at this rate and performance degree have, and your use cases would possibly benefit from that.

sooner or later, we come to the thorny – and ongoing – problem of Radeon fees in India. To be fair, all modern-gen GPUs are scarce, and there was huge rate gouging and scalping for the beyond numerous months. it is hard to make comparisons in view that prices maintain converting and some fashions truly are not available. however, Nvidia does promote its own Founders version pics cards in India at their legit MRPs, through a distributor. although you need to undergo a tedious waitlisting technique and lots depends on success, as a minimum there are periodic updates. AMD has no such arrangement.

AMD's professional fees in India for the Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT snap shots cards are Rs. 45,999 and Rs. sixty four,990 respectively, no longer together with taxes. inside the US, they price $579 and $649 respectively. it's bizarre is that the employer is the usage of a far higher exchange rate for the RX 6800 XT, which makes this card disproportionately extra highly-priced than its sibling. On pinnacle of that, road costs (consisting of tax) in India are all over the area, ranging from a relatively understandable Rs. fifty nine,999 for a reference Sapphire RX 6800 (listed at only one on line retailer however out of inventory, without a guarantee it will surely be up for buy that charge) to an outrageous Rs. 1,10,000 for a Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6800 XT with a custom cooler. In fact, some Radeon RX 6900 XT listings are in reality much less luxurious.

This should were a close call among Nvidia and AMD, however the result of this deliver-side confusion is that it is almost always going to make experience for game enthusiasts in India to choose the equal GeForce 30-collection card. The Radeon RX 6800 is probably worth it if you could find it at an awesome charge, but there is little hope for the Radeon RX 6800 XT right here proper now ­– maybe we will see full-size reductions somewhere down the road, at which factor calculations can be reconsidered. AMD does severely want to kind this out, or it's going to lose despite something progress it has made in phrases of overall performance.

AMD Radeon RX 6800 (reference)

Price:-  Rs. 45,999 + taxes

Pros : -

fantastic inventory cooler

excellent performance at 4K and 1440p 

Cons

No decision upscaling at launch 

luxurious and hard to discover

rankings (out of 5)

overall performance: four

cost for money: 4

standard: four

AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (reference)

fee: Rs. sixty four,990 + taxes

Execs:- 

remarkable inventory cooler

very good overall performance at 4K and 1440p 

Cons

No decision upscaling at launch 

pricey and tough to discover

Rankings (out of five) :- 

overall performance: 4.5

cost for cash: 3.5

ordinary: 3.5