Official Radeon RX 6000: AMD challenges Nvidia for the scepter of the GPU sector
Source: HW Upgrade added 28th Oct 2020
AMD introduced the first video cards of the Radeon RX family 6000: the company starts from three models – Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT – to challenge the top of the range Nvidia based on Ampere architecture, the GeForce RTX 3070, 3080 is 3090. AMD claims competitive 4K performance and unprecedented efficiency. Here are all the specs of the cards, prices and release date.
by Manolo De Agostini published on 28 October 2020 in the Video Cards channel
Radeon AMD Ships
AMD introduced the new video cards Radeon RX series 6000 , specifically the models Radeon RX 6800, Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6900 XT . The new GPUs are based on the new architecture RDNA 2 , a profound evolution of the RDNA project of the Navi GPUs that have marked the series 3080.
Produced by TSMC with an improved 7 nanometer manufacturing process, the GPU on board these cards counts 26, 7 billion transistors , slightly less than 28 billions of the GA 102 on board Nvidia GeForce RTX cards 3080 is 3090. And it is precisely Nvidia’s Ampere GPUs that the new solutions want not only to approach, but also to beat.
The new video cards are AMD’s first to support ray tracing technology, as well as a number of other solutions that will mark the games of the future, such as the Variable Rate Shading , Sampler Feedback and Mesh Shader, all features underlying DirectX 12 Ultimate from Microsoft. AMD has also ensured full support for DirectX’s DirectStorage API , and this will – similarly to Nvidia’s RTX IO – to squeeze performance out of SSDs. Like Nvidia, AMD also offers a suite of technologies such as Radeon Anti-Lag and Radeon Boost to reduce latencies and a revamped version of FidelityFX to improve image quality and offer something analogous to Nvidia’s DLSS .
AMD started with the aim of improving performance per watt of RDNA 2 GPUs compared to previous RDNAs of 50%, but at the end of the development it obtained an even better result, equal to 54%. A value that is the son of a renewal of the Compute Units and of Infinity Cache , a name that is somewhat reminiscent ‘the GameCache of Ryzen CPUs: as seen on proc essori, AMD has equipped the new GPUs with an unprecedented amount of cache to keep as much data close to the drives calculation and speed up operations.
As regards the Compute Units, AMD has worked to refine the clock gating , so that each frequency domain within the GPU is managed on time to derive the maximum performance and reduce consumption as soon as the load is reduced. AMD also rebalanced the graphics pipeline and redesigned the internal paths in the chip for data to flow from one drive to another. other efficiently.
All this, and the improved 7-nanometer manufacturing process, have enabled AMD to heavily raise the GPU clock rates, with an increase of 30% compared to the previous RDNA generation. Additionally, with Infinity Cache, AMD is able to offer 2, 17 times the bandwidth guaranteed by a bus to 384 bit despite the connection bus only 256 bit with memory GDDR6, with very low consumption. All of these innovations are reflected in performance, with a doubling of 4K performance compared to the previous generation embodied by the three models of cards already mentioned and of which we see the technical specifications below.
Radeon RX 6800 XT, the RTX 3080 has a worthy opponent
La Radeon RX 6800 XT is based on a Navi GPU with 72 Active Compute Unit , able to work in Game Clock at 1440 MHz and go into boost a 2250 MHz . Inside the GPU we find 128 MB of Infinity Cache, while on the card there are 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on bus a 256 bit . The card has a TBP of 250 W , lower than 320 W compared to the RTX 3080, Nvidia’s card that openly challenges.
The new RX 6800 XT, according to AMD, it is in fact practically coupled to the RTX 3080 in terms of performance in 4K gaming , as you can see from the graph below where you can see draws, losses and wins. The same situation can be seen if you play 1440 P.
But if you activate the “ Rage Mode “, a fast overclocking technology and RX pairing 6800 XT to a Ryzen CPU 3080 thus earning what AMD calls “ Smart Access Memory “, ie an access to mutual memory for faster data exchange, the new card is able to gain additional performance – from 4% to al 13% according to the tests shown by AMD – and further disconnect the RTX 3080 or fill an existing gap.
The card will debut on 18 November at a price of 579 tax free dollars .
Radeon RX 6800 RTX challenge 2080 Ti and RTX 3070
Like the last generation, also in the case of the series 6000 we have a “smooth” proposal, not XT, the Radeon RX 6800 . This card counts 60 Active Compute Units , a Game Clock of 1815 MHz and a Boost Clock of 2105 MHz. We find again the 128 MB of Infinity Cache and i 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on bus a 256 bit, while the TBP drops to 250 W.
AMD compared this card to GeForce R TX 2080 Ti, but by extension we can say that it is a frontal attack on the GeForce RTX 3070 . With this solution, the company is confident that it can often and willingly beat Nvidia’s proposals in 4K, guaranteeing playable performance beyond 60 fps, as well as a very high frame rate in 1440 P. It should be noted that these data refer to tests with Smart Access Memory. The Radeon RX 6800 will arrive on the market on 18 November at a price of 579 tax-free dollars.
Radeon RX 6900 XT arrives in December and challenges the RTX 3090
6900
Last but not least, here is the Radeon RX 6900 XT, the top of the range of this series. The card is based on a Navi GPU with 80 Compute Unit who works in 2015 MHz (Game Clock) and 2250 MHz (Boost Clock), while the other characteristics are the same as the RX 6800 XT, including the TBP of 300 W, interesting aspect and that pushes the performance improvement per watt compared to previous generation 30% .
AMD’s card offers similar or even higher performance to Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3090 , at least according to the tests shown and carried out with Rage Mode and Smart Access Memory activated. The card will be available from December 8 at a tax free price of 999 dollars.