We’re taking a video to get to know firsthand about AMD’s new Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards.
The io-Tech test included Radeon RX 6800 and 6800 XT graphics cards based on AMD’s own reference design. Both graphics cards use the Big Navi 21 graphics chip and are equipped with 16 with gigabytes of video memory 256 – as an extension of the bit memory bus.
At this point, the graphics cards are only allowed to be shown in pictures and video and the actual test results have to be awaited 18. until November 16. At the same time, the sale of graphics cards will begin. Finnish prices have not yet been officially confirmed, but competing with GeForce RTX 3070 6800 is likely to be priced 599 and EUR 6800 XT 840 competing with RTX 3080
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Based on the first OpenCL test leaks in Geébench 4, the processor is also of great importance for graphics card performance with the RX 6800 series.
AMD unveiled the new Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards late last month. Of the introduced graphics cards RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT go on sale 18. November and RX 6900 XT on 8 December
Familiar credit leaker Tum Apisak has found the first results with AMD’s new graphics cards in Geébench’s earnings database. Geesekch identified the clock frequencies of both graphics cards as their official game clock frequencies, i.e. 1, GHz
In Geébench 4 tests, the Radeon RX 6800 with Core i9 – 10900 K processor resulted in an OpenCL interface in one run 350 137 points and another 356 337 points. For RX 6800 XT and i9 – 10900 K the results varied 392 643 and 413 121 point, in addition to which the Ryzen 9 5950 X processor has been run 456 837 point result. For comparison, RTX 3070 is available in the Geekench 4 OpenCL test with i9 – 10900 K 350 093 – 361 042 points and RTX 3080 464 307 – 643 405 points
The second leak, in turn, is related to the clock speeds of the video cards. WCCFTech found a tweet from a user using the OneRaichu logo on Twitter that the Radeon RX 6800 XT could overclock up to more than 2.5 GHz and offer near-RTX 3090 tax-related performance. In support of his claim, he tweeted a low-quality and partially censored photo of the GPU-Z showing the Radeon RX 6800 XT as the graphics card and a partially censored clock frequency starting 255, as well as the partially censored power consumption of the GPU starting 042. Due to the poor quality picture and the lack of other sources reporting the same, it is advisable to be more skeptical about the leak.
Mustafa Mahmoud 11 hours ago Featured Tech News, Online, PC, Software & Gaming
Each week, the Epic Games Store offers its users a number of free titles. This week, those with an Epic Games account can get their hands on the popular online space-sim ‘Elite Dangerous’, as well as the indie, story-focused visual novel / puzzler hybrid ‘The World Next Door’. Both games are available to purchase for free from now until the 26th of November.
Elite Dangerous is a popular multiplayer space simulator which allows players to explore “a realistic 1:1 scale open-world representation of the Milky Way galaxy”. With an open-ended objective, players can get lost in the universe, finding their own way to navigate and experience the game.
Elite Dangerous has cultivated a dedicated player base who use the “massively multiplayer space epic” to develop roles within the galaxy. Thanks to the game’s “connected galaxy, evolving narrative and the entire Milky Way recreated at its full galactic proportions,” you truly can play however you want.
The World Next Door is best described as “A mix of lightning-fast puzzle battles, powerful storytelling, and immersive visual novel elements”. Inspired by anime, The World Next Door sees you play as “Jun, a rebellious teen who finds herself far from home in the magical and mysterious world of Emrys. As she encounters a colorful cast of otherworldly creatures, Jun must learn to rely on her new friends to return home before time runs out..”
As mentioned, the game acts as a hybrid between a visual novel and a puzzle battler, making for a unique gaming experience. The World Next Door unfortunately received mixed reviews due to feeling somewhat “generic” and incomplete. Still the game is a short one, and may resonate with you.
Both Elite Dangerous and The World Next Door are available to purchase and download for free from now until the 26th of November, at which point they will be replaced by MudRunner.
KitGuru says: What do you think of this week’s offerings? Do you enjoy space sims? What role do you take on when playing? Let us know down below.
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EKWB unveils new watercooling gear for Radeon GPUs and Ryzen CPUs
EKWB has collaborated with AMD for a new line-up of Ryzen and Radeon specific watercooling …
EKWB has collaborated with AMD for a new line-up of Ryzen and Radeon specific watercooling components. This includes a Ryzen-themed CPU waterblock, an AIO unit, AMD-themed Vardar fans, and new EK-Quantum Vector blocks for the Radeon RX 6000 series.
The star of the show here is the EK-Quantum Vector RX 6800/6900 D-RGB – Special Edition. This GPU block comes with a screw-less black acetal top with side slopes similar to the reference card shroud and the Radeon logo illuminated by D-RGB LEDs. The waterblock was designed to efficiently cool the GPU core, VRAM, and VRM MOSFETs, as well as the inductors to prevent coil whine. There’s also grey anodised backplate that helps to cool the graphics card passively.
The Ryzen CPU waterblock is the EK-Quantum Velocity D-RGB – Special Edition, which has been optimised for the processors’ chiplet layout. The wider jet plate increases the precision of the coolant flow to the CPU die without sacrificing the waterblock performance. The 6mm thick aluminium mounting plate, the D-RGB LEDs around the water block, the black standoff screws, and the titanium coloured thumb nuts combine perfectly to give the water block a sleek look worthy of showcasing.
In the table below, you can find the exact product names and MSRP price tags for all of EKWB’s new AMD components:
EK-Quantum Vector RX 6800/6900 D-RGB – Special Edition
219.90€
EK-Quantum Velocity D-RGB – Special Edition
129.90€
EK-Quantum Reaction AIO RX 6800/6900 D-RGB P240 – Special Edition
389.90€
EK-Quantum Power Kit RX 6800/6900 D-RGB P360 – Special Edition
829.90€
If you intend to create a full custom loop with a Ryzen 5000 processor and a Radeon RX 6000 GPU, you can consider the EK-Quantum Power Kit RX 6800/6900 D-RGB P360 – Special Edition. This kit features the Velocity CPU and Vector GPU blocks, AMD-themed Vardar fans, a 360mm CoolStream PE radiator, angled adapter and Torque fittings, a custom-made FLT 120 D5 combo unit with the AMD logo. You also get matte black tubing and a bottle of clear and red coolant.
If a full custom loop isn’t to your liking, then there is also the EK-Quantum Reaction AIO cooler for Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards. This AIO comes with 2x AMD-themed Vardar fans, custom-assembled fittings, and a 240mm radiator with AMD’s logo on the side. The whole AIO is made using “custom loop liquid cooling grade products”, including the SPC-style pump located in the radiator.
Finally, EK has also launched the EK-Quantum Vector waterblocks for the Radeon RX 6000 series cards. These blocks will be available in Copper + Plexi/Acetal and Nickel Plexi/Acetal with black and nickel-plated backplates.
All these products are now available for pre-order from the EK web store.
KitGuru says: Are you planning on acquiring a new Radeon GPU and a new Ryzen CPU? Will you be looking to watercool them?
Big Chungus is one of the most interestingly named PC cases we have seen in a long time. In a market where a series of letters and numbers often make PC cases sound more like a robot from a sci-fi movie rather than somewhere to house your expensive hardware, having an actual name is refreshing. ‘Big Chungus’ was originally a viral meme in case you were wondering, but does this huge show case live up to its name and can it rival some of the other similarly priced open-air display chassis the market has to offer? We find out today.
Watch via our Vimeo channel (below) or over on YouTube at 2160p HERE
The case we are looking at today is the Kolink Big Chungus Unit Edition, on the box it is labelled as “V2” since it is an updated version of the original Big Chungus that released earlier this year. Kolink claims that the V2 Unit Edition improves on the original as it includes five 120mm dual Ring ARGB PWM fans (single ring fans in the original), as well as a black, anodised aluminium stand that comes pre-installed to the base of the cassis, the original had a red anodised aluminium stand that the user self-assembled. Other than that, the two look almost identical.
When Big Chungus arrives, you instantly notice the sheer size of the case, the box is almost a two-man job to carry, it is huge. Once out of the box and stood on the desk, the Big Chungus lives up to its name as it stands 668mm tall and 336mm wide. For the system build, I immediately thought about cramming in a load of custom water cooling to show off what this case is capable of since it is marketed as a showpiece chassis after all.
Kolink Big Chungus Unit Edition Features:
Large and unorthodox ATX form factor with a unique appearance designed for displaying and showcasing extravagant and extreme PC builds.
Open chassis layout with four sides of the case covered with tempered glass panels allowing airflow and an unrestricted view of internal components.
Unit Edition is an updated version of the original Big Chungus and includes five 120mm dual ring ARGB fans pre-installed along with two RGB lighting strips at the base and an RGB fan controller with remote control.
Steel chassis frame with a black anodised aluminium base that comes pre-installed, unlike the original red aluminium base that had to be assembled by the user.
Potentially supports front-mounted radiators up to 480mm long (360mm officially), top radiators up to 240mm, floor mounted radiators up to 360mm and/or a total of up to ten 120mm fans (4 x front, 2 x top, 1 x rear and 3 x floor), no support for 140mm fans.
Motherboard support includes ATX/E-ATX or Micro-ATX, maximum CPU cooler height is 175mm, maximum graphics card length is 335mm, as well as power supplies up to 220mm long.
Front panel connectivity consists of 1x USB 3.1 Type C, 1x USB 3.1 type-A, 1x USB 2.0 Type-A, 3,5mm Audio In/Out and a power button.
Fans possible in total: 4x 120 mm (front side), 2x 120 mm (cover), 1x 120 mm (back side), 3x 120 mm (floor)
Pre-installed: 4x 120 mm (front, PWM, digitally addressable RGB-LEDs), 1x 120 mm (back panel, PWM, digitally addressable RGB-LEDs)
Fan/ARGB controller/Hub: Outputs 10x 6-pin (ARGB/PWM), 2x 3-pin ARGB (5VDG), Inputs: 1x 3-Pin ARGB (connection with motherboard), 1x PWM 1x SATA power (for power supply)
Radiator mountings: 1x max. 360 mm (front side), 1x max. 240 mm (cover), 1x max. 120 mm (back side), 1x max. 360 mm (bottom)
Power supply: 1x standard ATX
Expansion slots: 7
Drive Bays: 2 x 2.5″/3.5″ + 2 x 2.5″
I/O Panel: 1x USB 3.1 Type C, 1x USB 3.1, 1x USB 2.0, 1x Audio In/Out
Maximum graphics card length: 335 mm
Maximum CPU cooler height: 175 mm
Maximum length ATX power supply: 220 mm
However, when you start to look at the case in more detail it seems as though there are some shortcomings with the design. Because of its angular design, the case is tall at its highest point but the problem is the depth of the case from front to rear and the useable space it provides. The case isn’t deep enough to allow the installation of a regular pump/res combo upfront so building custom water cooling inside the Big Chungus may not be as easy as we would expect.
Building a system inside the case also throws up some unexpected issues and limitations and makes the installation process frustrating and less enjoyable. There are several fundamental issues with the case such as pre-installed motherboard standoffs that are not removable and a micro-ATX pre-installed standoff that could potentially cause a short with ATX/E-ATX motherboard installations and possible component damage.
Other issues during installation included the LED strips at the base interfering with power supply installation, power supply screws not lining up easily and the power supply blocks half of the LED strip once installed. Cable management on the rear of the motherboard tray is virtually non-existent, there are cable pass-through holes but no cable management channels, tie-down points, eyelets or straps to neaten up cable installation which is annoying since you can see all the untidy cables through the glass panel.
Thermal Performance Testing
As with every KitGuru case review, thermal performance is important, therefore we shall measure this by running a series of tests to record CPU and GPU temperatures under load.
To simulate thermal performance under load, we run Aida64 stress tests, stressing CPU, FPU, Cache and GPU for 20 minutes with the case in various configurations. With this data, we can compare how each scenario affects thermal performance.
We will compare the system’s thermal capabilities with a liquid-cooled solution for the CPU, using a Silverstone IceGem 240P, 240mm AIO and the graphics card stock cooling solution.
During thermal performance testing, only stock case fans will be used unless otherwise specified. All fans and pumps (where applicable) will be set to their standard fan curve profile as controlled by the motherboard.
All temperature measurements are presented as Deltas – the ambient temperature has been deducted from the CPU/GPU temperature giving us a Delta.
The following configurations are used to test the effect they have on thermal performance:
Default configuration;
Front panel removed;
Glass side panel removed.
Test system
Chassis: Kolink Big Chungus V2 Unit Edition
CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
Motherboard: Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master
Memory: 2 x 16GB (32 GB Total) (2 x 8GB Modules + 2 x Dummy modules) Aorus RGB 3600MHz DDR4 memory
Power supply: Seasonic Prime TX-1000 1000W 80+ Titanium
CPU Cooler: Silverstone IceGem 240P TR4/TRX40 AIO cooler
Case Fans: 5 x stock 120mm dual ring ARGB
Thermal compound: Corsair TM30
Operating System: Windows 10 1909
Note: 240mm AIO cooler was installed in the roof of the case with fans fitted in a push configuration exhausting air out of the case.
Thermal Performance Overview:
Because the Big Chungus is technically an open-air chassis, thermal performance is relatively unaffected by changing the configuration of the case such as removing side or front panels.
Removing the side panel or front panel of an airflow restrictive case usually has a noticeable positive effect on GPU and CPU temperature, but with the Big Chungus, we only recorded a minimal change in the CPU and GPU temperature when removing panels as expected from an open-air chassis.
We omitted any noise level testing from this review as the open layout of the chassis means that noise levels are not affected by changing the case configuration as they would be in more traditional PC cases.
Closing Thoughts
There is no doubt that Big Chungus V2 Unit Edition is a unique looking chassis, however, it is extremely frustrating to work with. During the build process, I was so discouraged by the issues that kept occurring I almost gave up on the build completely. There are so many small niggling issues with the Big Chungus and the build quality isn’t of a high enough standard to warrant the premium £220 price tag the case has been given.
The most annoying and possibly dangerous flaw with the case is the pre-installed motherboard standoffs. This wouldn’t normally be such an issue if the standoffs could be easily removed, but in the Big Chungus the motherboard standoffs are pressed into the steel tray and include a MATX standoff that could potentially contact a component on the rear of an ATX or E-ATX motherboard, short out a circuit and cause damage to hardware.
Another annoying oversight in the design of the Big Chungus is the complete lack of cable management on the rear of the motherboard tray. There are plenty of cable cut-outs in the right places which is great, however, there are no cable channels, eyelets, straps or points to fasten cables down anywhere which is a big disappointment since the case is equipped with glass side panels so the untidy cable management can be seen. Much cheaper cases with solid side panels have better cable management options than this.
Installing the power supply was also problematic with the Big Chungus Unit Edition, the pre-installed LED strips on the base of the case interfered with installation and once the PSU was in position, the screw holes didn’t line up correctly and the power supply blocked off half of the LED strips so the lighting effect glow was only visible from below the front of the case.
The list of issues continues, front panel motherboard connections are multicoloured and look unsightly, AIO installation at the top of the case is very tight, there isn’t much space at the front of the case for a pump/res combo, LED strip power cables are too short, front panel connectivity is sparse for this price range, glass panels are tricky to re-install due to poor alignment and so on.
One thing that the Big Chungus V2 Unit Edition does have in its favour is the appearance, there is no other case you can buy that looks like the Big Chungus V2 Unit Edition. You also get five pre-installed ARGB fans, two ARGB LED strips and an RGB/Fan hub, although this would be expected from a case that costs in excess of £200.
So if you are a fan of the Big Chungus meme and want a PC case that resembles a fat rabbit then this might be the case for you, just make sure you cut out that dodgy MATX motherboard standoff and try not to get too stressed out while building a system inside as I did, maybe play some calming music to keep relaxed.
The Kolink Big Chungus V2 Unit Edition is available to purchase from Overclockers UK now, priced at £219.95 HERE.
KitGuru says: What could be an interesting and unique chassis for showing off exotic builds is seriously let down by build quality and frustrating issues that spoil the build process.
João Silva 19 hours ago Featured Tech News, Graphics
MSI has unveiled 4 new graphics cards belonging to its Gaming series. The upcoming MSI Radeon RX 6800 and 6800XT Gaming Trio cards and the MSI Radeon RX 6800 and 6800XT Gaming X Trio are very similar, with out-of-the-box clock speeds being the key difference.
Although the new MSI Radeon RX 6800 series cards feature a similar design to the MSI RTX 30 series Gaming models, the metallic parts of the Radeon cards’ shroud come in silver, instead of dark grey. The new cards have a similar RGB lighting system, including LEDs on the front, side and backplate.
The Tri Frozr 2 cooling system uses Torx 4.0 fans for improved airflow that don’t spin when the card is idle, machined Core Pipes to increase contact with the GPU, and a “silencing heatsink design” that controls the airflow orientation. Additionally, MSI added thermal pads throughout the PCB to improve heat dissipation and a graphene backplate for additional passive cooling and extra sturdiness.
The MSI Radeon RX 6800 series cards feature 16GB of memory at stock clocks (16Gbps). Both Gaming Trio cards come with reference core clocks, but the Gaming X Trio models come factory-overclocked, boosting up to 2155MHz in the case of the RX 6800, and 2285MHz when referring to the RX 6800XT.
The four cards feature a 2.5-slot design and are each powered by 2x 8-pin power connectors. Regarding display outputs, all cards come with 3x DisplayPorts 1.4, and an HDMI 2.0b port. Additionally, MSI has bundled a support bracket with each card to prevent sagging.
You can learn more about the Radeon RX 6800 Gaming Trio 16G HERE, the Radeon RX 6800 Gaming X Trio 16G HERE, the Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming Trio 16G HERE, and the Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio 16G HERE.
KitGuru says: Are many of you planning to pick up an RX 6800 series graphics card? What do you think of MSI’s custom-cooled offerings?
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Elite Dangerous is free on the Epic Games Store
Each week, the Epic Games Store offers its users a number of free titles. This …
João Silva 2 days ago Featured Tech News, Graphics
ASRock has announced its custom-cooled Radeon RX 6800 series graphics cards. The four cards announced by ASRock are the flagship Radeon RX 6800 XT Taichi X 16G OC, the mid-range Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 Phantom Gaming D 16G OC, and the entry-level Radeon RX 6800 Challenger Pro 16G OC.
Featuring AMD RDNA 2 GPU architecture, the new ASRock Radeon RX 6800 series support the DirectX 12 Ultimate standard and hardware-accelerated raytracing. All cards have 16GB of GDDR6 memory and support PCIe 4.0. The cooling solutions of these cards use ASRock’s Striped Axial fan design for improved cooling performance, allowing them to come overclocked out-of-the-box. Additionally, all cards feature Polychrome Sync ARGB LEDs to synchronise with other compatible products.
The Radeon RX 6800 XT Taichi X 16G OC uses a triple-fan design, with the middle-fan featuring a unique ARGB Taichi halo. Besides the halo, the card also has ARGB LEDs on the side and on the metal backplate. This card features a Dual-BIOS button, allowing users to easily change between the OC and Silent mode.
The ASRock Radeon RX 6800 series Phantom Gaming cards also feature a similar triple fan design with a middle RGB fan. Just like the Taichi model, it features a reinforced metal frame and backplate to avoid bending on the PCB. The RGB LEDs of the fan and on the side can be adjusted and synchronised through ASRock Polychrome Sync.
The ASRock Radeon RX 6800 Challenger Pro 16G OC features a low-key design, with side RGB LED lighting, and an all-black design. Just like the other ASRock Radeon RX 6800 series cards, it also has three fans to handle the cooling.
Pricing and availability details were not shared yet. You can learn more about the Radeon RX 6800 XT Taichi X 16G OC HERE, the Radeon RX 6800XT Phantom Gaming D 16G OC HERE, the Radeon RX 6800 Phantom Gaming D 16G OC HERE, and the Radeon RX 6800 Challenger Pro 16G OC HERE.
KitGuru says: Are you interested in getting a Radeon RX 6800 or RX 6800XT? Out of these four cards, which one would you prefer for yourself?
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Elite Dangerous is free on the Epic Games Store
Each week, the Epic Games Store offers its users a number of free titles. This …
On Wednesday AMD released its new generation of graphics cards in the RX 6000 series based on the RDNA 2 architecture. Thanks to many improvements, the performance would be so high that AMD can finally re-enter the high-end segment, where Nvidia had the empire for itself in recent generations.
The lack of true flagship- Radeon graphics have been a necessity rather than a choice for AMD in recent years. With the RX 400 and 500 – series it competed in the mainstream segment; only with the RX Vega 56 and RX Vega 64, high-end cards from Nvidia got an alternative. Even then, the then GeForce flagship, the GTX 1080 Ti, was able to sit quietly. Also with the RX 5000 series, AMD was able to compete primarily with Nvidia’s RTX 2060 and 2070, which later got Super variants. The RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti again were not challenged by the red camp, even not by the already produced Radeon VII. Probably AMD has mainly looked to competitor Nvidia for the positioning of its new cards
With the RX 6000 – series should be different. AMD already claimed in its presentation of the RDNA 2 series to compete directly with the Ampere flagship, the RTX 3090. The manufacturer does this with its RX 6900 XT, which will be released on December 8 this year. In this review we look at the Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 positioned directly below, which are also based on the RDNA 2 architecture where performance per watt is a major concern.
Comparing these two cards to a direct predecessor is tricky, both in terms of price and naming. The RX 5700 and 5700 XT were both a step lower at these points and the RX Vega cards were at the time of their introduction with a more favorable suggested retail price. Then the Radeon VII remains, which in terms of price is slightly above the RX 6800 XT and is also produced at 7nm. For the positioning of its new cards, AMD has probably mainly looked to competitor Nvidia, which with its Ampere GPUs in the RTX 30 series recently released all its high-end models.
From 26. November 1920 Aldi Süd sells the entry-level notebook Akoya E 15308 For 250 Euro. The price requires compromises in the equipment, which is better than other devices in this class.
The heart of the Akoya E 15308 forms the AMD processor 3020 e (without Ryzen or Athlon add-on) with two Zen cores (1.2-2.6 GHz) and a Radeon Vega graphics unit with 192 Shader units. The Thermal Design Power (TDP) is kept very low at 6 watts, but the processor does not use simultaneous multithreading (SMT), so it can only process two threads. Manufacturer Medion pairs the 2400 e-CPU with 4 GByte DDR4 – 2400-R.A.M. Although the memory interface can handle dual-channel RAM, Medion soldered the RAM in single-channel.
On a 71 GByte SSD is Windows 10 Home in the S -Mode pre-installed that allows the installation of apps from Microsoft’s Windows Store. Another SATA 6G data carrier can be installed in a 2.5-inch slot. The 15, 6 inch IPS display represents 1920 × 1080 pixels – atypical in this price range. There are reductions in brightness (198 cd / m²) and the color space coverage ( Percent NTSC).
Medion Akoya E 15308 ( 4 pictures) (Image: Medion) USB-C with DisplayPort 1.2 and charging function A USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 GBit / s) with Type-C connection controls an Ultra-HD in DisplayPort 1.2 Altmode -Monitor (3840 × 2160 pixels) with 60 Hertz. Devices can also be charged via the Type-C port via Power Delivery. There are also USB 2.0 Type A, HDMI (presumably 1.4), an audio combo jack and a micro SD card reader. The Akoya E 15308 transmits in Wi-Fi 5 networks (WLAN 802. 11 ac) and with Bluetooth 4.2.
The upper casing of the notebook is made of aluminum. With a size of 359 mm × 192 mm × 24 mm weighs the Akoya E 15308 just under 1.8 kilograms.
Aldi Nord currently has no plans to include the device in its own range. If you look in the price comparison for notebooks with at least 13, 3 inch display, full HD resolution and 250 cd / m² brightness, only a few models are available for less than 300 euros to be found. All are Chromebooks with slower processors, such as Atom dual cores from Intel and AMD’s old Bulldozer combination processors. They also use 32 to 64 GByte eMMC flash memory instead of an SSD.
In a recent conference call Nvidia Chief Financial Officer, Colette Kress spoke about the supply and demand for the RTX 30 series of GPUs. Given skyrocketing popularity of gaming due to COVID-19 and stay-at-home recommendations worldwide, it did not come as a surprise that demand for the latest PC hardware from AMD and Nvidia exceeded initial supply. But since Nvidia has not managed to solve GeForce RTX 30-series supply constraints in 2.5 months since the launch, the company is facing heavy criticism from its customers. Nvidia says that it is frustrated with tight supply, but claims that the problem is industry wide.
“While we had anticipated strong demand, it exceeded even our bullish expectations,” said Colette Kress, Chief Financial Officer at Nvidia, during the company’s earnings call with analysts and investors. “Given industry-wide capacity constraints and long cycle times, it may take a few more months for product availability to catch up with demand.”
Cycle times of all modern nodes is about three months, so it is extremely hard for chip developers and makers to quickly react to demand that exceeds supply. Nvidia uses Samsung Foundry’s 8N manufacturing technology to make its GA102 and GA104 processors based on the Amere architecture. This fabrication process is not as popular as TSMC’s N7/N7P or N5 nodes used by such companies as Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm, though actual production capacities that Samsung allocates for its sub-10nm non-EUV technologies are unknown. Furthermore, given complications with logistics, there are other factors that impact production times of graphics cards.
Nvidia stresses that because of high demand for its latest products, it will continue to face GeForce RTX 30-series supply constraints throughout the fourth quarter of its fiscal year, which ends in late January 2021.
“The demand is just overwhelming,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia. “We are going to continue to ramp fast, this is going to be one of our most successful ramps ever. It gives our installed base of some 200 Million+ GeForce gamers the best reason to upgrade in over a decade. So, this is going to be a very large generation for us is my guess.”
For years, Nvidia did not have any serious rivals for its high-end gaming products from AMD, but with the Radeon RX 6800/6900-series products the red team finally has competitive offerings that can fight Nvidia’s RTX 30-series graphics cards. Therefore, assuming that Nvidia cannot supply enough GPUs, AMD might eat Nvidia’s lunch and capture some additional market share. Meanwhile, AMD’s Radeon RX 6800/6800 XT graphics cards are also out of stock (possibly due to high demand), but for now it looks like it is hard to get the latest hardware either from AMD or Nvidia.
Despite supply constraints, Nvidia’s gaming revenue in Q3 FY2021 (which ended on October 25, 2020) was a record $2.27 billion, up 37% sequentially and up 37% from a year earlier. In total, Nvidia earned $4.726 billion for the quarter. The company expects its sales to hit $4.80 billion on Q4 FY2021.
With the launch of AMD’s highly anticipated RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT today, everyone is chomping at the bit to grab one of AMD’s shiny new graphics cards. According to our Radeon RX 6800 and 6800 XT review, both cards provide impressive performance with speeds that often surpass those of the RTX 3070 and 3080 respectively.
Since this morning, customers have been rushing to buy their cards before stock runs dry. And run dry it certainly did, as all RX 6000 series cards are out of stock everywhere as of this moment. All that is left are thousands of angry customers.
AMD’s subreddit has exploded with anger and disappointment at the issues pertaining to the Radeon shortage. A few people are reporting their local MicroCenters barely had ten to 12 RX 6800s and RX 6800 XT’s available for purchase, which if true, is just as bad as the RTX 3080 launch just a few months ago. Many are blaming AMD for the situation and saying it was a paper launch (which technically it wasn’t). To make matters worse, the scalpers are back as well, with RX 6800s and 6800 XTs showing up at around $1000-$1500 on eBay.
This is very unfortunate, especially if you trusted in AMD that it would learn from Nvidia’s mistakes and provide enough volume for over 10 minutes. In a Twitter post nearly a month ago, Frank Azor, AMD’s Chief Architect, was confident at AMD’s ability to provide enough stock on launch day, making future buyers excited. Obviously, things didn’t go according to plan so far.
So what should you do as a buyer? In short, this is a bad time to build a high-end gaming PC. If you’re desperate to grab a GPU during this holiday season, whether as a present or as an upgrade for your gaming rig, there is a high chance you’ll have to settle with a previous generation card from either AMD or Nvidia. However, we’re following stock on all the new cards on our articles on how and where to buy an RTX 3080, 3070 and 3090 and how and where to buy a Radeon 6800 and 6800 XT.
Or you can buy a prebuilt already equipped with a RTX 3070, 3080 or 3090. Nvidia themselves have stated they will not have enough sustainable stock (for the DIY market) until January of 2021 at the earliest, and that is still the case today with outlets like Newegg.com being completely out of stock of 3070s, 3080s and 3090s at the time of this writing. It should be expected that AMD will have the same issues with how its RX 6000 launch has been going thus far.
AMD’s new Radeon RX 6800 XT is a monster of a graphics card already at the GPU’s stock frequencies, but when pushed with a heavy overclock, the RX 6800 XT goes to a whole other level, beating the Nvidia RTX 3090 in 3dMark Fire Strike with 47,932 points, making it a world record result.
Keep in mind that the actual card, a reference RX 6800 XT, was not cooled with liquid nitrogen. Instead, it used its own reference air cooler, making the result all that much more remarkable.
Overclocker “LUCKY_NOOB’s” managed to push the boost frequency of the 6800 XT to a seriously high 2650MHz, and he paired it with a 5950X clocked at 5.4GHz with liquid nitrogen to make the new score possible.
Who knows how much further AMD’s RDNA2 cards can be pushed on water or LN2. At this rate, we could see the magical 3GHz number being broken on AMD silicon for the first time in GPU history.
(Image credit: HWBOT)
However, one thing to keep in mind is 3DMark’s tessellation has been modified to presumably give the RX 6800 XT more performance, so Lucky’s 47,932 score does not qualify on 3DMark’s official scoreboards. But it does qualify for HWBOT, hence why it is valid as a world record on that site.
Fortunately, we might see more soon from AMD, the upcoming RX 6900 XT is launching in under three weeks, and hopefully, we’ll see new world records broken with that GPU on both HWBOT’s and 3DMark’s scoreboards.
Introduction and Specifications After the release of the first maps from Nvidia’s RTX 3840 – series, we had to wait for the answer from the red camp. Exactly three weeks ago AMD unveiled the RX 6000 series, consisting of the RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT. The first two cards have now been extensively tested by multiple reviewers.
This article summarizes the test results of the Tweakers article: AMD RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT – The Zen moment for Radeon. On the conclusion page you will find a list of other reviewers who have their findings regarding RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT Parts.
Below lists the specifications of the new cards, as well as those of the RX 5700 XT, the flagship of RDNA 1.
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT review is here! It’s been a while since the 2019 launch of the “Navi” Radeon RX 5700 RDNA series, which disrupted NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 20-series performance segment line. That forced them to the RTX 20-series SUPER Series, but NVIDIA still had a huge lead in performance and efficiency. AMD has been working on the new RDNA2 architecture not only to power its next-generation Radeon GPUs, but also next-generation consoles such as the PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. This is what makes RDNA2 very relevant to game engine developers, as modern games are developed for consoles first, because that’s where the money is. Having the same architecture on both console and PC, will mean it’s easier to optimize for the latter, with minimal effort. The Radeon RX 6800 series is AMD’s first discrete GPU to meet DirectX 12 Ultimate requirements, which includes raytracing and variable-rate shading.
NVIDIA more than doubled the shader counts of its GeForce “Ampere” GPUs over the previous generation, since it wanted to make “RTX on” frame-rates roughly match the “RTX off” frame-rates of “Turing.” It was also expected for AMD to double the shader counts for “Big Navi” over the RX 5700, since this is AMD’s first Radeon to feature real-time raytracing, and double AMD did. When we started watching AMD’s announcement live-stream late-October for the new RX 6000 series, having reviewed the RTX 3080, little did we expect that AMD would launch a “high-end” GPU. What unraveled in the stream was jaw-dropping, with AMD claiming its RX 6000 series chips to go up against NVIDIA’s fastest, and being competitively priced to them. The Radeon RX 6800 XT in this review, was being compared to the RTX 3080, and the RX 6800 (also being reviewed today), going up against the RTX 2080 Ti (essentially the RTX 3070). The flagship RX 6900 XT is purported to compete with the RTX 3090, it will launch later this year. We would have called BS on these straight away, if AMD hadn’t priced these cards well upward of $500, meaning AMD is confident about the performance of these cards enough to give them a heavy price-tag, in NVIDIA’s league.
The Radeon RX 6800 XT, along with the RX 6800, are based on the 7 nm “Navi 21” RDNA2 silicon, with an 80% increase in compute units over the RX 5700 XT. Each of these RDNA2 compute units has raytracing hardware. AMD also doubled the memory amount to 16 GB, although the memory bus is still 256-bit, and the company is using JEDEC-standard 16 Gbps GDDR6 (512 GB/s). Shouldn’t that starve the silicon of memory bandwidth? AMD could have sought out broader memory buses, or even taken the HBM-MCM route, which would have hit the company’s price-cutting headroom against NVIDIA, but the company changed tactics by introducing a clever new component called Infinity Cache, which we’ll talk more about on the Architecture page. AMD is offering the Radeon RX 6800 XT at $649, or $50 cheaper than the RTX 3080. AMD is marketing the RX 6800 XT as the card to buy for maxed out gaming at 4K Ultra HD resolution—the same use-case the RTX 3080 is meant for. In this review, we put the Radeon RX 6800 XT through its paces to test all of AMD’s performance claims to tell you if AMD is back in the high-end game.
We have with us the Radeon RX 6800. The fun-size sibling to the company’s top RX 6800 XT, the two new high-end GPUs from AMD are out to eat NVIDIA’s lunch in the enthusiast segment. The RX 6800 is based on the silicon the PC enthusiast community for long fabled as “Big Navi,” and as AMD’s long overdue response to NVIDIA’s high-end given it was first to the market with 7 nm GPUs and used the new node to great effect in bringing down Intel’s near-monopoly. NVIDIA’s decision to introduce real-time raytracing to the PC gaming segment with the GeForce RTX 20-series “Turing” caught AMD by surprise as it sat down to design RDNA2. By this point, the RX 5700 series “Navi” was taped out, and when it released in mid-2019, it did enough to disrupt NVIDIA’s performance-segment under $500, but couldn’t take on the high-end. We watched AMD’s late-October 2020 announcement stream with moderate expectations of RDNA2, but were shocked with what ensued as AMD claimed the RDNA2-powered RX 6800 series to compete against NVIDIA’s recently launched RTX 3080 and RTX 2080 Ti (RTX 3070), and with full DirectX 12 Ultimate readiness, which means support for raytracing.
Real-time raytracing is an extremely hardware-intensive feature. For its RTX 30-series “Ampere” that introduces 2nd generation RTX, NVIDIA’s design goal was to double the shader units, making RTX-on performance of this generation as fast as the RTX-off performance of “Turing.” The same was expected of AMD if it intended to compete in the high-end segment, and it seems the company delivered on this engineering goal, with the RX 6800 featuring 60 RDNA2 compute units or 3,840 stream processors, about 67 percent higher than those of the RX 5700. The RX 6800 is carved out from the same 7 nm “Navi 21” silicon as the RX 6800 XT and future RX 6900 XT. AMD enables 60 out of 80 compute units physically present on the die. The memory sub-system is interestingly unchanged, with 16 GB of JEDEC-standard 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit wide memory bus. The memory bandwidth of the RX 6800 is higher than that of the RTX 3070, which has to make do with 8 GB of 14 Gbps memory, but a lot slower than the 19 Gbps 320-bit GDDR6X at the disposal of the RTX 3080. AMD found a clever way to improve its effective memory bandwidth, by deploying a fairly big on-die component it calls Infinity Cache, which we will detail in the Architecture page.
AMD is recommending the Radeon RX 6800 for the same use-case NVIDIA is targeting with the RTX 3070—maxed out gaming with raytracing at 1440p, but with the ability to play at 4K Ultra HD with fairly high settings. Interestingly, AMD is pricing the RX 6800 at $579, or a steep $80 premium of the RTX 3070. Perhaps AMD is feeling confident of bearing the NVIDIA card, given that its marketing slides show it being consistently faster than the RTX 2080 Ti—which is roughly as fast as the RTX 3070. AMD’s decision to give the RX 6800 the full 16 GB of memory available on its pricier sibling, could also be bearing down on the price. It’s also interesting to note that despite a steep increase in shader counts, a doubling in memory amount, and use of the same 7 nm node, AMD is rating the typical board power of the RX 6800 at just 250 W, which means AMD has made serious advances in power management. All these and more will be put to the test in this review, to tell you if AMD is back in the high-end graphics card market, and if consumers can expect a price-war and cooling down of graphics card prices.
Radeon RX 6800 XT Market Segment Analysis
Price
Shader Units
ROPs
Core Clock
Boost Clock
Memory Clock
GPU
Transistors
Memory
RX Vega 64
$400
4096
64
1247 MHz
1546 MHz
953 MHz
Vega 10
12500M
8 GB, HBM2, 2048-bit
GTX 1080 Ti
$650
3584
88
1481 MHz
1582 MHz
1376 MHz
GP102
12000M
11 GB, GDDR5X, 352-bit
RX 5700 XT
$370
2560
64
1605 MHz
1755 MHz
1750 MHz
Navi 10
10300M
8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2070
$340
2304
64
1410 MHz
1620 MHz
1750 MHz
TU106
10800M
8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2070 Super
$450
2560
64
1605 MHz
1770 MHz
1750 MHz
TU104
13600M
8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
Radeon VII
$680
3840
64
1802 MHz
N/A
1000 MHz
Vega 20
13230M
16 GB, HBM2, 4096-bit
RTX 2080
$600
2944
64
1515 MHz
1710 MHz
1750 MHz
TU104
13600M
8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2080 Super
$690
3072
64
1650 MHz
1815 MHz
1940 MHz
TU104
13600M
8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2080 Ti
$1000
4352
88
1350 MHz
1545 MHz
1750 MHz
TU102
18600M
11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070
$500
5888
96
1500 MHz
1725 MHz
1750 MHz
GA104
17400M
8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800
$580
3840
96
1815 MHz
2105 MHz
2000 MHz
Navi 21
26800M
16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT
$650
4608
128
2015 MHz
2250 MHz
2000 MHz
Navi 21
26800M
16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080
$700
8704
96
1440 MHz
1710 MHz
1188 MHz
GA102
28000M
10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RTX 3090
$1500
10496
112
1395 MHz
1695 MHz
1219 MHz
GA102
28000M
24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
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