Where Gaming Begins: Ep. 2 | AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series Graphics Cards - 11am CDT 10/28/20

Really people who need a 3090 are still looking at it, people who want a 3090 probably significantly decreased.
It's an extra $400+ for an extra 8 GB of VRAM. So yeah, I guess if that is worth it for your workload, it still might make sense.
 
Official Spec List:

Powerhouse Performance, Vivid Visuals & Incredible Gaming Experiences​

AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series graphics cards support high-bandwidth PCIe® 4.0 technology and feature 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 latency6 and power consumption7, delivering higher overall gaming performance than traditional architectural designs.
  • AMD Smart Access Memory8 – 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.9,10
  • 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 performance10.
  • Radeon™ Anti-Lag11 – Significantly decreases input-to-display response times and offers a competitive edge in gameplay.

AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series Product Family​

ModelCompute UnitsGDDR6Game Clock12 (MHz)Boost Clock13 (MHZ)Memory InterfaceInfinity Cache
AMD Radeon™ RX 6900 XT8016GB2015Up to 2250256 bit128 MB
AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 XT7216GB2015Up to 2250256 bit128 MB
AMD Radeon™ RX 68006016GB1815Up to
2105
256 bit128 MB
 

Robust Gaming Ecosystem and Partnerships​

In the coming weeks, AMD will release a series of videos from its ISV partners showcasing the incredible gaming experiences enabled by AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series graphics cards in some of this year’s most anticipated games. These videos can be viewed on the AMD website.

  • DIRT® 5 – October 29
  • Godfall™ – November 2
  • World of Warcraft®: Shadowlands – November 10
  • RiftBreaker™ – November 12
  • FarCry® 6 – November 17

Pricing and Availability​

AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 and Radeon™ RX 6800 XT graphics cards are expected to be available from global etailers/retailers and on AMD.com beginning November 18, 2020, for $579 USD SEP and $649 USD SEP, respectively. The AMD Radeon™ RX 6900 XT is expected to be available December 8, 2020, for $999 USD SEP.

AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT graphics cards are also expected to be available from AMD board partners, including ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor, SAPPHIRE and XFX, beginning in November 2020.

Supporting Resources​

  • Lean more about the AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series here
  • Learn more about AMD RDNA™ 2 graphics architecture here
  • Learn more about the AMD Radeon™ Software here
  • Learn more about AMD Ryzen™ 5000 Series here
  • Become a fan of AMD on Facebook
  • Follow AMD on Twitter
 
Considering that people were posting about black screen issues all the way up to 4 months ago on AMDs own forums and up to 10 days ago on reddit, I'm going to go ahead and say no.

Well you dont have to go far in the Nvidia subforum to see not everything is going well for everyone on the 3000 series either. No matter where you go on a forum someone is always asking for help with a issue on their computer. Also I would not cite reddit as a reliable source for making decisions or drawing conclusions on how well hardware is working. Sometimes it's the user that causes their own nightmare and not the hardware or software.
 
i dont use the proprietary drivers so how they behave doesn't matter to me. Just future proofed VR and insane overkill 1080p ... giggity.

gonna have to camp microcenter come December 8th
 
Well you dont have to go far in the Nvidia subforum to see not everything is going well for everyone on the 3000 series either. No matter where you go on a forum someone is always asking for help with a issue on their computer. Also I would not cite reddit as a reliable source for making decisions or drawing conclusions on how well hardware is working. Sometimes it's the user that causes their own nightmare and not the hardware or software.
(Note: agreeing - in case following isn't clear)
It's unfortunately very difficult to separate wheat from chaff on stuff like this.

Is Angry_Poster_004 indicative of a real problem? Or have they been running Super Registry Fixer 9000 and lord knows what that did?

It's actually difficult to separate those cases in this era of "everyone has a megaphone". I know we here all mentally weight posts based upon our history with the poster, but the value of that approach goes to zero quite quickly on reddit et al.
 
It's an extra $400+ for an extra 8 GB of VRAM. So yeah, I guess if that is worth it for your workload, it still might make sense.
If you need the CUDA acceleration then there aren't many options in that price range, it vastly outperforms the Quadro RTX series while maintaining basically the same feature set while being way cheaper than the A6000 if you don't the options it provides. I mean that can't be a huge market group but then again I get the distinct feeling NVidia didn't play on it being a widely available part to begin with.
 
Exactly the same system I’m likely going to be upgrading to. Pretty sad as I just took delivery of my 3080 yesterday.

An all AMD system not only sounds neat, it also now has its own benefits.
Honestly, I would feel like a nerf herder if I did not put a 6900XT on a 5900X/570 system. I actually did not think I would be excited about this, but it kinda has me chubbin up a bit.
 
Honestly, I would feel like a nerf herder if I did not put a 6900XT on a 5900X/570 system. I actually did not think I would be excited about this, but it kinda has me chubbin up a bit.

Yeah, I was a bit mad at Nvidia, but I was still part of a "Microcenter Limbo Line" for the 3080.

Well, after Su gave her talk, my panties were soaked and all I could desire was the 6900XT.

Too bad I can only afford the 6800XT. Gosh I want that 6900XT so bad, not just for the power, but for the glorious 69 gimmick.
 
Yeah, clearly they were shy about ray tracing and that WoW clip looked like junk.

Even so, it works and it's still pretty early in terms of game support so it's not the end of the world.
No doubt WOW is not exactly the tippy top of high end graphics even new RT updates. I imagine though it is still pretty heavily played and its pretty cool to see AMD helping with support for old popular titles.

Agreed though would have been nice to see a current generation RT title working... even if they still skipped the FPS comparison. lol
 
I was debating about if I even needed a new rig. In all honesty, I don't. But AMD has me as excited as I've been in a long time.

Want to go all out again, 5950X and 6900XT. Hopefully still can get a decent value on the used market for my current rig if I part it out.

I could at least justify it for myself with the much better compile times, I guess time is money.
 
Thanks AMD for saving me some pesos! Was about ready to buy this until your announcement.

msi.png
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
If the 6800XT is matching the RTX 3080, and can maybe even have lower latency when paired with a 5000-series CPU, what does that mean for the 6800XT's GDDR6 versus the 3080's GDDR6X? Is the 3080 overall a slower card, compensated with GDDR6X, or is the GDDR6X not as important as might have been thought?

Or Infinity cache actually works.... allowing AMD to use less expensive memory for right around the same end result.

AMD says its the cache... and I don't know building 128 megs of ram into your GPU silicon does sounds like a pretty logical way to solve the bandwidth issue completely. Expect RDNA 3 to have even more cache... and expect Ampere 2 to follow suit. Its time to give up on super exotic HBM / x type ram that drives up costs.
 
A full 5900X, 6900XT system in my future. Water cooled, that bastard is going to be blindingly fast.

Bought a 3600xt to hold over until AM5, kinda kicking myself, since now I'm going to build the same setup you mentioned. There's a spare xspc 360mm rad and 6 more gentle typhoons in my basement, looking forward to to a big upgrade from 3600/1080ti.
 
Yeah, I was a bit mad at Nvidia, but I was still part of a "Microcenter Limbo Line" for the 3080.

Well, after Su gave her talk, my panties were soaked and all I could desire was the 6900XT.

Too bad I can only afford the 6800XT. Gosh I want that 6900XT so bad, not just for the power, but for the glorious 69 gimmick.

Well at least you can consider a AIB board going 6800.
 

Heh, when XFX still made nvidia cards. I had one of their 7950gt cards with those colors.

It will be interesting to see how well this infinity cache works, I may upgrade to a Zen3 chip next year and a 6700 or 6800. I'm surprised to see WoW going AMD though. They've long favored nvidia and intel chips performance wise.
 
Bought a 3600xt to hold over until AM5, kinda kicking myself, since now I'm going to build the same setup you mentioned. There's a spare xspc 360mm rad and 6 more gentle typhoons in my basement, looking forward to to a big upgrade from 3600/1080ti.

ahhh man I'm probably going to pull the trigger as well. lol

The wife is probably going to be rocking a bran new 3600x sooner then later. lol
 
Now that I'm thinking about it. Do I just buy the 6800XT in a couple weeks, or wait for the 6900XT that I want and hope I don't miss out.

.....maybe both to be safe.
 
Apple controls their hardware and software to work in harmony. Just like AMD is doing with their GPU's and CPU's.
DUDE, amd has been one of the most OPEN SOURCE companies IN HISTORY with the technologies they CREATE.

and they aren't building an OS that locks out everyone that doesn't want to hand over a MASSIVE portion of the profits on the products THEY CREATE!!!

how can you even mention AMD and apple in the same sentence? well we know who's apple and who's [H]ard just by the tone of the comment, huh?
 
Last edited:
DUDE, amd has been one of the most OPEN SOURCE companies with the technologies IN HISTORY with the technologies they CREATE.

and they aren't building an OS that locks out everyone that doesn't want to hand over a MASSIVE portion of the profits on the products THEY CREATE!!!

how can you even mention AMD and apple in the same sentence? well we know who's apple and who's [H]ard just by the tone of the comment, huh?

You also mentioned AMD and Apple in the same sentence. We are not so different, you and I. lol
 
I hope they make budget cards this round too. I need a GPU in my HTPC that can play DOTA 2 at 4K without creating too much heat.
 
A full 5900X, 6900XT system in my future. Water cooled, that bastard is going to be blindingly fast.

Honestly, I would feel like a nerf herder if I did not put a 6900XT on a 5900X/570 system. I actually did not think I would be excited about this, but it kinda has me chubbin up a bit.

I know it’s not your source of employment and that it would be work to set up, but a build video from you could be a fun thing.


(IE I want to live vicariously through your PC build since I won’t be doing it myself any time soon)
 
A full 5900X, 6900XT system in my future. Water cooled, that bastard is going to be blindingly fast.
Please tell me you have enough contact with them that if DDR5 comes out in 2021, that they at least *consider* an AM5 socket with a 5000-series CPU refresh in the 6000-series range that overlaps with the 6000-series GPUs, because it's killing me that these two aren't on the same fake marketing designation number scheme.
 
It looks like a 6800xt is in my future unless independent reviews reveal an issue, it's the first time I've been truly hyped for a gpu launch since the last time AMD had a 6000 series. The only dilemma that this announcement created is whether to pick up a 500 series motherboard to go with the 5000 series CPU I was already planning on.

I am curious to see how well the new infinity cache setup handles high memory usage situations but we'll need new games to really push that at this point. I do find it interesting that they mentioned the related bandwidth improvement in terms of performance per watt, efficiency is one the big benefits to lower bandwidth memory but I'm more interested in the straight performance difference. I'm hoping to see more details in reviews on how exactly it alleviates some of the need for bandwidth to get a better idea where some of the strengths and weaknesses to this approach are.

RT performance does interest me since it seems there's some momentum towards it becoming a standard feature but we definitely need more games to get an accurate picture on how things will stack up.
 
Well I just cancelled my 3090 orders, not because of the 6900XT’s but because EVGA changed the branding for the XC3 and added all that gaming crap to the end. That and my CDW rep let me know the ETA for them was March, so.... yeah. If the 6900XT has availability and if our software guys come back with yes’s for support they could be going in for our drafting/animation work stations.

I know it will work for most but just need to hear back from my Adobe and ChiefArchitect vendors. They advertise CUDA heavily but they are somewhat lacking on the info about their OpenCL compatibility list on Citrix.
 
Well I just cancelled my 3090 orders, not because of the 6900XT’s but because EVGA changed the branding for the XC3 and added all that gaming crap to the end. That and my CDW rep let me know the ETA for them was March, so.... yeah. If the 6900XT has availability and if our software guys come back with yes’s for support they could be going in for our drafting/animation work stations.

I know it will work for most but just need to hear back from my Adobe and ChiefArchitect vendors. They advertise CUDA heavily but they are somewhat lacking on the info about their OpenCL compatibility list on Citrix.
What gaming crap?
 
What gaming crap?

They having gaming in the name and RGB on it (could you imagine RGB on a quadro card ?), I could imagine some people preferring not listing stuff like that in R&D report and their tax reimbursement and so on. Not sure how much is justified, but it create some uneasiness, I am a bit like that if I buy something for work using work account (with the tax and R&D credit) I prefer if there is nothing that make it look like tax fraud of someone buying stuff to play with.
 
They having gaming in the name and RGB on it (could you imagine RGB on a quadro card ?), I could imagine some people preferring not listing stuff like that in R&D report and their tax reimbursement and so on. Not sure how much is justified, but it create some uneasiness, I am a bit like that if I buy something for work using work account (with the tax and R&D credit) I prefer if there is nothing that make it look like tax fraud of someone buying stuff to play with.

Well it is an actual gaming part.... so ? Why would you not expect 3090 cards to mention in marketing that they are gaming cards ? If that is the best solution for your use... buy them and when the bean counters ask explain how you folks saved the company thousands of dollars. Not seeing the issue. I would hope the people in control of your money... at least on a basic level understand what you do, and wtf a GPU is for in a broad sense.
 
Well it is an actual gaming part.... so ? Why would you not expect 3090 cards to mention in marketing that they are gaming cards ? If that is the best solution for your use... buy them and when the bean counters ask explain how you folks saved the company thousands of dollars. Not seeing the issue. I would hope the people in control of your money... at least on a basic level understand what you do, and wtf a GPU is for in a broad sense.
In my case it is not the company you think about, it is the government (I could be paranoid).

From what you understand from the person saying: EVGA changed the branding for the XC3 and added all that gaming crap to the end

It was not a gaming part (it make little to no sense as a gaming card, what game benefit from having 24 gig of VRAM instead of say 16) at the moment the pre order was made either that or not known by the people pre-ordering it.

And there is very GPU farm/workstation looking 3090 coming out to pick from, it is not a buy a gaming looking/marketed 3090 or not buy one type of choice people face.
 
Last edited:
Well it is an actual gaming part.... so ? Why would you not expect 3090 cards to mention in marketing that they are gaming cards ? If that is the best solution for your use... buy them and when the bean counters ask explain how you folks saved the company thousands of dollars. Not seeing the issue. I would hope the people in control of your money... at least on a basic level understand what you do, and wtf a GPU is for in a broad sense.
Problem is they replaced the Titans, they were perfect. Has all the needed feature sets for Citrix, Adobe, Blender, Chief Architect, etc... and similar enough CUDA performance at 1/4 the price. And yeah they get it but at year end when we get audited and we always do it’s a government requirement purchases that have names like RGB Ultra Gamer SNUF Edition raise eyebrows and lead to an uncomfortable conversation with people who are more interested in the optics of their department than it’s actual performance outcomes. So when I placed the order they were just EVGA 3090 XC3, short simple and nothing to raise any flags. Not any more, so looking at the Gigabyte Turbo’s now far less of an Issue there but they don’t have them skewed up. And probably the same Feb or March ETA so hoping to hear back on then 6900 XT compatibility. Radeon 6900 XT shouldn’t cause any paperwork problems. But Citrix support in these sort of issues is terrible at best.
 
In my case it is not the company you think about, it is the government (I could be paranoid).

From what you understand from the person saying: EVGA changed the branding for the XC3 and added all that gaming crap to the end

It was not a gaming part (it make little to no sense as a gaming card, what game benefit from having 24 gig of VRAM instead of say 16) at the moment the pre order was made either that or not known by the people pre-ordering it.

And there is very GPU farm/workstation looking 3090 coming out to pick from, it is not a buy a gaming looking/marketed 3090 or not buy one type of choice people face.

Sure its a gaming card. They have a line of professional cards. Quatro cards are the workstation cards its the way it is.

Nvidia in their greed ages ago realized there is a Halo type of customer... that I would call super armature 3D artists. This could include some kids in collage type classes... that can justify the spend but 9 times out of 10 will never really "work" in the industry. As well as just general admitted armatures with bank accounts that allow them to buy Quadro lite cards. They have no need for Quatro level cards cause they in general have little clue what they are doing... but they can render monkey heads in blender really good... and ya they are probably talented enough to render themselves some basic youtube title cards ect.

If someone is buying for a Gov agency... perhaps they should actually be looking at the Quatro cards. Of course if they are in Gov.... chances are they are fine just buying the gamer cards if that is what makes sense. I have sold to gov before... and bean counters understand the concept of acceptable substitutions in regards to tenders. ;)

Anyway where probably getting off topic. To pull it back a bit... I get the 3090 market placing price wise may still make sense. Nvidia has done a good job of locking some important software into Cuda. Cuda is a legit advantage for them... and your right of course the 3090 with 24gbs of ram and plenty of cuda horsepower, does have a market place for that armature level pro card consumer. And in regards to tech in gov agencies... I can't see the problem justifying "gaming" hardware for the job. Heck the US gov has done plenty of crazy things over the years including building servers out of playstation 3s.
 
Sure its a gaming card. They have a line of professional cards. Quatro cards are the workstation cards its the way it is.

Nvidia in their greed ages ago realized there is a Halo type of customer... that I would call super armature 3D artists. This could include some kids in collage type classes... that can justify the spend but 9 times out of 10 will never really "work" in the industry. As well as just general admitted armatures with bank accounts that allow them to buy Quadro lite cards. They have no need for Quatro level cards cause they in general have little clue what they are doing... but they can render monkey heads in blender really good... and ya they are probably talented enough to render themselves some basic youtube title cards ect.

If someone is buying for a Gov agency... perhaps they should actually be looking at the Quatro cards. Of course if they are in Gov.... chances are they are fine just buying the gamer cards if that is what makes sense. I have sold to gov before... and bean counters understand the concept of acceptable substitutions in regards to tenders. ;)

Anyway where probably getting off topic. To pull it back a bit... I get the 3090 market placing price wise may still make sense. Nvidia has done a good job of locking some important software into Cuda. Cuda is a legit advantage for them... and your right of course the 3090 with 24gbs of ram and plenty of cuda horsepower, does have a market place for that armature level pro card consumer. And in regards to tech in gov agencies... I can't see the problem justifying "gaming" hardware for the job. Heck the US gov has done plenty of crazy things over the years including building servers out of playstation 3s.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/1616...nt-embracing-the-graphics-and-compute-overlap
 
  • Like
Reactions: ChadD
like this
A full 5900X, 6900XT system in my future. Water cooled, that bastard is going to be blindingly fast.
Amen brother! I've been building PC's since the late 80's. Never actually owned anything AMD. Was planning on only going with a 5950X and eventually nabbing a RTX 3090 to pair it with, but with the price/performance outlook that the 6900XT is offering, coupled with the fact that I'll probably be able to get my hands on a 6900XT before a 3090 is readily available, it looks like I'm going to have the curtains match the drapes with this new build. :D
 
Back
Top