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

[SeymourGore]

I really like Sapphire Nitro + cards I hope they have some available.

Yar, my old R9 Fury Nitro still holds a special place in my heart. If my initial run for a reference RX 6800 XT falls through, I'll probably try to wait for a Nitro - but don't think I'd have that kind of willpower.

 

[exlink]

Sapphire has been my go to brand for AMD like EVGA is for Nvidia. But I haven’t had an AMD card in 4 years. Anything change AIB wise over there or is Sapphire still a solid bet?

 

[lopoetve]

Sapphire has been my go to brand for AMD like EVGA is for Nvidia. But I haven’t had an AMD card in 4 years. Anything change AIB wise over there or is Sapphire still a solid bet?

Sapphire Nitro / PowerColor Devil (red or blue) series are the top generally (or had been). Sapphire below is supposed to be good too, and I've heard ok things about PowerColor Dragon series. Asus was generally considered crap, XFX was ok - but htey all seem to be really trying this time, so we'll see.

 

[CyberJunk]

Sapphire has been my go to brand for AMD like EVGA is for Nvidia. But I haven’t had an AMD card in 4 years. Anything change AIB wise over there or is Sapphire still a solid bet?

depending on what's available my two cards of choice is either a ASUS ROG Strix or Nitro + from Sapphire. If the Red Devil is as cool as their 5700xt version i may go for that. It depends what is in stock

 

[MavericK]

Same here. I hope I can get a 5000 series without issue.

Same, but they better have massive stock or we might be SOL, especially with this whole "smart access memory" synergy stuff. I see people now wanting 5000 series where previously they weren't going to, because of that.

 

[lopoetve]

Hoping to get the strix LC Hybrid...

and a used 3950X from someone

 

[FrgMstr]

Same, but they better have massive stock or we might be SOL, especially with this whole "smart access memory" synergy stuff. I see people now wanting 5000 series where previously they weren't going to, because of that.

I might go ahead and grab a couple of 6900XT or 6800XT if that is possible at launch (which I think it will if you are a keyboard warrior that morning), then wait for sales to build out the rest of a fully AMD + AMD system in late December or January.

 

[lopoetve]

Grr, double post stupid thing

 

[MrGuvernment]

shaolin95 I thought even for NVIDIA to get 10bit OpenGL you had to use their Quadro cards because desktop cards do not do it? AMD cards support 10bit color since ages ago...

​

 

[muxr]

"BGA substrate supply issue affecting everyone"? Sounds like something someone would make up. It makes no sense. Subtrate is usually FR4, which is PCB material. You can't run out of PCB material. Like if you do you can just get more within a week. Sounds like BS to me.

 

[LGabrielPhoto]

shaolin95 I thought even for NVIDIA to get 10bit OpenGL you had to use their Quadro cards because desktop cards do not do it? AMD cards support 10bit color since ages ago...

​

Nvidia has been supporting it for a long time now.

 

[chameleoneel]

Could be Nvidia, being labeled as the most valuable chip maker, pulled an Intel and got complacent.

I mean what else is there to do when your competition hasn’t produced anything threatening your position? I don’t feel bad for Nvidia in anyway. Like Intel, Nvidia deserves to be knocked down a few pegs.

To kinda put some logic behind the mindset of Nvidia playing possum is: consider their marketing budget. They could wait and see, lower their prices a bit, flood the market with actual stock, and flood the market with advertisements, in an attempt to drown out AMD.

I hope not personally, I hope Nvidia gets burned. They need to learn that cost is a serious issue for a lot of people. Not everyone wants to drop $700+ on one component.

With the new consoles on their way, a lot of people are going to find a lot of value in having a mid/high end PC they can just connect and play for $500.

As I’ve said in every post across numerous message boards: it’s not always FPS, availability and cost play a huge role in the success of a product. When your average Joe looks at PC parts and sees the cost to get equivalent performance on these new consoles most are gonna just get the consoles. Prices need to be brought down if PC gaming ever hopes to hold a candle to console gaming in terms of sheer number of users, the best place to start is pricing. Value adds, like what AMD does is a phenomenal place to start as well since it adds in things that the average gamer might not know of, or would have tried naturally.

Granted companies like MS, Sony, and Nintendo can sell their hardware at a loss since they can make it up in software sales, something PC hardware manufacturers don’t have the luxury of doing that. The option of adding other incentives, like AMD’s continuous promotions when you buy their hardware, add intrinsic value and the perceptible value to the end user goes up.

Like when I bought my 3600x and 5700xt I got four months of GamePass Platinum for free (equal value to six months of just the regular GamePass) which I fell in love with, and now pay for the monthly subscription. That’s not something I would have done naturally, I also got two games I wouldn’t have bought otherwise: Resident Evil 3, and Monster Hunter World: Iceborne master edition or whatever comes with all the extra goodies.

Things like that expand a gamers choice by letting them try things they wouldn’t try naturally, and it comes at zero cost to them. If Nvidia could adopt more of that then they necessarily wouldn’t have to lower their price to be a better value.

In a semi-nutshell:

AMD is probably the best consumer choice right now considering their price, performance, and value adds. While AMD isn’t cheaper on their lowest offering, to me it’s a better value considering the amount of VRAM, and goodies AMD always includes when you purchase their products.

Nvidia needs to adopt this, and quit trying to control the market while jacking up their prices. It’s going to come around and burn them if they continue this practice, and the hive-mindset that is prevalent in the PC gaming community is in for a rude awakening.

I hope the 6xxx series blows the 3xxx series out of the water in points where it matters: cost, and availability. As it doesn’t matter if the 3080 gets 120FPS at 4K if the card isn’t widely available, and is costing more than a vast majority are comfortable paying. AMD with their value adds even at $649 brings the cost/value in line.

I firmly believe that one of the the objectives of PC gaming is to make it appealing to the console crowd, and while price competition isn’t likely, value adds go a long way in making consumers feel they got a good bang for their buck.

NVidia does game bundles all the time. Two months ago, it was Death Stranding. Right now, its the latest Call of Duty.

 

[Makeroflostsouls]

I’ll be waiting on a liquid Devil to come out. Won’t be till after Xmas till I can buy any way. Have to many projects going on right now.

 

[tangoseal]

I'll get a Sapphire but really im ok with a reference card and slap a water block on it later .

 

[FrgMstr]

Of course they're going to fall far short of demand. There's no way AMD ordered enough chips and cards to satisfy the demand for their cards and nVidia's at the same time since nVidia can't get stock out.

Be 100% assured of that.

"BGA substrate supply issue affecting everyone"? Sounds like something someone would make up. It makes no sense. Subtrate is usually FR4, which is PCB material. You can't run out of PCB material. Like if you do you can just get more within a week. Sounds like BS to me.

There are absolutely some substrate supply issues currently. All substrate is not created equally.

 

[chameleoneel]

Dirt 5 has Ray Traced shadows, Voxel Cone traced bounce lighting/global illumination via GPU compute, Variable Rate Shading, and Ambient Occlusion from AMD's new version which is part of their Fidelity FX.

 

[Usual_suspect]

NVidia does game bundles all the time. Two months ago, it was Death Stranding. Right now, its the latest Call of Duty.

Just one game? With my 3600X I got a 3 month Xbox Game Pass sub which translates into two months platinum. My 5700XT came with that same Xbox Game Pass sub, and a copy of RE 3 and MHW: Iceborne.

I paid $440 for a Sapphire Nitro+ 5700XT, which at the time was $130 less than a comparable feature wise 2070S, and like $20 more than a 2060S, and got two free games and a three month subscription worth $30.

I think their new bundle includes the new Expansion for WoW, and a game called Godfall. Not sure about the Xbox Game Oass subscription.

Value wise that’s what hardware vendors need to aim for IMO. I don’t know if anyone else agrees, but that’s how I feel.

 

[CyberJunk]

Just one game? With my 3600X I got a 3 month Xbox Game Pass sub which translates into two months platinum. My 5700XT came with that same Xbox Game Pass sub, and a copy of RE 3 and MHW: Iceborne.

I paid $440 for a Sapphire Nitro+ 5700XT, which at the time was $130 less than a comparable feature wise 2070S, and like $20 more than a 2060S, and got two free games and a three month subscription worth $30.

I think their new bundle includes the new Expansion for WoW, and a game called Godfall. Not sure about the Xbox Game Oass subscription.

Value wise that’s what hardware vendors need to aim for IMO. I don’t know if anyone else agrees, but that’s how I feel.

Did you buy at launch? How was your driver experience?

 

[Usual_suspect]

Did you buy at launch? How was your driver experience?

I did not. I bought mine back in May. So far, drivers have been fine, only one issue I came across with one game not working. Supposedly it’s been fixed, but I haven’t bothered to check it out.

I know a lot of people had issues at first, but I never came across any like what they said with black screens, crashes etc.

I’ve kinda figured folks having issues aren’t using DDU when installing, they have conflicting software, or their hardwares faulty. Each time I upgrade my driver I use DDU only because I’m anal about minimizing clutter.

One guy on Reddit claimed he was only getting 60FPS on FarCry New Dawn with a 5700XT at 1080p, yet his friend was getting 100+ at 1440 with the same settings with a 2060S. After asking some questions about his settings, I took his answers for what they’re worth, and told him that was a hardware issue. After some quick google searches I couldn’t find anyone else seemed to have that issue. For all I know I was probably humoring an Nvidia fanboy.

I’m a firm believer that a lot of the AIB partners half ass pushed the custom 5700 series out with low QA standards and it came back to bite AMD in the ass.

 

[chameleoneel]

One guy on Reddit claimed he was only getting 60FPS on FarCry New Dawn with a 5700XT at 1080p, yet his friend was getting 100+ at 1440 with the same settings with a 2060S.

I would guess either CPU bound or he didn't at least use a driver cleaner, before installing. I generally recommend re-installing windows, with large GPU upgrades. Especially if switching teams.

 

[bezant]

Be 100% assured of that.

There are absolutely some substrate supply issues currently. All substrate is not created equally.

Samsung during their earnings call indicated that BGA substrate business is operating @ full utilization. And that the substrate business is up 23% qoq.
"In package substrates, the supply of a BGA for the APs on the strategic customer’s new flagship, increased."

 

[Sir Beregond]

It wins and they need the margins, that 6900 for $999 tho. Wow.

Wow, what? I guess we got used to high prices that now that AMD feels they can have a $1k GPU it's seen as "wow". Let's be honest, the only reason that thing costs $1k vs say $700 or $800 is because Nvidia has a $1500 3090.

As far as I am concerned, all three announced Radeon cards are overpriced (Nvidia's are too, obviously), the 6900XT being the worst offender. With the 6800XT a slight undercut of overpriced is still overpriced. Would have liked to see it at $599 personally with the 6800 at $499-$529.

Oh well, at the end of the day, they are cheaper and if reviews hold up, perform well or better. I see a 5800X/6800XT in my future.

 

[big_aug]

Wow, what? I guess we got used to high prices that now that AMD feels they can have a $1k GPU it's seen as "wow". Let's be honest, the only reason that thing costs $1k vs say $700 or $800 is because Nvidia has a $1500 3090.

As far as I am concerned, all three announced Radeon cards are overpriced (Nvidia's are too, obviously), the 6900XT being the worst offender. With the 6800XT a slight undercut of overpriced is still overpriced. Would have liked to see it at $599 personally with the 6800 at $499-$529.

Oh well, at the end of the day, they are cheaper and if reviews hold up, perform well or better. I see a 5800X/6800XT in my future.

Prices will only continue to increase. Prepare accordingly.

 

[Mylex]

Wow, what? I guess we got used to high prices that now that AMD feels they can have a $1k GPU it's seen as "wow". Let's be honest, the only reason that thing costs $1k vs say $700 or $800 is because Nvidia has a $1500 3090.

As far as I am concerned, all three announced Radeon cards are overpriced (Nvidia's are too, obviously), the 6900XT being the worst offender. With the 6800XT a slight undercut of overpriced is still overpriced. Would have liked to see it at $599 personally with the 6800 at $499-$529.

Oh well, at the end of the day, they are cheaper and if reviews hold up, perform well or better. I see a 5800X/6800XT in my future.

The wow is that they have a product that it just over twice the die space of the 5700xt, supposedly boosts higher, that has the added function of raytracing and they are still only charging double the anniversary addition. You double the transisters on the same process you would normally pay more than just double the cost, the 3090 will make building something of this level necessary if you want to say that you are competing at high levels. They won't build may of these cards as the margin is going to lower than any of there other cards and that's not the business they are in any more. If you want them to sell these chips at your predicted margins you can expect them to slowly mail in watered down datacenter products again and then complain about them not putting something out there to compete with Nvidia. Inflation is real your dollars doesn't go as far even on a yearly cycle. Hell just using an inflation calculator show the $700 launch price of the 1080 would cost $759. They don't wear the white hat and aren't here to save you money. Their job is to separate you from that and you can only decide what you feel like paying. If they are too high buy used, previous gen or just use what you have.

 

[Sir Beregond]

The wow is that they have a product that it just over twice the die space of the 5700xt, supposedly boosts higher, that has the added function of raytracing and they are still only charging double the anniversary addition. You double the transisters on the same process you would normally pay more than just double the cost, the 3090 will make building something of this level necessary if you want to say that you are competing at high levels. They won't build may of these cards as the margin is going to lower than any of there other cards and that's not the business they are in any more. If you want them to sell these chips at your predicted margins you can expect them to slowly mail in watered down datacenter products again and then complain about them not putting something out there to compete with Nvidia. Inflation is real your dollars doesn't go as far even on a yearly cycle. Hell just using an inflation calculator show the $700 launch price of the 1080 would cost $759. They don't wear the white hat and aren't here to save you money. Their job is to separate you from that and you can only decide what you feel like paying. If they are too high buy used, previous gen or just use what you have.

I totally agree with your conclusion. I can afford it, but I can be the "back in my day" guy a bit too.

As for the 5700XT, that thing was overpriced too for how it would fit in a normal stack. My opinion. Good card though.

AMD is a business like any other, I do not blame them at all for playing off the market price points Nvidia has created. As a consumer I don't like it though.

 

[Mylex]

I totally agree with your conclusion. I can afford it, but I can be the "back in my day" guy a bit too.

As for the 5700XT, that thing was overpriced too for how it would fit in a normal stack. My opinion. Good card though.

AMD is a business like any other, I do not blame them at all for playing off the market price points Nvidia has created. As a consumer I don't like it though.

I don't like it either... I would be lying if I said I wanted to pay full price for anything I buy. The problem is I like new things and will pay for them but I will draw the line at shipping since they have forced paying taxes where I live for all online purchases, that's the hill I will die on.

 

[Marees]

Yep, and every dev that builds games for PS5 and XBox are going to be implementing this. There still has to be some AI backend work, but I can certainly see Microsoft putting Azure resources to good use on this and doing it in-house while DLSS has to be farmed out to NV currently. Super Rez will be a much more open platform.

Although Super Resolution should work across all hardware including NVIDIA’s RTX graphics cards, it should run much faster on the Radeon RX 6000 lineup due to the massive L3 Infinity Cache present on the GPU die. It will also speed up the process by caching more and more data on-die as machine learning-based algorithms tend to be bandwidth-intensive.

https://www.hardwaretimes.com/amd-f...enaline-update/amp/?__twitter_impression=true