AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT 2560x1440 Gaming Benchmarks Performance
The flagship Navi based graphics cards have been highly anticipated ever since AMD introduced its first-generation RDNA lineup. While the first generation RDNA gave us a small glimpse of what we could expect from a flagship offering, the lineup never really introduced its own flagship variant & instead focused on the more mainstream performance-ended products. But two years later, the wait is finally over!
AMD has officially launched its Big Navi graphics card lineup and it's not just the biggest Navi GPU we have seen to date but also based on the 2nd Generation RDNA 2 architecture which delivers an impressive leap in performance per watt while offering a range of new features to put AMD Radeon ack in the high-end and enthusiast market segment.
The AMD RDNA 2 architecture for its Big Navi Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6900 series graphics cards has a lot to offer. In addition to architectural enhancements, you can expect hardware-accelerated ray tracing, smart access memory, Infinity Cache, and a lot more features on-deck which make the lineup one of the most competitive enthusiast families that AMD has ever positioned against NVIDIA.
Some of the main features for the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards include:
- 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 latency and power consumption, delivering higher overall gaming performance than traditional architectural designs.
- AMD Smart Access Memory – 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 an AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card in Forza Horizon 4 at 4K when combined with the new Rage Mode one-click overclocking setting.
- 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.
Today, we will be taking a look at the Radeon RX 6900 XT reference model. This card was provided by AMD for the sole purpose of this review & we will be taking a look at its tech, design, and performance metrics in detail.
To understand AMD's RDNA 2 architecture, we have to take a deep-dive within the architecture itself. For starters, the AMD Big Navi GPU is known as Navi 21 internally and has three SKUs that are going to power the RX 6900 & RX 6800 series. These SKUs include the Navi 21 XTX, Navi 21 XT, and the Navi 21 XL.
The Navi 21 GPU, in general, is based on the 7nm process node from TSMC, measuring at 519.8 mm2 with a total transistor count of 26.8 Billion. That's a transistor density of 51.55 million total transistors per mm2. Within the die are several blocks with the primary block being the Compute Unit. The Compute Units are part of the main Shader Engine and there are four Shader Engines in total on the Navi 21 GPU. Each Shader Engine houses 10 dual compute units which form up to 20 compute units per Shader Engine.
AMD terms the new Compute Unit as an enhanced version of the RDNA 1 version, featuring 30% higher throughput at the same power. Each compute unit packs a total of 64 stream processors, 16 texture mapping units, four texture filter units, and a single Ray Accelerator unit that handles the raytracing capabilities of the GPU. Each CPU also delivers up to 50% power at the same frequency.
Each CU also comes with its own L0 Vector cache that measures 16 KB or 32 KB for the dual CU design with a 32 KB instruction cache and a 16 KB K-Cache. The L0 cache communicates with the L1 cache through a 32B channel and back with a 128B channel. In addition to the L0 cache, there's also a 128 KB L1 cache, a 4 MB L2 cache, and then the new 128 MB Infinity Cache. Each Shader Engine has two L1 caches for a total of 256 KB L1 per Shader Engine and 1 MB L1 Cache available locally.
The L0 cache is localized to each CU while the L1 is a private cache available to each shader engine with exclusive L2 access. The L2 cache shares the data between the shader engines and command processor. Finally, there is four 64-bit memory controller that offers up to 448 GB/s bandwidth at 14 Gbps die speeds. However, AMD acknowledges that this solution wasn't enough for the RDNA 2 GPUs without them being bandwidth starved and that's where Infinity Cache lands. (You can read more about Infinity Cache below).
According to AMD, the RDNA 2 compute unit offers increased frequency at lower power, mixed-precision operations for tensor math, sampler feedback streaming, and texture space shading & most importantly, ray accelerators offering 4 boxes or 1 triangle intersection per cycle. Compute models for RDNA 2 CUs are listed in the table below:
Coming back to the Big Navi 'Navi 21' GPU itself, the GPU also features a single Geometry processor with 8 Pre-Cull Prims/Cycle and 4 Post-Cull Prims/Cycle. There's also a new GCP which houses a new graphics engine and a total of 4 Asynchronous Compute Units. The redesigned Render Back-End is now referred to as 'RB+' and features natively doubled the 32bpp color rate by processing eight 32-bit pixels per cycle.
Overall, the Big Navi GPU has to offer a total of 80 Compute Units for a total of 5120 cores, 320 texture units, and 80 ray accelerator units. This configuration will be possible for the Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT graphics cards. AMD says that all of these contribute to the performance per watt gains for Big Navi of up to 54% which are broken down as follows:
16% Through Design Frequency Increase:
- Leverage CPU high-frequency expertise
- High-speed performance libraries
- Streamlined micro-architecture and design
- Aggressive re-pipelined logic for speed
17% Through CAC and Power Optimizations:
- Pervasive fine-grain clock gating
- Clock tree splitting and gating
- Redesigned for minimal data movement
- Aggressive pipeline rebalancing
21% Through Performance per Clock Enhancement:
- Infinity cache amplified low latency/power bandwidth
- TLB streamlined for latency reductions
- Redesign 32b pixel pipe and included new HDR format
- Optimized geometry distribution and tessellation
AMD Infinity Cache, Bringing SRAM To GPUs!
As explained above, Infinity Cache is not only a new feature but an essential feature to make the Big Navi GPUs work as intended. Without it, the RDNA 2 GPUs are severely bandwidth limited due to their reduced standard bandwidth design. AMD found the solutions by looking at its own Ryzen and EPYC line of processors which utilize density optimized cache subsystems.
The Infinity Cache, in general, is a 16x64b channel subsystem with a peak rated speed of 1.94 GHz, delivering up to 4x the peak bandwidth of the standard 256bit GDDR6 solution that is integrated on Big Navi GPUs. While power scales literally with GDDR6 bus-widths, an Infinity Cache solution can provide up to 2.4x higher bandwidth/watt. This allows better scaling with higher frequencies that the RDNA 2 architecture aims to provide. That's not it, a larger Infinity Cache will also result in lower latency. Compared to the RX 5700 with GDDR6 memory, the RX 6800 delivers 34% lesser latency on average.
That's not all, the Infinity Cache can be configured for even higher bandwidth with its boost turbo-charged configuration uplifting the total bandwidth by 550 GB/s, delivering almost 2 TB/s of total and effective bandwidth to the GPU in addition to the GDDR6 memory that's already on board the graphics card. AMD allows infinity cache to scale with power management and tuning options via its Radeon Software.
Hardware-accelerated ray-tracing is going to be one of the key talking points about RDNA 2 GPUs and not just the desktop parts but all RDNA 2 based products in general. Consoles are going to be relying on ray-tracing as a major selling point and there's a lot of anticipation surrounding AMD's first attempt at ray-tracing.
As we had mentioned in the GPU deep-dive, the main block responsible for handling ray-tracing is known as RA or Ray Accelerator. There's one RA per CU and the flagship parts have up to 80 RAs in total. Each CU can process 4 Ray/Box intersection & a single Ray/Tringle intersection per clock cycle.
With Ray Accelerator cores, AMD's RDNA 2 can deliver a 10x speedup over a software ray-tracing implementation. Furthermore, the Infinity Cache which we just explained above can also hold very high percentages of BVH working set, thus reducing intersection latency. AMD's RDNA 2 raytracing capabilities would be leveraged for:
- Dynamic Global Illumination
- Ray-traced soft shadows from area lights
- Hybrid reflections mixing compute and screen-space effects with full raytracing
According to AMD, they will allow full raytracing support in games that are based on Microsoft's DXR and Vulkan Raytracing APIs and there are a lot of titles that already do that.
For starters, there are only a handful of titles that are locked behind NVIDIA's RTX implementation and therefore, regarded as a proprietary standard. Major game engines such as Frostbite, Unreal, Seed & Unity are based on Microsoft's DXR APIs. Vulkan Raytracing is also implemented in Id tech's new engines for its next-generation title however, currently, they are only supported for RTX GPUs.
There is a big possibility that developers who have their games based on industry-standard APIs for raytracing will at some point enable support for AMD's Radeon RX 6000 RDNA 2 graphics cards but that remains to be seen. We could also see a drastic difference between NVIDIA's RTX & AMD's own raytracing implementation in the same titles too. Following is a list of all the games available that are based on Microsoft's DXR API:
- Battlefield V
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Control
- Deliver Us The Moon
- Dirt 5
- Far Cry 6
- Fortnite
- Godfall
- Metro Exodus
- The Rift Breaker
- Shadow of The Tomb Raider
- Wolfenstein Youngblood
- World of Warcraft Shadowlands
AMD themselves is targetting 1440P 60+ FPS performance in several AAA raytracing titles but it's not just games that will take advantage of AMD's RA cores. Content creators can also leverage the full potential of AMD's hardware-acceleration for ray-tracing in several applications such as Maya, Houdini, Blender, and AMD's own Radeon PreRender (with additional plug-ins). With RA cores, the performance improvement is seen all the way up to 68% over the Radeon VII graphics card which relies on a software-accelerated technique.
AMD RDNA 2 Mesh Shading
First up, we have a new Mesh Shading pipeline that works in tandem with GPU compute. Mesh Shaders allow AMD to reveal more detail in the game environments through advanced culling & work creation.
AMD RDNA 2 Sampler Feedback
The sample feedback pipeline allows advanced data streaming and allows RDNA 2 to move beyond traditional memory limitations, allowing for richly defined worlds.
AMD RDNA 2 Variable Rate Shading
Variable-rate shading allows the hardware to focus the rendering work where it is most needed to deliver the most important visual cues in an image.
AMD RDNA 2 variable-rate shading functionality is built throughout the entire pixel pipe. With supported shading rates of 1x 1,2 .x 1,1x 2, and 2 x 2,AMD RDNA 2 provides usability and flexibility for developers.
The AMD RDNA 2 variable-rate shading functionality allows for a unique shading rate to be selected for every 8 x 8 region of pixels. This very fine granularity enables developers to make better decisions as to the right shading rate for a given region.
With the GPU & Ray-tracing out of the way, it's time to look at some of the main features of the RDNA 2 architecture itself which it has to offer to gamers. There are several features to discuss here so let's start with the general enhancements that AMD has incorporated within its 2nd Gen RDNA 2 architecture.
AMD Smart Access Memory (SAM)
AMD Smart Access Memory is a new feature introduced with the Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards that enable more memory space to be mapped to the base address register resulting in performance gains across select games.
ln conventional Windows-based PC systems, processors can only access a fraction of graphics memory (VRAM) at once, limiting system performance. A core aspect of PCI Express technology, the Base Address Register (BAR) defines how much discrete GPU memory space is to be mapped. ln today's PCs, processors only access a fraction of GPU memory, typically limited to 256 MB of mapped memory. With less efficient data transfer, performance is restricted.
With AMD Smart Access Memory, PCIe bandwidth is utilized to expand the data channel to fully harness the memory - removing the bottleneck to increasing performance. On paper, the SAM allows up an average of 6% improvement in performance and up to 11% gains in titles that make use of higher resolution textures.
As for enablement of the feature, AMD has officially only allowed support for SAM on its Ryzen 5000 series platform with supported AMD X570 and B550 motherboards. The feature can be enabled through BIOS of each respective motherboard that supports the feature. Currently, there are only a handful of motherboards that support it but board vendors have assured that more models would be added soon.
AMD FiedelityFX & (Super Resolution)
AMD's FiedilityFX n open-source developer toolkit is available on GPUOpen that makes it easier for developers to implement high-quality effects and optimizations that make games look beautiful while offering the best balance of visual fidelity and performance.
The first effect launched in 2019 was FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS) and earlier in 2020 four new effects optimized for AMD RDNA and AMD RDNA 2 architectures were added: Ambient Occlusion, Screen Space Reflections, HDR Mapper, and Downsampler.
For the launch of Radeon RX 6800 Series graphics cards, two new FidelityFX effects have been announced: Variable Shading and Denoiser. These effects are already integrated into upcoming games such as Dirt 5 and The Riftbreaker and will be made freely available for developers on GPUOpen.com soon.
Here is some more detailed information about each of the AMD FidelityFX effects.
FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening
Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS) helps increase visual quality by enabling stunning visual sharpness with optional upscaling to restore detail lost after Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) is applied.
FidelityFX Ambient Occlusion
Combined Adaptive Compute Ambient Occlusion (CACAO) dynamically and efficiently helps improve the appearance of objects based on their exposure to ambient light.
FidelityFX Screen Space Reflections
AMD's implementation of Stochastic Screen Space Reflections (SSSR) delivers high-quality reflections with minimal overhead via an optimized compute shader.
FidelityFX Variable Shading
Uses AMO RDNA 2 architecture support for variable rate shading (VRS) to analyze luminance and motion of frames to help optimize rendering for optimal performance without lowering the image quality.
FidelityFX Denoiser
Denoising optimized for AMO RDNA and RDNA 2 architectures to help improve the visual quality of real-time raytracing and other in-game effects.
FidelityFX HOR Mapper
Optimized for use with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro displays, AMD's Luminance Preserving Mapper (LPM) delivers superb HDR and wide color gamut content.
FidelityFX Downsampler
AMD's compute shader-based Single Pass Downsampler (SPD) generates texture MIP levels using asynchronous compute for optimal performance.
In addition to these, AMD has also promised that their FiedilityFX Super Resolution technology is currently in development. They are currently trying to get as many developers to work with them for the incorporation of the feature in their engines and games.
AMD Radeon Anti-Lag
Input lag is the time between when a gamer provides an input-the click of a button or flick of a mouse-and when the computer shows an appropriate response on the screen. Because it affects the responsiveness of a game, input lag, or latency, can have a major impact on the overall quality of the gaming experience. As you may know, if you have ever run into lag issues, gaming with lots of lag can feel clumsy, disconnected, and unsatisfying. Meanwhile, a good low-latency setup can make gaming feel more immediate, gratifying, and fun.
Frame rate is one of the primary factors in determining the amount of input lag in PC gaming. Typically, frame rate and latency are inversely related: the higher the frame rate, the lower the input lag. That's one of the reasons people find certain frame rates acceptable for gaming and others too slow -and it's also the reason why competitive gamers and eSports athletes tend to reduce in-game image quality and resolution. By configuring their systems for higher frame rates, they're optimizing for lower latency-and quickness is king in competitive gaming.
However, raising the frame rate isn't the only way to reduce input lag. The AMD Radeon Anti-Lag feature in AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition can reduce lag at a given frame rate by means of a targeted software-optimization. Here is an example of the latency reductions you can expect from Radeon Anti-Lag when playing at 4K and max quality settings on a Radeon RX 6800 XT.
AMD Radeon Boost
Radeon Boost is designed to provide a faster, more fluid, and more responsive gaming experience in supported games. Radeon Boost works by watching for specific sorts of user inputs-when a gamer moves a mouse or presses a control stick-that trigger on-screen camera rotation. When such movement happens, Radeon Boost responds by instantly and dynamically scaling back the rendering resolution in order to improve the frame rate.
As soon as the motion ends, Boost scales the resolution back up. Due to limits in both display technology and human perception, you may not notice the reduction in detail at all-but you're likely to appreciate the improved feel and responsiveness of gameplay with Boost enabled.
Radeon Boost also includes Radeon Anti-Lag technology as part of its operation. Thanks to the higher frame rates offered by Boost dynamic resolution, Boost can reduce input lag even further than Radeon Anti-Lag alone. Now, with support for even more titles, the best way to appreciate the impact of Radeon Boost is to try it for yourself.
AMD Radeon Overclocking (Rage Mode & More)
One of the most talked-about overclocking features is AMD's RAGE mode and AMD has stated that they purposely left overclocking headroom in their RX 6000 series cards for users to mess around with.
For this sole purpose, AMD has three overclocking modes available within its Radeon Software app. Unlike what you might've heard before, Rage mode is purely an overclock preset with a pre-defined TGP and fan speed. AMD says that enabling Rage-mode doesn't void warranty and is only available for Radeon RX 6900 XT and Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics cards. Rage mode allows for up to 2.3 GHz boost clock on the aforementioned cards.
There's also the standard automatic performance tuning preset which lets you select a variable frequency with a pre-defined TGP and fan profile. Then lastly, there's the manual preset which lets you customize all variables (clocks, TGP, fan speeds, voltages) to your choice but do be warned as overclocking your card with these two modes will definitely void your warranty as AMD mentions.
The AMD RDNA 2 architecture that powers the Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards are based on the same 7nm process from TSMC but with its own enhancements. AMD claims a 50% perf per watt uplift for RDNA 2 over RDNA 1 and there is a range of technologies that make it all work. AMD's bet on 7nm definitely seems like it has paid off as users will be receiving massive performance uplifts over previous generation offerings.
AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series Gaming Graphics Cards - Bringing Competition Back in The Enthusiast Segment
AMD is offering three cards as a start for its RDNA 2 generation which includes the Radeon RX 6900 XT, the Radeon RX 6800 XT, and the Radeon RX 6800.
Following is what AMD has to offer in its RDNA 2 powered Big Navi Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card stack:
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT "Big Navi 21 XT" GPU Powered 16 GB Graphics Card
The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT will come packed with the Navi 21 XTX GPU which is the fully enabled die featuring 80 Compute Units or 5120 SPs. The card will also feature 16 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit bus interface, a 512 GB/s total bandwidth, and clock speeds of 2015 MHz base and 2250 MHz boost at reference specs. There are also 80 Ray accelerators for ray-tracing enablement on the graphics cards (one RA per Compute Unit). The graphics card will feature a based TBP of 300W with factory-overclocked models pushing it above 350W and will arrive at a later date.
In addition to the standard memory, the Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card will also feature 128 MB of Infinity Cache on the GPU die. The cache will help boost bandwidth for higher performance at resolutions beyond 1080p HD. The 128 MB Infinity Cache boosts the standard 512 GB/s bandwidth by 3.25x, delivering an effective bandwidth of up to 1.664 TB/s across all Big Navi GPU based graphics cards.
In the performance metrics shown by AMD, the Radeon RX 6900 XT with Rage Mode and Smart Access Memory enabled, features performance on par and even better in some cases than the NVIDIA's fastest GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card. The difference here is that AMD's solution not only features higher performance efficiency but also comes at a $500 US lower price point.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT "Big Navi 21 XT" GPU Powered 16 GB Graphics Card
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT will come packed with the Navi 21 XT GPU which is a cut-down SKU featuring 72 Compute Units or 4608 SPs. The card will also feature 16 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit bus interface, a 512 GB/s total bandwidth, and clock speeds of 2015 MHz base and 2250 MHz boost at reference specs. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT also packs 72 Ray Accelerators which are dedicated for real-time raytracing workloads. The card will feature a based TBP of 300W with factory-overclocked models pushing it above 350W and will arrive at a later date.
In addition to the standard memory, the Radeon RX 6800 series graphics cards will also feature 128 MB of Infinity Cache on the GPU die. The cache will help boost bandwidth for higher performance at resolutions beyond 1080p HD. The 128 MB Infinity Cache boosts the standard 512 GB/s bandwidth by 3.25x, delivering an effective bandwidth of up to 1.664 TB/s across all Big Navi GPU based graphics cards.
In terms of performance, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is shown to compete against the GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card. The card features a 20W lower total board power & delivers better GPU performance in several AAA titles using the best API (Vulkan / DirectX 12). AMD is also bringing its Rage-mode back which is an automatic overclocking tool within its Radeon Software suite which delivers even higher performance along with a nifty new feature known as Smart Access. Gains of up to 13% were showcased with the said features as can be seen below.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 "Big Navi 21 XL" GPU Powered 16 GB Graphics Card
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 graphics card will feature an even more cut down Navi 21 "Big Navi" GPU with 60 Compute Units of 3840 stream processors. The AMD Navi 21 XL GPU is going to feature clock speeds of 1815 MHz game and 2105 MHz boost clocks at reference specs.
It was also stated that the AMD Radeon RX 6800 with Navi 21 XL GPU could feature a TBP of 250W at stock clocks. The card will feature the same VRAM config of 16 GB GDDR6 memory, a 256-bit bus interface with the memory clocking in at 16 Gbps which will deliver a net bandwidth of 512GB/s.
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 will be featuring performance faster than the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti with smart access memory feature enabled. The graphics card will be ideally positioned against the RTX 3070 for just a $79 US higher price, yet offering much better performance and twice the memory of its main competition.
AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series "RDNA 2" Graphics Card Lineup:
| Graphics Card | AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT | AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT | AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | AMD Radeon RX 6800 | AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT | AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | AMD Radeon RX 6700 | AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT | AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT | AMD Radeon RX 6600 | AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT | AMD Radeon RX 6400 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | Navi 21 KXTX | Navi 21 XTX | Navi 21 XT | Navi 21 XL | Navi 22 KXT | Navi 22 XT | Navi 22 XL | Navi 23 KXT | Navi 23 (XT) | Navi 23 (XL) | Navi 24 (XT) | Navi 24 (XL) |
| Process Node | 7nm | 7nm | 7nm | 7nm | 7nm | 7nm | 7nm | 7nm | 7nm | 7nm | 6nm | 6nm |
| Die Size | 520mm2 | 520mm2 | 520mm2 | 520mm2 | 336mm2 | 336mm2 | 336mm2 | 237mm2 | 237mm2 | 237mm2 | 107mm2 | 107mm2 |
| Transistors | 26.8 Billion | 26.8 Billion | 26.8 Billion | 26.8 Billion | 17.2 Billion | 17.2 Billion | 17.2 Billion | 11.06 Billion | 11.06 Billion | 11.06 Billion | 5.4 Billion | 5.4 Billion |
| Compute Units | 80 | 80 | 72 | 60 | 40 | 40 | 36 | 32 | 32 | 28 | 16 | 12 |
| Stream Processors | 5120 | 5120 | 4608 | 3840 | 2560 | 2560 | 2304 | 2048 | 2048 | 1792 | 1024 | 768 |
| TMUs/ROPs | 320 / 128 | 320 / 128 | 288 / 128 | 240 / 96 | 160/64 | 160/64 | 144/64 | 128/64 | 128/64 | 112/64 | 64/32 | 48/32 |
| Game Clock | 2116 MHz | 2015 MHz | 2015 MHz | 1815 MHz | 2495 MHz | 2424 MHz | 2330 MHz | 2410 MHz | 2359 MHz | 2044 MHz | 2610 MHz | 2039 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2324 MHz | 2250 MHz | 2250 MHz | 2105 MHz | 2600 MHz | 2581 MHz | 2495 MHz | 2635 MHz | 2589 MHz | 2491 MHz | 2815 MHz | 2321 MHz |
| FP32 TFLOPs | 23.80 TFLOPs | 23.04 TFLOPs | 20.74 TFLOPs | 16.17 TFLOPs | 13.31 TFLOPs | 13.21 TFLOPs | 11.50 TFLOPs | 10.79 TFLOPs | 10.6 TFLOPs | 9.0 TFLOPs | 5.7 TFLOPs | 3.5 TFLOPs |
| Memory Size | 16 GB GDDR6 +128 MB Infinity Cache | 16 GB GDDR6 +128 MB Infinity Cache | 16 GB GDDR6 +128 MB Infinity Cache | 16 GB GDDR6 +128 MB Infinity Cache | 12 GB GDDR6 + 96 MB Infinity Cache | 12 GB GDDR6 + 96 MB Infinity Cache | 10 GB GDDR5 + 80 MB Infinity Cache | 8 GB GDDR6 + 32 MB Infinity Cache | 8 GB GDDR6 + 32 MB Infinity Cache | 8 GB GDDR6 + 32 MB Infinity Cache | 4 GB / 8 GB GDDR6 + 16 MB Infinity Cache | 4 GB GDDR6 + 16 MB Infinity Cache |
| Memory Bus | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 160-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 64-bit | 64-bit |
| Memory Clock | 18 Gbps | 16 Gbps | 16 Gbps | 16 Gbps | 18 Gbps | 16 Gbps | 16 Gbps | 17.5 Gbps | 16 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 18 Gbps | 14 Gbps |
| Bandwidth | 576 GB/s | 512 GB/s | 512 GB/s | 512 GB/s | 432 GB/s | 384 GB/s | 320 GB/s | 280 GB/s | 256 GB/s | 224 GB/s | 144 GB/s | 112 GB/s |
| TDP | 335W | 300W | 300W | 250W | 250W | 230W | 220W | 176W | 160W | 132W | 107W | 53W |
| Price | $1099 US | $999 US | $649 US | $579 US | $549 US | $479 US | TBD | $399 US | $379 US | $329 US | $199 US | $159 US? |
Just like its RDNA 2 architecture, AMD is also proud to present its latest and greatest reference design for its Radeon RX 6800 series graphics cards. AMD has definitely taken design inspiration from NVIDIA who offered a similar look and style on its GeForce RTX 20 series offering but takes it up a notch by offering a mighty triple-fan and full vapor-chamber design.
Talking about the design itself, AMD has gone entirely away from traditional blower-style coolers that we saw on its first-gen RDNA cards and went with an Axial-tech fan design. The Radeon RX 6800 XT comes in a 2.5 slot form factor while the Radeon RX 6800 comes in a standard dual-slot height.
Both cards feature a premium die-cast aluminum shroud with custom-designed axial-fans that feature Zero RPM fan modes. Underneath the shroud is an extended vapor chamber that sits on top of a huge aluminum fin heatsink. The PCB makes is added extra durability with a die-cast aluminum frame. The GPU uses a graphite thermal interface material while the GDDR6 and the MOSFETs feature high-performance and ultra-soft gap pads.
For the PCB itself, both cards feature a 14-layer PCB with 4 layers of 2oz copper, a premium IT-170 material, a 15 phase power design, dual 8-pin connectors located at the standard edge location, unlike the GeForce RTX 30 series which place the proprietary 12-pin connector at the center of the card, USB Type-C port and HDMI 2.1 with FRL. Interestingly, AMD also mentions that it uses only 2 power phases for the memory which include 8 GDDR6 dies compared to 4 and 3 power phases on the RTX 3090 and RTX 3080, respectively, which leads to lower power.
The airflow design is also standard for the graphics card with AMD going for a traditional push-pull configuration while NVIDIA relies on a new flow-through design with fans at the adjacent sides of the shroud. All three Big Navi GPUs are also designed for small form factor cases in mind and allow easy multi-GPU configurations, unlike NVIDIA who has gone up to 3-slots on its RTX 3090 graphics card.
The cards will feature dual 8-pin power and display ports would include a USB Type-C (VirtualLink), 1 HDMI, and 2 DisplayPort connectors. The cards also feature a fancy backplate along with a retention bracket to hold the cooler in place. The Radeon RX "Big Navi" GPU looks like it will come in the standard 2-slot reference design which is the same as NVIDIA's flagship RTX 3080 but not as huge as the triple-slot GeForce RTX 3090.
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Box and presentation
The Radeon RX 6900 XT comes wrapped in a really large and in charge mouse pad, and if you flip the top portion over and pull the owner's manual loose you'll find a hidden Radeon 'R' logo keycap.
The Rear I/O with an HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a
We used the following test system for comparison between the different graphics cards. The latest drivers that were available at the time of testing were used from AMD and NVIDIA on an updated version of Windows 10. All games that were tested were patched to the latest version for better performance optimization for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs.
Test System
| Components | X570 |
|---|---|
| CPU | Ryzen 9 5900X (stock) |
| Memory | 32GB Hyper X Predator DDR4 3600 |
| Motherboard | ASUS TUF Gaming X570 Plus-WiFi |
| Storage | TeamGroup Cardea 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 |
| PSU | Cooler Master V1200 Platinum |
| Windows Version | Latest verion of windows at the time of testing |
| Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling | On if supported by GPU and driver. |
| Smart Access Memory/Resizable BAR | Enabled. |
Graphics Cards Tested:
| GPU | Architecture | Core Count | Clock Speed | Memory Capacity | Memory Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT | RDNA 2 | 5120 | 2015/2250 | 16 GB GDDR6 | 16Gbps |
| AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | RDNA 2 | 4608 | 2015/2250 | 16 GB GDDR6 | 16Gbps |
| AMD Radeon RX 6800 | RDNA 2 | 3840 | 1815/2105 | 16 GB GDDR6 | 16Gbps |
| NVIDIA RTX 3090 FE | Ampere | 10496 | 1395/1695 | 24 GB GDDR6X | 19.5Gbps |
| NVIDIA RTX 3080 FE | Ampere | 8704 | 1440/1710 | 10 GB GDDR6X | 19Gbps |
| NVIDIA RTX 3070 FE | Ampere | 5888 | 1500/1730 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 14Gbps |
| AMD Radeon RX 5700XT | Navi 10 | 2560 | 1605/1755/1905 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 14Gbps |
Drivers Used
| Drivers | |
|---|---|
| Radeon Settings | Press Driver |
| GeForce | 457.51 |
- All games were tested on 2560×1440 (2K), 3440x1440 and 3840x2160 (4K) resolutions.
- Image Quality and graphics configurations are provided with each game description.
- The "reference" cards are the stock configs.
Firestrike
Firestrike is running the DX11 API and is still a good measure of GPU scaling performance, in this test we ran the Extreme and Ultra versions of Firestrike which runs at 1440p and 4K and we recorded the Graphics Score only since the Physics and combined are not pertinent to this review.
3DMark Firestrike Extreme Graphics
3DMark Firestrike Ultra Graphics
Time Spy
Time Spy is running the DX12 API and we used it in the same manner as Firestrike Extreme where we only recorded the Graphics Score as the Physics score is recording the CPU performance and isn't important to the testing we are doing here.
3DMark Time Spy Graphics
3DMark Time Spy Extreme Graphics
Port Royal
Port Royal is another great tool in the 3DMark suite, but this one is 100% targeting Ray Tracing performance. It loads up ray traced shadows, reflections, and global illumination to really tax the performance of the graphics cards that either have hardware-based or software-based ray tracing support.
3DMark Port Royal Score
3DMark Pure Ray Tracing Feature Test
Thermals
Thermals were measured from our open test bench after running the Time Spy graphics test 2 on loop for 30 minutes recording the highest temperatures reported. The room was climate controlled and kept at a constant 22c throughout the testing.
*Hot Spot only reported on cards that feature that monitoring point.
Temperatures (22c Ambient)
Forza Horizon 4
Forza Horizon 4 carries on the open-world racing tradition of the Horizon series. The latest DX12 powered entry is beautifully crafted and amazingly well executed and is a great showcase of DX12 games. We use the benchmark run while having all of the settings set to non-dynamic with an uncapped framerate to gather these results.
Forza Horizon 4 1440p Ultra
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider, unlike its predecessor, does a good job putting DX12 to use and results in higher performance than the DX11 counterpart in this title and because of that, we test this title in DX12. I do use the second segment of the benchmark run to gather these numbers as it is more indicative of in-game scenarios where the foliage is heavy.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1440p DX12 Highest
Rainbow 6 Siege
Rainbow 6 Siege has maintained a massive following since its launch and it consistently in Steams Top Ten highest player count game. In a title where the higher the framerate the better in a tactical yet fast-paced competitive landscape is essential, we include this title despite its ludicrously high framerates. We use the Vulkan Ultra preset with the High Defenition Texture Pack as well and gather our results from the built-in benchmarking tool.
Rainbow 6 Siege 1440p Vulkan Ultra
DOOM Eternal
DOOM Eternal brings hell to earth with the Vulkan powered idTech 7. We test this game using the Ultra Nightmare Preset and follow our in game benchmarking to stay as consistent as possible.
DOOM Eternal 1440p Ultra Nightmare
Watchdogs Legion
Watchdogs Legions sees a return of the Disrupt Engine they've been using since the early days with the original Watchdogs but this time it has been updated to next generation feature support. Dropping DX11 for DX12 we see much better utilization than in the past. Being one of the recent top sellers it earned a place in our test suite.
Watchdogs Legion 1440p Maximum
Call of Duty Modern Black Ops Cold War
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War is the latest installment of the Call of Duty Series. Returning with DX12 support just like the Modern Warfare remake we tested this game during the opening of the Fractured Jaw level with the highest settings selected.
Call of Duty Cold War 1440p Highest
Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the two major PS4 exclusives that rocked their way onto the PC scene with massive acceptance and sales. Horizon Zero Dawn is powered by the Decima Engine and has been ported to DX12. We used the in-game benchmark to account for performance.
Horizon Zero Dawn 1440p DX11 Maximum
Borderlands 3
Borderlands 3 has made its way into the test lineup thanks to strong demand by gamers and simply delivering MORE Borderlands. This game is rather intensive after the Medium preset but since we're testing the 'Ultimate 1440p' card, High it is. We tested using the built-in benchmark utility
Borderlands 3 1440p High
Total War Saga: Troy
Total War Saga: Troy is powered by their TW Engine 3 (Total War Engine 3) and in this iteration, they have stuck to a strictly DX11 release. We tested the game using the built-in benchmark using the Dynasty model that represents a battle with many soldiers interacting at once and is more representative of normal gameplay.
Total War Saga - Troy 1440p Ultra
Forza Horizon 4
Forza Horizon 4 carries on the open-world racing tradition of the Horizon series. The latest DX12 powered entry is beautifully crafted and amazingly well executed and is a great showcase of DX12 games. We use the benchmark run while having all of the settings set to non-dynamic with an uncapped framerate to gather these results.
Forza Horizon 4 UW 1440p Ultra
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider, unlike its predecessor, does a good job putting DX12 to use and results in higher performance than the DX11 counterpart in this title and because of that, we test this title in DX12. I do use the second segment of the benchmark run to gather these numbers as it is more indicative of in-game scenarios where the foliage is heavy.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider UW 1440p DX12 Highest
Rainbow 6 Siege
Rainbow 6 Siege has maintained a massive following since its launch and it consistently in Steams Top Ten highest player count game. In a title where the higher the framerate the better in a tactical yet fast-paced competitive landscape is essential, we include this title despite its ludicrously high framerates. We use the Vulkan Ultra preset with the High Defenition Texture Pack as well and gather our results from the built-in benchmarking tool.
Rainbow 6 Siege UW 1440p Vulkan Ultra
DOOM Eternal
DOOM Eternal brings hell to earth with the Vulkan powered idTech 7. We test this game using the Ultra Nightmare Preset and follow our in-game benchmarking to stay as consistent as possible.
DOOM Eternal UW 1440p Ultra Nightmare
Watchdogs Legion
Watchdogs Legions sees a return of the Disrupt Engine they've been using since the early days with the original Watchdogs but this time it has been updated to next generation feature support. Dropping DX11 for DX12 we see much better utilization than in the past. Being one of the recent top sellers it earned a place in our test suite.
Watchdogs Legion Ultrawide 1440p Very High
Call of Duty Modern Black Ops Cold War
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War is the latest installment of the Call of Duty Series. Returning with DX12 support just like the Modern Warfare remake we tested this game during the opening of the Fractured Jaw level with the highest settings selected.
Call of Duty Cold War UW 1440p Highest
Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the two major PS4 exclusives that rocked their way onto the PC scene with massive acceptance and sales. Horizon Zero Dawn is powered by the Decima Engine and has been ported to DX12. We used the in-game benchmark to account for performance.
Horizon Zero Dawn UW 1440p DX11 Maximum
Borderlands 3
Borderlands 3 has made its way into the test lineup thanks to strong demand by gamers and simply delivering MORE Borderlands. This game is rather intensive after the Medium preset but since we're testing the 'Ultimate UW 1440p' card, High it is. We tested using the built-in benchmark utility
Borderlands 3 UW 1440p High
Total War Saga: Troy
Total War Saga: Troy is powered by their TW Engine 3 (Total War Engine 3) and in this iteration, they have stuck to a strictly DX11 release. We tested the game using the built-in benchmark using the Dynasty model that represents a battle with many soldiers interacting at once and is more representative of normal gameplay.
Total War Saga - Troy UW 1440p Ultra
Forza Horizon 4
Forza Horizon 4 carries on the open-world racing tradition of the Horizon series. The latest DX12 powered entry is beautifully crafted and amazingly well executed and is a great showcase of DX12 games. We use the benchmark run while having all of the settings set to non-dynamic with an uncapped framerate to gather these results.
Forza Horizon 4 4K Ultra
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider, unlike its predecessor, does a good job putting DX12 to use and results in higher performance than the DX11 counterpart in this title and because of that, we test this title in DX12. I do use the second segment of the benchmark run to gather these numbers as it is more indicative of in-game scenarios where the foliage is heavy.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 4K DX12 Highest
Rainbow 6 Siege
Rainbow 6 Siege has maintained a massive following since its launch and it consistently in Steams Top Ten highest player count game. In a title where the higher the framerate the better in a tactical yet fast-paced competitive landscape is essential, we include this title despite its ludicrously high framerates. We use the Vulkan Ultra preset with the High Defenition Texture Pack as well and gather our results from the built-in benchmarking tool.
Rainbow 6 Siege 4K Vulkan Ultra
DOOM Eternal
DOOM Eternal brings hell to earth with the Vulkan powered idTech 7. We test this game using the Ultra Nightmare Preset and follow our in-game benchmarking to stay as consistent as possible.
DOOM Eternal 4K Ultra Nightmare
Watchdogs Legion
Watchdogs Legions sees a return of the Disrupt Engine they've been using since the early days with the original Watchdogs but this time it has been updated to next generation feature support. Dropping DX11 for DX12 we see much better utilization than in the past. Being one of the recent top sellers it earned a place in our test suite.
Watchdogs Legion 4K Very High
Call of Duty Modern Black Ops Cold War
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War is the latest installment of the Call of Duty Series. Returning with DX12 support just like the Modern Warfare remake we tested this game during the opening of the Fractured Jaw level with the highest settings selected.
Call of Duty Cold War 4K Highest
Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the two major PS4 exclusives that rocked their way onto the PC scene with massive acceptance and sales. Horizon Zero Dawn is powered by the Decima Engine and has been ported to DX12. We used the in-game benchmark to account for performance.
Horizon Zero Dawn 4K DX11 Maximum
Borderlands 3
Borderlands 3 has made its way into the test lineup thanks to strong demand by gamers and simply delivering MORE Borderlands. This game is rather intensive after the Medium preset but since we're testing the 'Ultimate UW 1440p' card, High it is. We tested using the built-in benchmark utility
Borderlands 3 4K High
Total War Saga: Troy
Total War Saga: Troy is powered by their TW Engine 3 (Total War Engine 3) and in this iteration, they have stuck to a strictly DX11 release. We tested the game using the built-in benchmark using the Dynasty model that represents a battle with many soldiers interacting at once and is more representative of normal gameplay.
Total War Saga - Troy 4K Ultra
Hardware-Based Ray Tracing is here. Where Turing introduced the world to real-time ray-traced effects in games we've now seen the market follow. Perhaps it was always headed that way but the push was certainly jolted by the inclusion of hardware-based ray tracing elements. AMD has finally released hardware that does this included within RDNA2 and they're calling it their Ray Accelerators. Taking advantage of existing DXR games we're now able to see how well AMD implemented their feature against the Ampere architecture.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider, unlike its predecessor, does a good job putting DX12 to use and results in higher performance than the DX11 counterpart in this title, and because of that, we test this title in DX12. I do use the second segment of the benchmark run to gather these numbers as it is more indicative of in-game scenarios where the foliage is heavy. SotTR features Ray Traced Shadows and enabled in the benchmarks with the game set to the 'Highest' preset and RT Shadows at High. DLSS was used only when labeled.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1440p 'Highest', RT Shadows Ultra
Call of Duty Modern Black Ops Cold War
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War is the latest installment of the Call of Duty Series. Returning with DX12 support just like the Modern Warfare remake we tested this game during the opening of the Fractured Jaw level with the highest settings selected.
Call of Duty Cold War 1440p 'High' RT Shadows Enabled
Control
Control is powered by Remedy's Northlight Storytelling Engine but severely pumped up to support multiple functions of ray-traced effects. We ran this through our test run in the cafeteria with all ray tracing functions on high and the game set to high. DLSS was enabled for this title in the quality setting when it was available.
Control 1440p 'High', RT Reflections, RT Shadows, DLSS Quality
Battlefield V
Battlefield V was one of the earlier games in the RTX 20 Series lifecycles to receive a DXR update. Battlefield V was tested on the opening sequence of the Tirailleur war story as it's been consistently one of the more demanding scenes for ray traced reflections that are featured in this game. DLSS was enabled for this game when available.
Battlefield V 1440p 'Ultra' RT Reflections, DLSS Enabled
Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus was the third entry into the Metro series and as Artym ventures away from the Metro he, and you, are able to explore the world with impressive RT Global Illumination. RTGI has proven to be quite an intense feature to run. Metro Exodus also supports DLSS so it was used in our testing. Advanced PhysX was left disabled, but Hairworks was left on.
Metro Exodus 1440p 'Ultra' Ray Tracing 'Ultra' DLSS Enabled
Boundary
Boundary is a multiplayer tactical shooter...in space. It's not out yet so treat this one as more of a synthetic benchmark as there are likely to be quite a few improvements but for now, we had access to the benchmark and it's a doozy to run. Featuring full raytracing effects for the benchmark as well as DLSS, we ran that in Quality mode when available.
Boundary 1440p RT Enabled, DLSS Quality
Amid Evil
Amid Evil is a high energy old school shotoer that seems like an unlikely recipient of RT features, but here we are with insane DXR support in a modern retro shooter. Feature RT Reflections, RT Shadows, and NVIDIA's DLSS support we had to put this one through the rounds and see how things went. The RTX version of this game is still in beta but publicly available for those who want to try it. We tested with all RT features on and DLSS enabled.
Amid Evil 1440P RT Reflections, RT Shadows, Lights 100%, DLSS Enabled
Minecraft
Minecraft, yup Minecraft. When it comes to ray tracing Minecraft has it all. The Minecraft with RTX update has recently been updated to DXR1.1 so it gets the latest treatment in that regard. But, we're talking a fully path traced version of Minecraft here. We set up a run in the RTX world of Crystal Palace and set the Chunks to the maximum of 24, up from the default 8 in order to really turn the wrenches. Minecraft with RTX supports DLSS so it was used here.
Minecraft 1440p with RTX '24 Chunks' DLSS Enabled
DiRT 5
DiRT 5 is the latest in the series and it's an absolute joy to play but it is not kind on your hardware. AMD worked with Codemasters to get Ray Traced Shadows and VRS into the game. But as of the time of publishing neither are in the public build of the game. AMD did give us access to the RT enabled Beta build of the game so it's very important to keep in mind these results are from a Beta Private build and not the public game running on public drivers. All variable settings were set to Native, as this game has quite a few variable settings.
DiRT 5 Ultimate Settings 1440p RT Shadows Enabled
Hardware-Based Ray Tracing is here. Where Turing introduced the world to real-time ray-traced effects in games we've now seen the market follow. Perhaps it was always headed that way but the push was certainly jolted by the inclusion of hardware-based ray tracing elements. AMD has finally released hardware that does this included within RDNA2 and they're calling it their Ray Accelerators. Taking advantage of existing DXR games we're now able to see how well AMD implemented their feature against the Ampere architecture.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider, unlike its predecessor, does a good job putting DX12 to use and results in higher performance than the DX11 counterpart in this title, and because of that, we test this title in DX12. I do use the second segment of the benchmark run to gather these numbers as it is more indicative of in-game scenarios where the foliage is heavy. SotTR features Ray Traced Shadows as well as DLSS and we used both in the benchmarks with the game set to the 'Highest' preset and RT Shadows at High with DLSS enabled when available.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 4K 'Highest', RT Shadows High
Call of Duty Modern Black Ops Cold War
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War is the latest installment of the Call of Duty Series. Returning with DX12 support just like the Modern Warfare remake we tested this game during the opening of the Fractured Jaw level with the highest settings selected.
Call of Duty Cold War 4K 'High' RT Shadows Enabled
Control
Control is powered by Remedy's Northlight Storytelling Engine but severely pumped up to support multiple functions of ray-traced effects. We ran this through our test run in the cafeteria with all ray tracing functions on high and the game set to high. DLSS was enabled for this title in the quality setting.
Control 4K 'High', RT Reflections, RT Shadows, DLSS Quality
Battlefield V
Battlefield V was one of the earlier games in the RTX 20 Series lifecycles to receive a DXR update. Battlefield V was tested on the opening sequence of the Tirailleur war story as it's been consistently one of the more demanding scenes for ray-traced reflections that are featured in this game. DLSS was enabled for this game.
Battlefield V 4K 'Ultra' RT Reflections, DLSS Enabled
Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus was the third entry into the Metro series and as Artym ventures away from the Metro he, and you, are able to explore the world with impressive RT Global Illumination. RTGI has proven to be quite an intense feature to run. Metro Exodus also supports DLSS so it was used in our testing. Advanced PhysX was left disabled, but Hairworks was left on.
Metro Exodus 4K 'Ultra' Ray Tracing 'Ultra' DLSS Enabled
Boundary
Boundary is a multiplayer tactical shooter...in space. It's not out yet so treat this one as more of a synthetic benchmark as there are likely to be quite a few improvements but for now, we had access to the benchmark and it's a doozy to run. Featuring full raytracing effects for the benchmark as well as DLSS, we ran that in Quality mode.
Boundary 4K RT Enabled, DLSS Quality
Amid Evil
Amid Evil is a high energy old school shotoer that seems like an unlikely recipient of RT features, but here we are with insane DXR support in a modern retro shooter. Feature RT Reflections, RT Shadows, and NVIDIA's DLSS support we had to put this one through the rounds and see how things went. The RTX version of this game is still in beta but publicly available for those who want to try it. We tested with all RT features on and DLSS enabled.
Amid Evil 4K RT Reflections, RT Shadows, Lights 100%, DLSS Enabled
Minecraft
Minecraft, yup Minecraft. When it comes to ray tracing Minecraft has it all. The Minecraft with RTX update has recently been updated to DXR1.1 so it gets the latest treatment in that regard. But, we're talking a fully path traced version of Minecraft here. We set up a run in the RTX world of Crystal Palace and set the Chunks to the maximum of 24, up from the default 8 in order to really turn the wrenches. Minecraft with RTX supports DLSS so it was used here.
Minecraft 4K with RTX '24 Chunks' DLSS Enabled
DiRT 5
DiRT 5 is the latest in the series and it's an absolute joy to play but it is not kind on your hardware. AMD worked with Codemasters to get Ray Traced Shadows and VRS into the game. But as of the time of publishing neither are in the public build of the game. AMD did give us access to the RT enabled Beta build of the game so it's very important to keep in mind these results are from a Beta Private build and not the public game running on public drivers. All variable settings were set to Native, as this game has quite a few variable settings.
DiRT 5 Ultimate Settings 4K RT Shadows Enabled
Graphics cards and power draw have always been quite synonymous with each other in terms of how much performance they put out for the power they take in. Measuring this has not always been the most straight forward when it comes to accuracy and methods for reviewers and end-users. NVIDIA has developed their PCAT system, or Power Capture Analysis Tool in order to be able to capture direct power consumption from ALL graphics cards that plug into the PCIe slot so that you can get a very clear barometer on actual power usage without relying on hacked together methods
The Old Way
The old method, for most anyway, was to simply use something along the lines of a Kill-A-Watt wall meter for power capture. This isn't the worst way, but as stated in our reviews it doesn't quite capture the amount of power that the graphics card alone is using. This results in some mental gymnastics to figure out how much the graphics card is using by figuring the system idle, CPU load, and the GPU load and estimating about where the graphics card lands, not very accurate to say the least.
Another way is to use GPU-z. This is the least reliable method as you have to rely entirely on the software reading from the graphics card. This is a poor method as the graphics cards vary in how they report to software when it comes to power usage. Some will only send out what the GPU core itself is using and not consider what the memory is drawing or any other component.
The last way I'll mention is the use of a multi-meter amperage clamp across the PCIe slot by way of a riser cable with separate cables then more power clamps on all the PCIe power cables going into the graphics card. This method is very accurate for graphics card power but is also very cumbersome and typically results in you having to watch the numbers and document them as you see them rather than plotting them across a spreadsheet.
The PCAT Way
This is where PCAT (power capture analysis tool) comes into play. NVIDIA has developed quite a robust tool for measuring graphics card power at the hardware level and taking the guesswork out of the equation. The tool is quite simple to set up and get going, as far as components used there are; a riser board for the GPU with a 4-pin Dupont cable, the PCAT module itself that everything plugs into with an OLED screen attached, 3 PCI-e cables for when a card calls for more than 2x 8-pin connectors, and a Micro-USB cable that allows you to capture the data on the system you're hooked up to or a secondary monitoring system.
Well, that's what it looks like when all hooked up on a test bench, you're not going to want to run this one in a case for sure. Before anyone gets worried, performance is not affected at all by this and the riser board is fully compliant with PCIe Gen 4.0. I'm not so certain about those exposed power points however, I will be getting the hot glue gun out soon for that. Now, what does this do at this point? Well, two options: Plug it into the computer that it's all running on and let FrameView include the metrics, but that's for NVIDIA cards only so a pass, OR (what we do) plug it into a separate monitoring computer and observe and capture during testing scenarios.
The PCAT Power Profile Analyzer is the software tool provided to use to capture and monitor power readings across the PCI Express Power profile. The breadth of this tool is exceptionally useful for us here on the site to really explore what we can monitor. The most useful metric on here to me is the ability to monitor power across all sources, PCIe power cables (individually), and the PCIe slot itself.
Those who rather pull long-form spreadsheets to make their own charts are fully able to do so and even able to quickly form performance per watt metrics. We've found a very fun metric to monitor is actually Watts per frame, how many watts does it take for the graphics card to produce one frame at a locked 60FPS in various games, we'll get into that next.
Control Power
Control was the first game that we wanted to take a look at running at 1440p with RT on, and then again with RT off.
Control 1440p 'High' RT High
Control RT Watts-Per-FPS
Control 1440p 'High' No RTf
Control non-RT Watts-Per-FPS
From these results for Control is shows that NVIDIAs measurements and claims of improvements were accurate, but it's not always the case. We tested Forza Horizon 4 in a spot to test the same way again but this time at 4K and looking at when we target at 4K60 scene in this game
Forza Horizon 4 4K Ultra
Forza Horizon 4 Watts-Per-FPS
Smart Access Memory was one of the bigger features that AMD brought out on stage, but during testing, it was clear that only a handful of motherboards supported the feature at the time but full support would be coming by launch. Since then we were greeted with an updated UEFI to our motherboard that had full Smart Access Memory support, but interestingly enough our older UEFI that had unofficial support provided the same results so we stand by our 6800 Series review numbers.
With more universal support for PCIe BAR Resizing coming in the future, this one will be getting revisited sooner rather than later.
Forza Horizon 4
Forza Horizon 4 carries on the open-world racing tradition of the Horizon series. The latest DX12 powered entry is beautifully crafted and amazingly well executed and is a great showcase of DX12 games. We use the benchmark run while having all of the settings set to non-dynamic with an uncapped framerate to gather these results.
Forza Horizon 4 1440p Ultra
Forza Horizon 4 Ultrawide 1440p Ultra
Forza Horizon 4 4K Ultra
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider, unlike its predecessor, does a good job putting DX12 to use and results in higher performance than the DX11 counterpart in this title and because of that, we test this title in DX12. I do use the second segment of the benchmark run to gather these numbers as it is more indicative of in-game scenarios where the foliage is heavy.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1440p DX12 Highest
Shadow of the Tomb Raider Ultrawide 1440p DX12 Highest
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 4K DX12 Highest
Rainbow 6 Siege
Rainbow 6 Siege has maintained a massive following since its launch and it consistently in Steams Top Ten highest player count game. In a title where the higher the framerate the better in a tactical yet fast-paced competitive landscape is essential, we include this title despite its ludicrously high framerates. We use the Vulkan Ultra preset with the High Defenition Texture Pack as well and gather our results from the built-in benchmarking tool.
Rainbow 6 Siege 1440p Vulkan Ultra
Rainbow 6 Siege Ultrawide 1440p Vulkan Ultra
Rainbow 6 Siege 4K Vulkan Ultra
DOOM Eternal
DOOM Eternal brings hell to earth with the Vulkan powered idTech 7. We test this game using the Ultra Nightmare Preset and follow our in-game benchmarking to stay as consistent as possible.
DOOM Eternal 1440p Ultra Nightmare
DOOM Eternal Ultrawide 1440p Ultra Nightmare
DOOM Eternal 4K Ultra Nightmare
Watchdogs Legion
Watchdogs Legions sees a return of the Disrupt Engine they've been using since the early days with the original Watchdogs but this time it has been updated to next generation feature support. Dropping DX11 for DX12 we see much better utilization than in the past. Being one of the recent top sellers it earned a place in our test suite.
Watchdogs Legion 1440p Very High
Watchdogs Legion Ultrawide 1440p Very High
Watchdogs Legion 4K Very High
Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the two major PS4 exclusives that rocked their way onto the PC scene with massive acceptance and sales. Horizon Zero Dawn is powered by the Decima Engine and has been ported to DX12. We used the in-game benchmark to account for performance.
Horizon Zero Dawn 1440p DX11 Maximum
Horizon Zero Dawn Ultrawide 1440p DX11 Maximum
Horizon Zero Dawn 4K DX11 Maximum
Borderlands 3
Borderlands 3 has made its way into the test lineup thanks to strong demand by gamers and simply delivering MORE Borderlands. This game is rather intensive after the Medium preset but since we're testing the 'Ultimate UW 1440p' card, High it is. We tested using the built-in benchmark utility
Borderlands 3 1440p High
Borderlands 3 Ultrawide 1440p High
Borderlands 3 4K High
Total War Saga: Troy
Total War Saga: Troy is powered by their TW Engine 3 (Total War Engine 3) and in this iteration, they have stuck to a strictly DX11 release. We tested the game using the built-in benchmark using the Dynasty model that represents a battle with many soldiers interacting at once and is more representative of normal gameplay.
Total War Saga - Troy 1440p Ultra
Total War Saga - Troy Ultrawide 1440p Ultra
Total War Saga - Troy 4K Ultra
If RDNA was a small step in the right direction then RDNA2 is a GIANT LEAP. I cannot overstate the improvement upon all previous generational launches Radeon has delivered here with the Radeon RX 6800 Series and now with the RX 6900 XT. Extensive software support, multiple clocking profiles (despite us only having been able to test in default Balanced Mode for now), their best cooler design ever, but there is a big thorn in its side at this price and performance tier, we'll get to that in a moment.
The cooler that Radeon designed here is simply fantastic. If you can get past the big ol red ring you'll see a beautiful card that will match almost any build and is quite traditional yet carries quite the flare to it. The fit and finish are bar none the best they've ever delivered with a solid metal design and a nice powder coat finish that feels as premium as it looks. The triple fans are adorned with a support ring to maintain their shape and the silver accents are quite a nice touch. Hot and Loud? Far from it this time just like with the RX 6800 Series. The RX 6900 XT was quite surprising in that regard as I did expect it to break away from the RX 6800 XT and become noisier and hotter. Nope, just a hair warmer from running the full 80 CUs of the Biggest Navi packing card.
Legacy pipeline performance is astounding, the RX 6900 XT is an absolute monster at 1440p and Ultrawide 1440p gaming. And while it falls behind often to the RTX 3090 at 4K gaming you can close that gap and sometimes surpass it by pairing up with a board that supports Smart Access Memory (SAM). But SAM also opens up an Achilles Heel that almost slipped past me, if you pair the RX 6800 XT, at 65% the cost, with the same configuration you'll find it often matching or beating the RX 6900 XT. If you want the absolute package and get every ounce from the RX 6900 XT you're going to want to be on AMD's latest Ryzen CPU and motherboards, do not sleep on that. But If you are able to find them at MSRP you can get a reference RX 6900 XT and a Ryzen 7 5800X for practically the same asking price as the RTX 3090 alone.
I can't go over performance without mentioning DXR and the likes of Ray Tracing performance. Ray Tracing is only gaining traction and is far from going away. In this ultra enthusiast space, the customers typically demand their purchases deliver on every front. RDNA2 is capable of supporting ray-traced effects, but it's also falling in line with Turing in the performance bracket. That would be fine but Turing is a 2+-year-old architecture that has been retired in lieu of Ampere at this point. But, they've come out swinging on their first go at hardware-accelerated ray tracing support and for the most part, it works, there are issues with Watchdogs Legion and some oddities in Boundary. The issues in Legion are known and they're working to correct it but the overall performance, outside of shadows where the accuracy is less important, is quite lacking against the current RTX 30 Series with often the RTX 3080 overtaking the beastly RX 6800 XT. And with no firm release window for FidelityFX Super Resolution you see the RTX 3070 take a commanding lead when NVIDIAs own DLSS is enabled.
One area that the RX 6900 XT card certainly delivers on is power draw. It stays within its rated total board power at all times and that was verified by using the PCAT hardware provided by NVIDIA. So strong power performance and that translated straight to excellent thermals. AMD alerted us that up to 109C was normal and within spec for the Hot Spot but we stayed far from that in our testing. The RX 6900 XT was quite impressive on that front, to say the least.
The launch of RDNA2 and the RX 6800 Series brought Radeon back into the High End as a force to be reckoned with, the RX 6900 XT is the polished cherry on top. It delivers just what a high-quality binned product should, better performance and better power efficiency within the same envelope, but this one is going to cost you and it's not cheap. At $999 you're getting a top tier full fat Navi 21 die, and that gets you better performance per watt and an additional 8 CUs over the RX 6800 XT. This one is for the ones who demand the absolute best that Radeon has to offer and it demands the premium. I want to reiterate, if you're going to buy this one, go all out and pair it with a Ryzen 5000 Series CPU and 500 Series Chipset or you're just leaving performance on the table.
We'll be venturing into these claims soon enough, we also forgot to mention the RADEON logo is RGB on the RX 6900 XT (and the RX 6800 XT now) surprise!
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