After plenty of rumours and leaks, AMD's RX 6000-series graphics cards were officially announced on October 28, and today we are able to present our full reviews of both the RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT GPUs. This review is firmly focused on the RX 6800 XT, and with its UK MSRP of £599.99, AMD is hoping to strike a significant blow to Nvidia's RTX 3080 that launched in September. We put this RDNA 2-based GPU through its paces and find out just how fast it really is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz1BpRgapVY After years of the Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture, AMD unveiled the RDNA architecture in July last year, with the RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT the first GPUs to launch utilising this new technology, and the 7nm process. As two competitive but decidedly mid-range products, AMD waited for RDNA 2 to do battle in the high end market, with its RX 6800 XT positioned firmly against Nvidia's RTX 3080. With a US MSRP of $649, AMD has confirmed a UK price-point of £599.99, undercutting the RTX 3080's £649 price-tag. How realistic that pricing is remains to be seen, and AMD will hope it can offer significantly better supply than Nvidia could muster for its RTX 30-series products. Before committing to buy a new AMD GPU however, you need to know if it is any good - so let's dive into the review. RX 6800 XT RX 6800 RX 5700 XT RX 5700 Architecture RDNA 2 RDNA 2 RDNA RDNA Manufacturing Process 7nm 7nm 7nm 7nm Transistor Count 26.8 billion 26.8 billion 10.3 billion 10.3 billion Die Size 519 mm² 519 mm² 251 mm² 251mm² Ray Accelerators 72 60 n/a n/a Compute Units 72 60 40 36 Stream Processors 4608 3840 2560 2304 Game GPU Clock Up to 2015MHz Up to 1815MHz Up to 1755MHz Up to 1625MHz Boost GPU Clock Up to 2250MHz Up to 2105MHz Up to 1905MHz Up to 1725MHz Peak SP Performance Up to 20.74 TFLOPS Up to 16.17 TFLOPS Up to 9.75 TFLOPS Up to 7.95 TFLOPS Peak Half Precision Performance Up to 41.47 TFLOPS Up to 32.33 TFLOPS Up to 19.5 TFLOPS Up to 15.9 TFLOPS Peak Texture Fill-Rate Up to 648.0 GT/s Up to 505.2 GT/s Up to 304.8 GT/s Up to 248.4 GT/s ROPs 128 96 64 64 Peak Pixel Fill-Rate Up to 288.0 GP/s Up to 202.1 GP/s Up to 121.9 GP/s Up to 110.4 GP/s AMD Infinity Cache 128MB 128MB n/a n/a Memory 16GB GDDR6 16GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 Memory Bandwidth 512 GB/s 512 GB/s 448 GB/s 448 GB/s Memory Interface 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit Board Power 300W 250W 225W 185W While we talk more about the RDNA 2 architecture itself on the next page, here we can take a high-level overview of the Navi 21 GPU that forms the basis of the RX 6800 XT. Still fabricated on TSMC's 7nm process node, as per the RX 5000-series, Navi 21 sports a much larger GPU die, measuring 519 mm². For the RX 6800 XT, it houses 72 Compute Units (CUs), with 64 Stream Processors each, giving a grand total of 4608 shaders. Rated clock speed has increased significantly for the RX 6000 series. The RX 6800 XT, for instance, has a rated game clock of 2015MHz and a rated boost clock of up to 2250MHz. To put that into perspective, the RX 5700 XT has a rated game clock of 1755MHz. AMD has also increased the memory capacity, with 16GB of GDDR6 memory found on every RX 6000 SKU (so far). The memory is clocked at 16Gbps, and operates over a 256-bit memory interface for total bandwidth of 512 GB/s. However, as we will see on the next page, AMD has also implemented a 128MB Infinity Cache on the Navi 21 GPU, to significantly increase effective memory bandwidth without excess power draw. Speaking of power, the RX 6800 XT has a rated total board power (TBP) of 300W, an increase of 75W versus the RX 5700 XT. RDNA 2 makes several key changes to the architecture compared to RDNA 1. Here we go over what you need to know. We've mentioned the increased frequency on the previous page, and AMD claims that as the only company delivering both gaming CPUs and GPUs, it is 'uniquely positioned' to leverage this position to further both teams. With RDNA 2, AMD says it incorporated design methodologies from the Zen CPU team while 'streamlining the micro-architecture to achieve record frequencies'. Part of this comes as a result of optimising frequencies across the whole voltage range for increased scalability. AMD says this allows RDNA 2 to offer approximately 30% increased frequency at the same CU power compared to RDNA, or cut power by around 50% at the same frequency - or anywhere in between. Michael Mantor, Chief GPU Architect at AMD, says 'this level of increase and power reduction in the same process technology enabled us to double the CU count of Big Navi with a modest power increase.' Part of this is a result of the huge changes that AMD claims the RDNA 2 CU has undergone to achieve that touted 30% higher performance at the same power compared to RDNA. The company highlights the difference machine learning can make for gaming, resulting in various mixed precision operations included within the design to accelerate these AI workloads. Each CU is also now home to one Ray Accelerator, the hardware responsible for handling the intersection of rays with the Bounding Volume Hierarchy (BVH). AMD says the Ray Accelerator can calculate up to 4 ray/box intersections or ray/triangle intersection every clock, and overall offers roughly 10 times the ray tracing performance than what shaders alone could achieve. We asked AMD how the Ray Accelerators differed to Nvidia's RT Core, and have copied their response verbatim: "In comparison to Nvidia's fully dedicated raytracing cores, the RDNA 2 Ray Accelerators are tightly integrated into the RDNA 2 CU, sharing much of the existing hardware that would be typically underutilized during raytracing passes. This enables RDNA 2 to experience the full benefits of hardware-accelerated ray tracing when ray tracing is being used, without having to pay the power and area costs of fully dedicated raytracing dark silicon for passes that do not use the raytracing hardware, or the power and area costs of the underutilized resources during the raytracing passes. This allows RDNA™ 2 to dedicate more die area to functionality that help both raytracing and non-raytracing gaming performance (such as Infinity Cache) and to clock higher for a given power budget. The final performance characteristics will depend on the game, the type of raytracing effects used and optimizations. However, we believe our Ray Accelerators along with other RDNA 2 enhancements such as frequency increase, CU count increase and Infinity Cache will help deliver visually stunning gameplay both with and without raytracing at native resolutions." AMD's Infinity Cache has also garnered significant attention. AMD implemented this solution to deliver enough bandwidth to the increased CU count, running at higher frequencies, as it claims these two changes would have otherwise required a 2.6x increased to bandwidth without starving the GPU - something it claims would have been hugely impractical due to the physical size and power requirements. This solution combines AMD's 'industry leading' cache from its EPYC sever designs, with an 'outrageously fast on-die Infinity Fabric', according to Samuel Naffzifger, Corporate Fellow and Product Technology Architect. Each of the 16 channels in the Infinity Fabric provides 64B of data per clock, delivering 1024B data per clock at up to 1.94GHz. Naffziger claims this delivers up to 4 times the bandwidth of existing GDDR6 solutions and provides sufficient bandwidth to the engine. With this on-die cache, AMD says it can deliver frame data at lower energy per bit when compared to a solution delivering the equivalent bandwidth via traditional means. With the Infinity Cache, AMD claims it can deliver over double the bandwidth of a 384-bit GDDR6 interface, with minimal increases to power. All told, the company claims up to 2.4x increased bandwidth per Watt. Additionally, the Infinity Cache enables AMD to better scale its performance with the increased GPU frequency. Without the Infinity Cache, the relative gains from increasing core clocks diminish significantly at the higher frequencies. Lastly we touch on Smart Access Memory. This made the news recently as Nvidia has said it is working on implementing the same technology. For AMD, Smart Access Memory (SAM) refers to the CPU's abilities to better access GPU VRAM. Currently, the CPU only has access to 256MB of GPU memory at a time, but with its Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, 500-series motherboards and RX 6000-series GPUs, AMD has removed this limitation - the CPU now has full access to the high-speed GPU memory. While AMD has attracted some criticism for 'locking' this feature to its Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, the company issued a statement clarifying the situation, which we have copied here: "As the only company offering high performance gaming CPUs and GPUs, AMD is in a unique position to deliver incredible PC gaming experiences. With AMD Smart Access Memory , we have designed, optimized and validated both hardware and software technologies with all combinations of Ryzen 5000 Series processors, Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards, AMD 500 Series motherboards and the latest drivers and BIOS at launch. We believe this pairing unlocks maximum platform performance. Smart Access Memory is built on features of the PCIe standard and firmware standards (Resizable BAR), and was developed through extensive validation and platform optimization. We welcome the opportunity to support other hardware vendors in their efforts as part of our ongoing commitment to using common and open standards to improve gaming experiences." The AMD RX 6800 XT ships in a very clean-looking black box, with a semi-obscured image of the graphics card visible on the front. The back of the box is almost entirely bare, apart from a few paragraphs of text in the top left corner. The top of the box lifts up to reveal the inside, with the graphics card itself sitting beneath another insert. It comes very well packaged in a stiff foam cut-out. The RX 6800 XT is undoubtedly AMD's most attractive reference design yet. It uses a die-cast aluminium shroud, with some prominent silver sections adding contrast against the black metal. Of course, it is highly significant that AMD has finally ditched the blower-style design that it used for years - this is now a tri-axial configuration, with three 80mm fans. The air from the fans is pushed out of the side of the card. In terms of its dimensions, the reference 6800 XT measures 267 x 115mm, and unlike the RX 6800, it is actually slightly thicker as it is a 2.5-slot card. The front side of the card is home to the Radeon logo, which lights up with red LEDs once powered on, while a red trim runs along the edges of the cooler. As for the backplate, this is almost entirely silver, and it stretches the length of the card. There's a cut-out behind the GPU core, but other than that it is entirely solid. Power requirements consist of two 8-pin power connectors. AMD makes a point of referring to these as 'industry standard' connectors, in a thinly-veiled jibe at Nvidia's new 12-pin connector. For display connectors, there's 2x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI 2.1, and 1x USB-C. Driver Notes All Nvidia GPUs were benchmarked with the 457.09 driver. All AMD GPUs (except RX 6000) were benchmarked with the Adrenalin 20.11.1 driver. RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT were benchmarked with the Adrenalin 20.45.12.1 driver supplied to press. Test System We test using the a custom built system from PCSpecialist, based on Intel's latest Comet Lake-S platform. You can read more about it over HERE, and configure your own system from PCSpecialist HERE. CPU Intel Core i9-10900K Overclocked to 5.1GHz on all cores Motherboard ASUS ROG Maximus XII Hero Wi-Fi Memory Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600MHz (4 X 8GB) CL 18-22-22-42 Graphics Card Varies System Drive 500GB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2 Games Drive 2TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5″ SSD Chassis Fractal Meshify S2 Blackout Tempered Glass CPU Cooler Corsair H115i RGB Platinum Hydro Series Power Supply Corsair 1200W HX Series Modular 80 Plus Platinum Operating System Windows 10 2004 Comparison Graphics Cards List Gigabyte RTX 3090 Eagle OC Nvidia RTX 3080 FE 10GB Nvidia RTX 3070 FE 8GB Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti FE 11GB Nvidia RTX 2080 Super FE 8GB Nvidia RTX 2080 FE 8GB Nvidia RTX 2070 Super FE 8GB AMD Radeon VII 16GB AMD RX 5700 XT 8GB AMD RX Vega 64 8GB Software and Games List 3DMark Fire Strike & Fire Strike Ultra (DX11 Synthetic) 3DMark Time Spy (DX12 Synthetic) 3DMark Raytracing Feature Test (DXR Synthetic) Borderlands 3 (DX12) Control (DX12) Death Stranding (DX12) The Division 2 (DX12) F1 2020 (DX12) Far Cry New Dawn (DX11) Gears 5 (DX12) Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (Vulkan) Metro: Exodus (DX12) Middle Earth: Shadow of War (DX11) Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan) Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12) Total War Saga: Troy (DX11) Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12) We run each benchmark/game three times, and present mean averages in our graphs. We use OCAT to measure average frame rates as well as 1% low values across our three runs. Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark for modern gaming PCs. Its ambitious real-time graphics are rendered with detail and complexity far beyond other DirectX 11 benchmarks and games. Fire Strike includes two graphics tests, a physics test and a combined test that stresses the CPU and GPU. (UL). 3DMark Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark test for Windows 10 gaming PCs. Time Spy is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built the right way from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers. With its pure DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal test for benchmarking the latest graphics cards. (UL). Starting things off with 3DMark, AMD's RX 5700-series of GPUs did well in Fire Strike and Fire Strike Ultra relative to the competition, and now the RX 6000 cards are setting new records - the RX 6800 XT has smashed past the 50K point barrier in Fire Strike, out-scoring even the RTX 3090. Time Spy is not as favourable, but here the RX 6800 XT achieves parity with the RTX 3080 which is still a good result. Of course, these are 'only' synthetic benchmarks, but they are interesting nonetheless - and I'll be fascinated to see what Fire Strike scores the likes of Der8auer can achieve once LN2 is applied to the 6800 XT... Real-time ray tracing is incredibly demanding. The latest graphics cards have dedicated hardware that’s optimized for ray-tracing. The 3DMark DirectX Raytracing feature test measures the performance of this dedicated hardware. Instead of using traditional rendering techniques, the whole scene is ray-traced and drawn in one pass. The result of the test depends entirely on ray-tracing performance. (UL). 3DMark's DirectX Raytracing feature test is a new addition to our reviews. It's interesting as it measures only the ray tracing abilities of a GPU - unlike Port Royal, which is a hybrid-renderer using RT and rasterisation, this feature test is entirely ray traced. In this benchmark, the 6800 XT manages 25.96 FPS, slotting it pretty neatly between the RTX 2080 Super and RTX 2080 Ti. Borderlands 3 is an action role-playing first-person shooter video game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games. It is a sequel to 2012's Borderlands 2, and the fourth entry in the main Borderlands series. Borderlands 3 was released on 13 September 2019 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One. (Wikipedia). Engine: Unreal Engine 4. We test using the Badass preset, DX12 API. Our first game of the day is Borderlands 3, one of the titles that AMD used to tease RX 6000-series performance with. At 1440p, the 6800 XT produced 111FPS on average, which is 6% faster than the RTX 3080, and only 9% slower than the RTX 3090, so it's definitely a good result for Team Red. At 4K, the RTX 3080 does catch up a bit, but the 6800 XT is still 3% faster. Compared to the RTX 3090, the 6800 XT is now 11% slower - but do bear in mind this AMD GPU is less than half the price of Nvidia's BFGPU. Control is an action-adventure video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by 505 Games. Control was released on 27 August 2019 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. (Wikipedia). Engine: Northlight Engine. We test using the High preset, with 4x MSAA, DX12 API. Moving from one AMD-sponsored title to an Nvidia-sponsored title, it's perhaps not too surprising to see the 6800 XT falling a little behind the RTX 3080 in Control. At 1440p, it is 12% slower than the 3080, but still manages to hold a 16% lead over the RTX 3070. When testing at 4K, things do look a little worse for the 6800 XT, as it is now 17% slower than the RTX 3080, and 13% faster than the RTX 3070. Death Stranding is an action game developed by Kojima Productions. It is the first game from director Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions after their split from Konami in 2015. It was released by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 in November 2019 and by 505 Games for Windows in July 2020. (Wikipedia). Engine: Decima. We test using the Very High preset, with TAA, DX12 API. We noted in our original performance analysis that AMD's Navi GPUs do well in Death Stranding, and that is certainly the case for these new RDNA 2-based graphics cards. At 1440p, the 6800 XT outperforms the RTX 3080 by 4%, and it's just 6% behind the RTX 3090. As we step up to 4K, the 6800 XT is still 3% faster than the RTX 3080, delivering an average frame rate north of 100FPS. It's also just 10% slower than the RTX 3090 here. Tom Clancy's The Division 2 is an online action role-playing video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. The sequel to Tom Clancy's The Division (2016), it is set in a near-future Washington, D.C. in the aftermath of a smallpox pandemic, and follows an agent of the Strategic Homeland Division as they try to rebuild the city. (Wikipedia). Engine: Snowdrop. We test using the Ultra preset, but with V-Sync disabled, DX12 API. Moving on to The Division 2, at 1440p we can see the RX 6800 XT delivering 130FPS on average. That's nine frames less than the RTX 3080, a difference of 6%. Compared to Nvidia's next-closest GPU, the RTX 3070, we're looking at a 20% gain for the 6800 XT, but of course it is a fair bit more expensive. At 4K, the RTX 3080 does begin to stretch its legs, and the RX 6800 XT falls further behind. It's still averaging over 60FPS, but it is now 12% slower than the RTX 3080. F1 2020 is the official video game of the 2020 Formula 1 and Formula 2 Championships developed and published by Codemasters. It is the thirteenth title in the Formula 1 series developed by the studio and was released on 7 July 2020 for pre-orders of the Michael Schumacher Edition and 10 July 2020 for the Seventy Edition on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One. (Wikipedia). Engine: EGO. We test using the Ultra High preset, DX12 API. F1 2020 delivers high frame rates on pretty much any GPU, and the RX 6800 XT is just shy of the 200FPS mark when gaming at 1440p. That makes it, for all intents and purposes, equal to the RTX 3080 which is just 3FPS faster. At 4K though, we once more see the RX 6800 XT fall further behind. It's still a close one, but the AMD GPU is 6% slower than RTX 3080 now, when the difference was barely 1% at 1440p. Far Cry New Dawn is an action-adventure first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. The game is a spin-off of the Far Cry series and a narrative sequel to Far Cry 5. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 15, 2019. (Wikipedia). Engine: Dunia 2. We test using the Ultra preset, with the HD Textures pack, DX11 API. This will probably be my last set of reviews using Far Cry New Dawn as it's CPU-limited nature makes for some strange results - at 1440p, for instance, the RX 6800 is a frame faster than the RX 6800 XT. At 4K though, once we take the CPU out of the equation, we see a good result for the 6800 XT as it outpaces the RTX 3080 by 5%, which isn't bad at all. It's only 6% slower than the RTX 3090, too. Gears 5 is a third-person shooter video game developed by The Coalition and published by Xbox Game Studios for Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X. It is the fifth installment of the Gears of War series and the sequel to Gears of War 4. The ultimate edition was released on September 6, 2019, while the standard edition of the game was released worldwide on September 10, 2019. (Wikipedia). Engine: Unreal Engine 4. We test using the Ultra preset, with Best Animation Quality (instead of Auto), DX12 API. Next we come to Gears 5, another AMD title. At 1440p, it's a small win for the RX 6800 XT when compared to the RTX 3080 - its advantage of 5FPS works out as a 4% margin of difference. Once more, it's just 6% slower than the RTX 3090 here. Nvidia catches up at 4K however, and both the RX 6800 XT and RTX 3080 are sitting pretty on 74FPS - a dead heat. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint is an online tactical shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft. The game was released worldwide on 4 October 2019, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, (Wikipedia). Engine: AnvilNext 2.0. We test using the Ultra preset, with AA disabled, Vulkan API. As for Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, at 1440p we can see the RTX 3080 just about edging the RX 6800 XT - AMD's GPU is 4% slower here, but it's still averaging well over 100FPS. Upping the resolution to 4K, however, once more results in the 6800 XT falling further behind its Nvidia rival. From just 4% slower at 1440p, the 6800 XT is now 13% slower than the RTX 3080. Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter video game developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver in 2019. It is the third instalment in the Metro video game series based on Dmitry Glukhovsky's novels, following the events of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. (Wikipedia). Engine: 4A Engine. We test using the Ultra preset, but with Hairworks and Advanced PhysX turned off, DX12 API. In Metro Exodus, things are a little more consistent. The RX 6800 XT averages 160FPS at 1440p, making it 6% slower than the RTX 3080. Stepping up to 4K doesn't change much this time around, as the 6800 XT is now 7% slower than the RTX 3080. Considering it's still averaging 90FPS at 4K though, it's not a bad result. Middle-earth: Shadow of War is an action role-playing video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the sequel to 2014’s Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 10, 2017. (Wikipedia). Engine: LithTech Firebird. We test using the Very High preset, DX11 API. Despite being a slightly older DX11 title, the RX 6800 XT does well in Middle Earth: Shadow of War. At 1440p, it averages 126FPS, which is almost identical performance to the RTX 3080, there really is nothing to split the two GPUs here. Bumping the resolution to 4K sees the 6800 XT still averaging over 70FPS, but it's fallen a little behind the RTX 3080 - this time by 7%. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a 2018 action-adventure game developed and published by Rockstar Games. The game is the third entry in the Red Dead series and is a prequel to the 2010 game Red Dead Redemption. Red Dead Redemption 2 was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in October 2018, and for Microsoft Windows and Stadia in November 2019. (Wikipedia). Engine: Rockstar Advance Game Engine (RAGE). We test by manually selecting Ultra settings (or High where Ultra is not available), TAA, Vulkan API. Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the most demanding titles in our set of games, and at 1440p we see the RX 6800 XT averaging just under 90FPS. That's just fractionally behind the RTX 3080 though, so it's a definite tie at this resolution. Stepping up to 4K... yep, you guessed it! The RX 6800 XT now trails the RTX 3080 by a bigger margin, from barely 1% at 1440p to 7% at 4K. Again, it's still close, but once more we are seeing Nvidia do better at 4K. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Eidos Montréal in conjunction with Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It continues the narrative from the 2013 game Tomb Raider and its sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, and is the twelfth mainline entry in the Tomb Raider series. The game released worldwide on 14 September 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. (Wikipedia). Engine: Foundation Engine. We test using the Highest preset, with TAA, DX12 API. Despite being an RTX posterchild, the RX 6800 XT is very competitive in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. At 1440p, there's basically no difference between this GPU and the RTX 3080, with both delivering over 130FPS. At 4K, the RTX 3080 manages an extra 5 FPS, so that means the RX 6800 XT is 7% slower at this resolution. Total War Saga: Troy is a 2020 turn-based strategy video game developed by Creative Assembly Sofia and published by Sega. The game was released for Windows on 13 August 2020 as the second installment in the Total War Saga subseries, succeeding Thrones of Britannia (2018). (Wikipedia). Engine: TW 3 Engine. We test using the Ultra preset, DX11 API. Total War games tend to prefer Nvidia hardware, and things are no different in Total War Saga: Troy. At 1440p, the RX 6800 XT is 13% slower than the RTX 3080, one of the biggest margins we have seen today. Thankfully, at 4K the relative performance doesn't change too much, as the 6800 XT is 14% slower than the RTX 3080. Compared to the RTX 2080 Ti, which the 6800 XT has been beating by double-digit percentages, it's 9% faster. Watch Dogs: Legion is a 2020 action-adventure game published by Ubisoft and developed by its Toronto studio. It is the third instalment in the Watch Dogs series, and the sequel to 2016's Watch Dogs 2. Legion was released on October 29, 2020 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Stadia. (Wikipedia). Engine: Disrupt. We test using the Ultra preset, DX12 API. Finally, we close our game benchmarks with Watch Dogs: Legion. Despite being another Nvidia RTX title, the RX 6800 XT is 3% faster than the RTX 3080 when testing at 1440p, and it is only 6% behind the RTX 3090. As we round out with a look at the 4K numbers, once more we see Nvidia come back stronger at this resolution as the RX 6800 XT falls 9% behind the RTX 3080. Here we present frame rate figures for each graphics card, averaged across all 14 games on test today. These figures can disguise significant variations in performance from game to game, but provide a useful overview of the sort of performance you can expect at each resolution tested. Overall performance is very competitive for the RX 6800 XT. Averaged across our test suite, it is just 2% slower on average compared to the RTX 3080 when testing at 1440p. Up at 4K however, we did see the RTX 3080 pulling away in a number of games, and that is evident here as the RX 6800 XT is on average 6% slower. Relative to the RTX 3080, this AMD GPU does best at 1440p, though it is still very capable as a 4K gaming GPU. Using the average frame rate data presented on the previous page, here we look at the cost per frame using the UK MSRP launch prices for each GPU. In terms of cost per frame, the RX 6800 XT proves better value than the RTX 3080 at 1080p, 1440p and 4K resolutions - not bad at all! The differences aren't massive, but at 1440p the AMD GPU is 5% cheaper per frame, though this shrinks to 3% at 4K. Here we revisit Control, this time testing with the in-game ray tracing effects set to their highest values. To assess the ray tracing performance of the RX 6800 XT, we start with Control. This uses a number of ray traced effects and can be quite punishing. At 1440p, the RX 6800 XT manages just 38FPS with RT set to High, putting it between the RTX 2080 Super and RTX 3070. It is also apparent that the performance hit when enabling ray tracing is bigger for the 6800 XT than it is for Nvidia's GPUs. Again at 1440p, the 6800 XT sees its frame rate reduced by 56%, where the RTX 3070's frame rate is reduced by 41%. Here we revisit Shadow of the Tomb Raider, this time testing with the in-game ray tracing effects set to their highest values. Shadow of the Tomb Raider utilises ray traced shadows and is overall less demanding on the GPU than Control. That enables the RX 6800 XT to do a bit better, delivering 72FPS on average at 1440p with RT set to Ultra. Compared to the RTX 3080, both GPUs deliver near identical performance with ray tracing disabled, but the Nvidia GPU is 24% faster once those ray traced shadows are enabled. Here we present three productivity benchmarks for those interested - Blender 2.90 Classroom (CUDA/OpenCL), LuxMark 3.1, and SPECviewperf 13. Here we present the average clock speed for each graphics card while running the 3DMark Time Spy stress test for 30 minutes. We use GPU-Z to record the GPU core frequency during the Time Spy runs. We calculate the average core frequency during the 30 minute run to present here. With a rated game clock of 2015MHz, we saw the RX 6800 XT running closer to 2200MHz during our testing - and that is certainly not a complaint! Taken over our 30 minute stress test, the GPU recorded an average frequency of 2173MHz, almost 400MHz faster than the RX 5700 XT. It is quite remarkable how AMD has been able to increase clock speed to such an extent, while remaining on the same 7nm process. For our temperature testing, we measure the peak GPU core temperature under load. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Time Spy stress test for 30 minutes. Thermal performance may seem a bit underwhelming when taken in isolation; the RX 6800 XT, despite its triple-fan cooler and 2.5-slot heatsink, ran at 80C during our testing, with a peak edge temperature of 81C. This is identical performance to the Vega 64 and its blower-style cooler, so it certainly looks a bit disappointing. However, the reason for this is that the card operates an incredibly relaxed fan curve to reduce noise levels. As we test later in this review, temperatures can be dropped significantly by running a more aggressive fan speed. We take our noise measurements with the sound meter positioned 1 foot from the graphics card. I measured the noise floor to be 32 dBA, thus anything above this level can be attributed to the graphics cards. The power supply is passive for the entire power output range we tested all graphics cards in, while all CPU and system fans were disabled. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Time Spy stress test for 30 minutes. As we mentioned on the previous page, the 6800 XT runs relatively warm as its fan curve is very conservative - under load we saw the fans spinning at just 40%, or around 1350rpm. I would suggest AMD has taken note of all the negative feedback it has received for its loud coolers over the years, and deliberately tuned the 6800 XT to be as quiet as possible. It's quieter than even the RTX 3070 Founders Edition, which is quite the turnaround for AMD. Following on from our stock thermal and acoustic testing, here we re-test the operating temperature of the GPU, but with noise levels normalised to 40dBa. This allows us to measure the efficiency of the overall cooling solution as varying noise levels as a result of more aggressive fan curves are no longer a factor. As the 6800 XT is so quiet in its out of the box state, we re-tested its thermal performance but with noise levels fixed at 40dBa. This meant increasing the fan speed from 1350rpm up to 1720rpm, resulting in a 10C reduction to the peak edge temperature. Meanwhile, the junction temperature dropped from 98C to 85C. As mentioned, AMD was clearly trying to tune this reference design for the lowest possible noise levels, but if you are happy to tweak the stock fan curve, this cooler can deliver some highly impressive thermal results. We measure system-wide power draw from the wall while running the 3DMark Time Spy stress test for 30 minutes. Total system power draw for the RX 6800 XT is a little higher than Vega 64, but still well below RTX 3080 levels of power. We also use Nvidia PCAT to measure power draw of the graphics card only, with readings from both the PCIe slot and the PCIe power cables combined into a single figure. This provides us with significantly more accurate data to work with as it is measuring only the GPU power, and not total system power which is a fundamentally imprecise measurement. We get a much clearer picture looking at graphics card-only power draw. Here, the RX 6800 XT stays true to its 300W TBP rating, as we saw power draw average 298W across our 30 minute stress test. This is 25W less than the RTX 3080, and only 10W more than Vega 64 despite offering significantly better performance. By using our GPU-only power data in conjunction with the 14-game average FPS data we presented earlier in this review, we can work out performance per Watt for each graphics card. This is presented as FPS per Watt. Overall performance efficiency for the RX 6800 XT is remarkable. We can see Vega 64 sitting bottom of all three charts, and it is easy to forget that was AMD's flagship GPU just three years ago. Today, the RX 6800 XT offers well over double the performance per Watt based on the 4K data. The real comparison is against RTX 3080, however. The RX 6800 XT offers better performance per Watt for 1080p, 1440p and 4K gaming. The differences are small, yes - with about 5% in AMD's favour using the 1440p data. But even so, this really does show how far AMD has come, with its RX 6800 XT able to compete with Nvidia's self-proclaimed flagship in terms of overall performance, but also in terms of performance efficiency. We used AMD Wattman for our manual overclocking. We started off by maximising the power limit (up to 115%), before settling with a maximum frequency of 2400MHz. The card was stable with 2500 or 2600MHz dialled in, but actual frequency diminished slightly as I pushed passed 2400MHz. It was a similar story for the memory overclocking - my card was perfectly stable with memory frequency set to 2150MHz, but I found performance was slightly better with it set to 2100MHz. This overclock resulted in performance gains of about 5%, so not hugely impressive here. Power draw, meanwhile, increased by 15%. After the launch of its RDNA architecture last year, delivering some very solid mid-range graphics cards, today marks the return of AMD to the high-end performance segment of the GPU market. That's right, RDNA 2 is here, and in the form of the RX 6800 XT, it is highly impressive. As with any new GPU launch, there is a lot to discuss, but above all, raw gaming performance is probably what you are most interested in. Starting first with the 1440p numbers, RX 6800 XT is on average 2% slower than the RTX 3080, it is 23% faster than the RTX 3070 and 21% faster than the RTX 2080 Ti. Compared to the Radeon VII, this RDNA 2 GPU delivers 69% better performance, and that increases to 79% when compared to the RX 5700 XT. Up at 4K, 6800 XT is on average 90% faster than the RX 5700 XT and 23% faster than the RTX 3070. Against the RTX 3080, it is 6% slower at this resolution. The comparison against the RTX 3080 is particularly important, as both GPUs are similarly priced and AMD has clearly positioned the 6800 XT to go head-to-head with the RTX 3080. We'll discuss overall value shortly, but in terms of raw performance, the 6800 XT does best against the RTX 3080, relatively speaking, at 1440p. It is still slower on average, but only by 2%. Of the 14 games we tested, it is faster than the RTX 3080 in 5 of them at 1440p. As for 4K, this increased resolution saw the RTX 3080 pull away. Not by a whole lot - we're only talking a 6% deficit on average - but in several games, where the RTX 3080 and 6800 XT were neck-and-neck at 1440p, the 6800 XT fell further behind at 4K. It is still a very capable 4K gaming GPU, averaging over 60FPS in 11 of our 14 games tested, but it is stronger at 1440p, relatively speaking. Still, even accounting for the small average performance loss against the RTX 3080 at 4K, the RX 6800 XT is the better value card. It has a UK MSRP of £599.99, so from a cost per frame perspective, it is the better value GPU when compared to the RTX 3080, at 1080p, 1440p and 4K resolutions. Again, the differences are small - AMD's GPU is 5% cheaper per frame at 1440p - but it is a win for AMD. There is also the small matter of ray tracing, something that RDNA 2 now supports thanks to one Ray Accelerator that comes embedded within each Compute Unit. A driver issue with Watch Dogs: Legion meant I wasn't able to test as many games as I would have liked, but Nvidia does still have the upper hand here based on our testing in Control and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Overall performance of the RX 6800 XT, with ray tracing enabled, could be crudely described as something akin to a 2080 Super or 2080 Ti - it's around that level. How much this matters to you is going to be down to your opinions on ray tracing in games, but I think AMD has done well to achieve this level of performance with its first ray tracing enabled GPU. At the end of the day, I still think raw raster performance is a bigger deal to the vast majority of people, but prospective RX 6000 owners will be able to enable ray tracing and get a decent level of performance, even if it is a fair ways behind the RTX 3080. Moving on, I have to admit to being highly impressed with AMD's new reference cooler. Gone is the loud blower-style cooler we have seen for too many years, and in its place we find a sleek and stylish tri-axial cooler, complete with a premium die-cast aluminium shroud. As it turns out, this is by far the quietest AMD reference design I have ever tested, and it is quieter than even the RTX 3070 Founders Edition. It's so quiet, that the GPU actually runs a little warmer than I'd like, peaking at 81C. It's not a bad result of course, but normalising noise levels to 40dBa resulted in a 10C temperature reduction, so there is plenty of scope to tinker with the fan curve if you want to lower temperatures compared to stock behaviour. As for power draw, AMD's 300W total board power figure seems entirely accurate, as we measured average power consumption at 298W during our testing. This might not sound overly impressive, but this level of power draw, coupled with the performance levels on offer, means that the RX 6800 XT is actually more efficient than the RTX 3080. Yes, you read that correctly - AMD's GPU delivers better performance per Watt than its closest rival from Nvidia. My goodness have things changed! We also tried our hand at manual overclocking, and didn't see extraordinary results here - our RX 6800 definitely seemed the better overclocker of the two, as at best we managed an extra 5% performance from the 6800 XT. We will begin testing RX 6800 XT AIB cards soon, and that should give us a better idea as to whether the 6800 XT itself doesn't overclock well, or if our sample was just a bit limited. Drawing things to a close, AMD is in a fantastic position with the RX 6800 XT. The bottom line is this is a graphics card that can go toe-to-toe with the RTX 3080, and there honestly isn't a clear winner in my opinion. RTX 3080 is slightly faster at 4K while offering superior ray tracing and DLSS support, but the RX 6800 XT is (just about!) the better value product in terms of cost per frame, it is slightly more power efficient and has a larger frame buffer. Which GPU you should go for is really going to depend on a number of factors, but the end result is clear - Nvidia is no longer the default option in the high-end market segment, something which was nigh unthinkable just a few years ago. Strap in, because we are set for an exciting time ahead! We don't yet have a buy link for the RX 6800 XT, but AMD has informed us the UK MSRP is £599.99. Discuss on our Facebook page HERE. Pros Very competitive performance. Better cost per frame than RTX 3080. More power efficient than RTX 3080. 16GB VRAM capacity. Huge boost in clock speed compared to RDNA/RX 5700 XT. Hardware-accelerated ray tracing is finally supported by an AMD GPU. Quietest AMD reference design I have ever tested. Cons RTX 3080 is faster at 4K. Ray tracing performance isn't as competitive as Nvidia's solutions. AMD currently has no answer to DLSS. KitGuru says: AMD has delivered a highly competitive high-end gaming GPU in the form of the RX 6800 XT, offering both better value and better performance per Watt when compared to the RTX 3080. Who knows what Nvidia will do next, but this is surely the start of a hugely exciting time for gaming GPUs.
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