AMD's Big Navi Benchmarks: 4K and 1440p Numbers for Radeon RX 6800, 6800 XT, 6900 XT

News
By Zhiye Liu
published

Ampere has reason to worry.

Radeon RX 6000

Radeon RX 6000 (Image credit: AMD)

It seems that AMD can't hold its excitement for Big Navi. The chipmaker has just updated the Big Navi product page with new benchmarks for the Radeon RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 for both 4K and 1440p resolutions.

AMD's gaming test suite has a good bit of variety with 10 different titles, including Battlefield V, Borderlands 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, The Division 2, Doom Eternal, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Resident Evil 3, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Wolfenstein Youngblood. The chipmaker conducted the tests on a Ryzen 9 5900X processor with 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM on a X570 reference platform.

It should be noted that AMD enabled Smart Access Memory, a feature that unlocks higher performance on the Radeon RX 6000 when the graphics card is paired with a compatible Ryzen 5000 processor. Since neither product is available, we haven't had the chance to test the impact that Smart Access Memory has on graphics performance. However, it's something to take into consideration, since Smart Access Memory could inflate AMD's scores a bit. It shouldn't be considered cheating, though, since chipmakers have the liberty to develop new technologies to give them an edge over their competitors. In any case, AMD should get props for making efforts to create synergy between its processors and best graphics cards.

AMD Radeon RX 6000 4K Benchmarks

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Radeon RX 6000 Benchmarks
(Image credit: AMD)

At 4K, the Radeon RX 6900 XT and the GeForce RTX 3090 ended up in a tie with each graphics card pulling in five wins. While Nvidia prices the GeForce RTX 3090 at an eye-watering $1,499, AMD is only asking $999 for the Radeon RX 6900 XT.

The Radeon RX 6800 XT had a much better showing by outpacing the GeForce RTX 3080 in six titles, while tying the Ampere-based graphics card in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The Radeon RX 6800 XT isn't just faster than the GeForce RTX 3080, but at $649, it's almost $50 cheaper than its Nvidia rival.

According to AMD, the chipmaker didn't have a GeForce RTX 3070 for testing. However, the GeForce RTX 3070 practically performs like a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, so AMD used the latter for comparison with its Radeon RX 6800. AMD's chart shows the Radeon RX 6800 dominating the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti across all 10 titles. Better performance commands a more expensive price tag though. The Radeon RX 6800 will retail for $579, while the GeForce RTX 3070 sells for $499.

AMD Radeon RX 6000 1440p Benchmarks

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Radeon RX 6000 2560x1440 Benchmarks
Radeon RX 6000 2560x1440 Benchmarks(Image credit: AMD)

Apparently, gaming at 2560 x 1440 really favors AMD's Big Navi graphics cards. The Radeon RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 XT prevailed over the GeForce RTX 3090 and RTX 3080, respectively. Both Navi 21-powered graphics cards won nine out of the 10 gaming benchmarks. On the other hand, the Radeon RX 6800 continued its onslaught on the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti by beating it in all 10 games.

The Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 land on November 18, while the more powerful Radeon RX 6900 XT is scheduled for a December 8 release. AMD has said it put mechanisms in place so that Big Navi doesn't suffer from the same scalping situation that tormented the GeForce RTX 3080. However, the question remains as to whether AMD has enough Big Navi to feed all the hungry mouths of Team Red. 

Zhiye Liu
Zhiye Liu
RAM Reviewer and News Editor

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

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49 Comments Comment from the forums
  • timtackt
    "While Nvidia prices the GeForce RTX 3090 at an eye-watering $1,499, AMD is only asking $99 for the Radeon RX 6900 XT. "
    $99 bucks ain't bad, lol. Might want to fix that.
    Reply
  • purple_dragon
    Smart Memory Access. "It shouldn't be considered cheating, though, since chipmakers have the liberty to develop new technologies to give them an edge over their competitors." It isn't cheating but it is unfortunate that it will only work on an all AMD system. If Smart Memeory Access significantly lifts performance of the new RX6000 cards over the base performance of the same card but can't be used in an Intel system, it will look bad for AMD and push some buyers toward Nvidia. I am waiting for supply to catch up to demand to buy a new gpu and if I'm leaving 5-10% of my performance on the table because I have an Intel system then I will buy Nvidia. Otherwise, if RX6000 is close to RTX 3000 it will come down to cost/performance/efficiency for which card I will buy, RX6800XT or RTX 3080.
    Reply
  • Roland Of Gilead
    Well, if these numbers turn out to be true, AMD have finally brought the Ryzen effect to their GPU's! Of course, we can only really wait for the 'real' reviews to see the true picture.

    Nonetheless, exciting times in the GPU world along with CPU's too.
    Reply
  • purple_dragon
    Also, DLSS is looking promising if it gets implemented properly.
    Reply
  • TheBeastInside
    Proprietary technology is rarely wonderful for consumers. But I don't see any company giving away its edge because it seems unfair.
    Intel and Nvidia would not even flinch if they had a way to pull something like this.
    So, while I may not like it, I feel it's hard to judge companies fairly in this market - they're all a little bit of aholes.
    As long as there is competition, I am happy since I can choose the best solution or the least evil one 😉.
    Reply
  • Dorkish2020
    timtackt said:
    "While Nvidia prices the GeForce RTX 3090 at an eye-watering $1,499, AMD is only asking $99 for the Radeon RX 6900 XT. "
    $99 bucks ain't bad, lol. Might want to fix that.

    god i hope not i want to get one those for $99
    Reply
  • Makaveli
    TheBeastInside said:
    Proprietary technology is rarely wonderful for consumers. But I don't see any company giving away its edge because it seems unfair.
    Intel and Nvidia would not even flinch if they had a way to pull something like this.
    So, while I may not like it, I feel it's hard to judge companies fairly in this market - they're all a little bit of aholes.
    As long as there is competition, I am happy since I can choose the best solution or the least evil one 😉.

    I agree with you AMD is in the unique position where they make CPU, Motherboard and GPU. NVIDIA cannot to the same currently, And intel will have the same opportunity once their GPU's are out.

    AMD fights a battle on two front CPUs vs intel and GPU's vs Nvidia and they have been doing so for many decades without much of a complaint when both of these companies are far larger with more money. They need every advantage possible.
    Reply
  • deksman
    purple_dragon said:
    Smart Memory Access. "It shouldn't be considered cheating, though, since chipmakers have the liberty to develop new technologies to give them an edge over their competitors." It isn't cheating but it is unfortunate that it will only work on an all AMD system. If Smart Memeory Access significantly lifts performance of the new RX6000 cards over the base performance of the same card but can't be used in an Intel system, it will look bad for AMD and push some buyers toward Nvidia. I am waiting for supply to catch up to demand to buy a new gpu and if I'm leaving 5-10% of my performance on the table because I have an Intel system then I will buy Nvidia. Otherwise, if RX6000 is close to RTX 3000 it will come down to cost/performance/efficiency for which card I will buy, RX6800XT or RTX 3080.

    To be fair, I don't think Smart Memory Access will be that influental.
    Yes, it WILL raise performance, but it probably won't be huge. On average, I think you're looking at maybe up to 10% performance improvement (depending on the game)... but I don't think it will matter too much what with AMD drivers improving performance over time as well.

    Either way, you're getting more than enough graphics power with RDNA 2 along with open source features.
    Reply
  • deksman
    Makaveli said:
    I agree with you AMD is in the unique position where they make CPU, Motherboard and GPU. NVIDIA cannot to the same currently, And intel will have the same opportunity once their GPU's are out.

    AMD fights a battle on two front CPUs vs intel and GPU's vs Nvidia and they have been doing so for many decades without much of a complaint when both of these companies are far larger with more money. They need every advantage possible.

    AMD is a corporation like any other... it bears to keep that in mind.
    However, AMD DOES have an emphasis on supporting far more in regards to relevant open source features to do what companies like NV and Intel do with proprietary ones.
    I'd also argue those Open-source features are more important than pairing Zen 3 and RDNA 2 together to eek out (maybe) up to 10% more performance with 'Smart Access Memory'.

    But at this point, if you're getting a new system... might as well go with Zen 3 and RDNA 2.
    Reply
  • Math Geek
    so maybe 10% more performance is not that big of a deal? folks are still willing to put up with crazy high cpu power usage from intel due to maybe an even smaller performance gain over amd.

    i'm pretty sure if it works out that the combo offers anything like 10% or even more performance boost, folks will certainly consider it worthwhile. not saying folks will abandon intel in droves but if the combo beats intel/nvidia and uses less power and probably costs less, it's pretty much a no brainer for anyone with no brand bias.

    there are many fanboys out there who favor one over the other no matter what. but the majority seem to favor bang for the buck more than anything and will go with whatever works the best at the time. i hope its all true cause competition is great no matter what!!
    Reply