Wednesday, October 28th 2020

AMD Radeon RX 6000 "Big Navi" RDNA2 Graphics Card Launch Liveblog

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Oct 28th, 2020 11:51 Updated: Oct 28th, 2020 13:28 Discuss (351 Comments)

After thoroughly appetizing us with its "Where Gaming Begins: Episode 1" event announcing the Ryzen 5000 series "Zen 3" processors that offer up to 19% IPC gains, in the second Episode, we see the company announcing its next-generation Radeon RX 6000 "Big Navi" graphics cards based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture that introduce full DirectX 12 Ultimate readiness, including real-time raytracing hardware. In the run up to the RX 6000, NVIDIA is already reportedly preparing product-stack updates. In this liveblog, we uncover what has NVIDIA riled up, and whether AMD can pull off better pricing and availbility than the RTX 30-series.

Update 15:59 UTC: It is time! Welcome to the Radeon RX 6000 Series live blog.

Update 16:01 UTC: AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su takes centerstage, fresh off a good quarterly results announcement, and that big Xilinx acquisition announcement.

Update 16:03 UTC: FarCry 6 seems like an AMD optimized title.

Update 16:03 UTC: Possibly the flagship product.

Update 16:04 UTC: AMD is where gaming begins because next-gen consoles trust it. - Dr Su

Update 16:05 UTC: 50% generational improvement in perf/W.

Update 16:06 UTC: 26.7 billion transistors, almost as big as GA102

Update 16:07 UTC: RDNA2 has a breakthrough high-speed design.

Update 16:08 UTC: AMD RDNA2 compute unit 30% more energy efficient.

Update 16:09 UTC: InfinityCache works to significantly improve memory bandwidth, based on the Zen L3 cache. More than 2.17x bandwidth gain despite 256-bit.

Update 16:10 UTC: 30% higher frequencies on the same 7 nm node.

Update 16:10 UTC: DirectX 12 Ultimate and DirectStorage support.

Update 16:11 UTC: Over 2X performance gain over RX 5700 XT.

Update 16:11 UTC: The RX 6800 XT!

Update 16:12 UTC: 4K Gaming from AMD is here! Matches RTX 3080!!!

Update 16:13 UTC: Hello competition!

Update 16:14 UTC: Welcome back ATI Rage, as the AMD Rage Mode.

Update 16:15 UTC: When paired with Ryzen, you get a gaming performance boost, 13% perf increase.

Update 16:15 UTC: AMD introduces its take on the NVIDIA Reflex, announcing latest Radeon Lag and Radeon Boost. No special API needed.

Update 16:16 UTC: Full DX12 Ultimate support, including ray-tracing. Woirking on a DLSS-rival.

Update 16:18 UTC: AMD is leveraging studios working on Xbox Series X / PS5 devs to integrate its Radeon features on the PC.

Update 16:18 UTC: FarCry 6, DiRT 5, WoW Shadowlands (which gets raytracing), RiftBreaker, are AMD-optimized.

Update 16:21 UTC: Available Nov 18, starts, $649

Update 16:21 UTC: Also announcing RX 6800 : faster than RTX 2080 Ti, 4K + raytracing ready

Update 16:22 UTC: $579, November 18 availability for the RX 6800.

Update 16:22 UTC: Lisa gets ready for a "one more thing"

Update 16:23 UTC: Radeon RX 6900 XT: 80 CUs, 65% perf/Watt over 5700 XT.

Update 16:25 UTC: RTX 3090 BEATEN!!!!

Update 16:26 UTC: December 8 for the RX 6900 XT, priced $999.

Update 16:26 UTC: OOF, we cannot wait to test these cards out!

Update 17:08 UTC: The press-release can be found here.

Update 17:19 UTC: The complete AMD slide deck follows.

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351 Comments on AMD Radeon RX 6000 "Big Navi" RDNA2 Graphics Card Launch Liveblog

#101

SKD007

MxPhenom 216No one cares about Far Cry 6!

You may not but some do... lol

#102

sepheronx

Will have to add an additional $300 CAD to my budget to get that 6800XT

#103

Space Lynx

Astronaut

xkm1948DO IT MAN, JUST BUILD IT ALREADY

i already have the msi x570 tomahawk, and my ram should oc to the new infinity fbric max limit 1:1 of 4000 cas 16 since i have b-die.

im only waiting on cpu and gpu to come in stock to finish my build. already have the PC built.

#104

Nucleoprotein

Chrispy_So the 6900XT is a 3090 at $999 instead of Nvidia's $1499 which is great.
But the 6800 is a 3070 at $579 instead of Nvidia's $499 which isn't so great.

The leaks were wrong about the CU counts of the 6800 series, too - the 6800 in particular was the card I think more people were hoping would be competitive and they've already lost to Nvidia on price, and that's taking AMD's own benchmark numbers rather than the independent reviewer benchmark numbers realeased yesterday. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some people are going to be super hyped for the thousand-dollar 6900 flagship but the stats show that only a tiny fraction of people actually buy them, compared to the stuff in the $200-500 price point.

6800 16GB vs 3070 8GB, see the difference in price? :)

#105

kapone32

Chrispy_So the 6900XT is a 3090 at $999 instead of Nvidia's $1499 which is great.
But the 6800 is a 3070 at $579 instead of Nvidia's $499 which isn't so great.

The leaks were wrong about the CU counts of the 6800 series, too - the 6800 in particular was the card I think more people were hoping would be competitive and they've already lost to Nvidia on price, and that's taking AMD's own benchmark numbers rather than the independent reviewer benchmark numbers realeased yesterday. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some people are going to be super hyped for the thousand-dollar 6900 flagship but the stats show that only a tiny fraction of people actually buy them, compared to the stuff in the $200-500 price point.

Isn't the 6800 competing with the 3080?

#106

PLSG08

Ibotibo01Will AMD make RX 6800 8GB for $449-499? Please AMD, bring RX 6700 and 6600 series before Nvidia.

They would most likely do a 6700 XT and non XT with both of them bringing 8gb to combat the 3060 release next year around Q1 and Q2.

#107

xkm1948

lynx29i already have the msi x570 tomahawk, and my ram should oc to the new infinity fbric max limit 1:1 of 4000 cas 16 since i have b-die.

im only waiting on cpu and gpu to come in stock to finish my build. already have the PC built.

You getting the AMD reference or waiting again for AIC cards? Assuming 6900XT?

#108

B-Real

nguyenRasterizaton performance are good but AMD really expect to sell those GPU at those prices ? or perhaps they can't price them any lower ?

What did you expect?

6800XT: 3080 performance, $50 less, less power consumption, +6 GB VRAM
6900XT: 3090 performance, $500 less, less power consumption, -8 GB VRAM

#109

kapone32

sepheronxWill have to add an additional $300 CAD to my budget to get that 6800XT

Hopefully

#110

Cheeseball

Not a Potato

B-RealI didn't say they were great. :) I said the really worse drivers were back in the days of the 7000. I bought a 270X back then, I can remember forums. But there were much less problems for the next 200 series. I used a 270X for 4 years, I had zero issues. Also using an RX 570 for nearly 2 years now, same, zero issues. What I wanted to point at is that today's NV drivers are not better than AMD ones. Just see what happened to RTX 3000, and maybe 2,5-3 years back, with Watch Dogs 2 not starting up or instantly crashing with a WHQL driver, there were Chrome video playback problems, etc.

You mean the release driver for the RTX 3080? Yeah that was bad since there was CTDs all around, but they have resolved it with the second driver that came out a week later. My RTX 3080 is rock solid with hotfix 456.98 and the previous WHQL 456.71.

I know what you're talking about though, I did have a HD 7870 XT (1,536 cores, but only 2 GB at 256-bit) back in 2013 until 2016.

#111

Turmania

Durvelle27Now I have to debate between getting a RX 6800 XT or RX 6900 XT

$350 more for 10% increase. Maths are not in favour of RX 6900 XT.

#112

sepheronx

kapone32Hopefully

Yeah, got $650 aside for it. So yeah, about $300 more. Cause you and I both know us Canadians will get very screwed in terms of prices.

#113

Quicks

Will be skipping this gen as well. Maybe just skip PC gaming altogether getting very expensive...

#114

Durvelle27

Turmania$350 more for 10% increase. Maths are not in favour of RX 6900 XT.

But its top tier and I have a 4K 120Hz VRR Display

#115

Turmania

I expect that they will introduce lower wattage cards like 200w, 150w and 100w range but both companies do that after 6 months from launch.

#116

dragontamer5788

Turmania$350 more for 10% increase. Maths are not in favour of RX 6900 XT.

Its called decoy pricing.

6900 XT is the decoy, it exists primarily to make the 6800 XT look better.

#117

sepheronx

QuicksWill be skipping this gen as well. Maybe just skip PC gaming altogether getting very expensive...

Don't fret yet. Wait till the more mid range cards come out. They may be very solid for 1440p and reasonable price.

#118

Turmania

Durvelle27But its top tier and I have a 4K 120Hz VRR Display

Seems to me, you already gave your answer to yourself, go for it:)

#119

pavle

Cheeseball..........I know what you're talking about though, I did have a HD 7870 XT (1,536 cores, but only 2 GB at 256-bit) back in 2013 until 2016.

HD 7870 has 1280 shaders by the way...

And there I thought my HD 6950 would be better than the new Hoseron 6900 XT. :)

#120

birdie

I'm waiting for reviews and AMD kinda skimped on RTRT performance figures: "we have it, great, but we won't show the numbers". Perhaps as predicted, RDNA 2.0 cards have a great rasterization performance but not so much RTRT performance. Still, it's really great the we finally have competition at high end graphics for the first time in many many years. Also, AMD hasn't mentioned any DLSS alternative which further casts doubt into their RTRT performance. It surely looks like NVIDIA will remain the king of RTRT enabled games whose number is only going to increase now that both console support RTRT.

And lastly, let me calm down everyone's excitement here: absolute most people out there won't buy any of RTX 3070/3080/3090 RX 6800(XT)/6900 XT cards: they are all priced very high.

I'm waiting for midrange products where we'll see these vendors' true colors: RTX 3050/3060(Ti), RX 6500/6600. It's what really matters. Cards for the rich Europeans and Americans - no so much. Again, the real money and the real market are below $300 for a GPU. We haven't yet seen anything from either AMD or NVIDIA in this regard.

#121

windwhirl

nguyenRasterizaton performance are good but AMD really expect to sell those GPU at those prices ? or perhaps they can't price them any lower ?

ArkzI wish they would announce a more friendly priced lower end card. I wanna upgrade from my RX580 but really about £250-300 is my limit. That used to get you a high end card 10 years ago. If I spend that now it will still be weaker than the Xbox Series X probably.

Performance shown was 4K. Budget gamers (like myself :laugh: ) are probably still using 1080p and will continue to do so for a while. For them, there is little need to go overboard with a +600 USD card. And besides, we only saw the top three cards (6800, 6800 XT and 6900 XT). We don't know what they're gonna launch below those.

Turmania$350 more for 10% increase. Maths are not in favour of RX 6900 XT.

At the top of the line, perf. per dollar is sort of not really as important as on the lower tiers.

#122

Houd.ini

windwhirlNow, the only thing left is the waiting game. AMD really needs to push the best drivers they can for November 18.

Their waiting game drivers are said to be up to snuff though.

#123

dragontamer5788

birdieI'm waiting for midrange products where we'll see these vendors' true colors: RTX 3050/3060(Ti), RX 6500/6600. It's what really matters. Cards for the rich Europeans and Americans - no so much.

I'm certainly with you on that. All of these cards are out of my personal price range.

But its still exciting to see the competition. The lower-end cards will almost certainly launch in the coming months, so today we get to see a preview of the future.

#124

Space Lynx

Astronaut

xkm1948You getting the AMD reference or waiting again for AIC cards? Assuming 6900XT?

AMD reference for me (if possible) depends whats in stock on launch day, I imagine it will sell out fast) sigh.

#125

bpgt64

Makes me wonder if they'll have inventory...or nah

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