Wednesday, October 28th 2020
AMD Announces the Radeon RX 6000 Series: Performance that Restores Competitiveness
AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today unveiled the AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards, delivering powerhouse performance, incredibly life-like visuals, and must-have features that set a new standard for enthusiast-class PC gaming experiences. Representing the forefront of extreme engineering and design, the highly anticipated AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series includes the AMD Radeon RX 6800 and Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics cards, as well as the new flagship Radeon RX 6900 XT - the fastest AMD gaming graphics card ever developed.
AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards are built upon groundbreaking AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture, a new foundation for next-generation consoles, PCs, laptops and mobile devices, designed to deliver the optimal combination of performance and power efficiency. AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture provides up to 2X higher performance in select titles with the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card compared to the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card built on AMD RDNA architecture, and up to 54 percent more performance-per-watt when comparing the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card to the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card using the same 7 nm process technology.
AMD RDNA 2 offers a number of innovations, including applying advanced power saving techniques to high-performance compute units to improve energy efficiency by up to 30 percent per cycle per compute unit, and leveraging high-speed design methodologies to provide up to a 30 percent frequency boost at the same power level. It also includes new AMD Infinity Cache technology that offers up to 2.4X greater bandwidth-per-watt compared to GDDR6-only AMD RDNA -based architectural designs.
"Today's announcement is the culmination of years of R&D focused on bringing the best of AMD Radeon graphics to the enthusiast and ultra-enthusiast gaming markets, and represents a major evolution in PC gaming," said Scott Herkelman, corporate vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit at AMD. "The new AMD Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT graphics cards deliver world class 4K and 1440p performance in major AAA titles, new levels of immersion with breathtaking life-like visuals, and must-have features that provide the ultimate gaming experiences. I can't wait for gamers to get these incredible new graphics cards in their hands."
Powerhouse Performance, Vivid Visuals & Incredible Gaming Experiences
AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards support high-bandwidth PCIe 4.0 technology and feature 16 GB of GDDR6 memory to power the most demanding 4K workloads today and in the future. Key features and capabilities include:
Powerhouse Performance
Robust Gaming Ecosystem and Partnerships
In the coming weeks, AMD will release a series of videos from its ISV partners showcasing the incredible gaming experiences enabled by AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards in some of this year's most anticipated games. These videos can be viewed on the AMD website.
AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards are built upon groundbreaking AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture, a new foundation for next-generation consoles, PCs, laptops and mobile devices, designed to deliver the optimal combination of performance and power efficiency. AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture provides up to 2X higher performance in select titles with the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card compared to the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card built on AMD RDNA architecture, and up to 54 percent more performance-per-watt when comparing the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card to the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card using the same 7 nm process technology.
"Today's announcement is the culmination of years of R&D focused on bringing the best of AMD Radeon graphics to the enthusiast and ultra-enthusiast gaming markets, and represents a major evolution in PC gaming," said Scott Herkelman, corporate vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit at AMD. "The new AMD Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT graphics cards deliver world class 4K and 1440p performance in major AAA titles, new levels of immersion with breathtaking life-like visuals, and must-have features that provide the ultimate gaming experiences. I can't wait for gamers to get these incredible new graphics cards in their hands."
Powerhouse Performance, Vivid Visuals & Incredible Gaming Experiences
AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards support high-bandwidth PCIe 4.0 technology and feature 16 GB of GDDR6 memory to power the most demanding 4K workloads today and in the future. Key features and capabilities include:
Powerhouse Performance
- 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 a AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card in Forza Horizon 4 at 4K when combined with the new Rage Mode one-click overclocking setting.9,10
- Built for Standard Chassis - With a length of 267 mm and 2x8 standard 8-pin power connectors, and designed to operate with existing enthusiast-class 650 W-750 W power supplies, gamers can easily upgrade their existing large to small form factor PCs without additional cost.
- DirectX 12 Ultimate Support - Provides a powerful blend of raytracing, compute, and rasterized effects, such as DirectX Raytracing (DXR) and Variable Rate Shading, to elevate games to a new level of realism.
- DirectX Raytracing (DXR) - Adding a high performance, fixed-function Ray Accelerator engine to each compute unit, AMD RDNA 2-based graphics cards are optimized to deliver real-time lighting, shadow and reflection realism with DXR. When paired with AMD FidelityFX, which enables hybrid rendering, developers can combine rasterized and ray-traced effects to ensure an optimal combination of image quality and performance.
- AMD FidelityFX - An open-source toolkit for game developers available on AMD GPUOpen. It features a collection of lighting, shadow and reflection effects that make it easier for developers to add high-quality post-process effects that make games look beautiful while offering the optimal balance of visual fidelity and performance.
- Variable Rate Shading (VRS) - Dynamically reduces the shading rate for different areas of a frame that do not require a high level of visual detail, delivering higher levels of overall performance with little to no perceptible change in image quality.
- Microsoft DirectStorage Support - Future support for the DirectStorage API enables lightning-fast load times and high-quality textures by eliminating storage API-related bottlenecks and limiting CPU involvement.
- Radeon Software Performance Tuning Presets - Simple one-click presets in Radeon Software help gamers easily extract the most from their graphics card. The presets include the new Rage Mode stable over clocking setting that takes advantage of extra available headroom to deliver higher gaming performance.
- Radeon Anti-Lag - Significantly decreases input-to-display response times and offers a competitive edge in gameplay.
In the coming weeks, AMD will release a series of videos from its ISV partners showcasing the incredible gaming experiences enabled by AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards in some of this year's most anticipated games. These videos can be viewed on the AMD website.
- DIRT 5 - October 29
- Godfall - November 2
- World of Warcraft : Shadowlands - November 10
- RiftBreaker - November 12
- FarCry 6 - November 17
- AMD Radeon RX 6800 and Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics cards are expected to be available from global etailers/retailers and on AMD.com beginning November 18, 2020, for $579 USD SEP and $649 USD SEP, respectively. The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is expected to be available December 8, 2020, for $999 USD SEP.
- AMD Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT graphics cards are also expected to be available from AMD board partners, including ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor, SAPPHIRE and XFX, beginning in November 2020.
394 Comments on AMD Announces the Radeon RX 6000 Series: Performance that Restores Competitiveness
RDNA2 is first generation with hardware accelerated RT and RT games and drivers must be optimized first. It is logical that they didn't presented RT perf now. It will take months. We will see, but I think NVIDIA will be still more better than AMD, they started with RT sooner.
Memory subsystem
We will see in tests if more expensive G6X memory/384bit bus or infinity cache and G6 memory/256bit bus is better or the same. But if infinity cache will be advantage, then it is plus for AMD, they can move to infinity cache and G6X memory if needed.
Hardware encoding
I like Turing NVENC. Using it very often to offload encoding from the CPU with low GC utilization and good and usually sufficient results for my needs. I think AMD don't plan to make hardware encoders. They have multi-core CPU already presented as CPU for content creators. Software encoding has similar or better results than NVENC. And multi-core processors from AMD is probably also reason why NVIDIA placed Turing NVENC on Ampere cards.
Even Navi22 - presumably a 40CU and 36CU pair of cards somewhere in the $300-400 range might actually be of relevance to the marketshare numbers, but even then that's still in the realm of 'enthusiast'
hmmm.... :nutkick:
Looks around room for something to sell.
GPU is next up.
What I think is going to happen is that they will re-brand their 5700 line as well as a cut down version of the of their 6800 video card.
But for $580 on their cheapest video card, I might decide to buy a console. the last time I bought one was 28 years ago. These prices through out the computer tech industry are just too high to validate the usual "Coof"/Tarrif excuse. I do business globally and IMHO this is utter nonsense. They are throwing prices out there to see what sticks and gerbils and influencers (including YT) make sure that the prices stay that way.
Sure, a 6900XT or RTX3090 looks cool and at 4K Ultra with Raytracing you can get 120fps+ in some triple-A game
Here's the thing though; Those triple-A games are still just as fun, or just as shit at a quarter the resolution and half the framerate. The game itself will determine how enjoyable it is. I've also chatted with friends about a few games that made me stop playing just to pan the camera around and admire the scenery and most of the stuff that makes me actually stop and take note isn't about the resolution it's running at or mind-blowing framerates.
It wasn't that long ago that 1080p30 was the target experience. If your PC can handle a game at fluid framerates on your monitor, then you're good to go. Quality graphics are down to the developer and game artists more than your PC - and it always staggers me how good looking many games look running at medium or even low settings these days, and they do that on a potatoPC....
Here's Death Stranding, one of the most visually-striking games of 2020 running on an old GTX970:
and even an old 7970 which is slower than practically every dGPU you'd buy these days is doing a pretty respectable job in 2020:
Edit: the 6800XT will be able to match the 3090 in some games. Crazy.
Edit 2: I am curious why AMD used a 5900X for the tests. I guess the 5950X is not faster at 1440p/4k.
6900XT price should be around $749. damn NVidia!! :slap:
Personally, I'm a huge AMD fan (who doesn't love a good underdog story).
My system is a 3960X + Vega64 and I have an RTX3090 on order. Once reviews and RT performance numbers for RX6900 are out I'll decide whether to cancel the RTX3090 order... it's not like I'm going to get it any time soon.
Great time to be a PC enthusiast.
Waiting to see review from TPU though. :rolleyes:
Looking forward to see if also fan performance this time would be better than on my Radeon VII and if their is any headroom for increasing performance by undervolting and water-cooling.:p
If performance is as good as shown here, maybe time is coming to sell my Radeon VII with EK water block on eBay.:D
But basically prices for an average gaming pc have not changed too much. Remember that 3080 and 6800xt are not average, these are enthusiast products. You can get a capable gaming pc for 1000 bucks, just like you could 20 years ago.
But you can't really compare that to consoles. On pc games are usurally cheaper since you have a lot more ways to buy them. On pcs you can work, you can upgrade your pc, and sell parts you dont use anymore... There are endless possibilities. On pcs you can play brand new games and games from 40 years ago...
On consoles you can just play games and watch netflix.
I'm not sure how the 3070 stand's here.