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
  • 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.
True to Life, High-Fidelity Visuals
  • 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.
Elevated Gaming Experience
  • 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.
AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series Product Family
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.
  • DIRT 5 - October 29
  • Godfall - November 2
  • World of Warcraft : Shadowlands - November 10
  • RiftBreaker - November 12
  • FarCry 6 - November 17
Pricing and Availability
  • 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.
The complete AMD slide deck follows.
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394 Comments on AMD Announces the Radeon RX 6000 Series: Performance that Restores Competitiveness

#201
nikoya
so now I have to hate LG for not implementing Freesync on C9 and B9 Oleds.
Posted on Reply
#202
ratirt
NV's problem is that they push for their own standard forcing developers to go with it. Look what happened with Gsync. Still is but then NV cards can use the open standard Adaptive sync which AMD's FreeSync is based on. Same is with DLSS. It would seem, NV wants to cut down the competition with their product tying developers hands. Game developers will do it since there is no alternative. Now there is and it will be way easier to implement on variety of games. AMD's gonna have another presentation about the RDNA2 architecture, There will be more about the features and how they work exactly. Maybe it's worth to take a look at it.
nikoyaso now I have to hate LG for not implementing Freesync on C9 and B9 Oleds.
Hate NV. They forced it upon LG. Besides, there can still be screens with FreeSync.
Posted on Reply
#203
ebivan
SLKMoreover, Nvidia created so much hype around Ampere launch that demand was unprecedented.
Yeah, has Nvidia interns doing their market research?
Posted on Reply
#204
Vya Domus
SLKWhich card do you think a Fortnite player will choose? A card without DLSS or a card with DLSS??
Are you serious ? Your average Fortnite player is probably like 14 and hardly knows on what planet he is, hell he probably plays it from a phone or console, DLSS is the last thing he would think or care about. You think that the more popular the game is the more important these things are, couldn't be further from the truth. It's the other way around, the more popular a game the wider the audience meaning most people wont know or care to know about some niche technology.

It's the 25+ year old enthusiast buying crazy expensive hardware that thinks about whether or not a GPU has a certain feature and he is in the minority.
Posted on Reply
#205
Valantar
nikoyaso now I have to hate LG for not implementing Freesync on C9 and B9 Oleds.
This might turn out to be wrong, but AFAIK these GPUs should still support VRR on C9 and B9 OLEDs, as those (at least on paper) support HDMI 2.1 VRR, which these GPUs also do. The proprietary implementation on them is "HDMI 2.1 VRR" support on non-HDMI 2.1 Nvidia GPUs. But at least in theory, you should be able to enable "FreeSync" (i.e. HDMI 2.1 VRR) on these GPUs regardless of explicit FreeSync support.
Posted on Reply
#206
Blueberries
I'm curious to see how smart access memory turns out. The 3070 is still the best value card as of today, and there will likely be a 3080ti in the $1000-1200 range to challenge the 6900XT soon
Posted on Reply
#207
ratirt
ValantarThis might turn out to be wrong, but AFAIK these GPUs should still support VRR on C9 and B9 OLEDs, as those (at least on paper) support HDMI 2.1 VRR, which these GPUs also do. The proprietary implementation on them is "HDMI 2.1 VRR" support on non-HDMI 2.1 Nvidia GPUs. But at least in theory, you should be able to enable "FreeSync" (i.e. HDMI 2.1 VRR) on these GPUs regardless of explicit FreeSync support.
Actually. The VRR is supported by these screens but it is not FreeSync equivalent. Maybe it will work but it may not necessarily work as a FreeSync monitor or a TV would work.
Posted on Reply
#208
R0H1T
ValantarThe GPU industry hasn't seen anything like this for a decade or more.
Let's not kid ourselves, AMD could well be promising the jump wrt the worst performing RDNA card out there as opposed to say the most efficient one ~ which btw is inside a Mac not PC:nutkick:
ebivanYeah, has Nvidia interns doing their market research?
With a major launch, great job JHH learning on the job/at consumer's expense :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#209
medi01
Vya DomusDXR is hardware agnostic, AMD just has to provide a back end implelentation.
I was told multiple times that actual implementation in green sponsored games uses green proprietary extensions.

I just don't get why people think it is a good thing, as it basically spells d e a t h for RT.
BlueberriesThe 3070 is still the best value card as of today,
No it's not, 6800 is.

6800 => $80 (16%) more for +18% performance and +8GB of VRAM.
Posted on Reply
#210
ratirt
medi01No it's not, 6800 is.

6800 => $80 (16%) more for +18% performance and +8GB of VRAM.
Having same impression. Of course reviews are needed to show the bigger picture but I don't understand why people see 3070 as a better value here and bring it up as if it's something obvious at this point.
Posted on Reply
#211
TheoneandonlyMrK
ebivanI doubt that. As you may know, having cards age gravefully is not in the interest of tech companies. They need to sell new hardware, not support old hardware. So right now they'll give you DLSS 2.0 support for current games, next years games will get DLSS 3.0 support, but sooner or later older cards wont support future DLSS versions, so that current cards will be limited to DLSS Versions of their corresponding generation.
The Polaris and 1080ti said What?!
Posted on Reply
#212
Vya Domus
medi01I was told multiple times that actual implementation in green sponsored games uses green proprietary extensions.

I just don't get why people think it is a good thing, as it basically spells d e a t h for RT.
It doesn't really matter if they use proprietary extensions because every manufacturer will have to get DXR working using their own extensions anyway. But when you actually write applications using DXR you can only use the API calls Microsoft wrote.
Posted on Reply
#213
TumbleGeorge
Max(IT)I was honestly expecting more, especially from the 6800 that was my target. I mean, 16 Gb of VRAM are highly unnecessary (10 would have been perfect)
I think that AMD has better knowledge than Your how VRAM size is better. Especially for long-term users. Nobody write comment about that:
12:10PM EDT - RDNA3 by the end of 2022
@Anandtech liveblog. Must be reason to break 15-18 months development cycle.
Posted on Reply
#214
Bytales
ZoneDymoperformance is good, price not so much, sigh.

like take the RX6800, beats the 2080ti so it will be a bit faster then an RTX3070, but it also costs 580 dollars vs 500 dollar for the RTX3070, so not really a clear winner in the "What to buy" discussion.
AMD is a clear winner to me, ill buy AMD just to "not buy nvidia", their performance will be more than enough. If can "not buy nvidia" and get similar perforamcne even ifi pay 100 dollars more, or in the case of 6900XT for 500 dollars less, ill take it, just to punish nvidia. They milked everyone for so long for so much. All in the name of profit.
Posted on Reply
#215
Max(IT)
Vya DomusAre you serious ? Your average Fortnite player is probably like 14 and hardly knows on what planet he is, hell he probably plays it from a phone or console, DLSS is the last thing he would think or care about.
do you have ANY data to support your claim ?
Or just because you don't like the game you are making assumptions?
Posted on Reply
#216
medi01
Vya DomusIt doesn't really matter if they use proprietary extensions because every manufacturer will have to get DXR working using their own extensions anyway. But when you actually write applications using DXR you can only use the API calls Microsoft wrote.
When I mean using extensions, I mean calling vendor specific ops.
Max(IT)do you have ANY data to support your claim ?
Do you have other double standards to apply to arguments?
Posted on Reply
#217
Max(IT)
TumbleGeorgeI think that AMD has better knowledge than Your how VRAM size is better.
not necessarily.
Or do you think AMD has better knowledge than Nvidia, that put 8 Gb on the 3070 ?

Did you ever check VRAM usage on your VGA while playing at 1440P ?
medi01Do you have other double standards to apply to arguments?
also to you: do you have ANY data about Fortnite average players age ?

I don't know, and I'm quite sure you don't either
Posted on Reply
#218
Vya Domus
Max(IT)Or just because you don't like the game you are making assumptions?
It's funny because I played Fortnite for about a year with a friend of mine and his little brothers and their friends who were all 14.
Posted on Reply
#219
medi01
Max(IT)also to you: do you have ANY data about Fortnite average players age ?
I have plenty of anecdotal data, including my kid and his friends and kids of my friends.
No, it's in no way scientific and good to see a person who applied the same high standard to own words had time to make @Vya Domus and myself better.
Posted on Reply
#220
Max(IT)
medi01No it's not, 6800 is.

6800 => $80 (16%) more for +18% performance and +8GB of VRAM.
so you already have a comparison between 6800 and 3070 ?
Quite strange, since AMD didn't show one yesterday ...
medi01I have plenty of anecdotal data
that answer my question: you don't have ANY data
Posted on Reply
#221
ratirt
Max(IT)not necessarily.
Or do you think AMD has better knowledge than Nvidia, that put 8 Gb on the 3070 ?

Did you ever check VRAM usage on your VGA while playing at 1440P ?
It is not knowledge but it is marketing's knowledge. Just like there where 3080 coming with 20Gb. Shortage of memory and the idea was scrapped.
Max(IT)so you already have a comparison between 6800 and 3070 ?
Quite strange, since AMD didn't show one yesterday ...
AMD did show slides comparing 3070 with 6800. The only thing is that AMD used 2080 Ti which is basically same performance. Surprised you have missed it.
Posted on Reply
#222
Metroid
16gb of ram is very attractive and that sends a clear message to nvidia and now nvidia needs to respond with something similar or superior than 16gb of gddr, competition is good for us.
Posted on Reply
#223
Vya Domus
Max(IT)that answer my question: you don't have ANY data
Neither do you, all studies that I found required a minimum age of 18. But you'd have to pretty dense to believe for a second this game isn't played mostly by children given the memes and plethora of complaints from parents and all the media attention. That's enough evidence.
Posted on Reply
#224
medi01
ratirtAMD did show slides comparing 3070 with 6800. Surprised you have missed it.
Hardly surprising people in green reality distortion field missed it.
There are 3 typical reactions:

1) Missed it completely
2) Didn't catch that 6800 is 18% faster than 2080Ti
3) But muh DLSS/muh useles RT checkboxes in a handful of games, but muh CUDA, but muh Drivers
Posted on Reply
#225
WeeRab
If AMD can supply enough inventory, they will take major market share from Nvidia.
Nvidia's problems are not with 'scalpers' - Their problems go MUCH deeper. i.e. abysmal yields on the Samsung 8nm process.
That is why you cannot actually buy any of these Ampere cards. (Not the average Joe anyway), so AMD have an open field.
Most of the tech press were ecstatic about Ampere - But since AMD have matched, if not surpassed Nvidia this time around...I would expect similar gushing reviews
on the AMD 6xxx series.
I won't hold my breath though....
Posted on Reply
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