Monday, November 30th 2020
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT BIOS Analysis Reveals Extreme GPU Clock Limits
AMD is expected to debut its Radeon RX 6700 series based on the "Navi 22" silicon following its RX 6900 XT launch, to compete with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060/Ti. Several rumored specifications of the RX 6700 series surfaced in an older report from last week, which referenced a similar compute unit count to the previous-generation RX 5700 series, but with a 25% narrower memory bus, at 192-bit. The memory amount itself has been increased by 50% to 12 GB, using higher memory density per memory channel. In that report we wondered how AMD could overcome the deficit of lower memory bandwidth, and whether an Infinite Cache solution is being used. Turns out, that the RX 6700 series should end up faster than the RX 5700 series on virtue of an enormous GPU clock (engine clock) increase, according to an Igor's Lab report.
Igor Wallossek analyzed two video BIOS images of Radeon RX 6700 series graphics cards, using MorePowerTool, and uncovered engine clock limits as high as 2854 MHz with 2950 MHz overdrive limits. Just to be clear, these are limits, and not manufacturer-set boost clocks. For example, the RX 6800 XT has a reference max boost frequency of 2250 MHz, whereas its clock limit set in the BIOS is 2800 MHz. One of the BIOS analyzed by Wallossek has a power limit of 220 W, and the other 186 W. Interestingly, the cards have the same 1075 MHz memory clock limit seen on the RX 6800 XT, which confirms that AMD is using 16 Gbps-rated GDDR6 memory, and that over a 192-bit wide memory bus, this would yield 384 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Find more technical commentary by Igor's Lab in the source link below.
Source:
Igor's Lab
Igor Wallossek analyzed two video BIOS images of Radeon RX 6700 series graphics cards, using MorePowerTool, and uncovered engine clock limits as high as 2854 MHz with 2950 MHz overdrive limits. Just to be clear, these are limits, and not manufacturer-set boost clocks. For example, the RX 6800 XT has a reference max boost frequency of 2250 MHz, whereas its clock limit set in the BIOS is 2800 MHz. One of the BIOS analyzed by Wallossek has a power limit of 220 W, and the other 186 W. Interestingly, the cards have the same 1075 MHz memory clock limit seen on the RX 6800 XT, which confirms that AMD is using 16 Gbps-rated GDDR6 memory, and that over a 192-bit wide memory bus, this would yield 384 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Find more technical commentary by Igor's Lab in the source link below.
25 Comments on AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT BIOS Analysis Reveals Extreme GPU Clock Limits
Its a bit of a shame, since while within their SKU hirarchy cannibalization might be bad, every advantage they can get against competing NVIDIA products can serve their sales.
It only makes sense that AMD could give us an official voltage warning before letting us take RDNA2 to where it really can, close to 3GHz using air cool and water cool solutions. Sure, even if it means going well over spec for power delivery. This is why we can have over-engineered PCBs.
Overclocking RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT really makes you feel like power limitations hamstring its abilities to push much further.
3070 is like 5% slower than 6800 non-XT at 1440p, yet priced 80 dollars less, meaning 3070 is better performance per dollar + it has superior ray tracing + it has dlss which can improve fps by up to 100% in supported games, like Cyberpunk 2077 to name one. 3070 can and will easily run this game maxed out at 1440p with ray tracing (official requirement from cd project red). AMD users are not going to see ray tracing anytime soon in this game, and without a feature like dlss, it will be useless anyway, because fps hit will be huge and not worth it.
6700XT is going to have 2560 cores, FAR LESS than the 3840 on 6800, it's not going to reach 2080 Ti levels as 6800 is only ~5% faster than 2080 Ti.
3070 is awesome for ITX builds because of the size you CAN get these in. 6800 are all huge cards like 6800XT, 3080 and 3090 + 6900XT.
6700 XT is more like a RTX 3060 competitor. 3060 Ti at best, meaning still 12-15% slower than 3070 / 2080 Ti.
Considering AMDs 6800/6900 availablity and prices, AMD is not going to sell much GPU's before deep into 2021 anyway, so who cares
My prediction; GPU availablity won't be normal till 2H 2021 - Ethereum 2.0 means that GPU miners are going to consume most of the cards, they have been gearing up for months, and ETH 2.0 hits soon.
At 1080p: "The RX 6800 is 10% faster on average than the RTX 3070 at this resolution, just 4% slower than the 3080, and 9% slower than the 6800 XT. "
At 1440p: "at 1440p the margins start to open up a bit. The RX 6800 was 14% faster than the 3070 on average and just 7% slower than the RTX 3080. It was also 9% slower than the 6800 XT, so in terms of cost per frame the 6800 does very well at 1440p. "
At 4K: "Finally at 4K, the RX 6800 is 15% faster than the RTX 3070 and 10% slower than the 6800 XT. When compared to the RTX 3080 it was also 14% slower, which is good given it costs 17% less. "
www.techspot.com/review/2146-amd-radeon-6800/
So the 6800 is 10%, 14%, and 15% faster than the 3070 at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively...so I'm really curious where you got that "5% figure" from, and the increase from $500 to $580 represents a 16% increase in price...and I'm sure that the performance lead will increase since the 6000 series overclocks much higher than ampere (while using less power), as I've heard from certain fanboys over the years...
6800 beats 3070 by 4% overall. With no DLSS and worse ray tracing + 80 dollars more, oh and with MUCH WORSE availability and jacked up prices too
www.techpowerup.com/review/msi-geforce-rtx-3090-suprim-x/33.html
Both Ampere and RNDA2 power usage explodes when overclocked, 2-4% performance increase for +20-25% powerdraw - Yaaaay
3070 easily beats 6800 on performance per dollar
There's no way 6800 price won't be lowered in price when stocks becomes normal, sometime in mid 2021 haha
Or AMD wont sell many of these cards. Most AMD GPU buyers are buying in the sub 200 dollar segment
Take a look at steam hw survey, and you will see what I mean. Only dirt cheap AMD GPUs are listen under popular cards.
3070 will outsell 6800 with ease.
www.computerbase.de/thema/grafikkarte/rangliste/FUD 1: "power draw explodes"
FUD 2: "barely faster"
See benches above (tested across the board, not just single game), major uplift in perf.That AMD hasn't been present in high end part of the market for a while.
Ampere might still outsell RDNA2, as there are enough green fanboi to milk, but so did Fermi.
Meanwhile:
realAMD/comments/k2v10x
For comparison:
realAMD/comments/jyh3t4
Major uplift in perf? 3080 wins at stock, wins max oc too, so who cares
And yes, powerdraw explodes when 3080 and 6800XT is overclocked, nothing new here, go take a look at TPU reviews
If you stick only to newer games, though, ouch:
www.computerbase.de/2020-11/amd-radeon-rx-6800-xt-test/3/#abschnitt_zusatz_sieben_topaktuelle_spiele_im_benchmark
Current gen consoles are quite weaker than 6080, and will aim at 4k, so even 6070 will do pretty well in it.
3070 never was aimed for 4K so numbers are not relevant, neither is 6800 non-XT if you ask me, it's 1440p cards, however I would pick the 6800 for entry level 4K gaming, for people that can accept dips below 50 fps on decent IQ settings
XSX and PS5 targets "4K", but uses dynamic resolution, this is a fact. Confirmed by several dev's.
AC Valhalla goes to almost 1080p resolution on XSX for example. Google it. It has been tested.
You are using TECHPOWERUP Forums, but you don't trust their reviews or? My link confirms EXACTLY what I say, 3070 is 4% behind 6800 NON-XT at 1440p OVERALL, which is the only thing that matters. We can all cherrypick games, and 3070 beats 6800 in several games too. Thats why they are pretty even overall. Logic.
3070 is 80 dollars cheaper tho (MSRP vs MSRP, but 6800 is like 200-300 dollars above MSRP as we speak, 3070 _can_ be found for MSRP or close)
- Has superior ray tracing
- Has DLSS 2.0
- Better availablity, like, ALOT better - Most 6800 buyers will be waiting deep into 2021 to get their cards
- 3070 can be bought with way smaller footprint, for smaller builds, some cards are as short as 22 cm, most/all 6800's are way longer and thicker and won't fit in many ITX cases
But technically, AMD has a stronger GPU, that is more efficient and will last longer too.
DLSS and RT are added value... everyone values them differently. Personal preference.
I think the best summary is 'there is something to choose from' this generation. Can't say there's a clear winner tbh
tpucdn.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-founders-edition/images/front_small.jpg
tpucdn.com/review/amd-radeon-rx-6800/images/front_small.jpg
Sure, that's great for SFF builders, but I would argue that most people are building in mATX or ATX enclosures that tout sufficient GPU clearance for either camp.
Avoid the gamer math if 78%-74%=4%!
6%, as your image is from the 3090 review, and the performance isn't relative if you aren't going to compare the relative card.
The 6800 over-clocks with the same power consumption and gains 9.1% more performance.
www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-radeon-rx-6800/40.html
"While there is a voltage adjustment slider in Radeon Settings, it only lets you undervolt the card, which can still be useful. "
Meaning its still 10% more power efficient than the 3070 while being 15% faster with its stock voltage.
tpucdn.com/review/amd-radeon-rx-6800/images/performance-per-watt_2560-1440.png
Performance per dollar, yes, its about 5% too expensive at MSRP compared to the 3070. I will only use MSRP as NEITHER card has any availaibity at MSRP. that I can find. You can whine aobut scalping all you want, but AMD has limited dies and Nvidia doesn't seem to care.
Your complaint about DLSS and how AMD doesn't have it, but them complained about dynamic resolution (same difference really) on the consoles, and AMD has something in the works, and just to point out, DLSS only works with 18 games unless I am reading it wrong.
Also worth noting that only a few games are now using the DLSS 2.0 and enabling it with ray tracing and other effects to clean up the image tanks performance.
hothardware.com/reviews/investigating-nvidia-dlss-20-in-mechwarrior-5-and-control
I see no reason DLSS is being sold as for use with tensor cores when Control ( a RTRT and DLSS game) is listed as using shaders for the computational work, much like PhysX was 90% precooked effects and 10% real time, and it is still locked in their black box.
HUBS graph with 18 games and 1% lows show a solid 15% to the 6800 over the 3070. TPU is a little dx11 happy IMHO.
As for the 6700, I think it will be much closer to the 6800 despite having only 67% of the CUs. Navi seems to like narrow and fast as compared to wide and slow. Just look at how well the PS5 performs against the Series X on 3rd party titles.
If scaling is consistent, the 3060ti should be an additional 15% below the 3070.
Therefore, the 3060ti and 6700xt should be very close. I think AMD will be able to undercut Nvidia on price as they are shaving off memory bus and vram while the 3060ti looks to be getting the same memory system as the 3070.
I'd not go below 3060 Ti or 6700XT for 1440p/144Hz
I'd not buy 3070 for 4K gaming, it's incredible for 1440p high refresh rate gaming tho
From Techpowerup 6800 review:
6800 wins by 4% @1080P
6800 wins by 6% @1440P
6800 wins by 8% @4K
3070 beats in RT and DLSS
AMD will improve RT performance over the next year and have an answer to DLSS.
They are both great cards for 1440p I chose the 6800, because I want the 16GB framebuffer for the future.