Tuesday, August 31st 2021
AMD Reportedly Readying RX 6900 XTX, Bringing the Battle to NVIDIA RTX 3090
Graphics cards may be on their way to becoming unicorns that you can only pay for after finding the proverbial pot of gold from under a rainbow, but that doesn't mean AMD and NVIDIA will slow down their competition any time soon - especially in this market, there's a huge profit to be made. And AMD may just be finally readying their true halo product - a graphics card that aims to beat NVIDIA's RTX 3090 across the board. Twitter user CyberPunkCat shared an alleged AMD slide showcasing a new, overpowered RX 6900 XTX graphics card. AMD's naming scheme for their RX 6900 series may be slightly confusing nowadays: the original RX 6900 XT carries the Navi 21 XTX die, and AMD has recently released a higher-performance version of that Navi 21 chip in the form of the Navi 21 XTXH - which power the liquid-cooled versions of the RX 6900 XT, with higher overall clocks than the original GPU release. However, there hasn't been a change in the RX 6900 XT nomenclature - but this new slide suggests otherwise.
If the leaked slide is real (keep your NaCl ready, as always), it appears that the RX 6900 XTX might pair both the higher-performance Navi 21 XTXH chip with higher memory speeds. While both Navi 21 XT and Navi 21 XTXH both make use of 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory, the slide indicates that the RX 6900 XTX will feature 18 Gbps memory speeds, exploring another avenue for increased performance. This decision would bring an increase in maximum theoretical memory subsystem bandwidth from the 512 Gbps in the RX 6900 XT up to 576 Gbps - a 13% increase, which would not translate into a proportional increase in final performance. However, considering how our own reviews show that AMD's RX 6900 XT with the Navi 21 XTXH silicon is already between one and three percent faster than NVIDIA's RTX 3090, even a slight, 5% performance increase over that cards' performance means that AMD might be able to claim the performance crown for the mainstream market. It's been a while since that happened, hasn't it?
Sources:
CyberPunkCat @ Twitter, via Tom's Hardware
If the leaked slide is real (keep your NaCl ready, as always), it appears that the RX 6900 XTX might pair both the higher-performance Navi 21 XTXH chip with higher memory speeds. While both Navi 21 XT and Navi 21 XTXH both make use of 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory, the slide indicates that the RX 6900 XTX will feature 18 Gbps memory speeds, exploring another avenue for increased performance. This decision would bring an increase in maximum theoretical memory subsystem bandwidth from the 512 Gbps in the RX 6900 XT up to 576 Gbps - a 13% increase, which would not translate into a proportional increase in final performance. However, considering how our own reviews show that AMD's RX 6900 XT with the Navi 21 XTXH silicon is already between one and three percent faster than NVIDIA's RTX 3090, even a slight, 5% performance increase over that cards' performance means that AMD might be able to claim the performance crown for the mainstream market. It's been a while since that happened, hasn't it?
107 Comments on AMD Reportedly Readying RX 6900 XTX, Bringing the Battle to NVIDIA RTX 3090
There isn’t a card on the market that can handle 60 FPS solid max setting with full ray tracing. Right now it’s just there, without hardware capable of utilizing it to its potential.
Or not. Whatever. Both will just be horrifically overpriced GPUs that scalpers will have wet dreams about.
Answer to your question: I tried to see if that EE makes me care more - it didn't!
We have established that updating an RX6900XT with newer chip (XTXH) with that AMD "ultimate" liquid cooled RX6900XT bios (18gbps mem), that should work.
But will that LC bios work on those regular RX6900XT's?
And back on those days high-end cost you $500.
Last I saw at micro center powercolor 6900xt was like 2400.us+- so yeah just a tad insanely priced lol
pcper.com/2018/01/samsung-begins-mass-production-of-18-gbps-16-gigabit-gddr6-memory/See above. Samsung does make it.
Think couple weekends ago they dropped the price 200.us and a lot were gone at Houston store.
This goes back to the eternal development hell story and DirectX is not exactly known for top efficiency that way. Its a one size fits all API and its built that way, still. If you don't implement the shortcuts yourself, you have a slow piece of shit. Case in point: the actual practice since DirectX exists. Its a fine API, but don't overestimate it. Its good there is one that can cater to all things in one package. But that is what it is, not a single drop more. Its the hardware that makes the FPS appear, and the development work that determines what sort of effect you're getting presented and how much FPS it kills.
As for those four 'best being traced'... you say so, but honestly, I have yet to see any examples of it being objectively better, because its never more efficient. And on top of that I am not any more or less 'immersed' with a traced shadow or a good old shadowmap, be it for global or local shadows or lighting. In fact, many custom built effects that are tweaked to the setting work out quite a lot better for a lot less horsepower. They take work, yes, but so does anything that wants to look special. Meanwhile, Metro Exodus is full of locations that are either too dark or too bright or just not pleasant to look at.
I
The second fastest card overall and you call it "still slow" ? and then you tell people to buy "slow" console instead.....are you ok man? like mentally?
Samsung lists 12, 14 and 16Gbps GDDR6:
www.samsung.com/semiconductor/dram/gddr6/
Micron lists 12, 14 and 16Gbps GDDR6:
www.micron.com/products/ultra-bandwidth-solutions/gddr6/part-catalog
Edit:
Actually, it does look like SK Hynix is sampling 16, 18 and 20Gbps GDDR6. Mass producing only 12 and 14 Gbps GDDR6.
product.skhynix.com/products/dram/gddr/gddr6.go
_Lose to all NVidia cards by 100% for Iray rendering.
Its too bad their cards can't be used for this, otherwise I would consider having a render farm built with them whenever supply/prices become more reasonable.
No.
They make cake for those who still have money to burn.
Even if these chips were coming from higher binned preexisting silicon rather than built with new allocation, the optics of this rumor are horrible.
Why does AMD have to cave on pricing because Nvidia cards are selling or are unavailable?
If you, or the other chap I quoted, or the person(s) that like your post don't find the effects noticeable (if you/they even have an RT capable card and have tried for them/yourselves), I can't change what you notice or your visual preferences, and I don't intend to, but there are two sides to the coin. There is a group of us who are into it, who notice it, who enjoy the best of the best in graphical fidelity, and to my eyes the differences can range from natural and subtle realism, to prominent and transformative to the visual experience.
An obvious caveat would be the steeper hardware requirement, and sure, if you don't have high end hardware (or better yet if you want to play with RT, an RTX 2080TI or above) you might also not find the performance-to-visual trade-off worthwhile. For me @ 3440x1440 @144hz with an undervolted 3080, I have 0 performance issues in those games with everything maxed and DLSS quality (whole other kettle of fish if people are 'unwilling' to use it).