Some good news and some bad news with the upcoming AMD GPU launch.
I will get the bad out of the way first. The flagship RX 6900 XT is expected to be exclusive to AMD at launch and will be available in limited quantities. So if you are looking for RTX 3080 levels of performance from the red team, you may have to wait a while or be very lucky on launch day.
AMD RX 6900 XT Specification
The limited availability of this GPU makes the good news a little frustrating. The new flagship GPU looks like it will comfortable trade blows with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080.
Based on various leaks, the RX 6900 XT will feature 80 compute units, 16GB of GDDR6 memory and a boost clock speed of 2330 MHz.
As part of the launch it is expected that just one specially selected board partner will also release a variant with a boost speed going up to 2577 MHz
If we compare this against the current AMD RX 5700 XT, you get twice the number of compute units, higher clock speeds, double the VRAM plus the benefits of RDNA 2.
It is also reported to have a TDP of 255 Watt which is only a small increase from 225W on the 5700XT
AMD RX 6900 XT vs Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
How this all translates to in performance vs the superb RTX 3080 remains unclear.
The AMD RX 6900 XT will have several advantages including:
- Smaller fabrication process of 7nm vs 8nm (which likes help with the boost frequencies and TDP_
- Much higher boose frequency of 2330 MHz vs 1450 MHz
- Likely a higher base clock (the game clock is 2040 MHz)
- 60% more VRAM of 16GB vs 10GB
- Much lower TDP of 255W vs 320W
However, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 has plenty of advantages of its own:
- More pipelines 8704 vs 5120
- Larger memory bus width of 320 bit vs 256 bit
- Faster memory with much higher bandwidth 19 GB/s and 760.3 GB/s vs 16 GB/s and 512.0 GB/s
- 2nd generation RTX technology
One big question about AMD is if they will offer something like DLSS which has a significant benefit at higher resolution gaming.
Then, of course, there is the price. Though I can’t image AMD charging more than Nvidia, that would be disastrous. Some reports suggest that the RX 6900 XT will be from $599, undercutting Nvidia by $100.
RDNA 2 Series Specification
If you are looking for something a little more affordable then the lower down models also look like they will offer impressive performance. In particular the RX 6800 XT, is not that far off its bigger brother, with 10% less compute units and a slightly lower base and boost clock.
| AMD Radeon | RX 6900 XT | RX 6800 XT | RX 6800 | RX 6700 XT | RX 6700 |
| GPU | Navi 21 XTX | Navi 21 XT | Navi 21 XL | Navi 22 | Navi 22 |
| Compute Units | 80 | 72 | 64 | 40 | ? |
| Game Clock | 2040 MHz | 2015 MHz | 1815 MHz | ? | ? |
| Boost Clock | 2330 MHz | 2250 MHz | 2105 MHz | ? | ? |
| Memory Type | 16GB GDDR6 | 16GB GDDR6 | 16GB GDDR6 | 12GB GDDR6 | ? |
| Bus Speed | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit |
| Memory Speed | 16 Gbps | 16 Gbps | 16 Gbps | ? | ? |
Posted by Mighty Gadget Blog: UK Technology News and Reviews
