AMD Radeon RX 6800 Review, Best Value High-End GPU?

[Music] welcome back to harvard unboxed yesterday we checked out the new radeon rx 1600 xt and today we'll be taking a look at the non-xt version so the plain old 6800 this is the 580 model so it's only around 10 cheaper than the xt though we are looking at 17 fewer cores so it'll be interesting to see how they compare in terms of cost per frame okay so once again i'm not going to pour over all the specs as we covered that in our announcement video so if you're interested in that go check that out tim did a good job of covering amd's announcement of these new rd a2 gpus in short the 6800 is set to come in at 580 us it's based on the new rd and a2 architecture using tsmc's seven nanometer process it packs 3840 cores 240 tmus and 96 rops across 60 cus the cores clock it up to 2105 megahertz and with 16 gigabytes of 16 gigabits per second gddr6 memory on a 256 bit wide memory bus it has per second of memory bandwidth to play with finally it's rated at 250 watts total board power and of course it does support pci express 4.0 as was the case with the 6800 xt there's new features here as well such as ray tracing support 128 megabytes of amd infiniti cache and shared access memory amd also has a new reference card design the 6800 is different to the 6800xt and we'll look at that later on in the video but again it does look significantly better than anything we've seen amd produced before as a reference card so without wasting any more time let's talk about the test system and then of course jump into the blue bar graphs as i know that's what most of you are here for once again i'll be testing with my ryzen 9 3950x test system with 32 gigabytes of ddr4 3200 cl 14 memory running in a dual channel dual rank configuration okay let's get into the results once again i'll be starting with the godfall results here the 6800 was just three percent slower than the rtx 3080 so at least in this title we're now getting 3080 light performance for under 600 us that also meant it was 18 faster than the rtx 3070 and just 15 slower than the 6800 xt the margins seen at 4k are a little less impressive but even so the 6800 was still 11 faster than the rtx 3070 and just 14 slower than the 6800 xt and rtx 3080. overall a great result for amd and it wouldn't take too much to see the 6800 consistently rendering over 60 fps at 4k here it managed to just edge out the rtx 3070 at 1440p and watch dogs legion though with just 2 fps separating them it's close enough to call a draw and with 72 fps on average the 6800 was 15 slower than the 6800 xt and rtx 3080 and even at 4k we're seeing that the 6800 performs very well matching the rtx 3070 as well as nvidia's previous and very expensive previous generation flagship part the 2080 ti as seen in yesterday's 6800xt review performance of these new rd and a2 gpus in assassin's creed valhalla is exceptional and we're seeing just that once again with the 6800 as it roughly matched the rtx 3090 that means we're talking about a 27 performance improvement over the rtx 3070 at 1440p it doesn't look quite as incredible at 4k but even so here it was still 12 percent faster than the rtx 3070 and just 14 slower than the rtx 3080 another new title where the radeon gpus are currently dominating is dirt five and again we're looking at another situation where the 6800 is as fast as the rtx 3090 at 1440p making it 33 faster than the rtx 37e even at 4k the 6800 remained dominant matching the rtx 3080 to come in almost 30 percent ahead of the rtx 3070 yet another title where these rdna 2 gpus perform very well is death stranding here the 6800 was 11 faster than the 3070 at 1440p and just five percent slower than the rtx 3080 so an impressive result for a sub 600 us gpu although the rtx 3080 does pull away at 4k as it's better able to put all those calls to work the 3070 doesn't actually suffer from the same scaling issues at 1440p and therefore the margin between it and the 6800 remains much the same giving the radeon gpu a 12 performance advantage the 6800 was seen to be just six percent slower than the 6800 xt in microsoft flight simulator 2020 at 1440p and that meant it was nine percent faster than the 3070. it does slip a little at 4k and now the 6800 and 370 are both seen delivering 29 fps on average so those wanting to enjoy this flight simulator in all of its glory with either of these gpus should do so at 1440p the shadow of the tomb raider performance at 1440p is quite good here the 6800 was again 12 faster than the rtx 3070 and just 12 slower than the 6800 xt increasing the resolution of 4k did reduce the margins ever so slightly but even so the 6800 was still 9 faster than the 370 it was also just 11 slower than the 6800 xt so overall a very strong result given the price prior to the release of amp just two months ago now 255 fps at 1440p was the most any gpu could render in this title and it set you back 1200 us for that luxury we're now looking at an additional 16 performance for just 580 us that's pretty cool and even at 4k the 6800 manages to nudge ahead of the 2080 ti by nine percent margin and the 30 70 by a seven percent margin and with 147 fps on average that is a pretty great 4k experience next up we have f1 2020 and at 1440p we're looking at a 13 boost for the 6800 over the rtx 3070 taking the average frame rate to 171 fps interestingly the 6800 fares much better at 4k relative to the 3070 beating it by a rather large 18 margin taking the average frame rate from 93 fps right up to 110 fps it was also just 11 slower than the 6800 xt gears 5 is yet another title where the 6800 performs exceptionally well almost matching the rtx 3080 at 1440p which meant it was 14 faster than the rtx 3070 interestingly at 4k the 6800 was just five percent slower than the 6800 xt and that meant it was 11 faster than the rtx 3070 the big amp gpus do enjoy a reasonably large performance advantage but even so the 580 us6080 is pushing up over 60 fps which is very impressive at 4k we see that the 6800 is able to push up over 100 fps and horizon zero dawn and with 105 fps on average it was nine percent faster than 3070 and just 10 slower than the 6800 xt and rtx 3080. then at 4k we're looking at 60fps on average which is a rather large 18 boost over the 2080 ti and 7 over the 37e the assassin's creed odyssey results are a bit odd as the 6800 basically matched the performance of the 6800 xt i'm suspicious that this is some kind of driver issue though it seems more a case that the 6800 performs just much better than expected as it's 20 faster than the 3070 at 1440p and even at 4k the 6800 is a beast basically matching the xt version and rtx 3080 again making it much faster than the 37e oddly we're seeing the exact same thing in world war z the 6800 is seen delivering basically the same level of performance as the xt model and that meant it was almost 20 faster than 3070 and 7 faster than a 3080 even at 4k the performance is far better than you expect it to be based on many of the other games we've already looked at here the 6800 is 44 faster than 30 70 and 8 percent faster than the 3080 so pretty incredible stuff moving on to the metro exodus results here we're again looking at very strong performance from the 6800 as it almost matched the rtx 3080 making it nine percent faster than the 37e the margins do open up at 4k but even so the 6800 remains strong edging out the 3070 to come in 11 slower than the xt model we're also looking at a strong performance advantage over the rtx 3070 in resident evil 3. at 1440p the 6800 was 19 faster and just nine percent slower than the 6800 xt it also remained dominant over the 30 70 at 4k beating it by a convincing 19 margin and was again just 9 slower than the xt model we're also looking at a 16 performance advantage going the way of the 6800 over the rtx 3070 in doom eternal though we are talking about 242 fps versus 281 fps at 1440p at 4k the rtx 3070 starts to run into a vram capacity issue as this game requires nine gigabytes of vram using these quality settings at 4k and as a result the 6800 extends its lead to 31 going from 120 fps right up to a 157 fps the second last game tested is wolfenstein youngblood and here we're looking at fairly typical margins at 1440p the 6800 was 9 faster than the 3070 and 10 slower than the 6800 xt we're seeing much the same at 4k the 6800 was 7 faster than the 3070 and 12 slower than the xt model last up we have hitman 2 and this game is cpu limited at 1440p with the higher end gpus so we're not seeing much of a difference between the 3070 and 6800 xt i will update these results with the ryzen 9 5950x in the near future looking at the 4k data which is in no way cpu limited we see that the 6800 is 11 faster than the 30 70 and 11 slower than the xt model which is very well in line with most of the other games tested okay so here's a look at the 18 game averages starting with the 1080p data we didn't go over all the 1080p graphs in the video to save time and 1440p and 4k really is the focus for gpus priced at or above 500 us i did test at this resolution though and those graphs will be made available to our patreon and floatplane members for everyone else we still have the 18 game average data and here the 6800 was 10 percent faster than the 30 70 and just four percent slower than the 3080 and nine percent slower than the 6800 xt now at 1440p the margins start to open up a bit here the 6800 was four percent faster than the 3070 on average and just seven percent slower than the rtx 3080. it was also just nine percent slower than the 600 xt so in terms of cost per frame i imagine the 6800 is going to do very well at 1440p we'll look at that in a moment finally at 4k the 6800 was 15 faster than the rtx 3070 and 10 slower than the 6800 xt when compared to the rtx 3080 it was also just 14 slower which is quite impressive given that it does cost 17 percent less now here's a better look at the value equation using the 1080p data we said the 6800 is slightly better value than the xt model though we are only talking about a very slight improvement here it also comes in at a six percent premium over the 30 70 but please note that doesn't factor in the fact that the 6800 packs twice as much of vram and i feel that is a small premium to pay for a 16 gigabyte capacity at 1440p the 6800 is one of the best actually i'd argue it is the best value gp on the market we're talking about the same cost per frame as the 30 70 but again with twice as much vram that just makes the 6800 a much better value product moving forward in my opinion and here we're looking at much the same at 4k the 3070 and 6800 are neck and neck in the value department based on the games we have available today but i'd expect the 6800 to develop a lead over the 30 70 in future more demanding titles as was the case with yesterday's 6800xt review i haven't had that much time to test ray tracing performance yet it was actually quite a low priority for me but it seems as though it's going to be a case where titles that are optimized for the turing and amp gpus work better with those architectures so no surprises there in my opinion the performance hit for some slightly better shadows is just absurd with the rtx 3080 and it's a complete joke with the 6800 dropping from 133 fps right down to 68 fps although the 6800 scales better in dirt 5 and is competitive with the rtx 3080 we're still talking about a 17 reduction in frame rate for what i'd argue is no noticeable improvement in image quality now if you missed yesterday's 6800 xt review i suggest you go back and watch it if you're after an explanation of what shared access memory or sam is as i won't repeat all of that here rather i'll just get into the results with sam enabled the 6800 is able to match the performance of the 6800 xt with sam disabled so we're looking at a 13 performance boost here basically with sam enabled the 6800 is 45 faster than the rtx 3070 in assassin's creed valhalla at 1440p then at 4k we're looking at a 12 performance uplift for the 6800 with sam enabled and that meant it was now 28 faster than the rtx 3070 and basically on par with the rtx 3080 sam isn't quite as powerful in rainbow six siege but we're still looking at a four percent boost for the 6800 and that meant it was now 16 faster than the rtx 3070 at 1440p the effect is lessened at 4k and here the 6800 saw a three percent boost with sam enabled but that did mean it was now 10 faster than the rtx 3070 so it got it up to a double digit gain then in shadow of the tomb raider we're looking at a five percent boost with sam enabled taking the 6800 up to 139 fps on average at 1440p and that meant it was now 16 faster than the rtx 3070 again we're looking at just a three percent performance uplift at 4k but that meant the 6800 was now 13 faster than the rtx 3070 moving on to power consumption here the 6800 pushed total system usage to 424 watts which is very reasonable given the performance and is similar to what we saw with the rtx 2080 and 2080 super and not a great deal more than the 5700 xt it's also a 12 reduction when compared to the 6800 xt and a 14 increase when compared to the rtx 3070 now looking at the power draw for just the graphics card we see that the 6800 draws 245 watts which is an 18 reduction from the 6800 xt and just eight percent more than the rtx 3070 it's also slightly less than the 5700 xt and the reason the margins vary a little bit from what we saw in the total system consumption figures is down to the fact that the 3950x has to work harder with the faster graphics cards and therefore draws more power but here we are removing the 3950x from the equation now looking at performance per watt we see that the 6800 is the most power efficient gpu we've ever tested beating even the rtx 3070 you're also getting about eight percent more performance per watt when compared to the 6800 xt when it comes to operating noise and temperatures the rx 6800 isn't quite as impressive as the fatta xt model whereas the xt version peaked at 75 degrees with a 1600 rpm fan speed the slower non-xt version ran it up to 85 degrees with an 1800 rpm fan speed so a little louder and 10 degrees hotter and this is of course because it is a dual slot card and not a two and a half slot card that takes up three slots that said as far as reference designs go the 6800 is still very good as was the case with the 6800xt the oc headroom is still very limited stock the card operates the cores at 2.2 gigahertz overclocked it averaged hundred and ten 2310 so a measly five percent increase in operating frequency and that increased the operating temperature by seven degrees and the fan speed by 200 rpm just three weeks ago now nvidia impressed me with their rtx 3070 offering 2080 ti light performance for 500 us though at the time i was hesitant to recommend it given that we knew amd would be pushing out our dna 2 products with a similar price but with significantly more vram i also noted that it was unlikely you'd be able to purchase the 3070 before the release of the next gen ryzen products anyway so nvidia probably did you a bit of a favor there and it turns out that's exactly what they've done as good as the 3070s performance is right now i feel even for 1440p gaming and that gigabyte vrm buffer is going to be less than ideal in the not too distant future it's perfectly acceptable on a 300 us or cheaper product in my opinion but 500 u.s is just too much to be spending on a graphics card in late 2020 with just 8 gigabytes of vram thankfully for just 80 us more you now have the option of the radeon rx 6800 which packs twice as much vram and despite costing 16 more is already offering gamers around 16 more performance on average with gains significantly higher in some games it's also well worth noting that of the 18 games test that we didn't find a single instance where the rtx 3070 was faster than the 6800 as noted in yesterday's review of the 6800 xt the only advantage of the ampere gpus is the more mature ray tracing support and dlss 2.0 both of which are questionable features and in our opinion aren't major selling points unless you play a specific selection of games ray tracing performance is even worse with the rtx 3070 and while dlss 2.0 is a really neat feature game support is still extremely limited meanwhile the advantages of the 6800 include the much bigger vram buffer and sam support the larger vram buffer will no doubt prove highly beneficial for all games that require more than eight gigabytes of vram like what we're already seeing with do maternal while sam is a super neat feature that boosts performance in almost all games though right now it is limited to ryzen 5000 owners using a 500 series chipset it's also worth noting that we are expecting the rtx 3070 in all amp gpus for that matter to receive sam support in the near future based on claims recently made by nvidia so should nvidia get sam support out soon the only real advantage of the radeon rx 6800 is the 16 gigabyte vrm buffer but i've got to say that's probably all it really needs personally at this point in time i would not spend 500 us or more on a graphics card with just 8 gigabytes of vram and that makes the 6800 the obvious choice for me of course there's still the matter of availability right now you can't buy an rtx 3070 and availability looks as though it's going to be just as terrible as it was for the 3080 and 3090 models so i don't expect that you're about to easily buy one anytime soon the 6800 series technically isn't arriving until the 25th when amd's partners release their custom designed models but of course you can expect those to sell out very quickly as well so in my opinion the real test will be how quickly amd can get on top of demand i'm really hoping that we start seeing good availability about three to four weeks after release and if that is the case the 6800 will beat the 3070 regardless of my recommendation anyway fingers crossed for good availability and not another ampere because that would be quite disastrous for not just amd but gamers as a whole but yeah that is going to do it for this one the radeon rx 6800 is a beast offering gamers exceptionally good value and it is the number one choice in my opinion for those spending around 600 us if you enjoyed this video please do give it a like and you can subscribe for more content because there will be much more coming of course and also we have floatplane and patreon if you'd like to sign up there the links for that is in the video description it'll get you access to our exclusive discord chat where tim and myself chat with you guys there we also do a monthly live stream where we talk to you guys live q and a's behind the scenes videos if you're interested as the link is in the video description check that out if not perfectly fine and i would like to just thank you for watching this video i'm your host steve and i'll see you again next time [Music] you

Channel: Hardware Unboxed

Views: 222,730

Keywords: hardware unboxed

Id: -Y26liH-poM

Length: 20min 56sec (1256 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 19 2020