AMD’s RDNA 2 based Radeon Big Navi graphics cards are finally set to hit retail today, with the RX 6800 and 6800 XT reference models expected to be available across all major markets in limited quantities. In this post, we have a look at the Radeon RX 6800 and see how it holds up compared to the competition. We’ll be checking the raster performance, ray-tracing grit, and an analysis of the much-advertised Smart Access Memory (SAM) which for the time being is exclusive to the Ryzen 5000 CPU-Radeon RDNA 2 GPU combos. Finally, we’ll also try overclocking the GPU, and yes, it does really reach 2.5-2.6GHz, unless you have a really crappy part. Read our architectural deep-dive here:
AMD Radeon RDNA 2 “Big Navi” Architectural Deep Dive: A Focus on Efficiency
Test Bench
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X @ 5GHz
- Motherboard: ASRock X570 Taichi (Latest BIOS)
- Memory: Trident Z Royal 8GB x2 @ 3900MT/s (1:1:1)
- PSU: Corsair HX1000i
| Specifications | RTX 3080 | RTX 3070 | Radeon RX 6800 | Radeon RX 6800XT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shaders | 8704 | 5888 | 3840 | 4,608 |
| Ray-Accelerators/RT Cores | 68 | 46 | 60 | 72 |
| Boost Clock | 1710MHz | 1725MHz | 2,105MHz | 2,250MHz |
| Memory | 10GB GDDR6X | 8GB GDDR6 | 16GB GDDR6 | 16GB GDDR6 |
| Bus Width | 320-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Bandwidth | 760GB/s | 448GB/s | 512GB/s | 512GB/s |
| TMUs | 272 | 184 | 240 | 288 |
| ROPs | 96 | 96 | 96 | 128 |
| TDP | 320W | 220W | 250W | 300W |
| Price | $699 | $499 | $579 | $649 |
Radeon RX 6800 vs RTX 3070: 1440p Gaming Benchmarks
In general, the Radeon RX 6800 is 5-10% faster than the RTX 3070, with some AMD favored titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Borderlands 3 showing a delta as wide as 20-25%. In hindsight, that may seem like a good thing, but keep in mind that the former costs $79 more than the latter. Compared to the RTX 3080 ($699), the 6800 lags by ~15% on average, with some games like Metro Exodus and Strange Brigade extending it to 25%.
Radeon RX 6800 vs RTX 3070: 4K Gaming Benchmarks
At 4K, the Radeon RX 6800’s lead over the RTX 3070 grows to nearly 25%, with multiple entries seeing deltas of around 30%. An extra 25-30% performance for $79 seems rather acceptable, doesn’t it? On the other hand, the RTX 3080 continues to be 20-25% faster than the 6800 across most titles, although some do see the gap reduce to under 10% (Odyssey, Far Cry, Tomb Raider).
Radeon RX 6800 vs RTX 3070: Ray-Tracing Performance
Continued on the next page…
