Radeon RX 6800 / 6800XT: the synthesis

The two AMD cards are now officially available…a word to put into perspective because from the Xbox to the 6800XT via the RTX, all these products that shine in the media, also shine by their absence on the shelves of our (E-) retailers. What lessons can we learn from these first “real” tests with the cards in our hands?

RX 6800 Competitive but Nvidia still there…

The tested versions are reference models. The majority of the media have run these two cards with their “stock” frequencies.
The French prices of the RX 6800 and RX 6800XT are €589.99 and €659.99 respectively. These prices are a good surprise and better than expected.
Both cards have a very flattering finish and above all, the level of silence obtained is simply remarkable.
The 6800XT’s PCB seems particularly favourable for overclocking with no less than 15 phases for the power supply. The design is much less dense than what is found at Nvidia, undoubtedly allowing the various components to breathe a little better.
The RX 6800XT plays equally well with the RTX 3080FE if one synthesizes most games in 1080P/1440P or 4K. The RTX 3080FE is clearly ahead when it comes to raytracing.
The RX 6800 is significantly ahead of the RTX 3070FE but is positioned 50€ higher than the 3070FE.

Does this photo of the moment represent the real situation?

In the opinion of all of Nvidia’s partner brands, the price of the RTX 3000 “founders” cards is particularly low and above all, it is not sustainable for them. This situation has clearly been observed with the arrival of the “customs” models, which rarely bring low profits for a much higher price.
If we sum up all the tests carried out to date, the RTX 3080 is between 5 and 7% ahead of the RX 6800XT. With this method we obtain an average from no less than 224 tests, which gives us a clear idea of the difference in performance between the AMD Radeon RX 6800 and RTX 3000 GPUs.
If overclocking is “injected” on the RX 6000 and in particular the RX 6800XT the scores soar. It is noticed that the capacities of this card, with its original cooling system, are particularly impressive. A few hours ago, a Radeon RX 6800 XT managed to outperform the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 in the HWBOT competition around 3DMark Fire Strike. The card was running in original air cooling at a frequency of 2.65Ghz…
Conclusion: We need prices and customs models
Reality will be judged by prices. Currently, the price of the rarely available RTX 3080s is much higher than the advertised price of the 3080FE (itself unavailable).
Will the RX6800XT and 6800 follow this trend with generalised inflation?
The customs models of the partners are expected with higher frequencies and more aggressive prices: we will have to check all that and redo our tests.
There is also the debate about drivers / software. When we talk about the evolutivity of AMD drivers, which generally strongly improve performance over time, others will talk about their instability and other urban legends that we have been hearing for years.
Finally, Raytracing or AMD is clearly underneath even if its impact is currently very limited, contrary to the rarely mentioned contribution of DLSS.