AMD reveal Radeon RX 6900 XT, 6800 XT and 6800 GPUs

So, today’s the day that AMD finally fully unveiled their Radeon RX 6000 series GPU lineup which included the 6800, 6800 XT, and 6900 XT, rivaling the three 30 series Nvidia counterparts.

Again, similar to AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series CPU reveal, we got Dr. Su opening the event and Laura Smith going on to give us all the juicy details that we’ve been looking for since these graphics cards were first announced, including how RDNA2 architecture allows 50%+ improvement on power per watt, as well as improvements to overall efficiencies.

We also got to see the performance in games like Dirt 5, World of Warcraft, and the Rift Breaker where we experienced the power of ray tracing and more. Moving to the finer in-game performance details, there were FPS levels of up to 113 in Battlefield 5, 138 in Doom Eternal, and 91 in Call of Duty Modern Warfare. These levels of performance were to be expected of this generation of graphics cards but it was great to see it in action.

Now, post-event, we have all the info around the GPU specs, the price, and when we’ll actually be able to hold one of these powerhouses in our hands.

Let’s go through all the key parts of the presentation that you came here to see, so read on to soak up all that knowledge on the next generation AMD GPUs!

AMD Smart Access Memory

AMD Smart Access Memory unlocks a greater amount of high-speed memory between the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series and the AMD Ryzen 500 series CPUs to provide even greater performance in games. This performance increase can range from as little as 4% all the way up to 13% all at 4k resolutions.

Infinity Cache

Infinity Cache leverages efficiencies and utilizes the Ryzen 5000 series Zen 3 cache to create a caching system that reduces latency, removes bottlenecks, and enables better power consumption. All these come together to provide two times the bandwidth than you’d traditionally expect.

Rage Mode

Rage Mode could be pretty revolutionary for the average gamer who’s a little scared of going into the finer details of their GPU allowing you to overclock it with just one click, removing the worry of getting it wrong. This gives you better performance at the push of a button and is something that we’re sure all gamers will enjoy.

After there has been a number of rumors circulating the web around the power of the 6000 series GPUs, thanks to today’s announcement, we finally got the cold, hard facts from Dr. Su and Co. on how these new graphics cards are going to perform, and how well they stack up against the impressive nature of Nvidia’s RTX 30 series.

These performance figures were surprising in some ways and less so in others with on-par or better performance in a number of games but, also worse in others. Moreover, the FPS figures were shown with the new ‘Smart Access Memory’ and ‘Rage Mode’ enabled on the 6800XT and 6900XT models so it’s unclear to see what the performance levels look like without these two features.

Below, you can see a breakdown of the specs from the full Radeon RX 6000 series lineup including the one everyone wants more info on, the 6900XT (Big Navi).

AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT

• 80 Compute Units
• 2015MHz Game Clock
• 2250MHz Boost Clock
• 128MB Infinity Cache
• 16GB GDDR6 Memory
• 300W Total Board Power

AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT

• 72 Compute Units
• 2015MHz Game Clock
• 2250MHz Boost Clock
• 128MB Infinity Cache
• 16GB GDDR6 Memory
• 250W Total Board Power

AMD Radeon RX 6800

• 60 Compute Units
• 1815MHz Game Clock
• 2105MHz Boost Clock
• 128MB Infinity Cache
• 16GB GDDR6 Memory
• 250W Total Board Power

The deciding factor when anyone is looking to purchase new PC components, or any tech in general, is how much it’s going to cost. With the slightly raised prices of the recently revealed Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, many had concerns that AMD might come in again at a little higher cost to their usual more budget-friendly baseline. However, they didn’t disappoint, coming in certainly more consumer-friendly overall when pitting them against Nvidia.

Looking closer at the three graphics cards, you’re going to be paying a retail price of $999 for the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, $649 for the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, and $579 for the more budget PC build-friendly AMD Radeon RX 6800. These prices are very respectable especially when put next to the Nvidia 30 series.

AMD has remained pretty tight-lipped on the release date of the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series and only a few rumors doing the rounds stating that the release window would be mid-November.

These rumors were somewhat true and the actual release date for the announced graphics cards is November 18th for both the AMD Radeon RX 6800XT and AMD Radeon RX 6800, with the AMD Radeon RX 6900XT coming at a later date of December 8th. This certainly makes this quarter an extremely busy time for AMD not only releasing both the Ryzen 5000 series CPUs and these Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs, but also putting pen to paper on a number of acquisitions, expanding the already growing company.

What are your thoughts on the October 28th AMD Radeon RX 6000 series GPU announcement? Did you see all you needed to for clicking that purchase button on one of these graphics cards? Or should Nvidia be crowned as the king of this generation? Let us know in the comments down below.