*multiple sources* AMD GPU reveal info thread (Updated: review)

[ENTERPRISE]

13 hours ago, J7SC_Orion said:

...noticed that a 6800 XT (w/ 5950X, both on LN2) took 1st place at Firestrike / Hwbot. While Firestrike is lower rez, still a big achievement, especially when considering the margin over 3090 (also LN2).

 

HWBot is not office 'productivity software', but still...the basic design of RDNA2 seems to have a lot of headroom (at lower rez, at least).

  

That is good to see ! Im really looking forward to the 6900XT to see what it brings to the table, while memory bandwidth is a big factor, I want to see how it does at 4K compared to the 6800XT

[J7SC_Orion]

9 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

That is good to see ! Im really looking forward to the 6900XT to see what it brings to the table, while memory bandwidth is a big factor, I want to see how it does at 4K compared to the 6800XT

  

...the same chap now posted 'Firestrike Extreme' today with his 6800XT...also 1st place at HWBot, but with a reduced margin over 3090 (both on LN2). I guess 'Firestrike Ultra' (4K) might be telling if/when he runs/posts that...

  

[ENTERPRISE]

2 hours ago, J7SC_Orion said:

  

...the same chap now posted 'Firestrike Extreme' today with his 6800XT...also 1st place at HWBot, but with a reduced margin over 3090 (both on LN2). I guess 'Firestrike Ultra' (4K) might be telling if/when he runs/posts that...

  

Fingers crossed, would be great to see. Though all in all, not long to wait until launch day reviews.

[Sir Beregond]

On 11/20/2020 at 5:59 PM, tictoc said:

If gaming (or a number of other workloads) is the #1 priority, then an NVIDIA GPU is really the only option that makes sense.  In addition to the outright stellar performance, the ecosystem has many more bells and whistles than the bare-bones offerings from AMD. ¢¢

This is why I think the Radeon cards are overpriced relative to their GeForce competition (though I think those are overpriced too, but for different reasons and that's another discussion). 

 

There's a lot of Nvidia features I will never use or care about, but...total package comparison between the two definitely shows some weaknesses of the software side of Radeon as well as some other features if you care about them and that makes the price of the Radeon cards less attractive. 6800 XT should have been $599 maximum.

 

Honestly am very on the fence again. Cyberpunk is really the next game I am waiting for and with recent news may be forcing me back towards grabbing a 3080 or theoretical future 3080 Ti (though that one will depend on pricing).

Edited November 23, 2020 by Sir Beregond

[Sir Beregond]

On 11/20/2020 at 3:39 AM, Mistio said:

 

1. BSODs galore when performing their reviews

 

Good info, but I'm going to need a source on this point.

 

EDIT: Didn't mean to double-post. Think I messed up trying to double quote.

Edited November 23, 2020 by Sir Beregond

[Mistio]

On 11/21/2020 at 2:48 PM, W95CIH said:

 

While some of your post is accurate, some sounds suspect.

 

Can you provide links or proof about BSODs? Ive not seen anything about that. (are you talking about big navi, or some old usless previous gpu review?)

 

 

Hey, 

 

Sorry the notification system here is not my best friend. 
Apologies did not see your post. 

I checked a few of the videos now on youtube and they seem to be offline. 

What I found any remnant of BSODS was the one form Jay2cents where he says he is not very happy with the AMD software because when he overlocks he gets a lot of BSODS. Or was it Steve from GN? I looked through all the videos I saw this past week and my head is a jumbled mess. 

 

[J7SC_Orion]

On 11/22/2020 at 5:00 PM, ENTERPRISE said:

Fingers crossed, would be great to see. Though all in all, not long to wait until launch day reviews.

  

...as somewhat expected, Firestrike Ultra (4K) showed a slightly different result (4th overall) by the same competitor with the 6800 XT...still an incredible result at 2800 MHz, though. But somewhere between 1440 and 4K, the relatively narrow 256 bit memory bus starts to play a role for the Radeon 6K. For anything less than 4K, the Radeon 6K seems to be a very interesting choice.

 

Also, the 6900 XT results are getting closer...should be interesting !

  

 

[ENTERPRISE]

Below 4K it is certainly rocking away. Memory bandwidth will be a limiting factor for 4K as we know but would like to see if SAM maturity will help with this. The 6900XT is still going to be a promising high end contender, but hoping SAM pulls it off and we dont end up with an "AMD done goofed" moment when it comes to 4K.

[Sir Beregond]

I think I am over it now. AIB models for 6800 XT released with $800 MSRPs. All 17 of them worldwide. What a joke. Between availability and actual pricing, I have no excitement left for this new gen and building a new rig next year to replace this one.

 

Yeah will check back in March and maybe availability will be better. Not counting on pricing being any better. I guess at this stage just not holding my breath.

Edited November 25, 2020 by Sir Beregond

[J7SC_Orion]

...interesting, including re. 4K

  

 

[Darkpriest667]

On 11/25/2020 at 4:37 PM, Sir Beregond said:

I think I am over it now. AIB models for 6800 XT released with $800 MSRPs. All 17 of them worldwide. What a joke. Between availability and actual pricing, I have no excitement left for this new gen and building a new rig next year to replace this one.

 

Yeah will check back in March and maybe availability will be better. Not counting on pricing being any better. I guess at this stage just not holding my breath.

 

 

Underwhelming and disappointing on availability and pricing. What a waste of an opportunity to win the hearts and minds of consumers

[Farih]

On 11/27/2020 at 12:16 AM, Darkpriest667 said:

 

 

Underwhelming and disappointing on availability and pricing. What a waste of an opportunity to win the hearts and minds of consumers

 

Performance wise and priced at MSRP they look really good, would love an AIB 6800XT which should cost a bit less then a 3080 AIB and overclock the life out of it.

Definitely underwhelming and disappointing on availability and how they been priced way over MSRP. 

Here in EU a 6800XT AIB will cost 100 to 150,- euro more then a AIB 3080, if you can even get one  
For that kinda money i would rather have a 3080 but its not like you can actually get those either.

[ENTERPRISE]

On 11/25/2020 at 10:37 PM, Sir Beregond said:

I think I am over it now. AIB models for 6800 XT released with $800 MSRPs. All 17 of them worldwide. What a joke. Between availability and actual pricing, I have no excitement left for this new gen and building a new rig next year to replace this one.

 

Yeah will check back in March and maybe availability will be better. Not counting on pricing being any better. I guess at this stage just not holding my breath.

 

The stock levels were a joke. I did not have the funds anyway but I did watch them sell out instantly. Looking at all the reviews thus far, for gaming they are impressive (6800XT) the ray tracing was never going to be uber as its first gen for AMD. I think the star of the show will be the 6900XT in price vs performance in comparison to the Nvidia 3090. Still expensive at approx $999 but if you are looking at matching a 3090 and not too fussed by RT then the 6900/6800XT is a good deal.

 

Other than that, it was a silly launch and we need more AIB cards out.

[Falknir]

Agreed.  I was hoping the new AMD cards would have better RT performance.  I am still waiting to get a RTX 3090.  I was hoping the RX 6000 series would reduce some of the demand on the RTX 30 series, but that didn't seem to pan out.

[J7SC_Orion]

Since it is all academic anyhow (re. general availability), I am waiting to see what the 6900 XT can do vs. the RTX 3090. Like others here, I suspect the 6900 XT will be a monster on apps that don't use RTX, and I also still wonder about VRAM bandwidth at 4K (even with Infinity Cache).

 

As to Radeon 6K alleviating excess demand for RTX 3K, they both seem to be in tight supply (foundries' bookings ? / yields ?) and both facing an unexpected extra demand, courtesy of Covid-19...a lot of folks working from home, Zooming and doing other modern office-type functions realized that their 'ancient' desktop that worked fine for email and browsing wasn't up to do much more on productivity and gaming. Perhaps they finally appreciate all the upgrades their IT dep't had done over the years at their (formerly) regular work place  

 

Other folks who appreciate shiny new GPUs are apparently coin miners, allegedly doing bulk deals with NVidia directly on big chunks of RTX 3K output...

  

Edited November 28, 2020 by J7SC_Orion

[J7SC_Orion]

^^ and if that wasn't enough, more here   ...tomorrow (8th) is the 'official' and much anticipated release date for AMD's counterpart flagship, the 6900 XT. I hope it fares better re. supply, but I'm not holding my breath 

[Sir Beregond]

All I can think: Grossly overpriced.

[J7SC_Orion]

...good point, but a.) it's apparently still $500 '''cheaper''' than the 3090 and b.) you likely can't buy it easily anyway, given high binning and supply constraints 

[Mistio]

Jay might get in trouble for being so transparent with his review. 

He did not recommend this with the current software and drivers. 

The card comes out of the box on a 250W limit. 

Temps on parts are all over the place with this limit and clocks yoyo as well. 

The card has excessive spikes in power draw and Linus had to swap his PSU because the bench test would shut down. 

Coming back to Jay when he unlocked the 300w limit he saw temps of 110 degrees on the card. 

Fan curve is not good with this beta software and while the clocks hit 2500 performance is all over the place. 

Classic AMD : good hardware , same issues with the software. 

Thank god there is no supply because AMD can focus on fixing both the BIOS and drivers. 

 

Assuming you play a certain game and you buy this. 
You find out that a 3070 is better. 

What will you do? 

The AMD FineWine (tm) should no longer be so important. 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by Mistio

[J7SC_Orion]

48 minutes ago, Mistio said:

Jay might get in trouble for being so transparent with his review. 

He did not recommend this with the current software and drivers. 

The card comes out of the box on a 250W limit. 

Temps on parts are all over the place with this limit and clocks yoyo as well. 

The card has excessive spikes in power draw and Linus had to swap his PSU because the bench test would shut down. 

Coming back to Jay when he unlocked the 300w limit he saw temps of 110 degrees on the card. 

Fan curve is not good with this beta software and while the clocks hit 2500 performance is all over the place. 

Classic AMD : good hardware , same issues with the software. 

Thank god there is no supply because AMD can focus on fixing both the BIOS and drivers. 

 

Assuming you play a certain game and you buy this. 
You find out that a 3070 is better. 

What will you do? 

The AMD FineWine (tm) should no longer be so important. 

 

 

 

 

    

...rather than repeat everything about what I just posted here  (primarily on the RTX 3K supply), I add that so far, I have only seen GN's and a few other 6900XT reviews,  and beyond that expect the supply issues to be similar. 

 

What's more, AMD's bios and driver team don't seem to have been ready yet @ release of the 6900 XT. It may very well be a good card, but I do think that the 4K constraints via VRAM bus and also ray tracing / DLSS are NOT 'unimportant'.

 

I was / am rooting for the 6900 XT. What really disappoints me though is where I have a lot of background, and that is MS FS 2020 (currently DX11) compared to the 2x 2080 Tis I run at 4K / ultra...neither the RTX 3900 nor the 6900 XT would tempt me in the slightest on that.

 

But leaving all that behind, there's another big issue...over the last several years, PC sales (including many components) were flat to slightly down-sloping, due also to the rise of smart phones, tablets and consoles, if one believes the analysts' reports. Yet now, there's this giant opportunity posed by Covid-19 via  a lot of folks spending way more time and home (work and play) and discovering that their ancient PCs really should have been upgraded years ago, both for productivity and entertainment...only they can't get any decent supply of any new higher-end stuff...

 

..yes, vendors may not be at fault, given the dearth of what's coming down the pipeline from the foundries on the higher-end into vendor sales channels. But really, after all these years, this turns out to be an inflexible industry when facing with a big gift-wrapped  global opportunity 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by J7SC_Orion

[ENTERPRISE]

The 6900XT is not too bad so far as the reviews I have seen. RT performance is as expected which is ...well a shame even though realistic considering it is AMD's first go at it. The standard rasterization is great though and considering the price difference can be compelling. I am just not sold right yet. Being that I run at 4K which is where Nvidia shine, and the fact the Nvidia ecosystem is much healthier, I am still pulled towards green.

[J7SC_Orion]

21 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

The 6900XT is not too bad so far as the reviews I have seen. RT performance is as expected which is ...well a shame even though realistic considering it is AMD's first go at it. The standard rasterization is great though and considering the price difference can be compelling. I am just not sold right yet. Being that I run at 4K which is where Nvidia shine, and the fact the Nvidia ecosystem is much healthier, I am still pulled towards green.

  

The 6900XT probably should have been released with better RT drivers than just DirectX  DXR, because it is otherwise a very nice card. For comparison, I re-run my 2080 TIs (oc, stock bios, single and NVL) for Port Royal and the comp charts are in the spoiler.

 

I think the RT for 6800/6900 series can be fixed with driver updates, but as mentioned, the 4K VRAM bandwidth gives me pause, even when compared to a 2080 Ti. So far 2x 2080 Ti have given me no reason to even think of upgrading to either RTX 3K or XT 6K (can't think of anything to match it in MS FS 2020, e.g.). I hope that I can get 2x 2080 Ti working also in Cyberpunk 2077 (find out soon), perhaps with some NVInspector profile trickery.

 

I'll revisit this whole upgrade question in earnest in a couple of months when more mature drivers and patches are out, and availability (hopefully) has improved.

  

Spoiler

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by J7SC_Orion

[ENTERPRISE]

19 hours ago, J7SC_Orion said:

  

The 6900XT probably should have been released with better RT drivers than just DirectX  DXR, because it is otherwise a very nice card. For comparison, I re-run my 2080 TIs (oc, stock bios, single and NVL) for Port Royal and the comp charts are in the spoiler.

 

I think the RT for 6800/6900 series can be fixed with driver updates, but as mentioned, the 4K VRAM bandwidth gives me pause, even when compared to a 2080 Ti. So far 2x 2080 Ti have given me no reason to even think of upgrading to either RTX 3K or XT 6K (can't think of anything to match it in MS FS 2020, e.g.). I hope that I can get 2x 2080 Ti working also in Cyberpunk 2077 (find out soon), perhaps with some NVInspector profile trickery.

 

I'll revisit this whole upgrade question in earnest in a couple of months when more mature drivers and patches are out, and availability (hopefully) has improved.

  

  Reveal hidden contents

 

While drivers are certainly immature for the 6000 GPU's and one can hope that future optimization as well as Fidelity FX will improve there overall standing. For me the 4K performance could be an issue and that is a hardware limitation which will not improve, granted Fidelity FX may take some of the strain when it comes along.

 

On another note, looks life the AMD reference cards could be over : 

 

[Sir Beregond]

On 12/8/2020 at 2:55 PM, J7SC_Orion said:

...good point, but a.) it's apparently still $500 '''cheaper''' than the 3090 and b.) you likely can't buy it easily anyway, given high binning and supply constraints 

 

Ok they are both grossly overpriced, one worse than the other.

[J7SC_Orion]

...first few HWBot appearances for 6900XT look pretty good, especially for being on air (!!). As expected, higher resolutions mean less of an advantage for the 6900X compared to RTX 3090, if not disadvantage...should be interesting to see a 6900XT 3GHz ceiling settings with sub-zero...