Find out what AMD Smart Access Memory is all about, and how to turn it on for a FREE BOOST in performance!
Smart Access Memory : PCIe Resizable BAR for AMD!
Smart Access Memory is AMD’s marketing term for their implementation of the PCI Express Resizable BAR (Base Address Registers) capability.
What does that mean exactly?
CPUs are traditionally limited to a 256 MB I/O memory address region for the GPU frame buffer. This of it as an “data dump” for stuff like textures, shaders and geometry.
Since this “data dump” is limited to 256 MB, the CPU can only send texture, shader and geometry data as and when the GPU requires them.
This introduces some latency – delay from when the GPU requires the data, and the CPU send them.
Turning on Resizable BAR or Smart Access Memory greatly expands the size of that data dump, letting the CPU directly access the GPU’s entire frame buffer memory.
Instead of transferring data when requested by the GPU, the CPU processes and stores the data directly in the graphics memory.
Graphics assets can be transferred to graphics memory in full, instead of in pieces. In addition, multiple transfers can occur simultaneously, instead of being queued up.
While this AMD graphic above suggests that Smart Access Memory will widen the memory path (and thus memory bandwidth) between the CPU and GPU, that is not true.
Smart Access Memory / Resizable BAR will not increase memory bandwidth.
What it does is let the CPU directly access the entire GPU frame buffer memory, instead of using the usual 256 MB “dump”. That reduces latency because the graphics assets are now accessible by the GPU at all times.
AMD Smart Access Memory : Performance Gains
According to AMD, enabling Smart Access Memory will give you a small but free boost of 5% to 11% in gaming performance.
You can expect up to 16% better performance in some games, but no effect in certain games. But overall, you get a free boost in performance. There is simply no reason not to enable Smart Access Memory.
1080p Resolution (1920 x 1080)
1440p Resolution (2560 x 1440)
2160p Resolution (3840 x 2160)
AMD Smart Access Memory : Requirements
Since Smart Access Memory is just an AMD implementation of PCI Express Resizable BAR. Therefore, it can be be implemented for all PCI Express 3.0 and PCI Express 4.0 graphics cards and motherboards.
If you have all of those supported components above, and updated your motherboard BIOS, you need to manually enable Smart Access Memory.
Now, the method will vary from motherboard to motherboard, and it probably won’t even be called Smart Access Memory.
Instead, look for variations of Above 4G Decoding, or Resizing BAR, or Resizable BAR, or Re-Size BAR Support.
AMD Generic Method
AMD has provided these generic steps to enable Smart Access Memory :
Enter the System BIOS by press <DEL> or <F12> during the system startup.
Navigate to the Advanced Settings or Advanced menu.
Enable “Above 4G Decoding” and “Re-Size BAR Support“.
Save the changes and restart the computer.
Step-by-Step Method For ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero
In our guide, we are using the ASUS CROSSHAIR VIII Hero (AMD X570) motherboard, as an example :
First you will need to turn off CSM (Compatibility Support Module), or make sure it’s disabled.Go to the Boot menu and look for a CSM / Compatibility Support Module option.
Set CSM (Compatibility Support Module) to Disabled.
Go to the Advanced menu and look for the PCI Subsystem. In other motherboards, look for PCIe / PCI Express configuration options.
Enable Above 4G Decoding.
This will give you access to the Re-Size BAR Support option. Set it to Auto.
Now go to the Exit menu, and select Save Changes & Reset.
It will ask you to confirm the changes. Just verify both, and click OK.
CSM is disabled by default for the ASUS, ASRock and MSI motherboards. However, it is enabled by default in the GIGABYTE AORUS X570 Master.
If you installed Windows without first turning CSM off, it will be configured as non-UEFI. It will NOT boot if you enable Resizable BAR Support (Smart Access Memory).
You will need to reinstall Windows with CSM support disabled.
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The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is here, and it only costs $479… if you can find one!
Here is what you need to know about the new 1440p gaming card from AMD!
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT : Official Launch Briefing!
AMD is targeting the Radeon RX 6700 XT at 1440p gamers, with its 40 enhanced Compute Units and 12 GB GDDR6 memory.
Let’s start with the official launch briefing by Scott Herkelman, Corporate Vice President & General Manager at the AMD Graphics Business Unit.
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT : Key Features
The AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards are built on the new RDNA 2 architecture, which features an enhanced Compute Unit, a new visual pipeline with Ray Accelerators, and the new AMD Infinity Cache.
The Ryzen 5000 processor is given greater access to its GDDR6 graphics memory, providing up to 13% better performance when combined with the new Rage Mode one-click overclocking setting.
They will support the next-generation games with greater realism through DirectX Raytracing (DXR) and Variable Rate Shading.
New Ray Accelerator
Every RDNA 2 computer unit has a new fixed-function Ray Accelerator engine to deliver real-time lighting, shadow and refection realism through DirectX Raytracing (DXR).
It can be paired with AMD FidelityFX to enable hybrid rendering, offering a combination of rasterised and ray-traced effects for a blend of better image quality and higher performance.
Variable Rate Shading (VRS)
Variable Rate Shading dynamically reduces the shading rate for areas of the frame that do not require a high level of visual quality, improving performance at little to no perceptible loss in image quality.
Microsoft DirectStorage Support
They will support the future DirectStorage API for faster load times, and high-quality textures.
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT : Specifications
The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT headlines the Radeon RX 6000 series :
Here is a table comparing their key specifications :
Specifications
RX
6900 XT
RX
6800 XT
RX
6800
RX 6700
XT
Transistors
26.8 billion
NA
Fab Process
7 nm
TGP
300 W
250 W
230 W
Compute Units
80
72
60
40
Ray Accelerators
80
72
60
40
Stream Processors
5120
4608
3840
2560
Game Clock
2015 MHz
2015 MHz
1815 MHz
2424 MHz
Boost Clock
2250 MHz
2250 MHz
2105 MHz
2581 MHz
TFLOPS
23.04
20.74
16.17
13.21
TMUs
320
288
240
192
Max. Texture Rate
720 GT/s
648 GT/s
505 GT/s
495 GT/s
ROPs
128
96
64
Max. Pixel Rate
288 GP/s
202 GP/s
165 GP/s
Infinity Cache
128 MB
Graphics
Memory
16 GB GDDR6
12 GB GDDR6
Bus Width
256-bit
192-bit
Bandwidth
512 GB/s
384 GB/s
PCIe Interface
PCIe 4.0 x16
PCIe Power
2 x 8-pin
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT : Performance
AMD shared these performance charts to demonstrate its gaming performance at the 1440p resolution, beating the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti.
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT : Price + Availability
At launch, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT has a SEP (Suggested E-tail Price) of US$479, which is approximately £343 / A$614 / S$638 / RM1,940.
The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT will be available from AMD board partners like ASRock, ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, PowerColor, Sapphire and XFX starting 18 March 2021.
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Take a look at the AMD Radeon RX 6800’s Vulkan Ray Tracing performance in Quake 2 RTX – the world’s first cross-vendor Vulkan Ray Tracing game!
Vulkan Ray Tracing : What Is It?
Vulkan is an open-source and cross-platform graphics API. It offers better performance to graphics APIs like OpenGL, DirectX and Metal.
In November 2020, The Khronos Group released the final Vulkan Ray Tracing extension specifications, followed by an upgraded Vulkan SDK with full Ray Tracing support on 15 December 2020.
This allows developers to easily integrate ray tracing into their games for any GPU that supports the “VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline” extension.
Vulkan Ray Tracing (Quake 2 RTX) On AMD Radeon RX 6800!
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AMD claims that the Radeon RX 6900 XT is the ultimate 4K graphics card, thanks to its new RDNA 2 architecture with 80 enhanced Compute Units and 16 GB GDDR6 memory.
Let’s start with the official tech briefing and Q&A session with Nish Neelalojanan, Senior Manager of Gaming Product Management at the AMD Radeon Technologies Group.
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT : Key Features
The AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards are built on the new RDNA 2 architecture, which features an enhanced Compute Unit, a new visual pipeline with Ray Accelerators, and the new AMD Infinity Cache.
The Ryzen 5000 processor is given greater access to its GDDR6 graphics memory, providing up to 13% better performance when combined with the new Rage Mode one-click overclocking setting.
They will support the next-generation games with greater realism through DirectX Raytracing (DXR) and Variable Rate Shading.
New Ray Accelerator
Every RDNA 2 computer unit has a new fixed-function Ray Accelerator engine to deliver real-time lighting, shadow and refection realism through DirectX Raytracing (DXR).
It can be paired with AMD FidelityFX to enable hybrid rendering, offering a combination of rasterised and ray-traced effects for a blend of better image quality and higher performance.
Variable Rate Shading (VRS)
Variable Rate Shading dynamically reduces the shading rate for areas of the frame that do not require a high level of visual quality, improving performance at little to no perceptible loss in image quality.
Microsoft DirectStorage Support
They will support the future DirectStorage API for faster load times, and high-quality textures.
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT : Specifications
The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT headlines the Radeon RX 6000 series :
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Find out what AMD Smart Access Memory is all about, and how much of a performance effect it really has on the Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card!
RX 6800 XT Smart Access Memory : How Does It Improve Performance?
Smart Access Memory is really a marketing term for AMD’s implementation of the PCI Express Resizable BAR (Base Address Registers) capability.
CPUs are traditionally limited to a 256 MB I/O memory address “window” for the GPU frame buffer.
Turning on Resizable BAR or Smart Access Memory removes that small access window, letting the CPU directly access the Radeon RX 6800 XT‘s graphics memory.
While the AMD graphics above suggest that Smart Access Memory will widen the memory path, and thus memory bandwidth, between the CPU and GPU, that’s not true.
It does not increase memory bandwidth. Instead, it speeds up CPU to GPU communications, by letting the CPU directly access more of GPU memory, instead of using the usual 256 MB “window”.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Sadly, it has now been confirmed that Cyberpunk 2077 will NOT support ray tracing on AMD RDNA 2 graphics cards when it launches… 😥
Cyberpunk 2077 Ray Tracing on AMD Cards : Yes? No? Maybe?
Back in October 2020, CD PROJEKT RED art director Jakup Knapik confirmed, in a PC Gamer interview, that only NVIDIA GeForce cards will support ray tracing at launch.
However, CD PROJEKT RED lead PR manager Radek Adam Grabowski, later clarified that Cyberpunk 2077 ray tracing is based on DirectX Raytracing (DXR).
“CP2077’s implementation of ray tracing is based on fully standard DirectX Raytracing (DXR)”
Even NVIDIA’s Brian Burke noted that Cyberpunk 2077 uses the industry-standard DirectX Raytracing API :
“Cyberpunk 2077 uses the industry standard DirectX Ray Tracing API. It will work on any DXR-compatible GPU. Nothing related to Cyberpunk 2077 ray tracing is proprietary to NVIDIA”
Cyberpunk 2077 : Ray Tracing NOT Available For AMD Cards At Launch!
While they listed the new Radeon RX 6800 XT, it was for Cyberpunk 2077 without ray tracing. It was not mentioned in the “ray tracing enabled” section.
CD PROJEKT RED later confirmed that AMD Radeon RX 6000 series cards, which are based on the new RDNA 2 architecture, will NOT support ray tracing on Cyberpunk 2077 when it launches on 10 December 2020.
“We are working together with AMD to integrate ray tracing options for their graphics cards as quickly as possible,” CD PROJEKT RED wrote. “However, this will not be the case when the game launches.”
As Cyberpunk 2077 uses the industry-standard DirectX Raytracing (DXR) API, gamers are wondering – why isn’t it being implemented for AMD RDNA 2 cards?
Technically, they should be able to support ray tracing through the DXR API without any special modification in the. game.
Rumours have it that ray tracing for AMD RDNA 2 cards will be introduced via a patch in 2021.
Is it possible that CD PROJEKT RED worked out a deal with NVIDIA to reserve ray tracing support for GeForce cards for the first few months? 🤔
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The success of the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards is entirely due to the new RDNA 2 architecture.
Take a look at what’s new in the AMD RDNA 2 architecture!
AMD RDNA 2 Architecture : Tech Highlights!
The AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards are built on the new AMD RDNA 2 architecture, which features an enhanced Compute Unit, a new visual pipeline with Ray Accelerators, and the new AMD Infinity Cache.
AMD Infinity Cache
The AMD Infinity Cache is a new and very large 128 MB data cache. Think of it as an L3 cache for the GPU.
AMD added it to dramatically increase memory bandwidth, which reducing memory latency and power consumption.
They claim it delivers up to 3.25X the bandwidth of the 256-bit GDDR6 memory, and up to 2.4X more effective bandwidth per watt.
RDNA 2 introduces a new Ray Accelerator – one for each Compute Unit.
The Ray Accelerator is a fixed-function ray tracing acceleration engine to deliver real-time lighting, shadow and reflection realism through DirectX Raytracing (DXR).
It will calculate the intersections of the rays with the scene geometry as represented in a Bounding Volume Hierarchy, sort them, and return the information to the shaders for further scene traversal or result shading.
Each Ray Accelerator can calculate up to 4 rays per box intersections or 1 ray per triangle intersection per clock cycle.
Variable Rate Shading
Variable rate shading allows the GPU to better use its limited processing capability by focusing on the most important parts of the frame.
AMD RDNA 2 has variable rate shading built throughout the entire pixel pipeline, with 1 x 1, 2 x 1, 1 x 2 and 2x 2 shading rates.
RDNA 2 also allows for very fine granularity – a different shading rate can to be selected for every 8 x 8 pixels region.
Hardware Decoding + Encoding
RDNA. 2 also introduces support for hardware 8K and AV1 decoding, allowing you to stream and watch video with virtually no performance impact.
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DirectX 12 Ultimate – offering support for the next-generation games with DirectX Raytracing and Variable Rate Shading.
New Ray Accelerator – delivers real-time lighting, shadow and reflection realism through DirectX Raytracing.
Variable Rate Sharing (VRS) – dynamically reduces shading rate for better performance at little to no loss in image quality.
DirectStorage Support – delivers faster load times and high-quality textures in the future.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Price + Availability
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT has a RRP of US$649, and will be available for sale starting 18 November 2020.
Custom boards will be available from brands like ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte starting in November 2020.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Specifications
This table summarises how the RX 6800 XT compares against the RX 6900 XT and the RX 6800.
Specifications
Radeon RX
6900 XT
Radeon RX 6800 XT
Radeon RX
6800
Transistors
26.8 billion
Fab Process
7 nm
Die Size
519 mm²
Total Graphics Power
300 W
250 W
Compute Units
80
72
60
Ray Accelerators
80
72
60
Stream Processors
5120
4608
3840
Game Clock
2015 MHz
2015 MHz
1815 MHz
Boost Clock
2250 MHz
2250 MHz
2105 MHz
TFLOPS
23.04
20.74
16.17
TMUs
320
288
240
Max. Texture Rate
720 GT/s
648 GT/s
505 GT/s
ROPs
128
96
Max. Pixel Rate
288 GP/s
202 GP/s
Infinity Cache
128 MB
Graphics Memory
16 GB GDDR6 (16 Gbps)
Bus Width
256-bit
Bandwidth
512 GB/s
PCIe Interface
PCIe 4.0 x16
Unboxing The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT!
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT comes in a large and heavy cardboard box. Very heavy duty, with thick foam packaging.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Hands-On Experience!
Let’s take a closer look at the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT in our hands-on video, and pictures.
Be careful when you handle it, because it is a rather bulky and heavy card.
That’s partly because it comes with a large (and heavy) 2.5-slot cooler with triple axial fans.
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is kept cool by a really thick heatsink, covered by a shroud with triple axial fans.
Part of the reason why it’s so heavy – it has a full-length die-cast aluminium backplate at the back.
Here you can see its thick heatsink, and how its cooler is designed to suck in air from the front of the card, and exhaust the hot air from the top and the bottom of the card.
It has four display connectors. From left to right : one USB Type C port, two DisplayPort 1.4 ports, and one HDMI 2.1 port.
The card uses up to 300 watts of power, and comes with two 8-pin PCI Express power connectors.
It should work with two 6-pin power cables though – both 8-pin and 6-pin cables deliver 150 watts.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT supports PCI Express 4.0, which offers double the bandwidth of PCI Express 3.0.
However, that requires you to use a PCI Express 4.0 motherboard, like the recommended AMD X570 motherboards.
But do not fret if you are on the Intel platform. It is backward-compatible with PCI Express 3.0, and will work just fine with PCIe 3.0 motherboards.
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AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Benchmarking Notes
In this review, we will take a look at its gaming performance (with and without Smart Access Memory), and compare it to seven other graphics cards :
Our testbed pairs the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor with the ASUS CROSSHAIR VIII Hero (AMD X570) motherboard, with 32 GB of DDR4 memory.
Take a look at the Radeon RX 6800 XT in action, and listen to how quiet it sounds… even when it revs up during the strenuous part of the test!
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Peak Exhaust Temperature
We recorded the peak exhaust temperatures of those cards, to see how much heat they throw out. Take a look…
Note that these are not the recorded temperatures, but how much hotter the exhaust air is above ambient temperature.
Rated for 300 watts, AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is definitely a hot card, blowing out really hot air like a hairdryer. The good news is – its triple axial fans are quiet even during the most strenuous tests.
But please make sure your case is well-ventilated, as the hot air is expelled from the top and bottom of the card, and will recirculate within the case.
It will get really, REALLY hot inside the chassis if you don’t ventilate well!
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Performance : 3DMark
We used 3DMark’s Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme synthetic benchmarks, which offers a great approximation of gaming performance in general.
The Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme benchmarks support DirectX 12, and the latest features like asynchronous compute, and multi-threading support.
Time Spy – 2560 x 1440
Look at that! The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was about 52% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 73% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER!
In the overall gaming score, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ends up about 42% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 58% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER. Very impressive!
Time Spy Extreme – 3840 x 2160
At the higher 4K resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT did even better – it was about 56% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 77% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER!
In the overall score, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was about 48% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 65% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER!
Port Royal (Ray Tracing)
Nice! The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was about 29% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 49% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER in ray tracing!
DirectX Raytracing Test
We ran the standalone DirectX Raytracing test too, and it confirmed that the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was about 22% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 47% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER in ray tracing!
PCI Express Bandwidth
The AMD cards all support PCI Express 4.0, which gives them an edge over the NVIDIA cards.
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AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Performance : F1 2019
F1 2019 is a racing game by Codemasters, released on 28 June 2019.
We tested it on three resolutions at the Ultra High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080
1440p : 2560 x 1440
2160p : 3840 x 2160
1080p Gaming Resolution
Very impressive! The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was about 48% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 53% faster than the RX 5700 XT!
At the higher 1440p resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was 49% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, 75% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER, and 85% faster than the RX 5700 XT.
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AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Performance : Dirt 5
Dirt 5 is a brand new off-road racing game by Codemasters, released on 6 November 2020.
We tested it on three resolutions using the Ultra High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080
1440p : 2560 x 1440
2160p : 3840 x 2160
Note : This game appears to be highly-optimised for AMD graphics cards.
At this higher resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was 64% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, 73% faster than the RX 5700 XT, and 87% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER.
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AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Performance : Star Control : Origins
Star Control : Origins is a procedurally-generated action adventure game, released on 20 September 2018.
We tested it on three resolutions using the Great Graphics settings :
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AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Our Verdict + Award!
The new RDNA 2 architecture delivered what AMD promised – a serious threat to NVIDIA’s dominance in gaming performance.
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is an impressive piece of work, offering seriously good gaming performance, with really competitive ray tracing performance.
Pundits may have been worried about its relatively narrow 256-bit memory bus, but the new Infinity Cache appears to have solved that problem.
The proof is in the pudding, as they say… and our benchmarks have shown that the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a leap forward in gaming performance!
Here is a quick summary of its gaming performance over the last-generation Radeon RX 5700 XT.
As you can see, we are talking about a completely new level of gaming performance. Significant enough that it’s worth upgrading from the last-generation cards, never mind older cards!
But we do have to caution you about one thing – its considerable heat output. With a board power of 300 watts, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT produces A LOT of heat.
Fortunately, the triple axial fans are more than capable of keeping it cool… while remaining very quiet.
However, the heat it produces may interfere with CPU performance, if you are pairing it with powerful but hot 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor.
If you do not ensure that there is adequate ventilation inside the case, the heat build-up could result in thermal throttling of the CPU and/or graphics card.
That issue aside, we would like to applaud AMD for a job well done! The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is an awesome graphics card, and it deserves no less than our Editor’s Choice Award!
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Price + Availability
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT has a RRP of US$649, and will be available for sale starting 18 November 2020.
Custom boards will be available from brands like ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte starting in November 2020.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
We have been playing around with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and here is our preview of the first RDNA 2 graphics card!
Take a look at our unboxing and hands-on videos, as well as the Radeon RX 6800 XT in action!
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : A Quick Primer!
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is one of three Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards. Based on the new AMD RDNA 2 architecture, they offer these key features :
AMD Infinity Cache – a large 128 MB data cache that dramatically reduces memory latency and power consumption.
AMD Smart Access Memory – offers the Ryzen 5000 series processor greater access to its GDDR6 graphics memory for better gaming performance.
DirectX 12 Ultimate – offering support for the next-generation games with DirectX Raytracing and Variable Rate Shading.
New Ray Accelerator – delivers real-time lighting, shadow and reflection realism through DirectX Raytracing.
Variable Rate Sharing (VRS) – dynamically reduces shading rate for better performance at little to no loss in image quality.
DirectStorage Support – delivers faster load times and high-quality textures in the future.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Price + Availability
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT has a RRP of US$649, and will be available for sale starting 18 November 2020.
Custom boards will be available from brands like ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte starting in November 2020.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Specifications
This table summarises how the RX 6800 XT compares against the RX 6900 XT and the RX 6800.
Specifications
Radeon RX
6900 XT
Radeon RX 6800 XT
Radeon RX
6800
Transistors
26.8 billion
Fab Process
7 nm
Die Size
519 mm²
Total Graphics Power
300 W
250 W
Compute Units
80
72
60
Ray Accelerators
80
72
60
Stream Processors
5120
4608
3840
Game Clock
2015 MHz
2015 MHz
1815 MHz
Boost Clock
2250 MHz
2250 MHz
2105 MHz
TFLOPS
23.04
20.74
16.17
TMUs
320
288
240
Max. Texture Rate
720 GT/s
648 GT/s
505 GT/s
ROPs
128
96
Max. Pixel Rate
288 GP/s
202 GP/s
Infinity Cache
128 MB
Graphics Memory
16 GB GDDR6 (16 Gbps)
Bus Width
256-bit
Bandwidth
512 GB/s
PCIe Interface
PCIe 4.0 x16
Unboxing The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT!
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT comes in a large and heavy cardboard box. Very heavy duty, with thick foam packaging.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Hands-On Experience!
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a rather bulky and heavy card, because it comes with a large 2.5-slot cooler with triple axial fans.
Take a closer look at it in our hands-on video, followed by pictures of the card.
It features a die-cast aluminium backplate at the back.
Here you can see its thick heatsink, and how its cooler is designed to suck in air from the front of the card, and exhaust the hot air from the top and the bottom of the card.
It has four display connectors. From left to right : one USB Type C port, two DisplayPort 1.4 ports, and one HDMI 2.1 port.
The card uses up to 300 watts of power, and comes with two 8-pin PCI Express power connectors.
It should work with two 6-pin power cables though – both 8-pin and 6-pin cables deliver 150 watts.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT supports PCI Express 4.0, which offers double the bandwidth of PCI Express 3.0.
However, that requires you to use a PCI Express 4.0 motherboard, like the recommended AMD X570 motherboards.
But do not fret if you are on the Intel platform. It is backward-compatible with PCI Express 3.0, and will work just fine with PCIe 3.0 motherboards.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : In Action!
Our testbed pairs the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor with the ASUS CROSSHAIR VIII Hero (AMD X570) motherboard, with 32 GB of DDR4 memory.
Our benchmark results will be released tomorrow, but in the meantime, you can take a look at the Radeon RX 6800 XT in action, running 3DMark Time Spy Extreme.
Be sure to come back and check our comprehensive review tomorrow, with benchmark results!
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Infinity Cache is a brand new feature being introduced in the new Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards.
Find out what Infinity Cache does, and how much of an effect it has on gaming performance!
AMD Infinity Cache : Part Of RDNA2 Architecture
The new AMD RDNA 2 architecture introduces an enhanced compute unit, a new visual pipeline, and the all-new AMD Infinity Cache.
Thanks to these new features, RDNA 2 promises to deliver up to 54% better performance per watt over the last-generation RDNA, and up to 2.17X more bandwidth with its new Infinity Cache.
AMD Infinity Cache : L3 Cache Comes To The GPU!
AMD Radeon GPUs based on GCN and RDNA architectures have both L1 and L2 caches to keep the compute cores “fed” with data.
In the last-generation RDNA architecture, the per-core L1 cache was combined into a new 128 KB L1 cache that is shared by two Compute Units.
The 4 MB graphics L2 cache is shared globally by all of the Compute Units in the GPU.
In the new RDNA 2 architecture, AMD added Infinity Cache – a 128 MB on-die cache. This is obviously a very large L3 cache.
Even their recently announced Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X processors only come with 64 MB L3 caches.
While common in modern CPUs, this is probably the first time an L3 cache is used in a GPU.
The new NVIDIA Ampere, in comparison, uses larger L2 caches instead – 40 MB in the A100 and 6 MB in the GA102.
AMD Infinity Cache : Performance Implications
When AMD revealed the Radeon RTX 6000 series, many people noticed that all three cards only came with a 256-bit memory interface and still use GDDR6 memory.
That’s hardly competitive against the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards, with their GDDR6X memory and much wider 384-bit and 320-bit memory interfaces.
That’s where Infinity Cache comes in – it lets AMD double the memory bandwidth and reduce power consumption, while using a narrower 256-bit interface and slower GDDR6 memory.
Of the 54% boost in performance-per-watt AMD reported, it appears that more than a third of that improvement can be attributed to Infinity Cache.
Do note though that AMD is talking about performance-per-watt, not performance improvement per se.
Keeping that in mind, AMD says RDNA 2 offers twice the performance of the last-generation RDNA architecture, represented here by the Radeon RX 5700 XT.
While AMD has not shared exactly how much that performance improvement is due to Infinity Cache, we have no doubt it will be substantial, especially in high memory bandwidth use cases like 4K gaming.
We will update this article when we learn more about AMD Infinity Cache, so check back for more information!
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The AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series is built upon the new RDNA 2 architecture, which introduces an enhanced compute unit, a new visual pipeline, and the all-new AMD Infinity Cache!
RDNA 2 promises to deliver up to 54% better performance per watt over the last-generation RDNA, and up to 3.25X more bandwidth with its new Infinity Cache.
In this video, Dr. Lisa Su, Scott Kerkelman and Laura Smith shares how the new Radeon RX 6000 cards beat NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30 cards in performance, power efficiency and yes, price!
Radeon RX 6000 vs GeForce RTX 30 : Performance Comparison
Caveats
These results were provided by AMD, and have yet to be verified by independent reviewers / end users.
The games were tested with different APIs (DX12, Vulkan) and the best results were used. They are therefore, not directly comparable.
The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 cards were tested with Rage Mode and/or Smart Access Memory enabled, which may not reflect real world performance.
According to AMD, their Radeon RX 6900 XT will match or beat the GeForce RTX 3090, at a much lower price point and significantly lower power consumption.
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AMD just revealed the Radeon RX 6000 Series, featuring the Radeon RX 6900 XT, Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 graphics cards.
Here is what you need to know about these AMD Big Navi graphics cards, built on the new RDNA 2 architecture!
AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series : New RDNA 2 Architecture
The AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series is built upon the new RDNA 2 architecture, which introduces an enhanced compute unit, a new visual pipeline, and the all-new AMD Infinity Cache!
RDNA 2 promises to deliver up to 54% better performance per watt over the last-generation RDNA, and up to 2.17X more bandwidth with its new Infinity Cache.
The enhanced RDNA 2 compute unit also comes with a Ray Accelerator, which offers hardware acceleration of ray tracing workloads.
AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series : Key Features
Thanks to its new RDNA 2 architecture, the AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards offers these key features :
AMD Infinity Cache
This is a large 128 MB last-level data cache built into the die to dramatically reduce memory latency and power consumption.
The Ryzen 5000 processor is given greater access to its GDDR6 graphics memory, providing up to 13% better performance when combined with the new Rage Mode one-click overclocking setting.
DirectX 12 Ultimate Support
They will support the next-generation games with greater realism through DirectX Raytracing (DXR) and Variable Rate Shading.
New Ray Accelerator
Every RDNA 2 computer unit has a new fixed-function Ray Accelerator engine to deliver real-time lighting, shadow and refection realism through DirectX Raytracing (DXR).
It can be paired with AMD FidelityFX to enable hybrid rendering, offering a combination of rasterised and ray-traced effects for a blend of better image quality and higher performance.
Variable Rate Shading (VRS)
Variable Rate Shading dynamically reduces the shading rate for areas of the frame that do not require a high level of visual quality, improving performance at little to no perceptible loss in image quality.
Microsoft DirectStorage Support
They will support the future DirectStorage API for faster load times, and high-quality textures.
AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series : Models + Specifications
AMD is introducing three models in the Radeon RX 6000 series :
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David Wang : AMD Senior VP of Engineering, Radeon Technologis Group
David Wang is senior vice president of engineering for the Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) at AMD.
In this role, Wang is responsible for all aspects of graphics engineering, including the technical strategy, architecture, hardware and software for AMD’s graphics products and technologies
With more than 25 years of graphics and silicon engineering experience, Wang brings deep technical expertise and an excellent track record in managing complex silicon development to AMD.
AMD Graphics Roadmap 2020 by David Wang
During AMD Financial Analyst Day 2020, David Wang unveiled the AMD graphics roadmap for 2020 and beyond in his presentation – Driving GPU Leadership.
Here are the key points from David Wang’s presentation :
The AMD Radeon DNA (AMD RDNA) architecture was designed for gaming and is currently powering the award-winning AMD Radeon RX 5000 series GPUs.
Here are the key points from David Wang’s presentation :
The next-generation AMD RDNA 2 architecture is planned to deliver a 50% performance-per-watt improvement over the first-generation AMD RDNA architecture.
The AMD RDNA 2 architecture will support hardware-accelerated ray tracing, variable rate shading (VRS) and other advanced features.
The first AMD RDNA 2-based products are expected to launch in late 2020.
AMD unveiled its new AMD Compute DNA (AMD CDNA) architecture, designed to accelerate data center compute workloads.
The first-generation AMD CDNA architecture, planned to launch later in 2020, includes 2nd Generation AMD Infinity Architecture to enhance GPU to GPU connectivity and is optimized for machine learning and high-performance computing applications.
The follow-up AMD CDNA 2 architecture will support 3rd Generation AMD Infinity Architecture to enable next generation exascale-class supercomputers.
Expanding on previous generations of the ROCm open source software platform for the data center, AMD plans to introduce ROCm 4.0later this year as a complete software solution for high-performance computing exascale systems and machine learning workloads.
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AMD just concluded their 2020 Financial Analyst Day, revealing plans for the next-generation CPU and GPU roadmaps, as well as the investments they are making to drive future products!
Here is a summary of what was revealed at the AMD Financial Analyst Day 2020!
AMD Financial Analyst Day 2020 : The Full Briefing!
Most people cannot make it to AMD Financial Analyst Day 2020, so if you want to watch it all – here’s the full 3 hour-long presentation!
AMD Financial Analyst Day 2020 : What You Need To Know!
And here is a summary of what AMD revealed in their Financial Analyst 2020 presentation :
Computing Technology Updates
AMD plans to introduce the first processors based on its next-generation Zen 3 core in late 2020.
The Zen 4 core is currently in design and is targeted to use advanced 5nm process technology.
AMD unveiled plans to expand its chiplet and die stacking leadership, including new X3D packaging that combines chiplets and hybrid 2.5D and 3D die stacking to deliver more than a 10x increase in bandwidth density.
AMD announced its upcoming 3rd Generation AMD Infinity Architecture with optimized CPU and GPU memory coherency that can enable significant performance improvements and simplify the software programming required for accelerated computing solutions by allowing the CPU and GPU to seamlessly and coherently share the same memory.
AMD is building on its strong product security portfolio with expanded features. AMD announced it joined the Confidential Computing Consortium, a group of leading hardware and software companies working to close gaps to protect data through its entire lifecycle.
Graphics Technology Updates
The AMD Radeon DNA (AMD RDNA) architecture was designed for gaming and is currently powering the award-winning AMD Radeon RX 5000 series GPUs.
The next-generation AMD RDNA 2 architecture is planned to deliver a 50% performance-per-watt improvement over the first-generation AMD RDNA architecture. It will support hardware-accelerated ray tracing, variable rate shading (VRS) and other advanced features. The first AMD RDNA 2-based products are expected to launch in late 2020.
AMD unveiled its new AMD Compute DNA (AMD CDNA) architecture, designed to accelerate data center compute workloads. The first-generation AMD CDNA architecture, planned to launch later this year, includes 2nd Generation AMD Infinity Architecture to enhance GPU to GPU connectivity and is optimized for machine learning and high-performance computing applications. The follow-up AMD CDNA 2 architecture will support 3rd Generation AMD Infinity Architecture to enable next generation exascale-class supercomputers.
Expanding on previous generations of the ROCm open source software platform for the data center, AMD plans to introduce ROCm 4.0 later this year as a complete software solution for high-performance computing exascale systems and machine learning workloads.
Data Center Market Updates
AMD is powering the future of exascale computing with its CPU, GPU, interconnects and software products, including the recently announced El Capitan supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Expected to come online in 2023, El Capitan is expected to deliver more than 2 exaFLOPs of double-precision performance, making it more powerful than today’s 200 fastest supercomputers combined.
AMD is continuing to gain traction with its 2nd Generation AMD EPYC processors in enterprise, cloud and HPC markets based on delivering performance leadership and TCO advantages across the most important enterprise and cloud workloads. In 2020 we expect more than 150 AMD EPYC processor-powered cloud instances and 140 server platforms to be available.
AMD is unlocking accelerated computing with new technologies including AMD CDNA architecture, 3rd Generation Infinity Architecture and the ROCm 4.0 software platform, all of which will support the AMD-powered Frontier and El Capitan supercomputers.
Computing Market Updates
Since 2017, AMD has nearly doubled both client unit shipments and market share, built off a broad portfolio of performance-leading desktop, high-end desktop (HEDT) and notebook processors.
AMD expects to grow its performance leadership with the ramp of its 7nm Zen 2-based 3rd Generation AMD Ryzen processors designed specifically for desktops and notebooks across the consumer and commercial segments
AMD is on track to bring increased performance to the gaming, content creation and productivity markets when it delivers the first Zen 3-based AMD Ryzen product in 2020.
Graphics Market Updates
AMD partners with world-class brands to bring AMD Radeon graphics to more than 500 million gamers on the most popular devices, with the opportunity to address 2.5 billion gamers worldwide.
With Microsoft and Sony, AMD has established long-term relationships to continue market leadership as the number one silicon provider for game consoles.
AMD plans to deliver a full stack of high-performance, AMD RDNA architecture-powered graphics products to further expand the AMD Radeon install base.
AMD RDNA 2-based Navi 2X GPUs will bring uncompromised 4K gaming, new features including hardware-based ray tracing support and a significant performance uplift.
COVID-19 Statement
AMD expects the impact from COVID-19 in the first quarter to be modest, potentially resulting in revenue coming in at the lower end of the guidance of approximately $1.8 billion, plus or minus $50 million. Full year 2020 financial guidance remains unchanged.
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