AMD RX 6800 vs 6800 XT

AMD has been trying hard to compete in the high-end graphics card market for some time. But it was falling short of the competition from Nvidia’s top-of-the-line GPUs. Things started to change with AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture and the launch of RX 6000 Series of Graphics Cards. The Radeon RX 6800 and the RX 6800 XT are a couple of high-end GPUs from AMD that are competing with the likes of RTX 3070 and RTX 3080. Due to their better price to performance figures, gamers and PC Builders are interested in these cards. So, we decided to make an RX 6800 vs 6800 XT comparison guide.

We will take a look at the basic specs of these two GPUs. After that, we will compare AMD RX 6800 vs 6800 XT against some popular titles and synthetic benchmarks.

A Brief Note on RX 6800

AMD RX 6800 is a high-end graphics cards based on the RDNA 2 Microarchitecture. TSMC produced these GPUs using their 7 nm process node.

It was launched along side the RX 6800 XT, which we will cover in the next section. Both these cards are in the same performance range as the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 respectively.

Coming back to the RX 6800, it has 60 compute units and a whooping 16 GB of video memory. But the interesting thing about RDNA 2 Architecture is the Infinity Cache. The 128 MB of Infinity Cache on RX 6800 can act as a “memory bandwidth amplifier”.

All this cache is available to the GPU Core and it can access huge amount of data in a single go, thereby reducing the rendering times for game plays as well as video rendering.

AMD Radeon RX 6800 is a proper 4K Gaming Graphics Card, where you can easily get 60 to 70 fps in 4K Ultra settings. Considering its launch MSRP of $579, we see this being a popular choice for 1440 or even 4K gaming builds.

A Brief Note on RX 6800 XT

Let’s us quickly jump to the bigger brother of RX 6800; the RX 6800 XT. AMD launched this card simultaneously with the RX 6800.

It has 72 compute unit but retained the 16 GB GDDR6 video memory (RAM) and 128 MB Infinity Cache.

Even with its launch MSRP of $649, which is less than the $699 of RTX 3080, it offered similar or better performance than the RTX 3080. As the hype was real after initial reviews and performance numbers came out, it was sold-out within seconds of the launch.

With more compute units and graphic cores than the RX 6800, the RX 6800 XT definitely offers a better 4K gaming performance. But if 1440p is your preferred resolution, then behold the monster. Here, the RX 6800 XT outperforms even the mighty RTX 3090 is some popular AAA titles.

Considering its low price and significantly better performance in gaming and comparable performance in other GPU intensive tasks, the RX 6800 XT became the popular choice for most high-end gaming or video rendering PC builds.

Comparison of RX 6800 vs 6800 XT

Differences between RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT

Both the RX 6800 and the RX 6800 XT are based on AMD’s RDNA 2 Microarchitecture. TSMC manufactured both these GPU using its 7 nm process node.

Coming to the “GPU” side of the cards, here is where the main differences lie between them. The RX 6800’s GPU Core is Navi 21 XL while it is Navi 21 XT. RX 6800 has 3840 GPU Cores and 60 compute units.

While the RX 6800 XT has a significantly more 4608 GPU cores and 72 compute units. This difference in the “GPU Core” will impact the performance, which we will see in the next section.

Both these graphics cards support up to 16 GB of GDDR6 Video Memory and 128 MB of Infinity Cache.

The TDP (or TBP – Typical Board Power, as AMD likes to call) of RX 6800 is 250 watts while it is 300 watts for the RX 6800 XT.

Performance of RX 6800 vs 6800 XT

Let us now see some numbers. We will compare the performance of RX 6800 vs 6800 XT with respect to some benchmarks as well as some popular games.

4K Ultra or Extreme Settings

1440p Ultra or Extreme Settings

We are completely blown away by the performance of both the RX 6800 and the RX 6800 XT. In both 4K Ultra as well as 1440p Ultra settings, the RX 6800 XT could easily outperform RTX 3080. Its performance was close to RTX 3090 and even the RTX 3090Ti in some games.

The RX 6800 on the other hand, gave a very tough competition to RTX 3070, RX 3080 and even RTX 3090 in some titles. For the MSRP, both RX 6800 and the RX 6800 XT are excellent graphics cards.

Conclusion

AMD’s RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT are two high-end graphics cards based on the RDNA 2 Microarchitecture. They have a lower MSRP than some competing graphics cards from team green. But their performance was exceptional.

As a result, both RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT are a popular choice for high-end gaming PCs.

In this guide, we saw the basic specs of RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT. After that, we compared RX 6800 vs 6800 XT and listed their differences.

Finally, we put some performance numbers, using some popular AAA titles as reference.