2021- Fastest AMD Graphics Cards Best Radeon RX 6900 XT Review

The fastest graphics card, AMD has ever made. The Radeon Rx6900 XT and this amd graphics card's best GPU right here is supposed to leave the RTX 3080 into dust and go head to head with an RTX 3090, but then with a somewhat more attractive price.

So, in theory, this card should cost you $1,000 but you know considering the current state of the whole market with almost no cards available thus far.

I suppose this price will probably be a bit different in the days to come. Either way, I would say I personally still find it exciting to see AMD competing with Nvidia's finest and bringing some serious competition to this high-end segment, as well.

So without further ado let's see how fast it is and if it managed to dethrone Nvidia. Let's begin.

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2021 Fastest amd graphics cards best Radeon RX 6900 XT Review

The 6900 XT looks familiar because it has the same design as the 6800 XT pretty much down to every single detail that also kind of makes sense as the 6900 XT is a better bench 6800 XT with a couple of extra cores and slightly better efficiency and that means that it should offer more performance at the same 300 watts TDP.

Now I don't mind a design, but I'm not a huge fan of those one color accents because it makes it harder to match with other components or a build, you have in mind.

Now this amd graphics cards best logo right here is RGB and you can change its color in the software, but these lines will still stay red.

It is exceptionally well-built out, it's completely made out of metal and it's very sturdy with a solid three fan solution, but I still think they should have done something different on their flagship graphics cards latest, you know, to make it stand out a bit more.

It'll be nice to see a stealthy black addition for example or change the red trim to a silver one or maybe even an RGB one so you have an option to pick a color yourself because right now. It just looks exactly like the AMD 6800 XT graphics card.

Now they do include a mousepad and radium keycap in the box, but I would personally rather see something on the card itself.

When it comes to connections you will need eight-pin power connectors to power it up, and in the back, you get to DisplayPort 1.4 connections. One HDMI 2.1 connection and a USB type C connection.

When it comes to features there is a fast off mode when the car is not doing that much. And that's pretty much it.

Performance

So let's jump straight to performance. And since there are a lot of factors that we need to consider like CPU options ray tracing and the fact that, you know, some games just prefer Nvidia over AMD and amd graphics cards vs Nvidia.

I thought it would be easier to just break it down a bit and compare it to different graphics cards, one by one, so let's start with the 6800 XT amd graphics cards ranking on DDP you can see an image of a CPU bottleneck in a couple of games likes Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Far Cry five, and the division.

There's a couple of games that do show a bigger difference like Legion and eternal, but in most games, we're looking at a 2% to 8% improvement, on average, the 6900 XT ends up around 5% ahead of the 6800 XT on what is the resolution, the 6900 XT starts to pull ahead a bit, except for Odyssey which is again a CPU bottleneck, the 6900 XT is now around seven to 12% faster. In most triple, Titles, because do scale so well.

The 12% difference is probably the best indication of the performance gain you can expect in a well-optimized title, but on average, the 6800 XT ends up being 8% faster than the 6800 XT in these triple.

With a title on 4k, the CPU becomes less of a factor. It is now seven to 12% ahead in every title on this list, with an average of 9%.

Unlike when you're comparing AMD to Nvidia cards, the 6900 XT is consistently faster in every single title that is a little brother.

So I would say it's a straight-up upgrade. I don't think it's a $350 upgrade or that paying 50% more for a 9% performance increase is a great deal in any way.

But keep in mind you can get the 6800 XT at the MSRP which should be $650, and in most cases, you will have to pay closer to eight, or $900.

If you find one at all so, at the moment, the 6900 XT does sound like a pretty good deal. If you can buy one. And if the price ends up being around $1,000 or euros.

But there is a lot of ifs and realistically you should just probably mentally prepare yourself for a poor stock situation yet again, and much higher prices.

How Do the amd graphics cards compare to Nvidia RTX 3080?

But how do amd graphics cards comparison or compared to the Nvidia RTX 3080? Now until at fi the results are all over the place I would say some games run better on a 6900 XT like Assassin's Creed Valhalla for example where you can see a huge difference between these cards.

Well, other games run better on the RTx 3080 with differences, up to 15% in some games. On average, the 6900 XT is about three and a half percent ahead, and that is pretty much because of all holla, and the 36% difference in that game alone.

But if I make a game out and compared it to the rest of the results, the average will come down to around one and a half percent.

The point I want to make here is that if you take a different set of games, you will end up with a completely different conclusion because like I said at the start.

Some games prefer one card over the other, and in most cases, by aloft now on a 1440p resolution the 6900 XT starts to pull ahead a bit more.

Some games will still favor and video control for example, but in most games, the 6900 XT ends up. It's about 10% faster in games like Shadow the Tomb Raider and doom eternal and in some games the differences, even larger.

Again Valhalla is about 30% faster at in Borderlands three around 20%, on average, it is about five to 7% ahead of the RT x 3080, depending on whether you count the extremes, or not.

4k Resolution

Now on a 4k resolution, the same trend continues. The RTX 3080 is still ahead in one or two titles like control and Division Two for example, and it is close in several other titles, but the 6900 XT falls further ahead in some other games so Odyssey Borderlands and does all show more than a 10% improvement, with an average of just under 6% now considering this is supposed to be a $1,000 card and the Rtx 3080 is meant to be a $700 card.

The Nvidia RTX 3080 does seem, you know a bit more attractive as I will say you shouldn't spend $300 extra for a couple of percents more.

The Nvidia card RTX 3080 is mostly sold out as well. Now I did see that you can pre-order some pretty good customer ones for around 800 euros.

At least here in the Netherlands, but they're still not in the actual stock, and keep in mind that 3080 came out three months ago, but if you do manage to get one for that price, I would say it's a more reasonable choice, in my opinion.

If you don't really care about the price and you just want the very best for your system, you would have to choose between this amd RX 6900xt graphics card, and the RTx 3090 and 1080P the 6900xt amd graphics cards do manage to beat to RTX 3090 GPU in a couple of games like Total War Troy Borderlands three and doom eternal and Valhalla women insane 30% advantage.

But it also loses by a significant margin in other games like Assassin's Creed Odyssey like Division 2, Metro Exodus, and control it ends up balancing out completely.

And I would say if you ignore that one extreme result and video would be two and a half percent ahead. But again, that all depends on which games test on 1440 p the differences per game do shrink a bit so with both Nvidia and AMD taking a couple of wins.

On average that 3090 manages to pull up. Just one to 2% ahead, which I still think it's a fantastic result for a much cheaper RX 6900 XT or 4k resolution, though the 3090 starts moving ahead a little bit in most of the games, AMD do they had an odyssey and watchdogs Legion, but the RTx 3090 is now a bit more ahead in most other titles leading by an average of 6%.

Now if we just look at price and percentages between these two cards and videos extreme pricing does make this AMD card looks very attractive in comparison.

But I would still say it's in a bit of a rough spot because if you're looking for value, both 6800 XT and RTX 3080 are even more attractive alternatives.

And if you're just looking for the very best that money can buy and you just don't care what it costs, the student ID is still ahead on average, at least in the games I've tested, and it comes with a more complete feature package because you know there is more to a GPU than pure performance.

Since the video has been at this top-level for a longer period of time they had more time to work on features, while AMD was working on this high-end performance, so I would say they're still ahead feature-wise.

Now you probably noticed I didn't include any ray tracing titles in the benchmarks before, and that is simply because real-time ray tracing experience with AMD just isn't there yet, in my opinion, it does work in some titles, but it really falls short in others, and I'm just talking about pure performance here, not the initials.

Now Nvidia had a two-year head start here and that shows, in my opinion, so I do think AMD just needs a bit more time to finalize this as well.

Though not saying you should care about ray tracing in any way. But it is being added to more and more titles and when everything else is equal.

It's at the very least, a very nice bonus to consider when choosing your next graphics card right now another feature that AMD still needs to release is the answer to Nvidia's DLSS upscaling. Now they said they are working on it at the moment but it's not out yet.

And as the real-time ray tracing with AMD cards gives a huge performance hit, they could use that feature to balance it out, and even, you know without ray tracing it will help performance in some of the heaviest titles on higher resolutions, as well.

Also, if you're a streamer if you're considering streaming or, you know if you're working in Adobe Premiere, for example, Nvidia and encoder do have advantages and make it an obvious choice here.

I do understand that this amd graphics cards best Rx 6900 XT is supposed to be powerful for rendering and computer applications in general.

So if you're into that you should check some other reviews that covered that in depth.

Because this 6900 XT might end up doing better in DaVinci Resolve, for example, I use premiere and I didn't have enough time to test other applications yet.

But there is one feature that AMD did first and still does better. Technically, and that is the smart access memory.

So it allows an AMD GPU to squeeze a little bit of extra performance when paired with an AMD CPU, but keep in mind it is just a small performance upgrade and only in a couple of specific titles so you shouldn't expect it to be a huge boost, or you should expect this feature to change the balance between the cards that much.

Thermals noise and power consumption

No thermals noise and power consumption is just something that you know I'll talk a bit more when we start getting some custom RX 6900 XT cards, but for now, I'm just going to compare this card amd graphics cards comparison quickly to the RX 6800 XT.

Since both cards have the same 300 watts TDP power consumption is expected to be very similar, but it ended up the same at 306 watts, which is not bad for the 6900 XT since you do get more performance out of it.

Your overall system will use a little bit more, as higher frame rates mean your CPU will probably work a bit harder as well.

Assuming you have a high-end CPU with a card like this, you will probably want to look at a 750-watt power supply at the very least, or an 850-watt model, if you want to overclock.

But even though it's the same cooler and the same power use the 6900 XT does run a little bit louder. 30 decibels isn't much, but it is a bit more than on the 6800 XT.

It looks like AMD has set a fan profile to target a 95-degree hot-spot temperature with both 6800 XT and 6900 XT GPU showing almost exactly that now. 95 does seem a little bit hot to me personally but AMD says that up to 110 is fine and within spec.

I do think that the reference model will be completely fine for most purposes, or most builders out there, but I cannot personally wait to see what custom cards will bring with their custom designs.

But I have to say, I'm kind of left with mixed feelings about this card. Now, on one hand, I'm impressed that AMD managed to make such an impressive card that you know beats the rtx3080 and bring some good competition to the much, much more expensive RTX 3090.

They finally offer a proper choice in this highest segment, and you know if they follow the same trajectory as they did with the ryzen CPUs.

The GPU market is going to become interesting in the years to come. But like I said for the Nvidia Rtx 3090, I think this card is also in a bit of a difficult spot. It's faster than the 6800 XT, but it also loses all sense of value.

The 6800 XT and the Nvidia Rtx 3080 are only a couple of percent slower, but they're much, much cheaper.

So the 6900 XT offers good value when compared to the RTX 3090, but that is only because it has such a terrible value to begin with, which doesn't kind of make it any better in my opinion.

Conclusion

And if you don't care about how much you spend, and just want the fastest card out there. The Nvidia graphics card RTX 3090 is still technically faster.

Even though we're only talking about a couple of percents. So that makes the 6900 XT mostly for gamers that don't care about money but still prefer an AMD GPU.

That's a pretty specific group of gamers. Now all of this is just theory crafting we'll have to wait a bit more to see the actual stock and actual pricing of these cards to draw you know a proper conclusion in the next few days.

As of right now, the amd graphics cards best GPU would be the one you can buy, but that changes I do hope that this review will help you make a better decision when the time comes.

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