AMD Radeon RX 6800 review: entry-level 4K

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When we reviewed the $499 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, we named information technology the 1440p sweet spot. At that resolve, you father't have to compromise on a single graphical setting in your games, similar to how the large $699 RTX 3080 doesn't establish you compromise at 4K. But nowadays, we're taking another look at the 3070 aboard its fres competitor, the $579 AMD Radeon RX 6800 — because if you are willing to compromise, these two card game could transform your existing rig into a in good order 4K machine.

That's something I've been waiting for. Two years agone, I invested in a 4K OLED TV. It's the most gorgeous screen in my firm out and away. I barely justified the $2,000 buy by arguing my wife and I spend the majority of our free time deep-seated on the cast. On the QT, I hoped it could double as a 4K monitor for my gaming PC likewise.

But my secondhand GeForce GTX 1080 simply didn't have the muscle to bring Recent epoch games at 4K. Even though I'm generally the sort of cheeseparing gamer willing to sacrifice whatsoever eye sugarcoat for a smooth frame range, my tweaks weren't plenty: only at the very last settings, with potato-grade textures, did new games appear vaguely playable. At the time, the only card that could competently fix that was the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, but I wasn't about to spend another $1,000-plus when I was already deuce grand in the hole.

For roughly one-half that cost, I tin now slot either of these cards into my Little Phoeb-year-old gaming PC and get a satisfying 4K experience altogether but the most intensive games. I'm actually now toying with the idea of selling my PS5 to bargain one of these instead.

Thus what you're about to read isn't a typical graphics card review. Rather, information technology's a immediate and dirty AMD Radeon RX 6800 versus Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 shootout.

*AMD Radeon RX 6800 (left), Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (right).*

The landscape

If you haven't followed graphics cards for a bit, you should know there are currently four in rivalry: the $699 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, the $499 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, the $649 AMD Radeon RTX 6800 XT, and the $579 Radeon RX 6800.

None of those prices count unless you can actually find a card, of course of instruction, but more or less speaking: Nvidia's $699 flagship RTX 3080 is the first no-compromise 4K gaming GPU, and nowadays, my colleague Tom Warren's review of the $649 Radeon RX 6800 XT shows that — for the firstly time in long time — AMD fanny actually meet Beaver State beat Nvidia's flagship, and for $50 less to thrill.

If you're the kind of person WHO's building a spic-and-span PC specifically for gaming, you power deficiency to seriously consider those flagship GPUs, particularly considering the gap between AMD's cardinal cards is just $70. But if you're connected a budget, lonesome have room for a Gemini-one-armed bandit visiting card, and / or put on't have a 750-watt power cater (a thoughtfulness for tiny-sort-factor PCs in special, A there's only a few miniskirt-PSUs that powerful happening the securities industry), I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by what the RX 6800 and RTX 3070 have to fling.

*The RX 6800's backplate, with exposed Phillips head screws.*

The run

I slotted each of the cards into my existing gaming rig: an Ncase M1 mostly filled with aging parts, including an Intel Core i5-6600K overclocked to 4.4GHz, a Gigabyte Z170 mini-ITX motherboard, 32GB of fairly standard DDR4-2666 RAM, and a 700W SFX-L power furnish. (Some AMD and Nvidia urge a 650W PSU for these particular cards, which is still much.)

While the Ncase M1 is well-known for fitting a wide array of graphics cards despite its diminutive 12.7-liter frame, you mightiness want to believe about the RTX 3070 Cave in's Edition if you're worried well-nig a tighter fit. Not only is it a booming inch shorter than the RX 6800 (9.5 inches versus 10.5 inches) and slightly slimmer, the Nvidia wit is also a bit quieter subordinate load — both in terms of the RX 6800 having a somewhat louder HUA and audibly ramping its fan up and down a shade more often in the middle of a benchmark.

As far arsenic heat's involved, it's a toss-up: some GPU sensors sounded 72 degrees Celsius in the middle of a looped benchmark. That's good, peculiarly given AMD's recent history of running hot. Otherwise, both designs seem fairly attractive to me, and I wear't mind AMD trading away peerless of its DisplayPorts for a monitor-capable USB-C connector as an alternative. My aging PC build only has one USB-C port as it is, and I'd be happy to give one with 27W charging (atomic number 3 this does) for my phone or tablet. Each hush has HDMI 2.1 and a pair of DisplayPorts and that's good enough for ME.

The GeForce RTX 3070 FE takes up less space — but its 12-pin world power connection (with only six real pins and an adapter) is kind of silly.

Exposure by Sean Hollister / The Verge and Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Only in terms of performance, I'd nibble the AMD card every time. Here's an apples-to-apples performance equivalence between both cards and my original GTX 1080, completely at 4K resolution and maximum settings:

4K performance

Game	GTX 1080	RTX 3070	RX 6800
Game	GTX 1080	RTX 3070	RX 6800
AC: Odyssey	30	50	58
AC: Valhalla	26	46	50
Arkham Knight	56	111	111
Borderlands 3 (Badass)	23	45	54
Control	18	41	42
Control (RT)	N/A	25	20
Control (RT+DLSS)	N/A	40	N/A
COD: Warzone	42	77	86
Death Stranding	45	78	91
DX: Mankind Divided	31	50	61
Gears 5	35	60	67
Microsoft Trainer	19	25	26
Metro Hegira (Extreme)	14	25	27
Metro Hegira (Ultra+RT)	N/A	35	31
Metro Hegira (RT+DLSS)	N/A	50	N/A
Fantas of the Tomb Raider	31	60	68
SotR (RT)	N/A	34	38
SotR (RT+DLSS)	N/A	56	N/A
Watch Dogs: Legion	20	42	42
The Witcher 3	30	66	80

Average Federal Protective Service at 3840 x 2160, immoderate spec unless nominative

Not only does the Radeon RX 6800 offer double the frame rate of my GTX 1080 in much every game, but it systematically beat Nvidia's RTX 3070 in every title with ray tracing turned off. And if I'm being honest, I've yet to find a single gritty where the performance hit of ray tracing is worth it for either sub-$600 card. Beam tracing is barely noticeable in Call of Tariff: Warzone, feels off-putting to ME in Control, and spell it adds some atmosphere to Metro Exodus and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, I wouldn't trade it for the crispness of native 4K resolution.

And while Tom might tell you that Nvidia's exclusive AI-upscaling DLSS technique bum give you adequate headroom with the 3070 to turn ray trace along, I think it also depends on the size of your presentation. With a smaller 4K monitor, I might be satisfied with the AI-upscaled 1440p you get with DLSS... but native 4K looks right better at the seven-understructur outdistance I sit from my 65-inch television.

It also doesn't trauma that the AMD card has 16GB of video memory — Watch Dogs: Host already more than than maxes out the RTX 3070's 8GB of VRAM at 4K ultra spec.

If you take a close look at my performance chart above, you may notice that some of those frame rates seem a bit too low to bring off. But after I took those apples-to-apples comparisons with all of the settings turned risen, I went back to each secret plan to find out how practically I had to turn them down for comfortable 4K at (or approach) 60fps. Frankly, I think this chart makes my choice even clearer:

Charles Herbert Best playable spec at 4K (YMMV)

Game	GTX 1080	RTX 3070	RX 6800
Gimpy	GTX 1080	RTX 3070	RX 6800
AC: Odyssey	Low (entirely 55fps)	High	Precise Shrilling
AC: Valhalla	Lowest (only 42fps)	Medium	High
Arkham Knight	High	Highest	Highest
Borderlands 3	Lowest	Medium/High	High/Radical
Control*	Lowest (only 35fps)	Spiritualist	Medium
COD: Warzone	Lowest	Maximum	Level bes
End Stranding	Low (only 53fps)	Maximum	Maximum
Destiny 2	Low	Maximum	Maximum
DX: World Divided	Blue (solely 50fps)	High	Ultra
Gears 5	Low	High/Goop	Maximum
Microsoft Flying Simulator	Last (sub-60fps)	Worst (sub-60fps)	Last-place (sub-60fps)
Metro Exodus	Low	Dejected/Medium	High
Dark of the Tomb Spoiler	Lowest	Highest (no RT)	Highest (no RT)
Watch Dogs: Legion	Lowest (only 40fps)	Medium	Piping
The Witcher 3	Low-down	Max (no hairworks)	Georgia home boy (no hairworks)

*Ensure feels pretty smooth north of 45fps. If two specs are listed, the high felt border.

In an older only capable screen background like mine, either of these card game can give you 4K, but AMD's card give notice notch a setting or two high in some of the more demanding games. Except for Microsoft Trainer, of course, where my articulated lorry's older 4-core, 4-thread CPU is probably holding it aft.

Everyone's a winner, but especially AMD

I'm willing to bet a great deal of PC gamers are in the same gravy holder as me: thinking about whether they should flump cash for a PS5 operating room Xbox Series X to get their 4K fix or upgrade their gaming PC. If you compare the list of GPUs every bit good or better than my GTX 1080 to the percentage of gamers who ain them in the modish Steam Hardware Follow, as many every bit 85 percent preceptor't let the graphics batting order to have it off today — but 80 percent have a quad-core CPU or major, and finished 30 percent have a CPU clocked over 3GHz.

If you can find, afford, and power a $699 RTX 3080 surgery $649 RX 6800 Crosstalk, IT could give your existing rig 4K performance definitely and a sight of future-proofing too. But the existence of two less expensive cards that can do 4K with compromises power be an easier sell. In that location, I'd give a slight edge to the RX 6800, even though Nvidia's 3070 has a lot going for information technology as symptomless. For an $80 premium, I prefer the raw operation IT offers, and information technology already seems clear its 16GB of telecasting storage might come in handy.

But gross, I imagine everyone's a winner here. Like Tom says, rivalry is great, particularly at a time when everyone's at home gambling and the best gear is very hard to find. It's unusual that both AMD and Nvidia stimulate GPUs that hit this hard under $600 once once again, instead of AMD only being competitive with budget play GPUs and letting Nvidia dominate the high end.

I'm hoping that between these four cards and price points, you'll in reality personify capable to find one if you want one since pandemic demand doesn't seem to be abating anytime soon. If non, Nvidia and AMD are sure to announce some midrange 1080p and 1440p GPUs that could spread that necessitate across a larger lineup.

Photography by Sean Hollister / The Sceptre