AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU Review: Gaming, Thermals, Noise, & Smart Access Memory Benchmarks

This is our review of the AMD RX 6800 XT video card, looking at RDNA2 and the reference cooler vs. the RTX 3080, 3090, 3070, RX 5700 XT, & more. Includes Smart Access Memory tests.
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Watch our AMD RX 6800 XT tear-down here:    • Tear-Down: AMD RX 6800 XT Disassembly...  

Find the AMD RX 6800 XT on Amazon, in theory: https://geni.us/DfaMM
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GPU TESTING METHODOLOGY EXPLAINER:    • $13K of GPU Test Methodology: Airflow...  
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Our AMD RX 6800 XT reference video card tear-down will be posting later today, hopefully alongside the AMD RX 6800 (non-XT) review. As a reminder, the RX 6800 XT competes directly with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 cards (theoretically at $650 for the XT vs. $700 MSRP for the 3080). The RX 6800 non-XT competes with the RTX 3070 (with the 3070 running theoretically cheaper). Our review of the AMD RX 6800 XT looking at thermal design, cooling, noise levels, gaming performance, Smart Access Memory on vs. off performance, AMD Ryzen vs. Intel performance, ray tracing (RTX/DXR) benchmarks vs. NVIDIA, RDNA2 overclocking behaviors, and more. This is one of the densest-packed reviews we've published lately, and we barely finished it before embargo lift. More to come in short order. Our pressure testing and flatness testing will be pushed into a secondary piece focusing entirely on thermals, as this review ran long enough as is. PCIe 4 vs. PCIe 3 doesn't make much impact on performance, as we showed previously with the RTX 3080, and so any AMD vs. Intel CPU differences are primarily resultant of the higher performance of AMD (particularly at 1080p). Our benchmarks include 4K, 1440p (2560x1440), and 1080p for the RX 6800 XT vs. RTX 3080, et al. Smart Access Memory testing includes the requisite Ryzen 5000 (5900X) CPU, X570 board, and RX 6000 GPU. NVIDIA is working on its own competing feature, but they didn't launch it in time for this review.

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - AMD RX 6800 XT Video Card Review vs. RTX 3080
02:48 - Frequency of AMD RX 6800 XT
04:12 - RPM vs. Thermal Response
04:55 - Follow-Up Tests
05:28 - Acoustic Behavior & 6800 XT Noise Levels
06:03 - Smart Access Memory On vs. Off
06:42 - SAM: Shadow of the Tomb Raider
07:48 - SAM: Red Dead Redemption 2 on 6800 XT vs. RTX 3080
08:54 - SAM: Three Kingdoms (Battle)
09:59 - SAM: Rainbow Six Siege
11:01 - SAM: Hitman 2 Shows Wider Range
11:51 - 4K, 1440p, 1080p Tomb Raider GPU Benchmarks
13:51 - Three Kingdoms & Frametime Plot
16:47 - Horizon Zero Dawn Best Gaming GPUs (4K, 1440p, 1080p)
17:48 - Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan vs. DX12, 4K, 1440p, & 1080p)
19:26 - Other Games - Division 2, GTA V, RDR2 VLK, etc.
19:51 - RTX Games - Tomb Raider
20:33 - RTX Games - Control (DLSS Off vs. On)
21:33 - RTX Games - Minecraft RX 6800 XT Ray Tracing Benchmarks
22:31 - Power Consumption of RX 6800 XT - FurMark
23:41 - Power Consumption - TWTK
23:57 - Power Consumption - PCIe Slot Draw
24:40 - Overclock Stepping for RX 6800 XT
27:07 - Score Validation for RX 6800 XT
28:40 - Conclusion

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