Radeon RX 6800 & RX 6800 XT Review: AMD’s Back With Big Navi


AMD Radeon RX 6800 & 6800 XT Review: DirectX And Vulkan Game Tests

Crytek’s Neon Noir demo was created with an advanced version of CRYENGINE’s Total Illumination technology, which is used in Crysis Remastered to enhance the game’s visuals. Neon Noir was developed on a customized version of CRYENGINE 5.5., and is both API and hardware agnostic. It enables ray tracing to run on virtually any modern GPU, however, future integration of the technology will be optimized for the latest GPUs and APIs like Vulkan and DX12...

Crytek Neon Noir
API Agnostic Ray Tracing Test
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Crytek Neon Noir

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Although is uses a proprietary ray tracing method, the pecking order in Crytek's Neon Noir benchmark looks much like Port Royal. The Radeon RX 6800 XT is able to out run the 2080 Ti and 3070, but finishes well behind the GeForce RTX 3080. The Radeon RX 6800, however, ends up trailing all of the GeForces and beats on the previous-gen Radeon RX 5700 XT.

Metro Exodus
With And Without RTX / DLSS
Metro Exodus is based on author Dmitry Glukhovsky's series of Metro novels that started with Metro 2033 back in 2005. The first installment in the series was Metro 2033, which was then followed by Metro Last Light (and later, Last Light Redux). Like other games in the series, Metro Exodus follows a post-apocalyptic story line that takes place in the former Russian Federation. The game features advanced graphics and visuals and also supports NVIDIA’s RTX and DLSS technologies.

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Metro Exodus

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Radeon RX 6800 XT @4K Ultra Details

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Using the Ultra quality preset, we have a fairly right race in Metro Exodus. SAM has a minimal impact on the Radeon's performance and we see the Radeon RX 6800 XT finishing just behind the GeForce RTX 3080. The Radeon RX 6800, however, more handily outruns the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 3070 at both resolutions. But what happens when you flip on Ray Tracing?

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Radeon RX 6800 XT @4K w/ Ray Tracing Details

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When using the RTX preset (which enables DXR ray tracing effects), the Radeon RX 6800 XT ends up trailing the GeForce RTX 3080 by a much wider margin and the Radeon RX 6800 drops in behind the GeForce RTX 3070. We should also point out that this game support NVIDIA's DLSS technology, but we had it disabled here to keep the playing field level. Enabling DLSS in this game has a mostly indistinguishable impact on image quality, while simultaneously giving the GeForce RTX cards a significant performance boost.

Red Dead Redemption 2
DirectX Gaming Blockbuster
Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 is the third entry in the Red Dead series. The game’s storyline is set in 1899 and follows outlaw Arthur Morgan of the Van der Linde gang in a fictional wild-west type setting. The game features rich, detailed graphics, which can be taxing on high-performance GPUs, when cranked up to maximum image quality.
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Red Dead Redemption 2

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Enabling SAM in Red Dead Redemption 2 not only gave the Radeon RX 6800 cards a measurable overall performance boost, but drastically improved their minimum framerates. In terms of average performance, the Radeon RX 6800 XT and GeForce RTX 3080 trade victories depending on the resolution, but the Radeon RX 6800 easily dispatches the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 3070.

Gears Tactics
DirectX Tactical Shooter
Gears Tactics is a turn-based tactical game spun-off of the popular Gears of War franchise. Technically, Gears Tactics is a prequel to the first game, but it was just recently released. Like Gears 5, Gears Tactics features a wide array of graphics options that can be tweaked and tuned to optimize performance on a given system.

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Gears Tactics

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Radeon RX 6800 XT Gears Tactics @ 4K Details

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In all but one config, enabling Smart Access Memory ends up hurting the Radeons in Gears Tactics. Overall performance is still good for the Radeons, however. The Radeon RX 6800 continues to lead its contemporaries, and though the Radeon RX 6800 XT trails the RTX 3080, the deltas separating the cards are relatively small.

Far Cry New Dawn
The Dunia Engine Lives On

Next up, we’ve got some benchmark scores from Far Cry New Dawn, the latest installment in the storied franchise. Like its predecessors, Far Cry New Dawn is a fast-action shooter set in an open world environment with lush visuals and high graphics fidelity. The game takes place in a fictional county in Montana, where a cult has taken over control of the area. We tested all of the graphics cards here at multiple resolutions using Ultra Quality settings to see how they handled this recently-released AAA title.

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FarCry New Dawn

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Radeon RX 6800 XT FarCry New Dawn @ 4K Details

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FarCry New Dawn was mostly CPU bound at 1440p, so there's not much to separate the high-end cards here. With the resolution cranked up to 4K though, the Radeon RX 6800 XT scores another first place finish, with the Radeon RX 6800 trailing only the GeForce RTX 3080.

F1 2020
DirectX 12 Gaming Performance
F1 2020 is Codemaster’s latest Formula One racing simulation, and like previous version of the game, it sports impressive visuals. This latest addition to the franchise supports DirectX11 or DirectX 12, and it incorporated support for a number of AMD's FidelityFX technologies -- though we didn't enable any of them to keep the playing field level. We tested the game with its Ultra High graphics preset with TAA enabled at a couple of resolutions to see what the graphics cards could do...

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F1 2020


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The pecking order in F1 2020 looks just like FarCry New Dawn. The Radeon RX 6800 XT leads the pack with the Radeon RX 6800 falling victim only to the GeForce RTX 3070. And this is another title where enabling Smart Access Memory gives the Radeons a nice shot in the arm...

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