Sapphire Radeon RX 6800 XT NITRO+ review

AMD recently introduced Big Navi, marking the arrival of the highly anticipated graphics cards from the company. The Sapphire Radeon RX 6800 XT NITRO+ is one such card that we are reviewing, featuring a custom PCB, custom cooler, and higher clock speeds. The wait for these cards has been long, both for AMD and for us. The previous NAVI-based cards, such as the 5600 and 5700 series, offered good performance, but the focus was always on the release of Big Navi. Now, in November 2020, the landscape has changed significantly. With the addition of Raytracing, specifically DirectX Raytracing (DX-R), the competition has evolved. While NVIDIA led the way with their RTX 2000 series, AMD chose to delay this feature for the original Navi GPU. However, with the shift in the graphics market and the confirmation of Raytracing support in Microsoft and Sony consoles, AMD adjusted its roadmap accordingly. The new GPUs are all based on Big Navi, utilizing an optimized 7nm node from TSMC. These cards are PCIe 4.0 compatible and feature a 1:1 ratio of hardware-accelerated RT cores to CU count. Positioned in the high-end to enthusiast-class category, the pricing reflects their performance levels. The flagship Radeon RX 6900 XT, the RX 6800 XT at 649 USD, and the Radeon RX 6800 at 579 USD. These cards offer performance comparable to the RTX 3070 up to the RTX 3090, thanks to architectural improvements and increased transistor real-estate.

Radeon RX 6800 XT.

In this article, we are examining the 6800 XT, which boasts 72 activated CUs multiplied by 64 shader units, resulting in 4608 shading processors. With 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit memory bus, it distinguishes itself from NVIDIA’s new GDDR6X memory used in the RTX 3080 and 3090. This configuration provides a memory bandwidth of 512 GB/s, equivalent to the GeForce RTX 3070. The TDP for this product is rated at 300 watts. The boost clock of 2250 GHz is impressive, while the average game clock is set at 2015 MHz. A new addition is the 128 MB infinity cache, which will be further elaborated on in our final review. Positioned to compete with the GeForce RTX 3080 in terms of performance, this graphics card comes with a. A variant of this card is the Radeon RX 6800, essentially the same as the 6800 XT but with 60 CUs and 3840 shading processors. It features a slightly lower game clock of 1815 MHz and boost clock of 2105 MHz. This card is aimed at challenging the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 3070.

All three cards from AMD and their board partners will come equipped with GDDR6 memory, totaling 16 GB each. This applies to all three cards, resulting in a 256-bit wide memory bus. In terms of architecture, AMD has implemented a significant cache within the GPU. More details on this will be discussed later. In regards to power consumption, the range is between 250 to 300 Watts, which is more favorable compared to team green’s RTX 3090 that can go up to 350 Watts. All the cards are compatible with DirectX Ultimate, with this naming serving as a temporary label for additional feature levels like DirectX Raytracing (DXR), Variable Rate Shading (VRS), Mesh Shaders, and Sampler Feedback.

NITRO+

SAPPHIRE is set to release five new graphics cards in the next-gen Radeon RX 6800 series, including the RX 6800 XT NITRO+ SE, RX 6800 XT NITRO+ (non-SE), RX 6800 XT PULSE, and non-XT versions of the same cards. All of these cards feature triple-fan coolers and a 2.7-slot design with dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The premium product, the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6800 XT NITRO+ “Special Edition,” comes with RGB lighting through the fans, while the standard RX 6800 XT NITRO+ does not have RGB lighting on the front fans but does have a backside RGB lit theme. The non-XT models have a similar setup. Additionally, the PULSE series, similar to the previous generation SAPPHIRE card, does not have RGB lighting. The clock frequencies for the RX 6800 series are 1825 MHz for the base-clock, 2110 MHz for the game clock, and a boost frequency of 2360 MHz. The 16GB GDDR6 memory clocks in at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective). However, there is more to discuss and show on the next page.