Is the RX 6800 XT future-proof?

AMDs powerful contender has a lot to offer but not everyone might be convinced

Updated: Oct 26, 2022 2:36 pm

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

The AMD RX 6800 XT is a significant step in AMD’s return to the premium GPU market. Even though it performs similarly to Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080, this great graphics card outperforms it in some games (such as Resident Evil Village at 1440p without ray tracing on), performs worse in others, and has a little lower price. 

Yes, the 6800 XT is a future-proof graphics card; for $649 (about £649, AU$960), gamers can acquire the new AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, which offers 4K gaming power and cutting-edge capabilities like ray tracing. It means gamers who wish to save money will have more economical 4K gaming options.

The RDNA 2 graphics architecture, which is still based on a 7nm manufacturing process, serves as the foundation for the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. These graphics cards are significantly more potent than their predecessors’ thanks to AMD’s incorporation of new features and increased efficiency rather than decreasing the die. 

It makes no sense to upgrade your PC if you currently have an RTX 2000 or Radeon 5000 series GPU and intend to play games at 1080p. The cards from the previous generation are more than capable of playing any game you throw at them. However, purchasing a new GPU may be better if you intend to game at 2K or 4K resolutions, but only once the cost has decreased. 

However, a realistic evaluation shows that AMD and Nvidia essentially trade blows, with AMD lagging behind in terms of ray tracing. It’s up to you if RTX matters to you or not. But what makes the Radeon RX 6800 XT so interesting is that it is effectively a more powerful version of the GPU found inside the Xbox Series X and PS5.

This would imply that games for the upcoming console generation will be easier to optimize for this graphics card. Games like Assassins Creed Odyssey and Far Cry 5, which aren’t next-generation titles but are mostly tuned for AMD hardware, demonstrate the advantages of this and just how far performance can be improved by optimization.

Is the RX 6800 XT worth it?

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a significant step in AMD’s return to the premium GPU market. Even though it performs similarly to Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080, this outstanding graphics card outperforms it in some games (such as Resident Evil Village at 1440p without ray tracing on), performs worse in others, and has a little lower price. 

For $649 (about £649, AU$960), gamers can acquire the new AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, which offers 4K gaming power and cutting-edge capabilities like ray tracing. It means gamers who wish to save money will have more economical 4K gaming options.

In every workload, the 6800 XT outperforms the 3070 and wins by a significant margin. This makes the 6800 XT an excellent choice to take into account if customers wish to use their PCs only for gaming. Before purchasing an RX 6800 XT, though, there are a few more things to think about. 

Radeon graphics cards do, however, have some drawbacks. These GPUs’ ray tracing implementations are not as well-done as those in Nvidia’s Ampere products. The Radeon 6800 XT lags behind the competition in games that heavily utilize ray tracing.

Apart from this, purchasing any graphics card that costs more than $500 in the current market is not a good idea. Both Nvidia and AMD will release their respective next-generation Radeon RX 7000 and RTX 4000 series graphics cards.

The performance of the upcoming graphics cards will be improved at a lower cost. According to standard patterns, the next Radeon RX 7700 XT will perform better than the 6800 XT while costing less.

However, gamers using a 6800 XT don’t need to worry. Their graphics card will continue to lead the performance rankings for at least a few more years. Without making any concessions, the GPU was designed for next-generation 4K gaming, and the Radeon juggernaut performs flawlessly.