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RX 6800XT VS RTX 3080 || Is RX 6800XT Ray Tracing Performance Lower than RTX 3080?

Nvidia’s 3000 series graphics cards are launched with their new innovative features, while The unveiling of the most expected new AMD Radeon RX 6000 series about a month ago made talk about these graphics cards. After an extended period, AMD has finally brought a graphics series that can beat Nvidia.

Among both series, we will focus here on  RX  6800 XT vs RTX 3080  because they are the head to head competitors in the graphics battle. AMD RX 6800 XT is ready to enthrall the players with their impressive features, performance, and well-price. Besides, the RTX 3080 is one step forward with its ray-tracing performance.

Let’s have a look at their comparison and make a clear understanding of your best pick!

Here, the notable thing is that in the event the CEO Dr. Lisa Su and GM Scott Herkelman remains lacking in their information about Ray Tracing Performance of the whole RDNA 2 lineup. And now we have the reason that the RX 6000 series, mostly the RX 6800XT, failed to compete with the RTX 3080 in Ray Tracing performance.   But between RX 6800XT vs RTX 3080, is RX 6800 XT Ray Tracing Performance Lower than RTX 3080?

AMD Radeon RX 6000 lineup features Ray Accelerators (RA) for  GPUs ray tracing leverage. The Hardware Accelerated Raytracing diagram indicates that each computes unit belongs to one of the Ray Accelerators.

So you’ll find Radeon RX 6900XT comes with 80 RAs,  the RX 6800 XT with 72 RAs, and the RX 6800 carries 60 RAs. The  RDNA 2 based gaming consoles will feature the same Ray Accelerator as these GPUs.

RX  6800 XT vs RTX 3080: The  Spec Comparison Table

If you are looking for the critical distinctions between RX  6800 XT vs RTX 3080 graphics cards, take a look at our comparison table and get your basic idea at a glance.

RX 6800 XTRTX 3080
Compute Units
72N/A
Cuda Cores
N/A8704
Game Clock
2015 MHzN/A
Boost Clock
2250 MHz1710 MHz
Base Clock
TBC1440 MHz
Memory
16 GB GDDR610 GB GDDR6X
Memory Speed
16 Gbps19 Gbps
TDP
300 W320 W
Ray Tracing Cores
7268

Check out the Price

Radeon RTX 6800 XTBest pick for superfast performance in 4K$649
GeForce RX 3080Best pick for a great light effect in Ray Tracing  $699

RX  6800 XT vs RTX 3080: Comparison of Features

It’s hard to compare the features of both the graphics cards. But we tried to make you clear about dissimilarities in their features below.

Design

image credit; optimum tech

The design of graphics cards renders an outlook and its system. Better design can serve you with a more outstanding graphics facility. Each gen graphics card changes its design to immerse the game lovers.

AMD’s new 6800 XT comes with a triple fan design for the cooling system, which replaced the predecessors’ blowing style. You must like its look as it designed a more comprehensive and better look than the previous. On top, At the side, you’ll find a pair of standard 8 pin connectors to draw power.

About Nvidia, we can say it brought a new innovative thermal design to give the maximum range of thermal performance.  You get dual axial flow through this design that makes your gaming system cool and quiet. Nvidia 3080 required a 12- pin adapter to use drawing power included in the box.

image credit: nvidia

As you can see, both graphics cards are designed uniquely; each one is ahead of the other in the key terms. In that case, you must find out your needs that would possibly match with the one.

Architecture

The architecture on which the graphics cards are built is crucial to show how efficiently the cards will perform. We all know great architecture is capable of doing superb high – quality rendering tasks.

RDNA2 architecture is used along with the 7nm process for AMD RX 6800 XT. It improves most likely 50% per watt in performance. Therefore, the most interesting part of this RDNA 2 is it included Ray Tracing hardware for the first time. This feature is going to introduce fascinating gaming to AMD’s fans. Also, you’ll get the benefit of 30% extra clock than the previous gen. Luckily, RDNA 2 required 300W TDP, which is comparatively lower than 320W of RTX 3080. That’s a plus point for AMD.

image credit: AMD

On the contrary, RTX 3080 was built on Ampere GPU architecture with an 8 nm process of Samsung splitting into two data paths. In both paths, Ampere architecture can take 2X FP32 overloads. Which means this architecture extended its power efficiency and enhanced performance with a higher level of transistor density. Besides,  RTX 3080 added a third generation tensor core and second-gen Ray Tracing cores. Based on their architecture Nvidia claimed this gen would give 2X better performance over the last-gen.

Comparatively,  RX 6800 XT and RTX 3080 differ in their technologies, metrics, or chips. So it would be best if you took the things into consideration of your choice.

Advanced  Features

AMD brought a bundle of new features into their 6000 graphic series, including Smart Access Memory that permits the CPU to fully access GPU’s memory to reduce the loading time and buffering. Besides, Rage Mode is a user-friendly feature for the quick performance boosting of GPU just clicking on a button, and another feature is DX12 Ray Tracing.

This time Nvidia specially brought 2.0 capacity DLSS on RTX 3080 that would boost the FPS comparing non-scaled images. On top-notch,  RTX 3080 seems to be excellent in raw performance because of its Cuda cores. But AMD did not bring any Cuda Cores in RTX 6800 that makes a huge difference.

In terms of advanced features, we can’t compare these graphics cards’ in direct points. But it’s easy to understand, both the graphics are quite similar in function with different technologies.

RX  6800 XT vs RTX 3080: Comparison of Performance

Memory Speed

For creating complex images in the display, many data needed to be built in high performing games. The more the amount of video Random Access Memory or VRAM, the more it can run them.

AMD used a large VRAM of 16 GB that made it worth the performance of games, but it stuck with its previous generation’s GDDR6 memory with 16Gbps of memory speed. Though its memory bus is small with 256-bit, its infinity cache of 128 Mb successfully fills the gap in 6800 XT. AMD says Infinity cache can work as a CPU in some tasks. Besides, it lowers the load of larger data operations in VRAM.

While Nvidia keeps the VRAM in 10 GB but moves forward to the latest GDDR6X of Micron with 19 Gbps memory speed, that maximizes bandwidth speed rather than GDDR6, but with the high price tag, RTX 3080 fails if you consider its small amount of VRAM, no matter what the type it is. However,  It has a larger memory bus of 320-bit that can take overloads on multitasking.

image credit: nvidia

Talking about performance, both the cards are trying to compete at the best performance level. In gaming, it’s difficult to tell which one will shine in the best performance.

4K Gaming Performance

AMD’s officially presented benchmark graph indicates that both the graphics cards perform almost similarly in 4K gaming performance. While Nvidia performs better in some games, AMD is still slightly ahead in others.

The games where AMD wins in 4K performance are – Borderlands 3, Gears of War 5, Battlefield V, Call of Duty: Modern Welfare, Shadow of the tomb, Forza 4. You can absolutely get a superfast performance if you use a new Ryzen 5000 processor.  AMD shows in their benchmarks that the 5000 processor and 6800 XT together can improve 13% performance at 4K gaming.  But in Intel or any other CPU, we can’t guarantee it performs as accurately.

Otherside, Nvidia also claimed to have superior performance in 4K gaming. The graph also shows Nvidia beating AMD in other numbers of games as Division 2, Doom Eternal, Resident Evil 3, Wolfenstein: Young Blood. That means RTX 3080 is further not behind for delivering the best 4k gaming.

Since AMD only provides this benchmark, you have to wait for third-party benchmarks for a fair result.

1440p Performance

1440p performance is needed to get more clarity in the image or video games. Comparing the graphics cards in 1440p performance refers to the similarity in beating each other in the tested games.

image credit: optimum tech

AMD also confirmed its ability in 1440p performance. For your smooth and alluring gaming experience, the display RX 6800 XT gives you 144Hz or higher in the large number of games. Moreover, 6800 XT enables you to enjoy popular Esport titles with a high refresh rate. For example, Fortnite provides up to 177 FPS in 1440p, and League of Legends gives a high FPS of 270.

Though RTX 6800 XT wins the race on a large number of games, RX 3080 does not lag behind either to show its ability on 1440p performance. 6800 XT also became the loser in many games comparing RX 3080. And what we will get the best finally is just a matter of time to be clear.

image credit: optimum tech

Ray Tracing Performance

RDNA 2 architecture is the first where AMD started their journey with Ray tracing. The RX 6800 XT carries 72 RAs.Also, The  RDNA 2 based gaming consoles feature the same Ray Accelerator as these GPUs.

On the other hand, the RTX 3080 carries 60 RAs.  Testing of VideoCardz indicates RDNA 2’s Ray Accelerator probably 33% slower than Ampere’s Ray Tracing cores. This makes a significant difference between their ray tracing performance level, and RX 6800 XT performs lower than the RX 3080.

What is Ray Tracing?

Ray tracing is a unique technique of creating naturalistic light effects by tracing the light sources in computer-generated images or video games. An algorithm is used for tracing by imitating the light’s ray’s path in the virtual world.

Why is Ray Tracing Performance So Important?

In video games, if you feel like everything happening around you is not less than a realistic world, it would enhance your satisfaction to the next level. Isn’t it? That’s the point where ray tracing shows its performance’s importance.

Speaking of reflections or refracts of light, creating shadows, as well as diffused lighting, visual effects all are the contribution of ray tracing in games. You can’t possibly notice the difference unless you don’t compare the ray tracing on and off situation side by side. But it’s assured that whoever once played in ray tracing on mode never wanted to come back off track. For your immersive journey of playing, ray tracing performance with enhanced light effect is essential to give you a thrilling feel. The higher the performance is, the better your heart will be satisfied.

A Comparison Between RX 6800XT vs RTX 3080: is RX 6800XT Ray Tracing Performance Lower than RTX 3080?

AMD’s landing page claims that AMD operated this test on their lab by “Procedural Geometry” through Microsoft’s DXR SDK tool.

According to AMD:

“Measured by AMD Engineering Labs on 8/17/2020 on AMD RDNA 2-based graphics card, using Microsoft’s DirectX RayTracing SDK Procedural Geometry sample application, AMD RDNA 2-based graphics card achieves increased up to 13.8x speed (471 FPS) using Hardware-based RayTracing vs. using DirectX Raytracing Software backing layer (34 FPS) with the same frequencies. Performance may vary. RX-571. “

This data proved that in ray tracing performance, the Radeon RX 6800XT is capable of achieving 471 frames per second.

A Redditor of r/AMD conducted a test according to AMDs footnote, where the Asus RTX 3080 TUF resulted in 620-640 FPS. So the RTX 3080 is approximately 33% faster than AMD Radeon RX 6800XT ray accelerator cores as it reaches 471 FPS.

A comparison table shared by VideoCardz shows how the Radeon RX 6800 XT is slower than the Geforce RX 3090 and RX  3080 in ray tracing performance.

GPURayTracing CoresDXR PerformanceTensor Cores
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 309082749 FPS328
NVIDIA GeForce  RTX 308068630 FPS272
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 307046not tested184
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT80not tested
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT72471 FPS
AMD Radeon RX 680060not tested

If the measurement is authentic, then undoubtedly these numbers show that the Radeon RX 6800 is 46 percent lower than RX 3090 in RayTracing performance and 29 percent lower than RX 3080, which makes a significant difference between their ray tracing performance level and RX 6800 XT is performing lower than the RX 3080.

Since it was unknown which graphics card and resolution were used for AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 series, thus in the comparison default resolution and settings were used in testing.

However, these benchmarks were made previously in August, so we hope there will be a better improvement for the next, which would come in November. Thus the only truth will be revealed when they’ll come in hand.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ques: Which PSU will Compatible with the RTX 3080 and RX 6800 XT?

It depends on what kind of components you will implement in the system with your graphics card. But for average power consumption and keeping the spec in mind, I recommended you pick 750W and 80 plus certified PSU from a renowned brand.

Ques: RX 6800 XT or RTX 3080: Which will Fit in Your Computer Case?

The RTX 3080 has dimensions of 11.22-inch length and 4.41-inch width with 2-slot graphics slots, while the RX 6800 has 2.5 slots and a length of 10.5 inches. So Any Standard ATX case will make both the cards well fitted.

Ques: Does any feature of RX 6800 XT alternate the DLSS?

AMD did not bring any features that can alternate Nvidia’s 2.0 DLSS feature. So if you want to increase your frame rates for higher performance, you should move towards RX 3080.

Our Verdict

If you’re already read the whole article, no doubt you’re the enthusiastic PC gamer for whose graphics card means a lot. Though both the cards just came into the market, choosing one among them is probably the most challenging thing. But the choice varies according to consumer’s opinions.

RX 6800 XT is available for $50 less than RTX 3080, delivering high 4K performance and the latest features, but in Ray Tracing performance RTX 3080 is the best.

So here, we compared all possible distinctions between RX 6800 XT vs. RTX 3080. And now it’s up to you to decide to pick the best one to enjoy incredible gaming.

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