AMD Unveils Next-Generation Radeon RX 6000 Series

SANTA CLARA, Calif. 10/28/2020
AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today unveiled the AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series graphics cards, delivering powerhouse performance, incredibly life-like visuals, and must-have features that set a new standard for enthusiast-class PC gaming experiences. Representing the forefront of extreme engineering and design, the highly anticipated AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series includes the AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 and Radeon™ RX 6800 XT graphics cards, as well as the new flagship Radeon™ RX 6900 XT – the fastest AMD gaming graphics card ever developed.

AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series graphics cards are built upon groundbreaking AMD RDNA™ 2 gaming architecture, a new foundation for next-generation consoles, PCs, laptops and mobile devices, designed to deliver the optimal combination of performance and power efficiency. AMD RDNA™ 2 gaming architecture provides up to 2X higher performance in select titles with the AMD Radeon™ RX 6900 XT graphics card compared to the AMD Radeon™ RX 5700 XT graphics card built on AMD RDNA™ architecture1, and up to 54 percent more performance-per-watt when comparing the AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 XT graphics card to the AMD Radeon™ RX 5700 XT graphics card using the same 7nm process technology2.

AMD RDNA™ 2 offers a number of innovations, including applying advanced power saving techniques to high-performance compute units to improve energy efficiency by up to 30 percent per cycle per compute unit3, and leveraging high-speed design methodologies to provide up to a 30 percent frequency boost at the same power level4. It also includes new AMD Infinity Cache technology that offers up to 2.4X greater bandwidth-per-watt compared to GDDR6-only AMD RDNA™-based architectural designs5.

“Today’s announcement is the culmination of years of R&D focused on bringing the best of AMD Radeon graphics to the enthusiast and ultra-enthusiast gaming markets, and represents a major evolution in PC gaming,” said Scott Herkelman, corporate vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit at AMD. “The new AMD Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT graphics cards deliver world class 4K and 1440p performance in major AAA titles, new levels of immersion with breathtaking life-like visuals, and must-have features that provide the ultimate gaming experiences. I can’t wait for gamers to get these incredible new graphics cards in their hands.”

Compare Graphics Specifications

Screenshots from the Announcement

Now take these with several grains of salt, and notice the fine print where the 6900XT is running “RAGE MODE” which is AMD’s new one click auto-overclock, PLUS the new SMART ACESS MEMORY which can boost performance on select platforms (currently, only AMD 500 series chipsets)

AMD RAGE MODE

AMD has a new one-click overclock mode available as a performance preset if you will within Radeon Software under the Performance Tuning section. This will tune your card to your scenario to eek out every last bit of performance. Users also have the default “Balanced” profile as well as the traditional “Quiet” profile.

Powerhouse Performance, Vivid Visuals & Incredible Gaming Experiences

AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series graphics cards support high-bandwidth PCIe® 4.0 technology and feature 16GB of GDDR6 memory to power the most demanding 4K workloads today and in the future. Key features and capabilities include:

Powerhouse Performance

AMD Infinity Cache

A high-performance, last-level data cache suitable for 4K and 1440p gaming with the highest level of detail enabled. 128 MB of on-die cache dramatically reduces latency6 and power consumption7, delivering higher overall gaming performance than traditional architectural designs.

AMD Smart Access Memory

An exclusive feature of systems with AMD Ryzen™ 5000 Series processors, AMD B550 and X570 motherboards and Radeon™ RX 6000 Series graphics cards. It gives AMD Ryzen™ processors greater access to the high-speed GDDR6 graphics memory, accelerating CPU processing and providing up to a 13-percent performance increase on a AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 XT graphics card in Forza Horizon™ 4 at 4K when combined with the new Rage Mode one-click overclocking setting.

Built for Standard Chassis

With a length of 267mm and 2×8 standard 8-pin power connectors, and designed to operate with existing enthusiast-class 650W-750W power supplies, gamers can easily upgrade their existing large to small form factor PCs without additional cost.

True to Life, High-Fidelity Visuals

DirectX® 12 Ultimate Support

Provides a powerful blend of raytracing, compute, and rasterized effects, such as DirectX® Raytracing (DXR) and Variable Rate Shading, to elevate games to a new level of realism.

DirectX® Raytracing (DXR)

Adding a high performance, fixed-function Ray Accelerator engine to each compute unit, AMD RDNA™ 2-based graphics cards are optimized to deliver real-time lighting, shadow and reflection realism with DXR. When paired with AMD FidelityFX, which enables hybrid rendering, developers can combine rasterized and ray-traced effects to ensure an optimal combination of image quality and performance.

AMD FidelityFX

An open-source toolkit for game developers available on AMD GPUOpen. It features a collection of lighting, shadow and reflection effects that make it easier for developers to add high-quality post-process effects that make games look beautiful while offering the optimal balance of visual fidelity and performance.

Variable Rate Shading (VRS)

Dynamically reduces the shading rate for different areas of a frame that do not require a high level of visual detail, delivering higher levels of overall performance with little to no perceptible change in image quality.

Elevated Gaming Experience

Microsoft® DirectStorage Support

Future support for the DirectStorage API enables lightning-fast load times and high-quality textures by eliminating storage API-related bottlenecks and limiting CPU involvement.

Radeon™ Software Performance Tuning Presets

Simple one-click presets in Radeon™ Software help gamers easily extract the most from their graphics card. The presets include the new Rage Mode stable over clocking setting that takes advantage of extra available headroom to deliver higher gaming performance.

Radeon™ Anti-Lag

Significantly decreases input-to-display response times and offers a competitive edge in gameplay.

AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series Product Family

Robust Gaming Ecosystem and Partnerships

In the coming weeks, AMD will release a series of videos from its ISV partners showcasing the incredible gaming experiences enabled by AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series graphics cards in some of this year’s most anticipated games. These videos can be viewed on the AMD website.

DIRT® 5 – October 29
Godfall™ – November 2
World of Warcraft®: Shadowlands – November 10
RiftBreaker™ – November 12
FarCry® 6 – November 17

Pricing and Availability

AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 and Radeon™ RX 6800 XT graphics cards are expected to be available from global etailers/retailers and on AMD.com beginning November 18, 2020, for $579 USD and $649 USD, respectively. The AMD Radeon™ RX 6900 XT is expected to be available December 8, 2020, for $999 USD.

AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT graphics cards are also expected to be available from AMD board partners, including ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor, SAPPHIRE and XFX, beginning in November 2020.

Supporting Resources

Lean more about the AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series here
Learn more about AMD RDNA™ 2 graphics architecture here
Learn more about the AMD Radeon™ Software here
Learn more about AMD Ryzen™ 5000 Series here
Become a fan of AMD on Facebook
Follow AMD on Twitter

About AMD

For 50 years AMD has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics and visualization technologies ― the building blocks for gaming, immersive platforms and the datacenter. Hundreds of millions of consumers, leading Fortune 500 businesses and cutting-edge scientific research facilities around the world rely on AMD technology daily to improve how they live, work and play. AMD employees around the world are focused on building great products that push the boundaries of what is possible. For more information about how AMD is enabling today and inspiring tomorrow, visit the AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) website, blog, Facebook and Twitter pages.