AMD claims the RX 6000-series can beat both the Nvidia RTX 3080 and RTX 3090

AMD Radeon RX 6000-series
(Image credit: AMD)

Today at the long awaited launch of the AMD Radeon RX 6000-series graphics cards, aka Big Navi, Lisa Su and co announced that the new enthusiast-class GPUs do, in some instances, have what it takes to outperform their GeForce RTX 30-series counterparts.

Back at the initial 6000-series unveiling, AMD had promised us 4K gaming at over 60 fps, and supposed leaks suggested the new RX 6800 XT cards may well give the Nvidia RTX 3080 a run for its money.

By the looks of the benchmarks, the new RX 6800 XT can trade blows with the Nvidia RTX 3080 in a host of top games, with all the settings maxed out. We're looking at some clear wins, too, with games like Forza Horizon 4 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare pumping out more frames per second than the rival Nvidia cards according to AMD's claims.

At 1440p, we have another couple of clear wins for the 6800 XT against the RTX 3080, including Wolfenstein: Young Blood and Doom Eternal.

AMD also claims the RX 6800 will be throwing up 18 percent better 4K performance, on average, than that of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. It has been offered a helping hand in AMD's new Smart Access Memory Radeon/Ryzen feature to get there, but considering the RTX 2080 Ti came out at $1,200 and the RX 6800 is going to be retailing at just $579, that's something for AMD to be pretty proud of.

Consider, though, that Nvidia's new RTX 3070 cards will be performing similarly to the RX 6800s, and are coming in at just $499.

At first glance, the AMD's RX 6900 XT card looks pretty beefy up against Nvidia's RTX 3090, taking the crown at 4K in Forza Horizon 4 and Battlefield 5. But on closer inspection, it appears these numbers only account for when AMD's new signature "Rage Mode" easy overclocking feature is enabled. We'll have to test it ourselves to get a better idea of its potential. 

The bottom line for now is that it looks like the RX 6000-series should be able to deliver a competitive gaming experience at 1440p or 4K. 

Both the RX 6800 and the RX 6800 XT will be available from November 18th starting at $579 and $649 respectively, with the RX 6900 XT following soon after on December 8th for $999.

Katie Wickens
Hardware Writer

Screw sports, Katie would rather watch Intel, AMD and Nvidia go at it. Having been obsessed with computers and graphics for three long decades, she took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni, and has been demystifying tech and science—rather sarcastically—for three years since. She can be found admiring AI advancements, scrambling for scintillating Raspberry Pi projects, preaching cybersecurity awareness, sighing over semiconductors, and gawping at the latest GPU upgrades. She's been heading the PCG Steam Deck content hike, while waiting patiently for her chance to upload her consciousness into the cloud.