Radeon RX 6000 series explained

AMD Radeon RX 6000 series
Codename:Navi 2x (nicknamed "Big Navi")
Architecture:RDNA 2
Fab:TSMC N7 (FinFET)
TSMC N6 (FinFET)
Transistors1:5.4B (Navi 24) 6 nm
Transistors2:11.06B (Navi 23) 7 nm[1]
Transistors3:17.2B (Navi 22) 7 nm
Transistors4:26.8B (Navi 21) 7 nm
Openclversion:OpenCL 2.1
Openglversion:OpenGL 4.6
Vulkanapi:Vulkan 1.3
SPIR-V
Predecessor:Radeon RX 5000 series
Successor:Radeon RX 7000 series
Support Status:Supported

The Radeon RX 6000 series is a series of graphics processing units developed by AMD, based on their RDNA 2 architecture.[2] It was announced on October 28, 2020[3] and is the successor to the Radeon RX 5000 series. It consists of the entry-level RX 6400, mid-range RX 6500 XT, high-end RX 6600, RX 6600 XT, RX 6650 XT, RX 6700, RX 6700 XT, upper high-end RX 6750 XT, RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and enthusiast RX 6900 XT and RX 6950 XT for desktop computers; and the RX 6600M, RX 6700M, and RX 6800M for laptops.[4] [5] A sub-series for mobile, Radeon RX 6000S (consisting of RX 6600S, RX 6700S, and RX 6800S), was announced in CES 2022, targeting thin and light laptop designs.

The series is designed to compete with Nvidia's GeForce 30 series and Intel's Arc Alchemist series of cards. It is also the first generation of AMD GPUs that supports hardware accelerated real-time ray tracing, variable-rate shading and mesh shaders.[6]

History

On September 14, 2020, AMD hinted at the physical design of its RX 6000 series through a tweet shared on social messaging service Twitter. At the same time, it launched a virtual island inside the video game Fortnite containing a large-scale rendition of the RX 6000 hardware design, which players could freely explore using the game's Creative mode.[7]

AMD officially unveiled the first three cards, the RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6900 XT, in an event titled "Where Gaming Begins: Ep. 2" on October 28.[8] In the event, they announced the RX 6800 XT as its flagship graphics processor, comparing its performance to that of Nvidia's RTX 3080 graphics card in 1440p and 4K resolution gaming. The 6800 XT was announced with a price tag of $649 USD, $50 lower than the RTX 3080's starting price of $699. They then introduced the RX 6800 as a competitor to Nvidia's previous-generation RTX 2080 Ti, priced at $579 compared to the 2080 Ti's $999; and the RX 6900 XT as its top card, claiming performance comparable with Nvidia's RTX 3090, but with lower power consumption and a launch price of $999, $500 cheaper than the 3090.

The Radeon RX 6800 and 6800 XT were released on November 18, 2020, and the RX 6900 XT was released on December 8, 2020.

On February 3, 2021, Gigabyte registered a range of RX 6700 XT graphics cards with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), with the filing indicating that all seven would ship with 12 GB of memory.[9] On March 3, 2021, AMD officially announced the RX 6700 XT card, set to compete with Nvidia's RTX 3060 Ti and 3070 cards.[10] It launched on March 18, 2021.

On May 31, 2021, AMD announced the RX 6000M series of GPUs designed for laptops,[11] [12] including the RX 6600M, RX 6700M, and RX 6800M. They became available on June 1.

On June 23, Gigabyte registered six RX 6600 XT graphics cards with the EEC, indicating they would all have 8 GB of memory.[13] [14] [15] This was just over a month after ASRock made similar filings for both the RX 6600 and 6600 XT, each with 8 GB of memory.[16] [17] [18] On July 5, VideoCardz discovered that Taiwanese graphics card retailer PowerColor had already created product pages for the unannounced Radeon 6600 and 6600 XT GPUs.[19] [20]

On July 30, AMD announced the RX 6600 and 6600 XT GPUs, which were released on August 11, 2021. The RX 6600 XT is available for $379 USD MSRP.[21]

In early 2022, AMD announced the low-end SKUs of the 6000 series; the RX 6400 and RX 6500 XT. These cards support only 4 PCIe lanes (albeit at PCIe 4.0 speeds), which can bottleneck performance on low-end machines lacking PCIe 4.0.[22] They also lack GPU-accelerated video encoding features offered by the higher-end models.

Availability issues

See also: 2020–2023 global chip shortage. Much like Nvidia's competing GeForce 30 series, releases sold out almost immediately due to a combination of low stock and scalping bots.[23]

RX 6800 and 6800 XT

The RX 6800 and 6800 XT were launched on November 18, 2020, but due to low stock availability, sold out at most retailers that day.[24] [25] [26] American retailer Micro Center restricted sales to in-store only, claiming that stock "will be extremely limited at launch".[27] PCMag reported that both cards on Newegg sold out as early as 6:05 a.m. PST, and that they were unavailable on AMD's own store website by 6:11 a.m. Retailer B&H Photo Video refused to accept orders for the cards, stating in part, "We do not know and are therefore unable to provide a date or time for when these items will become available to purchase."

Scalpers were reportedly reselling the GPUs on eBay for around US$1000–1500, roughly double the launch price. Frustrated social media users tried to derail the listings by using bots to make fake bids on the scalped GPUs at absurd prices; in one instance, an auction for an RX 6800 XT saw bids as high as US$70,000.[28]

RX 6900 XT

The RX 6900 XT was launched on December 8, 2020, and similarly to the RX 6800 and 6800 XT, it sold out on the same day it was released.[29] [30] According to PCMag, it was listed as out of stock on Newegg by 6:02 a.m. PST, just two minutes after it went on sale. AMD's store website, struggling to keep up with the high number of visitors, kept displaying 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable errors to customers attempting to buy the graphics card; by 6:35 a.m., it was sold out.

Radeon RX 6000 series features

Features of the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series:

Products

Workstation

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: btarunr . June 10, 2021 . AMD Navi 23 Silicon Detailed, Higher Transistor Count than RX 5700 XT . TechPowerUp . en-US . April 12, 2022.
  2. Web site: AMD Teases Radeon RX 6000 Card Performance Numbers: Aiming For 3080? . anandtech.com . . 2020-10-08 . 2020-10-25.
  3. Web site: AMD Announces Ryzen "Zen 3" and Radeon "RDNA2" Presentations for October: A New Journey Begins . anandtech.com . . 2020-09-09 . 2020-10-25.
  4. Web site: Ridley. Jacob. 2021-03-03. AMD RX 6700 XT graphics card release date, specs, performance, and price. 2021-03-03. PC Gamer. en-US.
  5. Web site: AMD to Launch Mid-Range RDNA 2 Desktop Graphics in First Half 2021. Cutress. Ian. AnandTech. January 12, 2021. January 4, 2021.
  6. Web site: AMD unveils three Radeon 6000 graphics cards with ray tracing and RTX-beating performance. Judd. Will. Eurogamer. October 28, 2020. August 1, 2021.
  7. News: Goslin. Austen. September 15, 2020. AMD gives fans first look at new RX 6000 graphics cards ... in Fortnite. Polygon. January 22, 2021.
  8. News: Goslin. Austen. Sarkar. Samit. October 28, 2020. AMD announces Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs. Polygon. January 22, 2021.
  9. News: Tyson. Mark. February 4, 2021. Gigabyte Radeon RX 6700 XT range registered with the EEC. Hexus. February 10, 2021.
  10. Web site: Judd. Will. 2021-03-03. AMD announces $479 RX 6700 XT graphics card for 1440p gaming. 2021-03-03. Eurogamer. en.
  11. Web site: Chin. Monica. 2021-05-31. AMD announces the Radeon RX 6000M series with RDNA 2 architecture. 2021-06-01. The Verge. en.
  12. Web site: Takahashi. Dean. May 31, 2021. AMD launches Radeon RX 6000M GPUs for gaming laptops. June 1, 2021. VentureBeat. en-US.
  13. News: June 23, 2021. Gigabyte expects Radeon RX 6600 XT to feature 8GB of memory. VideoCardz. July 15, 2021.
  14. News: Thubron. Rob. June 23, 2021. Gigabyte lists six AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT cards on EEC website. TechSpot. July 15, 2021.
  15. News: White. Monica. June 23, 2021. New leak shows that Gigabyte is releasing six RX 6600 XT cards. Digital Trends. July 15, 2021.
  16. News: Ridley. Jacob. May 11, 2021. Manufacturer hints at 8GB VRAM for AMD's unreleased RX 6600-series. PC Gamer. July 15, 2021.
  17. News: Allan. Darren. May 11, 2021. AMD RX 6600 and 6600 XT GPUs could have less VRAM than expected. TechRadar. July 15, 2021.
  18. News: May 11, 2021. ASRock Radeon RX 6600 (XT) series spotted in EEC filing. VideoCardz. July 15, 2021.
  19. News: July 5, 2021. AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT and RX 6600 listed on PowerColor website. VideoCardz. July 15, 2021.
  20. News: Alderson. Alex. July 5, 2021. PowerColor confirms that AMD is on the verge of announcing the Radeon RX 6600 and RX 6600 XT. Notebookcheck. July 15, 2021.
  21. News: Ridley. Jacob. July 30, 2021. AMD announces '1080p beast' Radeon RX 6600 XT for $379. PC Gamer. July 30, 2021.
  22. Web site: Judd . Will . AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT review: PCIe 3.0 vs PCIe 4.0 . Eurogamer . 12 March 2022 . en . 24 January 2022.
  23. News: Deakin. Daniel. December 15, 2020. Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series scalping generates over US$22 million in sales via eBay as AMD's Big Navi GPUs and Zen 3 CPUs also fall victim to profiteering. Notebook Check. January 8, 2021.
  24. News: Klotz. Aaron. November 18, 2020. Paper Launch? Radeon RX 6800, 6800 XT Out of Stock. Tom's Hardware. January 8, 2021.
  25. News: Kan. Michael. November 18, 2020. AMD's Radeon RX 6800 Cards Sell Out Instantly, Sparking Cries of 'Paper Launch'. PCMag. January 8, 2021.
  26. News: Sandhu. Tarinder. November 18, 2020. AMD Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT stock levels disarmingly low. Hexus. January 8, 2021.
  27. News: James. Dave. November 18, 2020. AMD RX 6800-series stock 'extremely limited' at launch today. PC Gamer. January 8, 2021.
  28. News: Martin. Alexander. November 27, 2020. Gamers derail eBay listings to stop hardware scalpers profiting on latest technology. Sky News UK. January 8, 2021.
  29. News: Endicott. Sean. December 8, 2020. AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is sold out, but you can still buy one in a prebuilt PC. Windows Central. January 8, 2021.
  30. News: Kan. Michael. December 9, 2020. AMD's Radeon RX 6900 XT Graphics Cards Immediately Sell Out. PCMag. January 20, 2021.