Considering a new 3080 or Radeon RX 6800 XT

[Caseter6]

Hi,

 

So I'm currently considering a GPU upgrade from my current EVGA 1080Ti founders edition, however it would be useful if someone could help me clarify a few points.

 

My main concern is in the power draw of the 3080 or the 6800 XT. As it stands I currently have a 550W power supply, and after updating my old PC Part Picker list for this build the estimated wattage is exactly at 550w with a 3080.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Caseter6/saved/TtM78d

 

Is this relatively accurate, if so would I need to get a new PSU to run the 3080?

 

Also is the 6800 XT expected to be much different in power consumption that could help me avoid the need for a new PSU?

 

My main aims in upgrading to one of these cards is to get better performance in games with my new 4k displays I recently got, but I'd also like to give ray tracing a try.

 

In this my other question is do we expect say Minecraft ray tracing to work with the AMD cards as standard? I just want to check since they so heavily pushed Nvidia in their marketing of this, despite the fact it seems to use Direct X which is what AMD are basing their ray tracing on?

 

If a new PSU would be required to get this GPU upgrade going what sort of wattage and other factors should I be looking at to pick one?

 

Thanks :) 

[MadPistol]

If ray tracing is a priority, go Nvidia. Big Navi does really well on rasterization but supposedly falls short on advanced features like RT and AI-based upscaling and rendering. It can do it, for sure, but the RTX 3080 should be significantly better. Drivers for the RX 6000 cards may also be an issue at launch, but we do not know. What I do know is that the drivers for the RTX 3080 are very solid.

As for PSU, a 550-watt PSU is right on the edge of what is acceptable for the 3080. I have an R7 3700x, and with both it and the 3080 FE at stock, my system can consume around 500-watts under heavy load (I have a UPS which tells me consumption at the wall). You can certainly try it, but if you can get a 750-watt PSU, you would be in a much more comfortable position, IMO.

[Nathanpete]

The 6800XT has less power draw than the 3080, and the 3080 (but mostly just the 3090) is known to have over-current protection problems when load spikes on lower wattage PSUs. Also the recommended PSU from Nvidia's page is 750w. (https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/graphics-cards/30-series/rtx-3080/), but you can go off of @MadPistolresponse for more info on that. 

 

I believe the RX 6000 presentation included first-party benchmarks with Minecraft RTX, but I could be wrong, to lazy to look over the highlights rn. But they had Minecraft RTX working on the Xbox Series X back in March which uses the same RDNA 2 architecture and a weaker GPU, so I assume it works just fine on Win 10. 

 

If you would just like to "give ray tracing a try" then it doesn't matter which card you get because both can do it, we just don't know how well the RX 6000 can actually do compared to Ampere's RTX (probably lacking in some areas), but at 4k w/ RTX you would have a better time with 16GB of VRAM compared to the 3080's 10GB. 

 

And yes like @MadPistolsaid, RDNA 2's AI-based upscaling is lacking, and they certainly weren't pushing it in the presentation because it very likely isn't a DLSS 2.0 competitor. It prob won't be blurry like DLSS 1.0, but not as good as DLSS 2.0, at least wtith current speculation. 

You should really wait for benchmarks of the 6800XT, especially in Minecraft RTX at 4k (Gamer's Nexus includes that in it's GPU testing now) if you just want to dabble, especially if you plan to upscale to 4k rather than play natively in 4k. But both cards can certainly do it natively. 

 

IMO, 6800XT, less power draw, prob cheaper depending on which card you get, and would be better at 4k RTX. 

Edited November 2, 2020 by Nathanpete
series X, not series S. Sorry I have my mind on purchasing a series S soon.

[Ankh Tech]

15 minutes ago, Caseter6 said:

Hi,

 

So I'm currently considering a GPU upgrade from my current EVGA 1080Ti founders edition, however it would be useful if someone could help me clarify a few points.

 

My main concern is in the power draw of the 3080 or the 6800 XT. As it stands I currently have a 550W power supply, and after updating my old PC Part Picker list for this build the estimated wattage is exactly at 550w with a 3080.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Caseter6/saved/TtM78d

 

Is this relatively accurate, if so would I need to get a new PSU to run the 3080?

 

Also is the 6800 XT expected to be much different in power consumption that could help me avoid the need for a new PSU?

 

My main aims in upgrading to one of these cards is to get better performance in games with my new 4k displays I recently got, but I'd also like to give ray tracing a try.

 

In this my other question is do we expect say Minecraft ray tracing to work with the AMD cards as standard? I just want to check since they so heavily pushed Nvidia in their marketing of this, despite the fact it seems to use Direct X which is what AMD are basing their ray tracing on?

 

If a new PSU would be required to get this GPU upgrade going what sort of wattage and other factors should I be looking at to pick one?

 

Thanks

6800xt for less power draw and a bit cheaper, however as @MadPistolsaid, ray tracing is not great, if you really want good trayracing then the 3080, but then you will need a new psu

[Nathanpete]

1 hour ago, MadPistol said:

I have an R7 3700x, and with both it and the 3080 FE at stock, my system can consume around 500-watts under heavy load (I have a UPS which tells me consumption at the wall). 

Might want to update your signature to reflect your GPU upgrade.

[MadPistol]

1 hour ago, Nathanpete said:

Might want to update your signature to reflect your GPU upgrade.

I noticed that, too lol. I updated it.

 

Thanks though!

[Deadpool2onBlu-Ray]

Whichever you can find in stock 

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, Nathanpete said:

IMO, 6800XT, less power draw, prob cheaper depending on which card you get, and would be better at 4k RTX. 

Is that a typo? AMD better at RTX? 

[Nathanpete]

Just now, Mark Kaine said:

Is that a typo? AMD better at RTX? 

Yes and no. I'm saying that 4k RT (RTX is the copyrighted term for Nvidia's ray tracing) on either card would very likely benefit from the extra 6GB of VRAM. The actual quality of the ray tracing and FPS would be lower on AMD (if you are not rubbing up on the 10GB limit), but for example he wants to try Minecraft RTX, where the extra VRAM would significantly increase render distance. 

Yes 3080 > 6800 XT in ray tracing benchmarks, no doubt about it. But I personally would trade some FPS in Minecraft RTX for greater render distance and more money saved. Besides in either card, I don't doubt you could hit 4k at 60 fps in minecraft RTX without breaking a sweat. (wow a triple negative)

 

Actually now that I think about it, you would be using DLSS on the 3080 to output at 4k, meaning you wouldn't hit the 10GB limit unless you really REALLY turn up the render distance. 

[ewitte]

I got to about 580W on my system with a 3080 your going to have an issue with 550W.  For 20% overhead I wouldn't try less than a 650W.  However I'm testing a custom voltage curve right now and am down to about 420-450W total system and getting almost the same fps...