Help choosing between 3080 and 6900XT

[Tollayo]

I'm planning on finally build a PC after 11 long years.
I have all the build figure out more or less but, I'm confused between the RTX 3080 and a 6900XT. Both of them have the same price and, I can get them by the end of March hopefully.
Which one would be better? I will pair them with an LG 38GN950-B that is a 3840x1600 144Hz. Would DLSS help a lot with that monitor?

Thanks in advance!

[NoCarrier]

I think the performance difference is marginal when you really sit down and pay attention.  6900XT is going to have higher frame rates for some titles, but will lag behind with anything using ray tracing.  The drivers are still pretty new, and AMD is probably going to have an DLSS equivalent at some point.

 

I have an Alienware 38" at the same resolution and refresh (i think same panel)  and an EVGA 3080 ftw3 ultra with a mild overclock.  Playing COD Cold War i can keep it pegged at 144fps with DLSS on. 

 

With the better drivers, support, and ray tracing performance personally i'd opt for the 3080.  Some may disagree, but once you are over 60fps, a difference of 10-15fps isn't going to matter much. 

[S70N3R]

20 minutes ago, Tollayo said:

I'm planning on finally build a PC after 11 long years.
I have all the build figure out more or less but, I'm confused between the RTX 3080 and a 6900XT. Both of them have the same price and, I can get them by the end of March hopefully.
Which one would be better? I will pair them with an LG 38GN950-B that is a 3840x1600 144Hz. Would DLSS help a lot with that monitor?

Thanks in advance!

depends on what is the specific main out come you expect from the GPU.

[Tollayo]

27 minutes ago, NoCarrier said:

I think the performance difference is marginal when you really sit down and pay attention.  6900XT is going to have higher frame rates for some titles, but will lag behind with anything using ray tracing.  The drivers are still pretty new, and AMD is probably going to have an DLSS equivalent at some point.

 

I have an Alienware 38" at the same resolution and refresh (i think same panel)  and an EVGA 3080 ftw3 ultra with a mild overclock.  Playing COD Cold War i can keep it pegged at 144fps with DLSS on. 

 

With the better drivers, support, and ray tracing performance personally i'd opt for the 3080.  Some may disagree, but once you are over 60fps, a difference of 10-15fps isn't going to matter much. 

Thank you, I know that the 6900XT is stronger in raw performance but since we don't have any info about the AMD response to DLSS I don't want to bet on that.

As already said is gonna be my computer since a lot of time and I want to spend the money on the right parts

 

26 minutes ago, S70N3R said:

depends on what is the specific main out come you expect from the GPU.

Mostly gaming, I'll probably code a bit too but I already have a laptop from work for that

[S70N3R]

7 minutes ago, Tollayo said:

Thank you, I know that the 6900XT is stronger in raw performance but since we don't have any info about the AMD response to DLSS I don't want to bet on that.

As already said is gonna be my computer since a lot of time and I want to spend the money on the right parts

 

Mostly gaming, I'll probably code a bit too but I already have a laptop from work for that

in that case i would go for the 3080. same time as you said thee raw performance of 6900xt is better but still NVIDIA got better RT and DLSS. so i would go for a 3080 . If you can find one in this environment

[Mister Woof]

Where are you getting a 6900XT for the same price as a 3080? Where I am most often the 6800 nonXT costs as much as the 3080

[papajo]

4 hours ago, Tollayo said:

I'm planning on finally build a PC after 11 long years.

Oh boy after patiently waiting all these years you surely picked the best moment to do that

 

4 hours ago, Tollayo said:

I have all the build figure out more or less but, I'm confused between the RTX 3080 and a 6900XT

That sounds strange to me as I think that rtx 3080 should be cheaper. 

 

If both have the same price in your region obviously go for the 6900xt if you can find the RTX 3080 cheaper then go for that one. 

[Tollayo]

12 hours ago, Mister Woof said:

Where are you getting a 6900XT for the same price as a 3080? Where I am most often the 6800 nonXT costs as much as the 3080

 

I live in Spain. Here the 6900XT is in stock for 1200€.
I found an Italian website that allows you to preorder and all the 3080s they will have are supposed to ship around the end of the year except for a few that will arrive at the end of March, but, they cost 1200 or are water-cooled.

 

10 hours ago, papajo said:

Oh boy after patiently waiting all these years you surely picked the best moment to do that

 

That sounds strange to me as I think that rtx 3080 should be cheaper. 

 

If both have the same price in your region obviously go for the 6900xt if you can find the RTX 3080 cheaper then go for that one. 

 

I know right? I'm finally getting a flat where I'll have enough space to get a desk and I can't wait!

Why do you think I should go with the 6900XT?

[papajo]

5 hours ago, Tollayo said:

 

I live in Spain. Here the 6900XT is in stock for 1200€.
I found an Italian website that allows you to preorder and all the 3080s they will have are supposed to ship around the end of the year except for a few that will arrive at the end of March, but, they cost 1200 or are water-cooled.

 

 

I know right? I'm finally getting a flat where I'll have enough space to get a desk and I can't wait!

Why do you think I should go with the 6900XT?

because it is faster but not fast enough to excuse the price difference, but you say you find them at the same price so if you find them at the same price where you live then go for the faster one if you can find the 3080 cheaper then go for the cheaper one 

[Mister Woof]

I would say if you care about ray tracing or streaming, get nvidia offerings, if you care more about absolute performance in rasterization, get the AMD offering. 

[papajo]

1 hour ago, Mister Woof said:

I would say if you care about ray tracing or streaming, get nvidia offerings, if you care more about absolute performance in rasterization, get the AMD offering. 

Well for streaming there is not a big difference if any at all (unless you value that RTX feature for the microphone) 

 

As for raytracing  TS said he can find them at around the same price (and I doubt by same price he means close to $1000 since I doubt RX 6900 xt going for less than MSRP on his region so we are talking about $1200+ )

 

And to pony up $1200+ just to be able to enable raytracing on like about 20 titles (the whole supported list)  is too much of an extravagance imho  (given that we know that like a dozen of to be released titles in the future will support it but that is still a small number) 

 

Having said that raytracing performance on the RX 6900xt (although considerably inferior especially if compared to 3080 +DLSS) is not unplayable you can expect (at ultra/high settings and high resolutions) 40ish to 70ish FPS in most titles that support raytracing  

 

So he can have a taste of raytracing as well it makes more sense to go for the RX 6900XT if the price is the same or close to that. 

 

Simply because

a) you get better performance in most titles out there (which difference probably will increase since AMD is known for "fine wine" drivers that increase the performance as time passes with future updates) 

b) it has a VR USB type C port incase he wants to play VR games

c) it can also play said 20ish raytracing supported titles although with less FPS compared to RTX 3080 but still playable. 

 

 

[Mister Woof]

11 minutes ago, papajo said:

Well for streaming there is not a big difference if any at all (unless you value that RTX feature for the microphone) 

 

As for raytracing  TS said he can find them at around the same price (and I doubt by same price he means close to $1000 since I doubt RX 6900 xt going for less than MSRP on his region so we are talking about $1200+ )

 

And to pony up $1200+ just to be able to enable raytracing on like about 20 titles (the whole supported list)  is too much of an extravagance imho  (given that we know that like a dozen of to be released titles in the future will support it but that is still a small number) 

 

Having said that raytracing performance on the RX 6900xt (although considerably inferior especially if compared to 3080 +DLSS) is not unplayable you can expect (at ultra/high settings and high resolutions) 40ish to 70ish FPS in most titles that support raytracing  

 

So he can have a taste of raytracing as well it makes more sense to go for the RX 6900XT if the price is the same or close to that. 

 

Simply because

a) you get better performance in most titles out there (which difference probably will increase since AMD is known for "fine wine" drivers that increase the performance as time passes with future updates) 

b) it has a VR USB type C port incase he wants to play VR games

c) it can also play said 20ish RTX titles although with less FPS compared to RTX 3080 but still playable. 

 

 

Yeah value proposition depends heavily on location and market for sure.

 

In the USA, generally speaking, 3080s cost less than 6800XTs.

 

But I still stand by my comment - if you want to play ray traced games, nvidia is the way to go.

For example, in Cyberpunk 2077, you have to have nvidia. So if that's something you wanted to experience, then you don't have another choice. For now, anyway.

[papajo]

2 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

In the USA, generally speaking, 3080s cost less than 6800XTs.

yea that is what I said to TS 

 

2 hours ago, papajo said:

because it is faster but not fast enough to excuse the price difference, but you say you find them at the same price so if you find them at the same price where you live then go for the faster one if you can find the 3080 cheaper then go for the cheaper one 

 

[Mister Woof]

Made some edits - some ray traced titles won't even run DXR on AMD cards, not just at reduced performance. Still limited by game developer support in some titles.

[papajo]

1 minute ago, Mister Woof said:

Made some edits - some ray traced titles won't even run DXR on AMD cards, not just at reduced performance. Still limited by game developer support in some titles.

from the list with current and upcoming games only (30ish titles in total) only 2 of them are not supported for AMD namely Justice online and Justice online 3 which I didnt even know existed to be frank

 

There are some "Uknown" which probably are as such because nobody tested and got public I guess but even those are either for upcoming games or for small titles as far as I can see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_ray_tracing_support

[Mister Woof]

12 minutes ago, papajo said:

from the list with current and upcoming games only (30ish titles in total) only 2 of them are not supported for AMD namely Justice online and Justice online 3 which I didnt even know existed to be frank

 

There are some "Uknown" which probably are as such because nobody tested and got public I guess but even those are either for upcoming games or for small titles as far as I can see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_ray_tracing_support

For sure ray tracing is a niche bonus, but just putting it out there. CP2077 has been one of the biggest showcase examples of ray tracind done very well, and having played it myself I'd have to agree. Gameplay notwithstanding, lol. RDPR says CP2077 will support AMD DXR....but lol I don't know if I would trust their promises anymore.

 

I personally did not choose nvidia over AMD because of ray tracing, but because I was able to pay less for about even rasterization performance with RTX/DLSS being the cherry on top. If I was able to get the 6800XT at MSRP of $649 here, I'd have got it in a heartbeat. Sadly that opportunity just never materialized for me. 

 

A question I have for the OP - regardless if the 6900XT costs the same as a 3080....how much is the 6800XT where you live? If pricing scales appropriately, the 6800XT is a much better value than the 6900XT. The 6900XT MSRP is about 50% more than the 6800XT, but it's only around 10% faster.

[papajo]

6 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

RDPR says CP2077 will support AMD DXR....but lol I don't know if I would trust their promises anymore.

well cut them some slack the "ray tracing feature" on AMD is brand new first gen and cyberpunk got developed years before its release it doesnt strike me that it did not release with support enabled. 

 

I wouldnt worry about the support (also it wouldnt suprize me if eventually AMD gets more natively supported titles in the future) since gaming industry revolves around console games and both major "performance" consoles (PS5/Xbox X) run with AMD graphics so whatever raytracing games devs develop now and in the future for these consoles will have support for AMD GPUs since they are the same (RDNA 2) architecture with the consoles. 

[Mister Woof]

4 minutes ago, papajo said:

well cut them some slack the "ray tracing feature" on AMD is brand new first gen and cyberpunk got developed years before its release it doesnt strike me that it did not release with support enabled. 

 

I wouldnt worry about the support (also it wouldnt suprize me if eventually AMD gets more natively supported titles in the future) since gaming industry revolves around console games and both major "performance" consoles (PS5/Xbox X) run with AMD graphics so whatever raytracing games devs develop now and in the future for these consoles will have support for AMD GPUs since they are the same (RDNA 2) architecture with the consoles. 

Or we get totally left out anyway regardless of brand due to them.....here's looking at you DMC5 and Sony

[Wh0_Am_1]

Another thing worth considering is the software and features. Things like Nvidia Broadcast can make a world of difference, depending on your use case.

 

 

[papajo]

1 minute ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Another thing worth considering is the software and features. Things like Nvidia Broadcast can make a world of difference, depending on your use case.

 

 

Yea that's what I meant by "rtx feature for the microphone" I couldn't remember its name and was too bored to google it  

 

if you have a potato mic it will make a huge difference but with a nice mic not so much + who (that also needs this = wants to have a successful twitch channel) will play games with his kids playing around the same room?  maybe lifestreams at a starbucks? Again cool to have but the usecases where it shines are a small niche as far as game streaming goes. 

[Wh0_Am_1]

12 minutes ago, papajo said:

Yea that's what I meant by "rtx feature for the microphone" I couldn't remember its name and was too bored to google it  

 

if you have a potato mic it will make a huge difference but with a nice mic not so much + who (that also needs this = wants to have a successful twitch channel) will play games with his kids playing around the same room?  maybe lifestreams at a starbucks? 

There are actually a lot of things that it cleans up as far as audio, besides just kids, things like keyboards, wind, hammers, your neighbors jamming out, or just other things you don't want people to hear (trust me even if you live alone there are still a lot of things that this can cancel out) it is also great for using on wind blown YT videos. And in Nvidia Broadcast which is RTX Voice with a camera feature, it allows you to have good green screening on the go, or without an actual green screen, or can simplify or improve the use of a green screen. 

12 minutes ago, papajo said:

Again cool to have but the usecases where it shines are a small niche as far as game streaming goes. 

Who said that you have to be streaming? In this internet age, of Zoom, Skype, and etc. this goes a long way toward improving internet conversations in general, or in game voice chats.

[papajo]

37 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

There are actually a lot of things that it cleans up as far as audio, besides just kids, things like keyboards, wind, hammers, your neighbors jamming out, or just other things you don't want people to hear (trust me even if you live alone there are still a lot of things that this can cancel out) it is also great for using on wind blown YT videos. And in Nvidia Broadcast which is RTX Voice with a camera feature, it allows you to have good green screening on the go, or without an actual green screen, or can simplify or improve the use of a green screen. 

49 minutes ago, papajo said:

My point being that already those things have been mitigated to the point where it is not an issue (I mean how many streams on twich you watch especially  the "pro" ones and thought that they had too much noise ??) 

 

It is as useful as e.g a telemarketing kitchen device,

 

 

 

well its cool and it does what it promises but at the end of the day you can do the same things with your hands and a knife or a grinder already available and dont need that extra accessory. 

 

37 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Who said that you have to be streaming? In this internet age, of Zoom, Skype, and etc. this goes a long way toward improving internet conversations in general, or in game voice chats.

Well I believe that TS is gaming oriented  but even there again there wasnt an issue. (unless we are talking about zoom,skypes with total computer noobs in which case if their son,nephew student introduces to them this feature it will be nice for them ) 

 

The feature is cool no doubt but it also has no realistic usecase in setups that really use streaming, conferencing daily as a job or a serious hobby it is just an additional nice feature I guess. 

[Wh0_Am_1]

1 hour ago, papajo said:

My point being that already those things have been mitigated to the point where it is not an issue (I mean how many streams on twich you watch especially  the "pro" ones and thought that they had too much noise ??) 

 

One question, do you know what kind of equipment and investment of both time (including setup and adjustments) and money that requires? I have worked with audio professionals, and relatives on getting their setups installed. Sure you can buy better and setup better, but unless you are going to make prerecorded short videos such as LTT, or unless you are willing to dedicate a significant amount of time and resources such as the high earning twitch streamer can garner, using equipment and setup alone is time consuming and unreliable.

1 hour ago, papajo said:

  the "pro" ones and thought that they had too much noise ??) 

Nvidia Broadcast does not only work with mic and speaker but with the camera as well

1 hour ago, papajo said:

 

well its cool and it does what it promises but at the end of the day you can do the same things with your hands and a knife or a grinder already available and dont need that extra accessory. 

 

Well to be more precise the nut cracker is what you have, Nvidia Broadcast is the "grinder", and the "knife" is all the expensive audio and visual equipment the pros use.

1 hour ago, papajo said:

Well I believe that TS is gaming oriented  but even there again there wasnt an issue. (unless we are talking about zoom,skypes with total computer noobs in which case if their son,nephew student introduces to them this feature it will be nice for them ) 

 

The feature is cool no doubt but it also has no realistic usecase in setups that really use streaming, conferencing daily as a job or a serious hobby it is just an additional nice feature I guess. 

I'm not sure if you have ever used this software as it seems like you haven't. 

But most streamers who are not using this already, stand a lot to gain from Nvidia Broadcast, even the midsize ones, as Nvidia Broadcast is effective at sanitizing both your mic and camera inputs, and fitting into most workflows I know this from experience with talking to relatives whom use this for a living of which have spent more than the new $1500+ USD computers that they purchased in audio and visual equipment that this greatly improves for their workflow, and using the software myself.

I mean sure these inputs can be, and often are to some extent cleaned up by other means, but for most streamers, other creators, and even other professionals to achieve or surpass the capabilities of this software alone either impractical or impossible with their budgets and time constraints, this isn't even including the enhancement this provides, sure this is not too big of a deal for most people, it is a welcome addition, and for many professionals a game changer. 

Here is the thing, this is only ONE of multiple advantages offered by Nvidia.

Of course this does necessarily not mean that they have optimizations for all other workloads besides streaming, there are definitely things that AMD is better at, but that does not mean that Nvidia's software supremacy should be easily dismissed.

[Tollayo]

2 hours ago, Mister Woof said:

A question I have for the OP - regardless if the 6900XT costs the same as a 3080....how much is the 6800XT where you live? If pricing scales appropriately, the 6800XT is a much better value than the 6900XT. The 6900XT MSRP is about 50% more than the 6800XT, but it's only around 10% faster.

Between 650 and 850€ but none of them are available.

 

2 hours ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Another thing worth considering is the software and features. Things like Nvidia Broadcast can make a world of difference, depending on your use case.

 

 

Tbf I'm using it on the work laptop. It's pretty cool, they are drilling outside my apartment during the day and I can join meetings without annoying anyone.

 

Ray tracing is the only feature that really throws me off. It seems really cool but still in the early stage

[Mister Woof]

25 minutes ago, Tollayo said:

Between 650 and 850€ but none of them are available.

 

Tbf I'm using it on the work laptop. It's pretty cool, they are drilling outside my apartment during the day and I can join meetings without annoying anyone.

 

Ray tracing is the only feature that really throws me off. It seems really cool but still in the early stage

I get they aren't available but no wait i'd pay 40%-50 more for the 6900xt over the 6800xt