GeForce RTX 3080 Ti vs Radeon RX 6900 XT – Which One To Buy?

Today we’ll be comparing the NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and AMD’s Radeon RX 6900 XT. Both are some of the fastest GPUs in the market, but they are not flagship or top-of-the-line GPUs. Well, they are almost “flagship”. NVIDIA has the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, while AMD has the recently released Radeon RX 6950 XT. However, both the RTX 3080 Ti and RX 6900 XT are, let’s just say, “reasonably” priced compared to some of the best RTX 3090 Ti or AMD’s latest refresh RX 6950 XT. So, if you’re looking for a great GPU for 4K or 1440p high refresh rate gaming, and perhaps you are torn between the RTX 3080 Ti and RX 6900 XT, please continue reading and check out the results we got below.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT

The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is NVIDIA’s “ultimate play” GPU featuring 2nd generation RTX and is powered by Ampere architecture. It uses an 8nm GA102 GPU and has 10240 CUDA cores, paired with 12GB of GDDR6X memory. It also offers a substantial performance increase from its predecessor the RTX 3080. Although, there are two other GPUs on top of the RTX 3080 Ti, the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti.

Meanwhile, the Radeon RX 6900 XT is, basically, AMD’s flagship GPU; until it was succeeded by the RX 6950 XT, which is a refresh of the RX 6900 XT. The Radeon RX 6900 XT features a 7nm TSMC Navi 21 GPU, with 5120 stream processors, 80 compute units, 80 ray accelerators, 128 ROPs, and 16GB GDDR6 memory running on a 256-bit memory interface.

AMD’s current GPU doesn’t have Tensor cores for AI, but they do have ray accelerators which isn’t much compared to NVIDIA’s RT cores + Tensor cores. So, when it comes to ray tracing, AMD isn’t on par with NVIDIA yet. But AMD has FidelityFX Super Resolution, a similar and comparable upscaling technology to NVIDIA’s DLSS.

We don’t have the reference model or “Founders Edition” graphics card for the RTX 3080 Ti and RX 6900 XT. We do have MSI’s GeForce RTX 3080 Ti SUMPRIM X and PowerColor’s Radeon RX 6900 XT Red Devil Ultimate. Both graphics cards feature factory overclock settings and are top-of-the-line graphics card models. Below are their respective specifications.

GeForce RTX 3080 Ti vs Radeon RX 6900 XT Specifications

Below are the specs of the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti SUMPRIM X and PowerColor Radeon RX 6900 XT Red Devil Ultimate. Most of the specs are similar to their reference model, except for the clock speeds. Both cards feature a custom PCB, and a higher or faster boost clock speeds out of the box.

For the latest pricing and availability: (#ad)
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards are available on Amazon.com here or at eBay.com here.
Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards are available on Amazon.com here or at eBay.com here.
Radeon RX 6950 XT graphics cards are available on Amazon.com here

RTX 3080 Ti vs RX 6900 XT – Synthetic Benchmarks

The Radeon RX 6900 XT outperformed the RTX 3080 Ti in the synthetic benchmark tests by a substantial margin. As you can see from the graphs above, the RX 6900 XT consistently outperformed the RTX 3080 Ti both in graphics score and the respective frame rates. However, the difference became slimmer in 3DMark’s Time Spy Extreme.

The only test where the RTX 3080 Ti won is during the 3DMark Port Royal, which is a ray tracing benchmark. While AMD’s RX 6000 series graphics cards are capable of ray tracing, they are still in 1st generation. NVIDIA’s RTX 30 series are already using 2nd gen ray tracing technology. It’s no surprise that NVIDIA’s GPUs are better when it comes to ray tracing.

RTX 3080 Ti vs RX 6900 XT – 1080p Benchmarks

Both the RTX 3080 Ti and RX 6900 XT are not designed for full HD or 1080p gaming. If you have a 1080p monitor, do not buy any of these graphics cards, not unless you plan to upgrade your monitor as well. You’ll be wasting the GPU’s potential since there is performance left on the table at this resolution. It’s like the resolution is “bottlenecking” the RX 6900 XT and RTX 3080 Ti. Nevertheless, we can see the RTX 3080 Ti is a bit faster in most games in 1080p resolution.

RTX 3080 Ti vs RX 6900 XT – 1440p Benchmarks

At 2560×1440 resolution, both graphics cards have more room to “stretch their legs” and as you can see they are performing/scaling better compared to 1080p resolution. The difference between the RTX 3080 Ti and RX 6900 XT narrowed as well. However, the RTX 3080 Ti is still generally faster in most games tested.

There are a few games where the RX 6900 XT’s 1% low is way lower than expected. For example in Monster Hunter World and Deus Ex Mankind Divided. I’m not really sure what’s up with those numbers. I ran the test several times, but the results were very similar for each run.

RTX 3080 Ti vs RX 6900 XT – 2160p Benchmarks

4K UHD or 3840×2160 is the target resolution of both the Radeon RX 6900 XT and RTX 3080 Ti. As you can see there are a few games where both the RTX 3080 Ti and RX 6900 XT are just a few frames away from each other. However, if the title is AMD-sponsored, you can see that the RX 6900 XT tends to perform better at that title. Unfortunately, it also tends to perform poorer on NVIDIA-sponsored title games.

For 4K gaming, you can even push the frame rates higher with the help of DLSS or Radeon Super Resolution (if the game supports it). As for ray tracing, I didn’t include any tests here since the result will be very conclusive. And the RTX 3080 Ti would be faster than the RX 6900 XT when ray tracing is involved.

Average Results

I was expecting that the Radeon RX 6900 XT would be faster or at least slightly faster than the RTX 3080 Ti, based on the synthetic benchmarks alone. However, based on the 12-game average that I got, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti clearly outperformed the RX 6900 XT in all three resolutions.

Generally speaking, the RTX 3080 Ti is just around 6% to 10% faster than the RX 6900 XT. This depends on the game title or resolution. However, the RTX 3080 Ti is around 20% more expensive than the RX 6900 XT if we base it on their respective starting MSRP.

GeForce RTX 3080 Ti vs Radeon RX 6900 XT Conclusion

Overall, both the RTX 3080 Ti and Radeon RX 6900 XT are very capable graphics cards. They can easily drive games at 1440p and even at 4K UHD resolution. Speaking of 4K, if you’re planning on a 4K monitor, here are some of the best 4K gaming monitors in the market.

However, based on my testing, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is generally the faster GPU. Although not by a very huge margin, still can be substantial depending on the scenario. On the flip side, despite being the faster GPU, the RTX 3080 Ti is also generally more expensive than the RX 6900 XT. That’s why AMD released a statement or press release claiming that their RX 6000 GPUs offer better FPS per dollar. They claim that the RX 6900 XT offers “19% more FPS/$ and 19% better FPS/watt” vs the RTX 3080 Ti.

If you’re looking for more frames per dollar or watt, I think the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT would be a good fit for you. In that case, you might want to check out some of the best Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards here. On the other hand, having a better fps/dollar or fps/watt may not be the best solution for you.

Despite being the more expensive graphics card, the RTX 3080 Ti not only offers a few more frames but is also better when it comes to ray tracing. It also has a mature upscaling technology in the form of DLSS. If you’re screen recording or doing live streaming, the RTX 30 series GPUs have an NVENC encoder, which is better compared to AMD’s. And there are certain applications, like photo and video editing software, that benefit from CUDA cores or NVIDIA’s architecture in general.

There’s a lot more, but generally speaking, NVIDIA has more mature and better software support and additional features. If you think you need those additional features, aside from some extra FPS, then the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti may be the more suitable graphics card for you, despite being more expensive. You might want to check out some of the best GeForce RTX 3080 Ti here, or check the current pricing below.

So what will it be for you? Personally, I would opt for the RTX 3080 Ti since I am using Adobe Premiere Pro and NVIDIA’s Shadowplay for gameplay recording. I noticed that Shadowplay records better quality than AMD’s ReLive. I hope this comparison helps you in one way or another.

Update: You might want to check out the newer Radeon RX 6950 XT as well. The price difference is not that huge from the RX 6900 XT, but it is a bit faster than the RX 6900 XT.

For the latest pricing and availability: (#ad)
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards are available on Amazon.com here or at eBay.com here.
Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards are available on Amazon.com here or at eBay.com here.
Radeon RX 6950 XT graphics cards are available on Amazon.com here