Question RX 6800 (non-XT) - Good choice for an upgrade in an older system?

[Luno]

Hi,

mostly ramblings about mentioned GPU upgrade, asking for "Am I missing / misunderstanding something important?"

My current system

MSI B360M PRO-VDH
i5 8400
16 GB RAM
KFA² GTX 1070 EX
Corsair RMx 550W

is finally starting to show its age. As a "gamer behind the times" with humble requirements (1080p@60fps on High) it was more than enough, and I had no problems making it through the great GPU drought. But now the games I play ~3 years after release start to show issues, most notably Control which I have to drop to Medium settings to get smooth 60fps with the 1070 at ~90% power. The CPU on the other hand is still surprisingly capable, probably thanks to not needing 100+ fps for higher refresh rate monitors.

While not as bad as ~2 years ago, the current GPU market still seems... meh? Escpecially on Nvidia's side - 4060 and Ti look like complete jokes (8 PCIe-Lanes and 128bit bus, wtf), 4070 seems better on paper but is irrelevant at currently 600€. Radeon 7700 / 7800 are still nowhere to be seen, and I doubt they'll be competitively priced at release, because money. 3070 / 3070 Ti are obsolete with their 8GB.

The RX 6800 however has been steadily dropping in price and is now available in the EU for ~ 480€ (basic, but well reviewed PowerColor model), sometimes even dropping below that. The 16GB VRAM sound nice and "future proof", since Texture Quality is the last thing I want to compromise on. 250W board power seem a bit high? Although benchmarks show it's often below that in typical gaming scenarios and the frames per watt graphs are looking quite good. Purchasing an RX 6800 right now also comes bundled with a Steam key for Starfield Premium Edition, which would be a nice bonus.

I'm a bit concerned about the older chipset / mainboard. CPU will probably tag along nicely, but will PCIe 3.0 and lack of SAM / ReBAR be an issue?

I'm exclusively gaming on Linux (Steam / Proton), which is why I'm leaning more towards AMD (Steam Deck powered by AMD APU, Drivers are Open Source, also better Vulkan performance overall).

The power supply should be more than enough I think? Some sites list a 600W PSU minimum for the RX 6800, but I can't figure out how I'd ever get close to 550W with that setup.

Should I decide to buy the Radeon, I'll probably also upgrade the system to 32GB RAM since DDR4 is dirt cheap right now.

... can't think of anything else right now. Thanks for reading. Actual questions are in bold, any input to all points mentioned appreciated.

 

[John Chesterfield]

You won't get the most out of that graphics card with your current system, I'd focus more on a platform upgrade first and look at a graphics card later. You'll get an uplift in performance, but nothing like what you could get on a more modern platform.

 

[Kona45primo]

will PCIe 3.0 and lack of SAM / ReBAR be an issue?

No. Might be a 5-10% hit in some games, zero in others. CPU will be the bottleneck in your system.

 

[Luno]

CPU will be the bottleneck in your system.

You won't get the most out of that graphics card with your current system, I'd focus more on a platform upgrade first and look at a graphics card later. You'll get an uplift in performance, but nothing like what you could get on a more modern platform.

I do understand that the CPU will limit the GPU. However, It doesn't matter if I'm only getting 100 instead of the theoretically possible 150fps with a faster CPU because it'll be capped at 60fps anyhow.

Only upgrading the platform now and getting to the GPU later will net me zero improvement because the GPU will still be at its limit.

 

[John Chesterfield]

I do understand that the CPU will limit the GPU. However, It doesn't matter if I'm only getting 100 instead of the theoretically possible 150fps with a faster CPU because it'll be capped at 60fps anyhow.

Only upgrading the platform now and getting to the GPU later will net me zero improvement because the GPU will still be at its limit.

If you're after 1080p 60fps, a 6800 could still be overkill. Unless you're planning a monitor upgrade anytime soon, I'd maybe go for a lesser card so as not to leave any performance on the table.

Any performance left on the table is wasted money. Just my $0.02.

 

[thestryker]

The 6800 generally speaking is rarely a great deal right now as they tend to be too close to the 6800 XT/6950 XT in price, and too much more than the 6700 XT/6750 XT. PSU requirements tend to be based on top end hardware so CPUs like 5950X/12900K/7950X/13900K, but you do have to take into account power excursions which can add a microsecond of +50% power (sometimes more). Just the same I'm not sure I'd trust that 550W PSU with anything above a 6700 XT/6750 XT as it appears to just have a single PCIe connector so you'd be using a daisy chained connection.

Without knowing where you're buying from specifically I can't speak to the exact values but the increase in performance from the 6750 XT to 6800 to 6800 XT is close to the same each step up. You might even get a better experience by upgrading CPU to something faster with hyperthreading (depending on prices you're able to get) and going with a 6750 XT than just buying a 6800.

 

[Luno]

Thanks for the answers so far, some very valid points here.

The 6800 might indeed be overkill. I might also be focusing on the 16GB VRAM too much, which honestly isn't that important for 1080p gaming, even down the road. I dove a bit deeper into the cost per frame graphs. Compared to the 6700XT it's indeed not looking so good anymore. The 6750XT is not an option, since it's really overpriced at the moment (and also has the same TDP as the 6800 ).

... or maybe I should wait for the 7700 / 7800 announcement which is apparently just a month away now.

 

[Avro Arrow]

If you're only gaming at 1080p60Hz, an RX 6800 would be major overkill. I would say that the best option for you at the moment would be the RX 6600 for $210 or (even better) the RX 6650 XT for $250:

First, let's look at the RX 6600:
ASRock Radeon RX 6600 8GB - $210USD at Newegg
The RX 6600 hovers around the 60FPS mark for most games at 1080p Ultra, but not all. In Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2, it is below 60FPS on average:

Of course, you could boost the FPS by dropping to medium settings but I believe that there's a better way.

For the RX 6600, TechPowerUp recommends a 300W PSU.

Now lets look at the RX 6650 XT:
XFX Radeon RX 6650 XT Speedster SWFT Core 8GB - $250USD at Best Buy
The RX 6650 XT costs 19% more than the RX 6600 but it provides 25% more performance which makes it a better buy. Unlike the RX 6600, the RX 6650 XT easily averages 60+FPS at 1080p Ultra in CP2077 and RDR2 (as well as all the other titles tested):

For the RX 6650 XT, TechPowerUp recommends a 450W PSU.

The Corsair RMx 550W is a great 80+Gold-Certified PSU. It would easily handle either of these cards. One of the great things about buying a new Radeon today is that AMD has bundled a free copy of Starfield. That actually prompted me to get an RX 6600, not because I needed it, but because I got the free copy of Starfield. I can then turn around and sell the RX 6600 for $50CAD less than I paid and it means that I got Starfield for half price and someone else gets a brand-new, unused card for $50 off.

Of course, I will do a quality test and burn-in to make sure that the card is good. I don't want to screw anyone over with a bad card. I see it as a win-win.

 

[Luno]

I'd like this next GPU purchase to be "future-proof". I know, the term is much dreaded and nobody has a crystal ball to predict the gaming requirements landscape of the next ~5 years. The 1070 was originally released as a 1440p card, so also a bit too much for my perfomance target. I bought it because it got really affordable a year after release and also because I needed some headroom for the back then less optimized Linux gaming situation. This however improved a lot thanks to Valve & Proton, and in combination with the 8GB VRAM and only running it at 1080/60 further contributed to its longevity.

I really don't want to go from an 8G to another 8G card, which eliminates everything up to the 6650 XT. The smallest upgrade I'm currently considering would be the 6700 (non-XT with 10G), which would have to be priced below 300€ to make sense.

At this point I'll probably wait for the all but officially confirmed AMD announcement, because there is some really misplaced optimism left that those cards might not be part of another <Mod Edit>-show release 🫣

 

[Nighthawk117]

I'd like this next GPU purchase to be "future-proof". I know, the term is much dreaded and nobody has a crystal ball to predict the gaming requirements landscape of the next ~5 years.

That's real difficult to predict, particularly when the card itself is already a couple of years old. Is ray tracing of any importance to you?

I really don't want to go from an 8G to another 8G card, which eliminates everything up to the 6650 XT. The smallest upgrade I'm currently considering would be the 6700 (non-XT with 10G), which would have to be priced below 300€ to make sense.

I agree on the VRAM, if you were going Nvidia I would go with the 4070, but that's significantly more money. A full platform upgrade becomes of more importance then as well to make full use of it.

 

[Luno]

That's real difficult to predict, particularly when the card itself is already a couple of years old. Is ray tracing of any importance to you?

Not at all. Probably wouldn't activate RT even if I could. Uses a lot of additional power and might make games look different, but not necessarily better.

I agree on the VRAM, if you were going Nvidia I would go with the 4070, but that's significantly more money. A full platform upgrade becomes of more importance then as well to make full use of it.

Not that I'm completely against buying another Nvidia card, but not at those outrageous prices. At least the 4070 isn't hot garbage like the 4060 Ti, but because it's the least <Mod Edit> product in the 4xxx series it'll probably continue to sell at the current price, so no discounts incoming here anytime soon.

<Moderator Warning: This is your second profanity warning. You don't want a third one.>

 

[Nighthawk117]

Not at all. Probably wouldn't activate RT even if I could. Uses a lot of additional power and might make games look different, but not necessarily better.

I would say when it's done well it's worth having. If you've ever seen Cyberpunk travelling through the city at night in the rain, it looks dramatically better with ray tracing on. Once you've seen it with it on, you probably wouldn't want it off. In many games though the implementation is quite poor and it doesn't add much.

Not at all. Probably wouldn't activate RT even if I could. Uses a lot of additional power and might make games look different, but not necessarily better.



Not that I'm completely against buying another Nvidia card, but not at those outrageous prices. At least the 4070 isn't hot garbage like the 4060 Ti, but because it's the least <Mod Edit> product in the 4xxx series it'll probably continue to sell at the current price, so no discounts incoming here anytime soon.

I wasn't impressed with the 4060 Ti either. However the case in Nvidia's favour is the package, they have dedicated hardware for ray tracing and machine learning workloads. As a result their ray tracing performance is much faster than AMD's and their image upscaling is better quality. You just pay a premium price for it.

If you don't care about RT though, the 6800 would probably last you a while.

 

[Randi Poling]

With that CPU, even a 3060 with 12GB of VRAM would work fine (Since I saw you wanted more than 8GB). But if you can find a 6800 for the price of a 3060, I would say go for it.

 

[Luno]

A quick follow-up in case someone in a similar position searches for this:

I ended up actually buying an (XFX) RX 6800, but just because I managed to snatch one new for 439€ (should be ~399 USD). The 7700XT had just been announced, which will probably offer the same level of performance at 4GB VRAM less for 50€ more, made the decision even easier.

So far: All good, my PSU isn't running into problems, power consumption overall is really great, actually using less power than my old 1070 in games at the same settings (which makes sense because newer/smaller process). Idle and media playback are also more efficient.

Need to do more testing though.

Will post another follow-up in case my PSU eventually explodes 🫣.