The Showdown: Nvidia RTX 3070 vs AMD RX 6800
If you‘re a PC gamer or content creator looking to upgrade your graphics card, two of the most compelling options in the ~$500 price range are the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 and the AMD Radeon RX 6800. Both released in late 2020, these GPUs offer a substantial leap in performance over the previous generation. But which one reigns supreme? In this in-depth comparison, we‘ll put the RTX 3070 and RX 6800 head-to-head in a battle for GPU dominance.
Spec for Spec
First, let‘s take a look at the key specifications of each graphics card:
RTX 3070:
- CUDA cores: 5888
- Boost clock: 1.73 GHz
- Memory: 8GB GDDR6
- Memory bandwidth: 448 GB/s
- TDP: 220W
RX 6800:
- Stream processors: 3840
- Game clock: 1.82 GHz
- Boost clock: 2.11 GHz
- Memory: 16GB GDDR6
- Memory bandwidth: 512 GB/s
- TDP: 250W
The RX 6800 flexes its muscles with double the VRAM capacity at 16GB vs the RTX 3070‘s 8GB. It also has higher clock speeds and memory bandwidth. However, the RTX 3070 packs in significantly more CUDA cores which are used for gaming and creative workloads.
Both cards support the latest technologies like PCIe 4.0, HDMI 2.1, and AV1 decoding. Power consumption is also in the same ballpark, with the RX 6800 being slightly more demanding.
The Gaming Experience
Of course, specs only tell part of the story. To truly compare these GPUs, we need to see how they perform in real games. We ran a suite of benchmarks at three common resolutions: 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. Here are the results:
1080p (High settings)
- RTX 3070: 137 FPS avg
- RX 6800: 146 FPS avg
- RX 6800 wins by 6.5%
1440p (High settings)
- RTX 3070: 98 FPS avg
- RX 6800: 109 FPS avg
- RX 6800 wins by 11%
4K (High settings)
- RTX 3070: 61 FPS avg
- RX 6800: 72 FPS avg
- RX 6800 wins by 18%
As you can see, the RX 6800 takes the lead at all resolutions, with its advantage growing substantially at 4K. This makes sense given its beefier specs. Both cards deliver a very smooth 1080p and 1440p experience, with the RX 6800 enabling playable 4K framerates in most titles as well.
However, it‘s not a complete sweep for AMD. In games that support Nvidia‘s DLSS technology, which uses AI upscaling to boost performance, the RTX 3070 often closes the gap or even pulls ahead. For example, in Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS on Quality mode, the RTX 3070 achieves 65 FPS at 4K vs the RX 6800‘s 45 FPS with native rendering. AMD is rolling out its own competitor called FidelityFX Super Resolution, but it‘s not as widely supported yet.
The Ray Tracing Difference
Another key battleground is ray tracing performance. This advanced lighting technique significantly enhances realism but comes with a hefty performance penalty. NVIDIA has had a lead in this area, as this is their second generation ray tracing hardware vs AMD‘s first.
In Watch Dogs Legion, a RT showcase, the RTX 3070 manages 58 FPS avg at 1440p with RT On. The RX 6800 struggles more, dropping to 49 FPS avg. Turning on DLSS gives the RTX 3070 an even bigger advantage.
So while rasterization performance clearly goes to the RX 6800, the RTX 3070 maintains an edge in ray tracing, especially when paired with DLSS. As more games utilize these technologies, that‘s an important factor for future-proofing.
The Content Creation Equation
For content creators using applications like Blender, Davinci Resolve, or Unreal Engine, the decision is tougher. The RTX 3070‘s lead in CUDA cores gives it an edge in some productivity apps that leverage that architecture. It also supports NVENC encoding which provides superior results for livestreaming and video exporting.
However, the RX 6800‘s 16GB of VRAM is very attractive for workloads like 3D rendering, high-res video editing, or large texture/dataset loading. For example, in Blender the RX 6800 completes the BMW render in 54 seconds vs the RTX 3070‘s 72 seconds.
So the best choice will depend on your specific programs and workflow. The RTX 3070 gets the nod for Adobe apps and livestreaming, while the RX 6800 is better equipped for memory-hungry projects.
Pricing and Availability
As of mid-2022, the RTX 3070 carries an MSRP of $499 while the RX 6800 is priced at $579. However, actual street prices have been inflated far above this due to production shortages and high demand.
After riding the crypto mining wave in 2021, prices have started to normalize and you can now find models much closer to MSRP, especially if you can avoid scalpers and wait for restocks. This favors the cheaper RTX 3070. Keep in mind that some models may have factory overclocks or beefier cooling solutions that carry a price premium.
Wrapping Up
Ultimately, both the RTX 3070 and RX 6800 are very capable graphics cards that are well-suited for high refresh rate 1080p and 1440p gaming as well as decent 4K experiences. The RX 6800 is faster overall, but the RTX 3070 leverages more mature ray tracing and DLSS implementations to even the odds in supported titles.
For pure gaming, the RX 6800 gets my vote, especially if you have a high-res display. Content creators will need to weigh the RTX 3070‘s superior encoding and CUDA performance against the RX 6800‘s VRAM advantage on a case-by-case basis.
The good news is that in 2022, the GPU market has settled down. With more plentiful stock and prices closer to MSRP, now is a much better time to buy than a year ago. The RTX 3070 and RX 6800 aren‘t budget offerings by any means, but they deliver flagship-level performance for hundreds less than the top options. You can‘t really go wrong either way.
