Purchasing the absolute best CPU for gaming that the consumer market has to offer, means purchasing either the Ryzen 9 5950X, or the Ryzen 9 5900X. Not only have benchmarks from multiple sources (Gamer’s Nexus, Techspot, Tom’s Hardware) proven the superiority of these CPUs in gaming performance, single-core performance, and multi-core performance, but they also display how these CPUs have accomplished the task while using far less energy – and at lower temperatures – than their competition. 

If you care little for price to performance ratios, or just need the extra multicore performance, then the Zen 3 Ryzen 9 options are an easy choice to make. But choosing the hardware to pair them with won’t be as simple a task; due to the plethora of available options that can all work well with these processors. For example, what appears to be the gold-standard for RAM kits, at least for testing their performance, is a frequency-latency combination of 3,200 MHz and a CAS of 14 cycles. However, now that the price for DDR4 RAM has dropped considerably, a RAM kit with a speed of 3,600 CL14, which sells for only $189.99 (Via Amazon) (2×8 – total 16 GB) – or an even more extreme, 3,800 MHz CL14 kit which can be found for as low $220 to $290 (2×8 – total 16 GB) – can enhance their performance even further. Then, would you go for an X570 flagship motherboard, or a B550? A Noctua NH-D15 air CPU cooler, or a Corsair H115i Elite Capellix AIO liquid cooler? A Sabrent Rocket 4+ NVMe SSD, or a Samsung 980 Pro?

This is what makes the current generation of hardware one of the best to invest in for an upgrade, or a brand-new PC, there are so many valid options to choose from. This is also the case for choosing a graphics card, as Nvidia’s superiority in the GPU market is in question after AMD “released” their new Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards. And though AMD has added extra incentive for to purchasing one of these GPUs, to be paired with a Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Series processor (like Smart Access Memory), Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs still can’t be counted out. People have grown fond of Nvidia as a brand because their GPUs have proven to be reliable throughout several iterations; whereas AMD has faced multiple issues in the past, related to their graphics cards, including poor drivers and overheating units.

AMD vs Nvidia: Features & Technology

Nvidia GeForce

The GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs feature a new Ampere architecture: with 2^nd generation ray tracing cores, 3^rd generation tensor cores, as well as new Streaming Multiprocessors (SM); all accounting for double the throughput. Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) software is one of their top selling points, as it upscales lower resolution images in real time via the using of deep learning AI – allowing the GPU to achieve faster framerates at higher resolutions. Harnessing the power of AI-acceleration is not solely utilized for their DLSS feature, as Nvidia Studio and Nvidia Broadcast allow for livestreaming, voice chats, and video conference calls that are devoid of background noise, and allow you to switch the background of your video feed with the touch of a button. GeForce Experience is also a very convenient application that allows you to quickly update your drivers – as well as livestream and capture screenshots that you can enhance and customize via the use of Nvidia’s Ansel.

But what is arguably the most important feature that is included with Nvidia’s GeForce 30 Series GPUs – especially for competitive or professional gamers – is Nvidia Reflex. Aimed to drastically reduce render queues, mainly by utilizing direct communication between CPU and GPU, Nvidia has created a feature that brings overall system latency to a minimum. In fact, Nvidia has put significant effort into optimizing Reflex, working with third-party monitor manufacturers to produce displays that carry a hardware component named the Reflex Latency Analyzer.  This input-lag analyzer allows the monitor to display end-to-end system latency in real-time. Through these 360 Hz displays, Nvidia Reflex can reduce input lag by a staggering 66% when compared to a 144 Hz monitor using a GeForce RTX 20 Series graphics card. For professional e-Sports and competitive-gaming enthusiasts, one of these five available 1080p 360 Hz monitors, paired with a GeForce RTX 30 Series GPU, provides the most utility out of all available setup options. Even if the GPU benchmarks a few frames less than its competition, having less input-lag and the ability to monitor system latency in real time, provides far better value, in terms of practicality, than any other hardware combination one can purchase. 

AMD Radeon

AMD does still hold their own against Nvidia’s technological advancements, as certain key architectural elements allow their RDNA 2 GPUs to compete with the GeForce Ampere graphics cards, even on a high level. Firstly, the Radeon RX 6000 Series GPUs make use of a 128 MB Level 3 Cache – called the Infinity Cache – which is based on those found in the Zen 2 and Zen 3 CPUs. This Infinity Cache allows for almost twice the memory bus bandwidth; despite a lower energy expenditure. Additionally, AMD’s new generation of Compute Units (CU) have redesigned data paths, pervasive fine-grain clock gating, and a new pipeline rebalancing.

Perhaps the most impressive, and most useful, of AMD’s new technologies, is the aforementioned Smart Access Memory. Built to provide synergy between both AMD CPU and GPU products (and as an additional incentive to those with a Zen 3 CPU to buy a RDNA 2 GPU) Smart Access Memory creates an expanded data channel by utilizing PCI Express lanes to power the CPU to access more VRAM; effectively removing any inherent GPU memory bottleneck. The increase in performance allowed by Smart Access Memory is quite considerable, as it can provide the edge for the RDNA 2 GPUs to slightly surpass Nvidia GeForce graphics cards which would otherwise hold a slight advantage against them in framerate output.

AMD also has a new set of features that, admittedly may not be as impressive as those offered by Nvidia, but are definitely nice to have. AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition is the equivalent of Nvidia’s GeForce Experience, providing driver updates, single-click overclocking called “Rage Mode”, and performance reports in a convenient and easy-to-use interface. Next, we have AMD Radeon Chill, which automatically caps the framerate of any specific game depending on the monitor’s refresh rate; thus saving energy by limiting the GPU to process only the amount of framerate necessary to maximize the monitor’s capabilities. Another neat feature is AMD’s Integer Scaling, which is used for better capturing the visuals of retro games on modern displays. It basically scales one pixel to multiple pixels, so that the faded look of pixelated graphics on a high-resolution monitor will look clearer and more in-tune with the game’s inherent low-bit graphics.

To increase FPS, and lessen the strain to the GPU, AMD’s Radeon Boost works by lowering the resolution of frames during quick motion (frames that are difficult to notice), in turning giving the GPU the ability to generate faster framerate when the in-game character is in motion. Note, however, than AMD Radeon Boost currently only works for a handful of gaming titles. When paired with Radeon Boost, AMD’s second-generation Anti-Lag can lessen end-to-end input lag, similar to Nvidia Reflex. Still, the 31% reduction figure that is stated on AMD’s website is a result from tests run at a 4K resolution – and, funny enough, using an Intel i7-9700K CPU – so the results will not be nearly as impressive at 1080p. 

AMD vs Nvidia: Top GPU Comparisons

Now that we have a better idea of what each company is offering in terms of new technology and features, let’s compare each of their two best GPUs, and see how they fare against each other in specifications and in benchmarked framerates.

AMD RX 6800 XT vs Nvidia RTX 3080

T

AMD RX 6900 XT vs Nvidia RTX 3090

Verdict

Comparing all four of the above GPUs, we can see that each has its advantages and disadvantages. Indeed, any of these graphic-card models can be used optimally for different types of 5900X and 5950X builds.

Best GPU for 5900X/5950X Competitive Gaming Builds

If you take competitive gaming seriously, nothing beats a GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics card paired with a 1080p 360 Hz monitor. Because the benchmarked framerate averages of the GeForce RTX 3090 and the GeForce RTX 3080 are so similar, we recommend pairing the latter with a Ryzen 9 5900X – which displayed an identical average framerate to the Ryzen 9 5950X ta this resolution. 

Best GPU for 5900X/5950X 1080p Gaming Builds

For 1080p gaming that isn’t as serious as the aforementioned example, the Radeon RX 6800 XT provides the highest framerate of all GPUs in the market – even surpassing the GeForce RTX 3090, despite costing less than half its price. For 1080p gaming, the best combination is the Ryzen 9 5900X with the Radeon RX 6800 XT.

Best GPU for 5900X/5950X 1440p Gaming Builds

Going a step above, and into the 1440p range, it appears that the Radeon RX 6900 XT is the most powerful GPU available; even surpassing the GeForce RTX 3090, while costing 50% less (if AMD’s benchmarks are to be trusted). Of course, the Radeon RX 6800 XT still holds better value for its price at 1440p, but if you are aiming for the highest possible performance, the Radeon RX 6900 XT is the way to go. In terms of processors, both Ryzen 9 CPUs have nearly identical single-core performance (benchmarked by Tom’s Hardware), so the Ryzen 9 5900X is the smarter choice.

Best GPU for 5900X/5950X 4K Gaming Builds

For the highest gaming resolution, the GeForce RTX 3090 reigns supreme in framerate output – and holds a considerable advantage to its competition. That being said, the Radeon RX 6900 XT does seem promising, though chances are it will not outperform the GeForce RTX 3090 at 4K game processing. Do note, that the Radeon RX 6800 XT, once again, does have the better cost per frame ratio for this resolution as well.

Best GPU for 5900X/5950X Workstation Utility Builds

Finally, for workstation builds that require high multi-core performance – or for gaming and streaming + content creation PCs – the additional cores and threads of the Ryzen 9 5950X will certainly pay for their extra cost in the long run. When it comes to graphics, the GeForce RTX 3090’s 8 GB of extra GDDR6X – and its 45% faster bandwidth compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT – make it a more appealing option for dedicated workstation setups, even at its $1,500 price tag.

The post Best Graphics Cards for Ryzen 9 5900X & 5950X Builds appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

After conquering the consumer-grade CPU market, AMD has aimed their sights on dethroning Nvidia, as the GPU manufacturing king, and asserting a newfound gaming-GPU market dominance. In the past, AMD has several times attempted to challenge Nvidia, but to no avail, proven by overall sales. This time around, AMD is hopeful that the new RDNA2 architecture of the Radeon RX 6000 Series GPUs, will deliver a significant blow to Nvidia’s RTX Ampere 3000 Series lineup, especially after the failure to properly launch their two high-end GPUs. Hopefully, AMD will not follow suit and botch their own launch, because, if they have not misled us with their benchmarks, these new GPUs do look incredible. 

During their Radeon RX 6000 Series announcement presentation, AMD displayed three new Navi 21 GPUs, as well as how they fair against their Nvidia RTX counterparts. To remove some of the doubts that their info-graphics were deceptive, as some of the benchmarks they displayed did include overclocking for their GPU but not for their competition (6900 XT vs 3090), AMD has now created a webpage which allows one to compare benchmarks for several gaming titles between all their newly announced GPUs, as well as with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080, GeForce RTX 3090, and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. This page also allows us to see the full build that was used to carry out their benchmarks, as well as new graphs that feature FPS per price metrics for each of the aforementioned options. The only concerns for AMD’s newly announced GPUs have to do with their thermals, as past RDNA GPUs (like the Radeon RX 5700 XT) would operate with temperatures upwards of 100 degrees Celsius, as well as the drivers.

The additional features that AMD has included for these new series of graphics cards are not quite on the level of Nvidia’s DLSS or Reflex, but they still do offer a substantial performance enhancement to their GPUs. Firstly, to rival Reflex, AMD has improved their input latency reducing technology, now offering second generation AMD Radeon Anti-Lag, which, together with Radeon Boost, can reduce end-to-end input lag by a considerable amount. Still, what AMD is lacking is the native Reflex Latency Analyzer and 360 Hz monitors, that manufacturers have partnered with Nvidia to create, in order to enhance Reflex in order lowers end to end input lag (by up to two-thirds) and also display this overall latency to the user in real time. 

What AMD’s does have, that Nvidia cannot match, is Smart Access Memory: A feature that allows new Radeon RX GPUs to share memory with Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs, which allows for an overall boost in gaming – and perhaps other – application performance. 

Another new element found in these RDNA 2 AMD GPUs is AMD’s Infinity Cache, which is based off the Ryzen 5000 Series Level 3 Cache, allowing a 256-bit memory bus to deliver more than twice the bandwidth of a typical 384-bit memory bus, while expending less energy. This allows the two most powerful GPUs announced by AMD: The Radeon RX 6800 XT and the Radeon RX 6900 XT, to offer similar, and sometimes even greater, gaming performance than their Nvidia counterparts, despite having less power demands and, in the case of the RX 6900 XT, a smaller form factor as well. Because the Nvidia GeForce RTX Ampere 3070 had not yet been released when AMD held their RDNA 2 launch presentation, we do not know how well the Radeon RX 6800 fares against this GPU, but, instead, we were given benchmarks comparing the RX 6800 to Nvidia’s, previous generation, GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.

Given that we are now reaching the end of the life span of both the AM4 chipset, as well as the DDR4 RAM memory type, makes it the best time to build a rig that will last well into the future, as current-generation technology has reached its peak – not only in terms of performance but also in cost efficiency. For the ultimate high-end, value-performance ratio focused build, we ask: Which GPU is the best to pair with one of AMD’s new Zen 3 processors (which are now the most powerful CPUs for gaming) when it comes to building a high-end gaming setup? Additionally, which combination will provide the highest FPS per dollar ratio?

In terms of which CPU is best, from what we know so far, it does appear that the Ryzen 7 5800X will be the performance-value king of the Zen 3 lineup, as it fully utilizes AMD’s new Zen 3 architecture; maxing out the number of cores and L3 Cache that a CCX can hold, without having the need to communicate with a second CCX like the Ryzen 9 CPUs do. 

To determine which GPU will constitute the best choice for a new high-end gaming rig, let’s compare the two more expensive options AMD has announced; both in terms of specifications and benchmarks, as well as how well they fare against their Nvidia competition.

RX 6800 XT vs 6900 XT Comparison

	Radeon RX 6800 XT	Radeon RX 6900 XT
Design
Price	$649	$999
Processing Node	7 nm FinFET TSMC	7 nm FinFET TSMC
Transistor Count	26.8 Billion	26.8 Billion
Die Size	536 mm²	536 mm²
VRAM Storage	16 GB GDDR6	16 GB GDDR6
Memory Bandwidth	512 GB/s	512 GB/s
Pixel Rate	288 GP/s	288 GP/s
Shading Units	4608	5120
TMUs	288	320
ROPs	128	128
Compute Units	72	80
RT Cores	72	80
TDP	300 W	300 W
Availability	Amazon.com	Amazon.com

Specifications

Radeon RX 6800 XT

The Radeon RX 6800 XT comes with a Navi 21 XL GPU variant, which is built on a TSMC FinFET 7 nm processing node, and has 26.8 billion transistors on a 536 mm² die. It has a Base Clock speed of 1,487 MHz, a Gaming Clock (partial overclock) speed of 2,015 MHz, and an impressive 2,250 MHz Boost Clock frequency. With 4,608 shader units, 288 TMUs, 128 ROPs, 72 ray tracing cores, and 72 CUs, this GPU has a FP16, FP32, and FP64 processing power of 41.47 TFLOPs, 20.74 TFLOPs, and 1.296 TFLOPs respectively. Additionally, with the use of 128 MBs of AMD’s new Infinity Cache, the Radeon RX 6800 XT has a 256-bit memory bus capable of 512 GB/s bandwidth speeds, using 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a Memory Clock speed of 2,000 MHz (16 GB/s effective). Like its RTX Ampere 3080 counterpart, it has a 2.5-slot width, but only a 300 W TDP; which is 20 Watts lower than that of the RTX 3080. Finally, the RX 6800 XT will launch with an MSRP of $649 on November the 18^th, 2020.

Radeon RX 6900 XT

The high-end Radeon RX 6900 XT makes use of a Navi XTX GPU variant, which has the same processing node, transistor count, and die size of the Navi 21 XL GPU. It has comparable clocking frequencies, as it has a base clock speed of 1,429 MHz, and equal Game, Memory, and Boost clock speeds (2,015 MHz, 2,000 MHz and 2,250 MHz respectively). Its memory is also identical to that of the Radeon RX 6800 XT: 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, and 128 GB of L3 cache. In regards to rendering performance, its 5,120 Shader Units, 320 TMUs, 128 ROPs, 80 CUs and 80 RT cores are capable of 46.08 TFLOPs of FP16, 23.04 TFLOPs of FP32, and 1.440 TFLOPs of FP64 theoretical performance power. Despite being more powerful than the Radeon RX 6800 XT, this CPU has the same, 2.5-slot width, as well as the same, 300 W, TDP. The Radeon RX 6900 XT is set to release on December the 8^th, 2020, with an MSRP of $999. 

Specification Comparison

Though the GPUs are very similar – with an identical foundry, die size, VRAM, clock speeds, TDP and form factors – the Radeon RX 6900 XT still costs $350 more than the Radeon RX 6800 XT. The difference between the two GPUs lies solely in their rendering power. The Radeon RX 6900 XT has 512 more Stream Processors, 32 more TMUs, 8 more RT cores, and 8 more Computing Units. This translates to a discrepancy of computing power of 4.61 TFLOPs of FP16, 2.3 TFLOPs FP32, and 0.144 TFLOPs of FP64 theoretical performance. Still, for a price differential of $350, these differences do seem quite minor. But, before we come to that conclusion, let’s check what kind of performance differences these two GPUs exhibit in their benchmarks.

Benchmark Comparison

The tests that AMD has released are carried out in two resolutions: 1440p and 4K, using a Ryzen 9 5900X CPU, 16 GB of 3200 MHz (most likely CL 14) DDR4 RAM, a X570 motherboard, and Smart Access Memory enabled. At the 3840 x 2160 resolution, the RX Radeon 6900 XT leads the RX Radeon 6800 XT at framerates ranging from 5 FPS (The Division 2) to 12 FPS (Doom Eternal). When it comes to 1440p, it leads by anywhere between 2 FPS (Battlefield V) to 15 FPS (Wolfenstein Youngblood), while both GPUs trading blows with the Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3000 series counterparts.

Where the Radeon RX 6800 XT overshadows the competition, is the FPS per dollar ratio results, where it comes out first in the vast majority of comparisons. For the 10 gaming titles that AMD tested, in both 4K and 1440p, it is only outclassed twice: Battlefield V at 1440p by the Radeon 6800 (0.01 FPS per dollar difference), and The Division 2 at 4K, by the GeForce RTX 3080 (0.002 FPS per dollar difference). Other than that, the Radeon RX 6800 XT destroys the competition in all 18 other benchmarks. 

It is important to note, that there are titles where the Radeon RX 6800 XT actually outperforms Nvidia’s $1,500 flagship GeForce RTX 3090 (namely: Battlefield V, at 4K and 1440p, Borderlands 3, at 4K and 1440p, Forza Horizon, at 4k and 1440p, and Gears V, at 4K and 1440p), despite costing $850 less – which is crazy. Of course, the argument in favor of the GeForce RTX 3090 is that this GPU is not meant for gaming as much as it is for workstations; and AMD has not released any benchmarks for workstation applications. Therefore, we cannot tell how the Radeon RX 6800 XT and 6900 XT will fare against the RTX 3090 in this regard.

Verdict

When Nvidia launched their GeForce Ampere RTX 3090, on September the 24^th, consumers were well aware that this GPU was definitely not a cost-efficient graphics card. It was, in fact, apparent that the RTX 3090 is a workstation-optimized GPU, similar to the previous generation Nvidia RTX Titan. Still, within minutes of its release, the RTX 3090 sold out. Though we can blame Nvidia for their limited stock of the product, it still does not take away from the fact that the demand for this GPU is extremely high. 

Gamers have shown that they are willing to spend disproportionate (to value) amounts of money for the bragging rights of having “the most powerful” gaming build – which may be the reason why the Radeon RX 6900 XT is priced so high. If AMDs benchmarks are to be trusted, the RX 6900 XT performs on an equal level to the RTX 3090 in gaming benchmarks; leading in some titles and trailing in others. If you would like to build a PC that provides peak gaming performance, then the Radeon RX 6900 is the best choice for you, as it leads the RTX 3090 in most titles (that AMD tested) and costs $500 less. If you have any specific gaming titles that you would like to achieve a performance peak for, it would be best to wait for user-tested benchmarks of that specific game.

For professional e-Sport players, the best performing GPU will be an RTX Ampere 3000 Series graphics card, due solely to Nvidia Reflex, and Nvidia’s partnership with monitor manufacturers for the release of 1080p, 360 Hz, monitors. Because these monitors include the integrated Reflex Latency Analyzer hardware, and are optimized to reduce end-to-end input lag so drastically, it is difficult to recommend anything AMD has to offer – even with their Anti-Lag and Radeon boost features. 

These two exceptions aside, for every other PC builder (and vast majority of users) looking to make a high-end gaming setup, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the superior GPU – no matter what the resolution you’ll be gaming in. It has high performance in 4K, 1440p, and, most likely, 1080p, at an excellent price. Not only is this GPU cheaper than the Nvidia RTX 3080, but it also outperforms it in almost every title AMD tested. Even without the use of Smart Access Memory, the Radeon RX 6800 XT is still the superior GPU to the RTX 3080, due to its cheaper price and superior energy efficiency. Also, since it is looking like game developers will be optimizing their games for an AMD interface (since both next generation consoles have RDNA 2 GPUs), this advantage may grow as new games release.

The differences between the Radeon RX 6800 XT and the RTX 3080 in FPS performance are minimal, and may ultimately be negligible, but the fact that AMD has managed to develop GPUs that rival Nvidia is an impressive feat; one that Nvidia will have to face despite their latest botched releases. Still, the fact that Nvidia now has a more serious rivalry with AMD is a great benefit to the consumer, since both companies are now forced to compete in developing the most powerful hardware possible, and sell them at more competitive prices. Currently, for this generation of GPUs, it appears that the Radeon RX 6800 XT will reign supreme, and is a force to be reckoned with for Nvidia and their future RTX 3000 Series GPU launches.

The post AMD RX 6800 XT vs 6900 XT: What Are The Key Differences? appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

Next-gen Radeon and Ryzen are… just on the horizon . Zen 3 and RDNA 2 represent some of the most impressive and affordable generational performance improvements that AMD has been promising for years since the launch of the original Zen architecture. They made a fantastic showing last generation for mid-range GPU performance with their Radeon RX 5700XT, which, understandably, made numerous gamers question whether they really needed to shell out the extra dough for immature Ray-Tracing features from Nvidia’s roughly equivalent RTX 2070 Super. Now, builders are facing an even more challenging question. Will RDNA 2 be worth the cheaper price tag in the face of Ampere’s incredible Ray-Tracing support?

DLSS (deep learning super sampling) was honestly a bit of a joke when Nvidia first developed it. Only a handful of games supported Ray-Tracing, and usually with limited application. Depending on the title and implementation, Ray-Tracing only offered minor visual improvements for a significant FPS penalty no matter how robust your build was. DLSS was initially intended to offset this penalty by rendering games at a lower resolution and upscaling them with Nvidia’s AI technology, but it simply wasn’t very effective. However, DLSS 2.0 has grown into a force to be reckoned with. Games like Control, F1 2020, Death Stranding, Minecraft RTX, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Anthem, Metro Exodus, Battlefield V, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy XV, and Monster Hunter: World, to name a few, all support DLSS and receive insane performance benefits with anywhere from 20-200% higher FPS by merely having it enabled. Whatever your opinion on any of those titles might be, free FPS is always welcome. That’s not even considering the plethora of upcoming games that will also support DLSS, like Cyberpunk 2077 and Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War.

AMD has discussed RDNA 2’s Ray-Tracing support and their answer to DLSS, but they’ve yet to reveal any official benchmarks compared to Ampere, and, rumor has it, Ray-Tracing may not be the reason you want to opt for Team Red when it comes to the GPU for your next gaming build. Of course, we’ll have to see how things play out when AMD’s new hardware launches over this holiday season, so keep an eye for our latest updates and results!

Regardless of the Radeon RX 6900XT’s Ray-Tracing performance, one thing is certain, AMD is competitive at the high-end again, and for a deep discount. Compared to the $1500 RTX 3090, the RX 6900XT is only going to cost $1000. Translation: for $50 less than the cost of just Nvidia’s top-tier gaming GPU this generation, you can purchase the Radeon RX 6900XT and the Ryzen 7 5800X. We’re going to go out on a limb and say that even if the rumors are true and RDNA 2’s Ray-Tracing performance leaves a lot to be desired, AMD still makes a more compelling offer for the majority of gamers looking to build a new rig this year. Not to mention the uphill battle that Intel is facing in the wake of Zen 3’s reveal!

So, today, we’re going to recommend the best 6900XT build for PC gaming with a budget of $3500. Let’s take a look.

Best $3500 Radeon RX 6900XT Gaming PC Build – The Parts List

Component	Selection	Design	Price
CPU	Ryzen 9 5900X		$550
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-U12A		$99.99
Motherboard	Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi)		$379.99
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3600 CL16		$178.99
Storage	2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus (x2)		$599.99
Graphics Card	AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT		$999
PC Case	be quiet! Dark Base 700		$179.99
Power Supply	Corsair AX1000 80+ Titanium		$399.99
Case Fans	be quiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm		$107.60
		Total	$3495.45

CPU

It’s likely that no matter how clever Intel manages to be with 11^th Gen Rocket Lake, another 14nm process is going to struggle to compete with Zen 3 across the board, especially considering AMD’s incredible power efficiency. The top-tier gaming CPU from the new Ryzen lineup will be the $550 Ryzen 9 5900X. Just over $500 is about the tail end of what most gamers are willing to spend for optimal FPS performance if Intel’s Core i9 series has been any indication.

The 5900X is poised to not only trounce the current gaming champion, the Intel Core i9-10900K but with Rocket Lake maxing out at eight cores, the 5900X should still readily compete against the 11^th Gen Core i9 series CPU as well. The new Ryzen 9 5900X sports twelve cores, twenty-four threads, boost clocks up to 4.8GHz by default, and 64MB of L3 cache. With technologies like Smart Access Memory and the new RAGE mode, an auto overclocking feature, pairing Zen 3 and RDNA 2 should see incredible benefits by opting for the beefy, if not slightly overkill for games, 5900X. The best part is that you’ll have more than enough processing power to tackle the most demanding creative workloads as well as max settings in the latest AAA titles at up to 4K resolution, each with buttery smooth performance.

CPU Cooler

Sitting atop our new 5900X will be the Noctua NH-U12A. There’s nothing wrong with liquid cooling, be it a custom open-loop or AIO unit. If you prefer the look of liquid cooling solutions, and if you’re willing to accept the maintenance and potential points of failure that come with them, you’re welcome to dive right in. However, I personally stand by air-cooling considering the level of performance that companies like Noctua, be quiet!, and Scythe can offer. A well-engineered air-cooler brings airflow and thermal performance on par with even some of the best 240mm AIO units on the market, and the 105W TDP of mid to high-end Ryzen Zen 3 CPUs isn’t exactly demanding. Thus, one of the most recent and well-rounded air coolers from the world’s premier heat sink manufacturers seems to make the most sense for our build today.

The NH-U12A essentially brings the thermal and noise performance of Noctua’s renowned dual-tower NH-D15 in a more compact, single-tower package. A dense fin stack, seven heatpipes, and two NF-A12x25 fans virtually guarantee cool CPU temps and spectacular case and RAM compatibility to allow you the most freedom when selecting the other components for your build. Finally, Noctua’s included NT-H1 thermal compound means you don’t have to spend any extra money to ensure you get the most out of the NH-U12A.

Motherboard

Our motherboard today has 60A Power Stages, a 16 Phase VRM (14+2), support for up to 128GB of DDR4-4800MHz memory, 2x M.2 slots, Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, Realtek 2.5G LAN, SupremeFX S1220 Audio CODEC, 8x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, 8x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, an integrated I/O shield, Clear CMOS + BIOS Flashback buttons, a POST code readout, onboard Power + Reset buttons, as well as a BIOS Safe Boot + ReTry buttons! We’re talking about the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi).

For nearly half the price, the Crosshair VIII Hero readily competed in VRM thermal benchmarks with the Gigabyte X570 Aorus XTREME and the MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE. That’s a respectable showing from a motherboard with teamed power phases, which was more than capable of handling last generation’s Ryzen 9 3950X. If you plan to see just how much headroom AMD has left with Zen 3, there are few better options for less than $700!

Memory

Just because our focus is gaming doesn’t mean we need to restrict ourselves to 16GB of RAM, especially nowadays. With multiple monitors, dozens of programs running in the background, inefficient browsers, and memory leaks, even if you don’t plan on doing any photo/video editing or 3D rendering, 32GB allows you the freedom to use as much of your machine as possible, simultaneously. Further, since DDR4 has matured incredibly over these past several years, pricing for DRAM has dropped considerably, meaning you have access to 32GB kits of high-performance memory for less than $200!

That is where the G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 memory kit comes into play. While leaving you space to upgrade down the line should you choose to dabble in more intensive creativity/productivity programs, you’ll have ample memory to push your multi-monitor display setup, games, comms programs, and media consumption at the same time without worrying about memory usage.

Storage

Ding dong, spinning drives are dead… For the most part. Unless you have reason to store massive amounts of documents, photos, videos, and project files, solid-state storage is the way of the future. SSDs have come down so far in price, even for high-capacity (2TB) options, that gamers in particular need to consider making them their primary and secondary storage options for their libraries. Next-gen consoles having SSDs as their standard storage devices means that game developers have already (i.e., finally) started to take advantage of the speeds available with solid-state storage to stream assets directly to the GPU. The best example of this process in action is the Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart trailer, where you see the dynamic duo traversing portals to different, incredibly diverse worlds instantly and seamlessly.

Thus, we have chosen two 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSDs for our OS and bulk storage drives. M.2 drives mean no cable management and some of the fastest transfer speeds outside of PCIe 4.0 SSDs. If you don’t play many games at once, utilize cloud storage for most of your general files, or just want to save some money, feel free to pick up only one and worry about upgrading later when you need the extra space!

Graphics Card

The piece de resistance of our build: The Radeon RX 6900XT. Performance comparable to a card that costs $500 more and uses an additional 50W is borderline miraculous, and AMD is rightfully proud. Ray-Tracing aside, RDNA 2 looks to not only be gunning for the performance crown at 4K resolution but also for gamers’ wallets as they offer numbers that some users couldn’t even dream of shelling out for just a short year ago.

The 6900XT comes with 16GB of VRAM, boost clocks up to 2.25GHz, 5,120 GPU cores, 448GB/s memory bandwidth and a Total Board Power (TBP) of only 300W. $1000 isn’t exactly cheap, but again, compared to the $1500 Nvidia is asking for their top-tier SKU, it almost seems tantalizing, even if it ends up bombing in regards to Ray-Tracing benchmarks.

PC Case

Energy-efficient components tend to generate less heat, which means they need less cooling, which means they generate less noise. So, to further maximize the benefits of AMD’s supremely efficient new hardware, we’ve opted for the be quiet! Dark Base 700 ATX Mid-Tower for the ultimate noise optimization.

The Dark Base 700’s modular internals allow for completely inverted ATX builds, riser cards, and storage drive capacity with removable side panels. There’s even a removable panel on the PSU shroud for a bottom intake fan, which we’ll take advantage of in the next section! With two included Silent Wings 3 140mm fans and case-mounted fan controller, thermal and noise performance are great by default. The overall build quality is immaculate with a beautifully machined motherboard tray and exterior, and a tinted tempered glass side panel, making this one of the sleekest cases on the market.

Fans

To fortify our thermal performance and airflow, we recommend picking up four be quiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm High-Speed PWM fans. Two are for additional front intakes, one for the bottom intake below the PSU shroud, which we mentioned earlier, and one is to assist the included rear exhaust at the top of the case. This setup will maximize the performance we get from the NH-U12A and provide ample airflow for all of your components while keeping noise levels down and saturating the included fan controller.

Power Supply

Finally, the delivery of clean and stable power to our enthusiast build will be handled by a Corsair AX1000 80+ Titanium power supply. With the AX1000, we receive full modularity for easy cable management, the highest efficiency rating possible, plenty of overclocking headroom, and a total wattage that should put us in the optimal peak load efficiency range (where your system’s combined TDP equals ~50% of your PSU’s total). The team at PremiumBuilds will always stress just how vital your PSU is to your system. Ensuring a stable and clean supply of electricity to your components should improve their longevity and overclocking results, meaning you should always opt for the best possible option for your power supply. If there are two things you shouldn’t ever skimp on, it’s this and your motherboard. Buying the best you can for each component means that you can use them in builds for years to come, and Corsair’s 10-year warranty means some of you PC parents might be able to hand the AX1000 on to your next generation of enthusiasts!

Closing Thoughts

Ray-Tracing or no Ray-Tracing, RDNA 2 is going to be marvelous, especially if AMD is capable of satisfying their demand even slightly better than Nvidia has been able to since Ampere launched. We might be looking at a typical case of the tortoise vs. the hare, and Nvidia might end up seriously regretting rushing the 3000 series out the door to try and crash AMD’s party. If you’ve got 4K or high-refresh 1440p gaming aspirations, AMD looks like a snack this holiday season !

The post Best $3500 Radeon RX 6900 XT Gaming PC Build for 2021 appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

Yesterday AMD finally revealed their upcoming RDNA 2 6000 Series GPUs, making your decision whether to upgrade or build a new system this generation incredibly easy. The answer is yes, absolutely, and you should be heavily leaning towards Team Red.

While AMD’s performance claims for Big Navi still need to be vetted by real-world benchmarks, they have been utterly transparent about product performance since the release of the original Zen and RDNA architectures. Thus, it is reasonable to expect their presented figures to be accurate within a few percent, especially when pairing an RDNA 2 graphics card with a Zen 3 processor to leverage Smart Access Memory (SAM). SAM is a proprietary AMD feature that grants Zen 3 CPUs direct access to the VRAM for RDNA 2 GPUs for increased bandwidth and decreased latency. Thus, in addition to AMD’s new RAGE Mode (an automatic overclocking feature), Zen 3 and RDNA 2 combined can harness upwards of 10% more performance in games at 4K resolution! Beyond these new features centered on AMD’s dynamic duo of next-gen hardware, Zen 3 and RDNA 2, individually, offer promised generational performance improvements that are already competitive or outright better than what’s currently available from teams Green and Blue, respectively. Granted, we still have to see what Intel has up their sleeve come next year, but Zen 3 presents a guaranteed uphill battle for yet another 14nm process with 11^th Gen Rocket Lake. Still, AMD is poised to dominate the GPU market this holiday season with products that have incredibly competitive performance compared to Nvidia’s Ampere cards for astonishingly competitive prices. If Team Red manages to satisfy the demand for RDNA 2 even slightly better than Team Green, who’s seriously fumbled their Ampere launch thus far, tons of people can, and should, turn to them in their hour of need.

The initial RDNA 2 lineup consists of three cards, the $580 RX 6800, the $650 RX 6800XT, and the $1000 RX 6900XT. The 6900XT is arguably the most compelling option considering its ability to trade blows with the RTX 3090 for $500 less. Even if AMD doesn’t have a sufficient answer to Nvidia’s DLSS or Ray-Tracing performance, RDNA 2 still makes more sense for all but the most affluent builders who demand the unrivaled amounts of VRAM and uncompromising raw performance, pricing be damned.

Today, we’ll be examining the best CPUs for Radeon RX 6900XT builds, with a slight caveat. Due to the inherent synergy between Zen 3 and RDNA 2, even after we get our hands on Intel’s 11^th Gen processors next year, there’s no reason to buy anything other than a new Ryzen CPU alongside a new Radeon GPU, period. If you only plan to buy the 6900XT as an upgrade, simply keep whatever CPU you’ve got in your system. However, if you’re planning a complete overhaul or brand new build, a Zen 3 Ryzen CPU is the only sensible pick. Furthermore, because the 6900XT packs so much performance into a more compact and reasonably priced top-tier selection than the RTX 3090, you’ll be capable of 4K gaming with nearly any combination of parts in the rest of your build if they’ve released within even the last several years. That said, with the RX 6900XT as our GPU of choice, we’re going to detail each Ryzen 5000 Series processor and explain which use cases and budgets they’re best suited for.

Best Zen 3 Pairings with the Radeon RX 6900XT

Award	Design	Model
Best Entry Level CPU for RX 6900 XT		Ryzen 5 5600X
Best Mid Tier CPU for RX 6900 XT		Ryzen 7 5800X
Best High Performance CPU for RX 6900 XT		Ryzen 9 5900X
Best Workstation CPU for RX 6900 XT		Ryzen 9 5950X

Best Entry Level CPU for RX 6900 XT

“Entry-Level” might be a bit of a stretch if you’re buying a $1000 GPU, but for only $300, the Ryzen 5 5600X nets you quite a bit of CPU for a reasonable amount of money. While your processor certainly plays an integral role in FPS performance, if you’re not planning on ultra-high resolution gaming at max settings, it’s not the area where you need to break the bank. Even as modern titles begin to take advantage of multi-threaded performance, many users can honestly still get away with having only four cores and eight threads with a beefy enough GPU. So builders who don’t intend to use their PC for anything other than gaming, web-browsing, and content consumption, the six-core/twelve thread 5600X is more than adequate. You’ll still be able to leverage AMD’s Smart Access Memory and RAGE Mode with the 6900XT to enjoy top-tier gaming performance.

The 5600X also offers the lowest thermal design power (TDP) of Zen 3 with a minuscule 65W, on top of 32MB of L3 cache, and boost clocks up to 4.6GHz. The paltry 65W TDP means you don’t need the craziest motherboard or CPU cooler, which might allow you also to snag some higher-end storage and RAM. While you may not want to do any full-time creative work (photo/video editing, 3D rendering, etc.), you won’t feel bogged down should you decide to dabble. If you want to divert as much of your budget to GPU performance as possible and pick up a 6900XT, you end up sacrificing very little by opting for the 5600XT.

Best Mid Tier CPU for RX 6900 XT

Based on AMD’s numbers, the 5800X actually enters the realm of high-end performance, especially when paired with the RX 6900XT. However, we still have two SKUs above this one with more, even faster cores!

For $450 ($100 less than the Core i9-10900K), the 5800X delivers eight cores, sixteen threads, 32MB of L3 cache, and boost clocks up to 4.7GHz with a 105W TDP. AMD has, incredibly, managed to keep their Ryzen TDPs at or below 105W for all of their CPUs above the 5600X, but even identical to last generation’s Zen 2 Ryzen processors. The generational improvements AMD has promised for Zen 3 without any uptick in power requirements directly translate to savings for builders, especially those upgrading from Zen 2. Suppose you’ve already purchased an adequate motherboard and CPU cooler. In that case, they will be equally as effective for the 5800X, if not more so considering the overall efficiency improvements expected to come with the Zen 3 architecture.

Equivalent performance for a significantly lower price is AMD’s motto for Zen 3 and RDNA 2. If you decide to pair the 6900XT with a 5800X, you’ll undoubtedly have one of the most potent and cost-effective combinations for top-tier gaming performance for years to come.

Best High Performance CPU for RX 6900 XT

$550 for the 5900X in addition to the cool grand for the 6900XT firmly cements this pairing in the “enthusiast” category. When the cost of just two components equals that of many low to mid-tier builds, including peripherals, a big budget, or plenty of time spent saving, is unavoidable. However, the trade-off for your initial investment, or patient penny-pinching, is performance many gamers have been dreaming of for years.

Still, with only a 105W TDP, the 5900X sports twelve cores, 24 threads, 64MB of L3 cache, and boost clocks up to 4.8GHz to significantly bolster the 6900XT’s ability to perform at 4K resolution and virtually guarantee blazing fast 144Hz+ FPS at 1440p Max Settings. Suppose you’re also able to dedicate enough resources to high-quality, high-capacity RAM. In that case, this combination allows you to break into much more intensive creative workloads and leverage the stellar multi-threaded performance of the 5900X. Realistically, there’s not much reason to consider anything above the 5900X if your primary use case is gaming since pricing from here starts to scale exponentially rather than linearly.

To reiterate, we still need to consider whether Nvidia will rework their Ampere lineup in the face of such a compelling product stack from AMD and whether 11^th Gen Intel will be able to compete in any meaningful way. However, as it stands for this holiday season, AMD is the sure-fire way to achieve ideal games performance at whatever your desired resolution is, be it 1080p, 1440p, or 4K!

Best Workstation CPU for RX 6900 XT

While sixteen cores and thirty-two threads certainly can’t hurt your FPS performance in games, the 5950X practically demands that you spend serious time in productivity workloads, daily, and preferably for financial compensation! $800 for the 5950X sees those sixteen cores and thirty-two threads boost up to 4.9GHz while having access to 64MB of L3 cache, meaning that the only consumer-grade CPU options likely to compete will be AMD’s Zen 3 Threadripper chips due sometime in Q2 of next year.

At this stage, you should have already decided that you want to work and play at 4K resolution because the 5950X and 6900XT will demolish nearly every AAA title, except perhaps Microsoft Flight Sim 2020. Better yet, given enough RAM, no matter how high-resolution the timeline you’re scrubbing through, nor how many layers your project file has, your favorite productivity programs should run buttery-smooth as well. The 5950X is the primary reason why, despite still needing to see what they’re capable of, many of us here at PremiumBuilds doubt whether Intel will genuinely be able to compete with Zen 3 while they’re still stuck on 14nm, no matter how optimized it’s grown to be.

Summary

Merely due to AMD’s Smart Access Memory, no matter what Intel has to show come next year, it makes no sense to pair the upcoming Radeon RDNA 2 GPUs with anything other than Zen 3. Again, if you only plan on upgrading your GPU, then feel free to keep whatever you’ve got at the moment. However, if you’re at all considering moving to a new platform, and you’ve got your eye on something like the 6900XT, don’t wait. Jump on Zen 3 as soon as you can because they’re sure to be in very high demand over the holidays.

The post 4 Best CPUs for AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Builds appeared first on PremiumBuilds.