AMD shows off Radeon RX 6000 GPU power that could rival NVIDIA's RTX 3080

By Cale Hunt
published

It wasn't just Ryzen 5000 series processors shown off at today's AMD virtual event.

AMD Radeon 6000 Series Sneak Peek
AMD Radeon 6000 Series Sneak Peek (Image credit: AMD)

What you need to know

  • AMD today showed us a glimpse of Radeon RX 6000 performance at its virtual event.
  • The unnamed Radeon RX 6000 GPU was united with the newly unveiled Ryzen 9 5900X CPU.
  • The tandem's performance suggested by AMD means that "Big Navi" should compare to NVIDIA's RTX 3080.
  • The Radeon RX 6000 series is expected to be unveiled October 28.

The big attraction to today's AMD virtual event was the launch of Ryzen 5000-series processors (CPU), but the new chips weren't the only treat. Near the end of the event, AMD CEO Lisa Su revealed some 4K gameplay of Borderlands 3 running on the new AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and an unnamed Radeon RX 6000 graphics card (GPU). This is the most we've seen of the new card since a first look a few weeks ago.

Source: AMD (Image credit: Source: AMD)

With in-game Borderlands 3 settings at "Badass Quality," the system was able to average 61 FPS at 4K. While this was the only in-game footage shown, AMD also gave us some numbers for other popular games. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare at 4K with "Ultra Quality" in-game settings averaged 88 FPS, and Gears of War with similar settings averaged 73 FPS. These numbers suggest performance that closely matches up with NVIDIA's RTX 3080, which currently sits at the top of our best graphics card roundup.

As is tradition with showcase numbers, real results will no doubt vary. And it's also unclear which hardware this unnamed card's performance matches up to. AMD will no doubt have several RX 6000 GPUs to unveil October 28, and whether or not this is the top-of-the-line card coming out remains to be seen.

Cale Hunt
Cale Hunt
Senior Editor, Laptop Reviews

Cale Hunt is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. He focuses mainly on laptop reviews, news, and accessory coverage. He's been reviewing laptops and accessories full time since 2016, with hundreds of reviews published for Windows Central. He is an avid PC gamer and multi-platform user, and spends most of his time either tinkering with or writing about tech.

3 Comments
  • Now we just need pricing. If they can undercut NVIDIA and handle the shortage problem, then I might pick one of these up. My GTX980Ti is getting long in the tooth. lol
  • I think the biggest problem for AMD in the GPU space is that developers optimize more for Nvidia. It's been an on going issue for years. It's the same reason that even though AMD is killing Intel in raw performance right now, Intel is still the king of enterprise and mobile. Nvidia and Intel have the marketing budgets and business partnerships to co-develop much more tightly integrated and optimized solutions than AMD does. Hopefully this will change with all of the buzz surrounding Ryzen 5 and Big Navi, but I'm skeptical.
  • Well said, Hanley.