Official spec details and release dates should be available in mid-2022 or slightly later this year. However, at the time of writing this article, there are many worldwide problems in the manufacture of chips and semiconductors, so delays are possible.
- At long last, Nvidia and AMD GPU street prices are beginning to drop
- Meet the Nvidia and AMD GPU hunters who turned battling bots into a full-time job
- Specs
- Performance
- AMD announces the RX 6600 XT for high-end 1080p gaming
- AMD announces the RX 6700 XT for 1440p gaming
- Specifications
- Architecture
- Specifications Rumors
- Performance Rumors
- How We Test
- Things To Consider
- Price
- Performance
- Cooling
- Download Older AMD/ATI Graphics Card Drivers
- Troubleshooting AMD Graphics Card Issues
- The Importance of Updating Your Device Drivers
- Why Can Driver Support Help After Learning the Answer to Where Do I Find My Graphics Card Info?
At long last, Nvidia and AMD GPU street prices are beginning to drop
We’re not even out of the woods yet – we’re not even close – but it looks like Nvidia and AMD GPU prices may finally drop. Tom’s Hardware in the US and 3DCenter.org in Germany are charting on eBay and local retail prices respectively, and they both see the same thing: a significant drop for almost every new graphics card manufactured by Nvidia and AMD.
You want the Nvidia RTX 3080? Two months ago, it could have cost 400,773 on the street – more than two and a half times the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. As reported in November with our own chart, this was typical of the hottest graphics cards, and Tom’s Hardware shows that things got a bit worse in December. But in January, those prices dropped 11 percent to an average of 400,600.
The RTX 3080 isn’t alone: most of all RTX 3000 and AMD Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards have dropped between about 5 and 10 percent, with the RX 6900 XT being the only exception that has increased in price.
Meet the Nvidia and AMD GPU hunters who turned battling bots into a full-time job
Keep in mind that Tom’s Hardware also shows that sales volumes dropped significantly on eBay, with some cards barely replaced in the beginning: just nine Radeon RX 6800 units changed hands in a week. It’s possible that prices are going down because some people give up not wanting to pay scalper fees.
Or maybe it has to do with the diver the cryptocurrency has done recently. It’ll be interesting to see if the recent decline will drastically lower GPU prices as they won’t be as valuable to miners now. Miners often sell large amounts of graphics cards when they can’t get them to work. This batch of eBay data is from last week, so it doesn’t have the full impact of cryptocurrencies yet.
But 3DCenter.org shows that the decline occurs not only when GPUs are sold on the aftermarket, but also at German retailers:
Chart by 3DCenter.org
In between those two reports, that seems like a good sign – even if you still pay more than double the MSRP for the RTX 3060 Ti right now.
While we haven’t seen any significant signs that supply has kept pace with demand (these GPUs are still extremely hard to find for anything other than exorbitant prices), Nvidia and AMD have repeatedly signaled that they expect supply to improve in the second half of 2022.
On the front, PS5 and Xbox Series X are also seeing second-hand prices drop on eBay. I’ve been running several numbers on eBay over the past three months and both Sony and Microsoft’s flagship consoles have dropped $ 100, from an average price of $ 800 to an average of around $ 700. Here are the charts if you are curious.
average PS5 Selling Price on eBay, Last 90 Days Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Xbox Series X Average selling price on eBay, last 90 days. Screenshot: Sean Hollister / The Verge
Each GPU is clocked at a different speed, which means each can perform tasks at a different speed. While clock speed is one of the most important factors when purchasing a GPU, it is not the only factor that affects in-game performance. It comes down to many factors.
Specs
For an entry-level GPU, the 6500XT still has a decent spec with 4GB of GDDR6 memory, a 2.6GHz game clock, and a 2.8GHz boost clock. AMD RDNA 2 graphics architecture is also built-in to support ray tracing and other modern graphics.
The Radeon 6500 XT is a dual-slot graphics card that complies with the latest DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 standards. It requires 107 watts of power, and AMD recommends 400 watts of power as the minimum requirement. But it depends on how much power your motherboard uses, fans, RGB lighting, and other hardware in your desktop computer.
Performance
When it comes to performance, the 6500XT easily outperforms its lower tier rivals such as Nvidia’s GTX 1650 and its big brother RX 570 with up to 1.6 times the performance.
The Radeon 6500 XT product page lists the expected performance stats for some games and claims Apex Legends hits 91 FPS, Fortnite hits 140 FPS, and Call of Duty: Vanguard manages 91 FPS at high 1080p settings.
The cooling solution is much more efficient, generates much less noise, features the new RDNA architecture, and requires only an 8-pin connector for its power requirements. When you consider all of these factors along with the 5500XT’s performance, we thought it was above 590.
AMD announces the RX 6600 XT for high-end 1080p gaming
source: AMD
AMD announced the Radeon RX 6600 XT on July 30, 2021. The graphics processor was launched on August 11 with a list price of $ 379. AMD says it aims to deliver “amazing 1080p performance” at a price of $ 100 less than the RX 6700 XT. It has 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, 2048 stream processors and 160 W TDP. It has access to all of the extra features from AMD, including FidelityFX Super Resolution, the new Radeon Super Resolution, Smart Access Memory, Infinity Cache, and more.
Compared to the NVIDIA RTX 3060, its main competitor, you expect about a 15% premium on the AMD card’s performance. However, the RX 6600 XT’s list price is approximately $ 50 more than the 3060.
AMD announces the RX 6700 XT for 1440p gaming
In his Where Gaming Begins: Ep. 3 ”AMD announced the Radeon RX 6700 XT. It was the fourth GPU born in the RDNA 2 family and ranks just below the AMD Radeon RX 6800 in terms of performance and price. It was released on March 18 at a list price of $ 479.
Both AMD reference cards and third-party cards from popular vendors were released on the same day to hopefully mitigate stock shortages, though it will still be difficult to find supplies. AMD pointed out that the RX 6700 XT is the card you need for 1440p gaming, beating the RTX 2080 Super, RTX 3060 Ti, and RTX 3070 in many popular AAA games. With 12GB of VRAM, it is well suited to handling 1440p at maximum settings in particularly demanding games.
Over the past decade, AMD has been making some pretty big waves in the tech universe – let’s just take the impressive range of Ryzen 5000 processors as a prime example.
Specifications
The new generation of RDNA architecture in the 5nm manufacturing process (from TSMC) looks promising. It’s exciting when you consider the potential gains in performance and efficiency.
For example, consider the performance gain per watt between AMD’s old GCN architecture and RDNA 1.
The impressive part of the RDNA architecture was the massive 50% performance per watt jump from RDNA 1 to RDNA 2. As the architecture matures, performance and performance improve. (Example: Intel 14nm +++ arc).
The 5nm manufacturing process will also bring other bonuses. AMD says another jump of 50 is expected.
For more information on the specs, see Spec rumors.
Architecture
Many sources say the Navi 3 will have a chiplet design. This is something we haven’t seen before in the GPU industry.
However, we saw the same design in AMD Ryzen processors. The design of the chiplets of their processors is their secret formula for a significant increase in performance and physical cores.
Maybe this secret formula will also work with their RDNA 3 graphics cards.
However, the problem with this kind of chiplet design is the increase in latency. But thanks to a set of high-speed RAMs, Ryzens may have lower total system latency compared to Intel.
Additionally, greymon55 revealed that Infinity Fabric can be 3D stacked for RDNA3. This will double the Infinity cache to 512MB (for Navi 31) and reduce latency.
Remember; it is possible that this innovation may not hit RDNA 3 GPUs.
Specifications Rumors
Rumors were that the Navi 31, part of the GPU in the RDNA 3 line, would have two chiplets with 80 CUs. That’s a total of 160 CU. However, this did not happen, as AMD completely ditched CUs (Compute Units.
Instead, AMD’s flagship product, and likely all RX 7000 GPUs, will use WGP (Work Group Processors). The rumor that the Navi 31 will be equipped with two sensors on the 5nm node (GCD or graphic cores) and one Multi-Cache on the 6nm node is most likely true.
We will use this diagram by Olrak29_ to explain exactly what is packed with these two GCDs and a single Multi-Cache.
Both GCDs will have 3 shader engines (SE), each with 2 shader matrices (SA). In total, this gives a total of 12 shader tables and 6 shader engines in one 31 Navi GPUs.
Each WGP has 8 SIMD32 and each Shader Array has 5 WGPs. In addition, each Shader has 5 workgroup processors.
After performing the calculations, it becomes clear that the RX 7900 XT will have 15 360 stream cores / processors.
What can we determine from all this information? First, we must consider that the flagship RDNA 2 model, the RX 6900 XT, has a total of 5,120 cores; this means that the future flagship has three times as many cores.
Performance Rumors
We’ve seen frequent rumors about all possible SKUs from RDNA 3 and its architecture, but we haven’t seen much about the potential performance gains over Ampere or RDNA 2. At least we didn’t see until Tom from Moore’s Law Is Dead shared some RDNA 3 whispers and RDNA 4.
As you can see in the image above, Tom is very confident about the 60% performance jump compared to the previous generation, which is the minimum. However, we are not sure if this minimum 60% applies only to the flagship model (7900XT / 7950XT) or the entire generation. While this may be promising, it is perfectly possible given the move to the chiplet design.
But that’s not all.
As performance increases, a higher price is expected for all SKUs. To be more precise, a performance leap by an entire level.
Energy efficiency should improve, but total energy consumption will also be higher. At least for high-end models.
Another interesting performance rumor we’ve heard concerns the Navi 33 (7700XT). By now, we already know that Navi should run on a 6nm process with 128-bit GDDR6 VRAM. Fast memory and 6nm architecture can make the 7700XT have performance close to that of the RX 6900XT based on the reliable greymon55 leaker.
It’s ambitious for the $ 450 card to outperform the previous-generation $ 1,000 GPU, but it’s certainly possible.
Fortunately, there were rumors on Chiphell that there were plans for the Navi 21 and Navi 22 GPUs to compete with the RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080 Ti and the future RTX 3090 Ti.
How We Test
Testing the products we recommend is a huge part of the entire selection process in our top guides. It’s a way to make sure what we recommend is without a doubt the best option in its specific category.
To be sure that a product is “the best”, it needs to perform excellently in our tests and demonstrate superior properties compared to the competition it is facing.
Most of the products we recommend here at WePC have gone through a rigorous testing process that covers everything from price to performance and performance. Each product is pushed to the limit to see how it handles intense stress to make sure it guarantees the coveted first place.
This enables us to provide you with the most accurate overview of how the product works and, ultimately, whether it’s worth your hard earned money.
Things To Consider
Lets be honest; Choosing the right graphics card for your specific needs is never an easy task. There are tons of key areas that need to be considered before making a final application.
We take our understanding of how the product works and what to look for very seriously. We try to educate people in these areas as often as possible so that they can make their own informed decisions.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the areas we think you should consider before purchasing a graphics card.
Price
The first and potentially the most important aspect of any hardware selection is its price. That’s right, whether you’re looking at one of the latest gaming monitors or a high-end motherboard, you need to make sure it’s within your budget.
Price is an interesting area when it comes to your computer’s GPU. Most people (unless you’re building a premium PC that aren’t limited by budget requirements) try to stick to a strict price tag. And that’s what you should be doing if you ask me to.
However, new PC makers may not know what the current price of a graphics card is relative to the rest of the build. I’ll give you an example.
If you’re building a computer that is around 400,000 in size, you are expected to set aside at least $ 400-500 for your graphics card. Yes, 50% of the total budget.
Even though it might sound a little crazy, it’s actually a smart way. We will explain this point in more detail in the next section.
Performance
Most of the people reading this article will be looking for a graphics card for one of two reasons; either they need more graphics power for a gaming PC or a content creation PC. Most other tasks don’t require a powerful graphics processor.
Ever since games started shifting performance requirements from CPU to GPU, more and more people are investing more money in their GPUs – something we should all be striving for if the goal is higher frame rates in a game.
Of course, this isn’t the only factor that affects your computer’s ability to run games, but it’s definitely a major factor. The GPU ultimately controls what screen resolution your computer can handle, what frames your computer can get, and how well it can render graphics in creation type scenarios.
Therefore, when choosing your next graphics card, you need to find the perfect balance between price and performance.
Find out what games you want to play and what graphics settings before making your purchase. If you don’t, you could end up with a GPU that just isn’t good enough for your needs.
Cooling
Another factor to consider before purchasing a GPU is the cooling system it comes with.
Cooling and performance go hand in hand when it comes to… well, most hardware components. This is because under stress or heavy load, they generate heat – a lot of heat.
The heat will negatively affect the performance level of your hardware and, as a result, can lead to a poorer gaming experience. Believe me, nobody wants that.
For this reason, having adequate cooling is absolutely essential and should be considered well in advance of the next GPU purchase.
Finally we have the size. Perhaps at this stage you are thinking – bigger is always better. Fortunately, this is not always the case.
When we talk about size, we are talking about the physical dimensions of the product. Some people don’t always realize that graphics cards can vary greatly in size – and budget deals tend to be much smaller than higher-end deals.
Higher resolution game formats require more VRAM, as do tasks such as anti-aliasing. For this reason, we always recommend that you purchase at least 6 GB of VRAM when purchasing a GPU.
Download Older AMD/ATI Graphics Card Drivers
The Radeon HD 4000, HD 3000, HD 2000 desktop and mobile drivers, as well as the Radeon HD AGP series drivers are released less frequently and tend to focus on troubleshooting. The latest drivers available for these graphics processors can be downloaded from the AMD Drivers & Software page. You will also find Beta drivers as well as drivers for other AMD products.
AMD supports Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP, but not always with the latest driver version. Check the AMD Drivers and Software page for Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP for your AMD graphics card.
Most of the products we recommend here at WePC have gone through a rigorous testing process that covers everything from price to performance and performance. Each product is pushed to the limit to see how it handles intense stress to make sure it guarantees the coveted first place.
Troubleshooting AMD Graphics Card Issues
An AMD graphics card is powerful hardware, but you may have problems with it at some point. No one knows when or why most of these problems arise, and many are confusing except for a few basic rules.
First, they are inevitable. At some point, you will have a problem with your AMD graphics card if you keep your computer running long enough. Second, many problems that arise can be resolved by updating your graphics drivers. Finally, automatic updates are much more effective than manual updates.
The Importance of Updating Your Device Drivers
Device drivers are vital to the health of your computer. These are special software components that help the computer hardware work together properly. A device driver problem can cause hardware failure.
The most common problem that occurs is outdated device drivers. When that happens, you may start experiencing computer problems.
The same goes for graphics cards. Their drivers will eventually become obsolete and start causing problems. That’s why it’s so important to keep your drivers up to date. Your first instinct may be to try to do it manually, but there are strong reasons for not doing it. While updating your AMD graphics driver is possible, it’s also an extremely long and tedious process.
Let’s face it, no one wants to sit all day and update drivers! Therefore, you should install software like Driver Support to automatically update all drivers. The convenience of automatic updates is unmatched; it’s a wise choice.
Why Can Driver Support Help After Learning the Answer to Where Do I Find My Graphics Card Info?
Installing Driver Support is one of the best, easiest and most effective ways to optimize your computer. Not only will it benefit your AMD graphics card by updating its drivers regularly, all your computer hardware containing device drivers will also be kept up-to-date. Have you seen the answer to the question where can I find information about my graphics card? Now you can take the next step and protect it with automatic driver update software.
The best part, of course, is that it updates them automatically so you can enjoy your day however you like.
Make the most of your computer and AMD graphics card and download driver support