Should you get AMD’s RX 6700M or RX 6800M in your next gaming laptop?
Obviously we expect the higher tier 6800M to do better, but the question is by how much,
and is it worth paying more for?
Here are the differences in specs between these two laptop GPUs. The higher tier 6800M has 11%
more stream processors and compute units, which also act as ray accelerators. The 6800M also has
2 gigs of extra GDDR6 memory, and the memory has more bandwidth with a larger memory interface too.
The 6800M has a higher maximum power limit, but this will depend on the specific laptop.
To do this testing I’m using the Delta 15 from MSI for the RX 6700M and the Strix G15 from ASUS
for the RX 6800M. Both laptops were tested with the exact same physical kit of memory,
16 gigs of DDR4-3200 CL22 x8 single rank memory in dual channel.
Unfortunately there is a CPU difference at play here, as the Strix G15 has the Ryzen
9 5900HX while the Delta 15 has the Ryzen 7 5800H. Both are still 8 core processors and
when I compared them in this video here there wasn’t that big of a difference,
and given we’ll be focusing on games at both higher setting presets and the higher 1440p
resolution where we’re more GPU bound I don’t think this’ll matter too much. But that said,
a small part of these differences may be due to those processors, so it’s important to note.
Unfortunately I just couldn’t get both of these laptops with the same processors,
this is the only way I could do this comparison. I’ve also tested both laptops with an external
screen connected as this bypasses the integrated graphics and gives us a speed boost in games.
I’m also not actually sure if both laptops run their GPUs at the highest power limit possible.
I know the Delta 15 definitely doesn’t which makes sense as it is a thinner design but it
kind of just is what it is. At least as far as I’m aware this is the only 6700M
laptop that you can get right now and this is the only 6800M laptop you can get right now,
so this is the only way to do this comparison.
Alright let’s start out by comparing both laptops in 17 different games at 1080p and
1440p resolutions, then afterwards we’ll compare things like pricing,
content creator workloads and power draw.
Let’s start out with Cyberpunk 2077. I’ve got the 1080p results down the bottom and
the 1440p results at the top, with the RX 6700M results below the RX 6800M results.
The 6800M had above average gains over the 6700M when compared to the 17 game average,
with a 22% higher average frame rate at the lower 1080p resolution, and a 25% boost at the higher
1440p resolution, and even its 1% low was higher than the even the average FPS from the 6700M.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the game’s benchmark, and this time we’re looking
at a below average difference between these two laptop GPUs. Realistically the 6700M is
still doing quite well here, 80 FPS at high settings at the higher 1440p resolution is a
great result for a laptop, though the 6800M had an 18% lead, and a smaller 14% lead at 1080p.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is generally a game that I’ve found to do better
with Radeon graphics compared to Nvidia, however the 6700M and 6800M weren’t all
that different here. This was the second smallest difference out of all 17 games
tested at both resolutions. The 6700M was still around 60 FPS even at 1440p
very high settings, the 6800M was just 16% faster, or about 9 FPS higher.
Control on the other hand had the second largest difference out of all 17 games tested. At 1080p
the 6800M was reaching 23% higher average FPS, and then almost 28% higher at the higher 1440p
resolution, and even the 6800M’s 1% low is near the average FPS that the 6700M was capable of.
This game also has ray tracing, and by enabling this the 6800M had a 26%
lead at 1440p, so percentage wise the change isn’t all that different when compared to not
using ray tracing at all. Honestly with these frame rates even at 1080p I’d be
looking at turning the settings down a little. This game has DLSS support,
but that’s only supported by Nvidia options, there’s no FSR here.
Watch Dogs Legion at max settings needs around 8 gigs of VRAM to run this test,
so this is more of a worst case in terms of VRAM requirements out of the 17 games tested.
Both GPUs were running the game fine though, in fact this game had the third
smallest difference out of all games covered, implying that the difference
between 10 and 12 gigs of VRAM isn’t making that big of a difference here.
Call of Duty Warzone was running well on both laptops,
even at 1440p the 6700M was running fine at max settings,
though the 6800M was able to offer a 22% higher average frame rate, with a 1% low that was ahead
of the 6700M’s average FPS, something that happens in a number of the games tested.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was tested in the Sydney landing challenge.
We’re looking at an 18% boost to average frame rate with the 6800M at 1080p,
though the difference in 1% lows was much smaller at just 3 FPS or so. There’s a
larger difference in the 1% lows at 1440p though, where once more even the 6800M’s
1% low was above the average frame rate from the 6700M. The 6800M was otherwise 27% faster
in terms of average FPS at this resolution, the third largest difference out of all games tested.
Fortnite benefits more from a higher frame rate given it’s a competitive esports title.
Again the 1% lows at 1080p were much closer together compared to 1440p,
though the average FPS differences were much larger. The 6800M was reaching 26%
higher average FPS at 1080p, the biggest difference at this resolution
out of all games I’ve tested here. The gap actually closes a little at 1440p,
at least in terms of average FPS, as the 6800M now has a 22% lead, but the difference in 1%
lows is larger now, so definitely a more stable experience at the higher resolution on the 6800M.
F1 2021 was tested with the highest setting preset which enables some ray tracing effects by default,
as denoted at the top of the graph. The 6700M was still near 60 FPS even maxed out at the
higher 1440p resolution, so not too bad at all, but the 6800M was reaching a 24% higher average
frame rate. The difference was smaller at 1080p, where the 6800M had an 18% lead over the 6700M.
Instead of talking through the rest of the 8 games individually in depth,
I’ll just blast through them so we can get into the average differences
as that’s more interesting, even if all of this testing did take many hours to complete.
A larger selection of games is important to help get a better rounded average.
Feel free to pause the video if you want a closer look at these additional games.
On average over all 17 games tested at 1080p, the higher tier RX 6800M was 18% faster than
the RX 6700M. Worst case at the bottom of the graph we’re seeing about an 11%
boost with the 6800M, while best case we’re seeing 26%
higher frame rate in Fortnite at the top. I would expect the subtle CPU difference to make
more of a change at this lower resolution, as 1440p would generally be more GPU bound.
Stepping up to the higher 1440p resolution and the 6800M was now almost 22% faster in terms
of average frame rate compared to the 6700M in the same selection of games. Many of the games
were now more than 20% better on the 6800M, a reasonable boost, though some were lower,
including Metro Exodus which was basically an outlier and had no real change here.
The 6800M laptop was using more power at the wall as you’d expect. About 32%
more wattage in Control at 4K to make it as GPU bound as possible,
and granted I only benchmarked frame rate up to 1440p, that was still 28% faster on
the 6800M in this game, so a similar FPS boost relative to the extra power consumed.
Here are the SPECviewperf results which test a number of professional 3D workloads. The 6800M
was ahead in all tests as expected, though the margin could vary a lot depending on the test.
Cool, so the 6800M performs better as expected, surprising no one. The real question is how much
more does it cost compared to the 6700M and is it worth considering? Prices of both will of
course change over time, so refer to those links in the description below for updates.
At the time of recording, MSI’s Delta 15 with RX 6700M graphics is $1600 USD, granted this is
currently on sale, full price is $1700. The ASUS Strix G15 on the other hand is $1650 USD, and
that’s with both higher tier CPU and GPU, so it’s only $50 more than the Delta 15 when it’s on sale.
If the Delta 15 isn’t on sale, then technically the Strix G15 with higher
tier CPU and GPU ends up being cheaper, so either MSI’s overcharging on a new product
or there’s just some other cost associated with producing it. Even with the Delta’s sale price
the Strix G15 is like 3% more money or $50 and as we’ve seen on average in 17 different
games it’s giving us an 18% performance boost at 1080p. Seems like a no brainer!
Now that said, I should also note that when I compared both of these GPUs for
this video I tested both with the same memory installed. If you were to actually buy both of
these laptops from say BestBuy for example, the Delta 15 comes with x8 memory while the
G15 comes with slower x16 memory, and as I’ve shown in the Delta 15 game test video here,
in some cases this could actually beat the 6800M just due to that memory change. So yeah although
it makes more sense to of course test both GPUs in this comparison with the same memory,
if you were actually going to buy one of these laptops the memory in the Delta 15 is technically
better. So if you were going to get the Strix with 6800M it might be worth budgeting some
more money to get some better memory, otherwise in some games the 6700M might outperform it.
Now both of these laptops do offer FSR support, and right now in late September I just don’t
think there’s that many great games that have that feature. No offence to anyone that does
play any of those games, but most of them are just not titles I’ve really heard of.
The first game that I’m interested in testing is Far Cry 6, as that does have FSR support,
and I would have loved to have tested that here. Unfortunately that comes out in about
a week from when I’m sitting here recording this video. But I think by the time you’re
actually watching this video that game will be available. Time travel magic! Unfortunately I had
to send the 6700M back before Far Cry 6 came out, so I wasn’t able to do that comparison.
As for the VRAM differences, I don’t think the extra 2 gigs in the 6800M is really worth
considering. I mean yeah obviously the 6800M is better and if this laptop is cheaper than
that one then this does make more sense to get. I’m just saying I wouldn’t be making the choice
based purely on the VRAM. Realistically 10 gigs in the 6700M is going to be fine for most people even
at 1440p resolutions. Personally I still think 8 gigs is a nice sweet spot, so having 10 is even
better for the future, and hey both of these still have more VRAM compared to Nvidia’s mobile 3070
and 3080. Well at least the 8 gig 3080 because they do also have one with 16 gigs of VRAM.
Speaking of Nvidia, you can find out how well the 6700M compares against the RTX 3060
and 3070 in one of these videos next. I’m also going to compare the 6800M against Nvidia soon,
so make sure you’re subscribed to the channel for that comparison, and come and join me and the
community in Discord and get behind the scenes videos by supporting the channel in Patreon.