Nvidia’s new RTX 3070 Ti graphics card is here, but how does it compare against the
cheaper RX 6800 from AMD?
I’ve compared both graphics cards in 17 different games at 3 different resolutions
to show you what the differences are.
Let’s start with the differences in specs, the first obvious difference is that the 6800
has double the VRAM capacity compared to the 3070 Ti, though the GDDR6X memory in the Nvidia
option is faster.
I’ve chosen to do this comparison because in terms of MSRP at least, the 3070 Ti is
meant to be just $20 more than the 6800, but as we all know availability is scarce and
prices are useless at the moment.
I’ve just used this as a guide as a similar MSRP means both Nvidia and AMD see these as
competing options.
This is the system that I’m using to test all three GPUs in, so AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU
and 32 gigs of DDR4-3200 memory are the key specs.
I’ve used MSI’s B550 Tomahawk motherboard and resizable BAR was enabled on both cards.
Just before we get into those game benchmarks, I’ve got to thank this video’s sponsor
Newegg.
Newegg have their 7th annual FantasTech sale running from the 21st of June, however the
presale event is running from June 14th through June 20th, so you can lock in those lower
prices ASAP.
This is their biggest sale of the year, with savings on PC hardware, laptops and more.
Newegg ships internationally to 20 different countries around the world, and I personally
buy from them all the time, as more often than not, even with international shipping
they end up being cheaper than if I were to buy locally here in Australia.
Check out the sponsored link in the video description to get informed when the sale
goes live so that you don’t miss out on any of those deals.
Alright, back to the graphics card comparison, we’ll start out with gaming, followed by
things like power draw, content creator workloads and pricing and availability, or lack thereof,
afterwards, or you can time travel to whichever part you care about with those timestamps
below.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested in little china with the street kid life path.
I’ve got the 1080p results down the bottom, 1440p results in the middle, and 4K up the
top.
The 6800 was reaching higher average FPS regardless of resolution.
I’ve only tested with ray tracing off here, but it’s worth noting that Nvidia also has
DLSS support which AMD currently does not have in this specific game, though their FSR
is meant to launch later this month.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was tested with the games benchmark, and this game heavily
favors Radeon graphics.
The 6800 was reaching 38% higher average FPS compared to the 3070 Ti at 1080p, 32% higher
at 1440p, then 15% higher at 4K and right on 60 FPS.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was also tested using the games benchmark.
This time the 3070 Ti was ahead of the 6800 in all three resolutions, and the gap is largest
at 4K, where the 3070 Ti was reaching around 9% higher average FPS compared to the 6800.
Borderlands 3 was tested with the games benchmark, and this is another title that tends to favor
Radeon graphics, so not surprising to see it taking the lead this time around.
Again above 60 FPS was possible at 4K in this test, putting the 6800 17% ahead of the 3070
Ti, the biggest difference at this resolution out of all 17 titles tested.
Even the 1% lows from the 6800 were beating the average frame rates from the 3070 Ti regardless
of resolution.
Control on the other hand tends to favor Nvidia, and I’ve tested it with and without ray
tracing, let’s start with ray tracing off.
Although the 6800 was just slightly ahead with a 2% lead in terms of average FPS at
1080p, the 3070 Ti had a much larger 16% boost in the 1% low, so a more consistent experience.
Otherwise the 3070 Ti was ahead in terms of both average FPS and 1% lows at higher resolutions,
however it’s just a 1 to 2 FPS difference for the averages.
There’s a much bigger difference when it comes to ray tracing.
The 3070 Ti is now 26% ahead of the 6800 at 1080p, 27% ahead at 1440p, but then about
10% ahead at 4K, or as we can see here just a 2 FPS difference.
Realistically I wouldn’t be playing on either of these graphics cards at 4K with ray tracing
at 20 FPS so that result doesn’t really matter.
Nvidia clearly has the lead here as this game was basically made with Nvidia’s ray tracing
in mind, and of course we also have the option of DLSS which offers a further speed boost
to Nvidia options, as shown in the green bars.
Again AMD has FSR coming soon, but you can’t argue that Nvidia’s DLSS is more widely
available today in mid 2021.
Call of Duty Warzone on the other hand had one of the bigger differences in favor of
the 6800, reaching 18% higher average FPS when compared to the 3070 Ti at 1080p, 7%
higher at 1440p, and 9% ahead at 4K, granted there may be some inconsistencies in this
test compared to other games tested.
It’s a battle royale style game, so it’s always going to be subject to what other players
are actually doing in the game to some degree.
Fortnite typically favors Nvidia, and that was the case in my testing.
Both graphics cards were tested with the exact same replay file, and the 3070 Ti is winning
both for average FPS and 1% lows.
The 1% low in particular at 1080p had a massive 40% gain with the 3070 Ti, while average FPS
was 9% ahead, so still a reasonable difference but that big 1% low difference means more
stable gameplay for Nvidia in this one, though the 1% low changes get much smaller comparatively
at higher resolutions.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was tested in the Sydney landing challenge, and generally the
results were quite close but could go one way or the other depending on resolution.
Both are basically the same at 1080p, the 6800 is doing better at 1440p, however the
3070 Ti was then ahead in average FPS at 4K.
I’ll just briefly skip through the results for the other 8 games that I’ve tested,
I’ve talked through 9 titles already that were either mostly in favor of Nvidia or AMD
to illustrate that results can really depend on the game and the resolution.
In comparison the rest of these games generally saw smaller differences for the most part,
feel free to pause for a closer look, for now let’s check out the average differences
at all three resolutions next.
On average the RX 6800 is around 8.5% faster in terms of average FPS when compared to the
RTX 3070 Ti in these 17 games at the lower 1080p resolution.
The Nvidia card was faster in 4 of the 17 titles, while many more only had very minor
differences between the two, but for the most part the 6800 was coming out on top.
Stepping up to 1440p and the 6800 is still ahead with a little less than an 8% lead.
The 3070 Ti is doing a little better on a small selection of games, but for the most
part the 6800 is still ahead, however some of its gains are reduced which is why the
average difference has dropped back a little.
The 3070 Ti starts making a comeback at 4K, now 7 games of the 17 tested are reaching
higher average FPS with the 3070 Ti.
The 6800 still has the lead in most games, on average it's 3% ahead, so a small difference
on average, but some of the games that seem to favor AMD are still able to get some nice
gains on the 6800.
If we assume MSRP, the RX 6800 is offering better value in terms of cost per frame, because
it’s meant to cost less and generally performs better, however this doesn’t reflect the
real world.
The actual price of the 6800 is much higher due to supply issues, as you can see with
the links in the description, and although I’m making this video before the end of
the 3070 Ti embargo, I’m sure those will cost way more too, making this comparison
basically useless, hopefully it will be useful in future if things ever settle down, but
for now let’s ignore this and move on.
Now let’s check out the differences in content creator workloads, it’s not all just about
gaming!
I’ve tested DaVinci Resolve with the Puget Systems benchmark, and the 3070 Ti is scoring
5% above the 6800, so not that big of a difference, but as you’ll see, unlike gaming, generally
Nvidia is ahead for content creation.
The gap was much bigger in Adobe Premiere, again the 3070 Ti was ahead but with almost
an 18% higher score.
I’m guessing many of these sorts of software suites have just been better optimized for
Nvidia over time.
In terms of power draw the 3070 Ti system was drawing 13% more power from the wall in
Control at 4K, and although the 3070 Ti was winning here by reaching a 5% higher average
frame rate, it’s only around a 2 FPS lead, so the 3070 Ti appears to be using more power
just to do a little better, at least in this particular game.
Speaking of Control, that is also a game that supports DLSS, a feature that’s currently
only available on Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards.
Although AMD does have FSR coming on the 22nd of June, it’s not yet clear which games
will support that, so although finally AMD are going to have an interesting DLSS competitor,
the fact is today DLSS does have the lead in terms of adoption simple because it’s
been around longer, and that’s really the only saving feature of the 3070 Ti compared
to the 6800, because otherwise in most games the 6800 is performing better, all while meant
to be coming in at a lower price, though as discussed that may not end up being the case.
In reality you might be happy just to get your hands on either one of these graphics
cards, which is just the depressing state of the market at the moment.
If you are after an Nvidia option, perhaps for ray tracing or DLSS support, personally
I’d suggest looking into the 3080 over the 3070 Ti.
As I showed in yesterday’s video over here, the performance increase on offer from the
3080 definitely seems worthwhile, so come over and check out that video next if you
want to see how well the 3070 Ti stacks up against Nvidia’s own lineup, and of course
if you’re new to the channel then don’t forget to subscribe for future GPU comparisons
like this one.