RX 6800 XT versus RX 6900 XT GPU in the 2019 Mac Pro

July 22nd, 2021 by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist

Curious how the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT compares to the RX 6900 XT? Here's our answer.

GRAPH LEGEND

RX 6900 XT = AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
RX 6800 XT = AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
Pro Vega II = Apple Pro Vega II

Testing Platform: 2019 Mac Pro, 3.3GHz 12-Core Xeon W CPU, 96GB RAM, macOS Big Sur 11.5.

BasemarkGPU - Metal
Official Test at 4K resolution and HIGH Content Quality. (HIGHER Frames per Second = FASTER)

Geekbench 5 - Metal
Metal GPU test. (HIGHER Frames per Second = FASTER)

GFXBench - Metal
Aztec High Tier OFFscreen. (HIGHER Frames per Second = FASTER)

Blender 2.90
Using AMD's ProRender with BMW sample image. (LOWER time in Seconds = FASTER)

Octane X - Metal
Render Benchmark Trench. (LOWER time in Seconds = FASTER)

DaVinci Resolve 17 - Metal
Playback the Candle 1080p project using triple noise reduction. (HIGHER Frames per Second = FASTER)

TW: Warhammer II - Metal
Ran Skaven built-in benchmark at 3840x2160 High. (HIGHER Frames per Second = FASTER)

Shadow of Tomb Raider - Metal
Ran built-in benchmark at 3840x2160 High. (HIGHER Frames per Second = FASTER)

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

The AMD RX 6900 XT averaged only 8 percent faster than the AMD RX 6800 XT. However, the RX 6900 XT was priced 36 percent higher than the RX 6800 XT.

(Note that the AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series requires Big Sur 11.4 or later when running on a Mac.)

Since the RX 6000 Series has three DisplayPorts, we tested using a Dell UP2715K display which has dual DisplayPorts to support 5K.

If your 2019 Mac Pro is running an Apple MPX GPU along with the RX 6800 XT or RX 6900 XT, you can use a display (like the LG UltraFine 5K) that connects via Thunderbolt to the MPX's ports. However, unless the app you are running lets you choose the RX 6800 XT or 6900 XT, the app will likely insist on using the MPX GPU.

We chose the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6800 XT and Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6900 XT because they were both 12.2 inches long. Versions longer than that will not fit in the 2019 Mac Pro.

Comments? Suggestions? Feel free to email me, Follow me on Twitter @barefeats.

WHERE TO BUY APPLE products:
USA readers can help BareFeats earn a commission by clicking THIS TEXT LINK or on any of our Apple display ads when considering a purchase.

Readers in Australia can support us by clicking our link to the Apple Store AU.

OTHER GOOD SOURCES
Trans International sells various Mac upgrades

Other World Computing sells memory, eGPUs, storage, and used Macs.

B&H Photo Video sells Apple products, GPUs, eGPUs, displays, storage, etc.

Has Bare Feats helped you? How about helping Bare Feats?

copyright 2021 Rob Art Morgan
"BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS"
FEEDBACK or QUESTIONS?