Advice needed. Keep 6900 XT or RTX 3080

[carlito777 712]

I need some advice: I was lucky enough to be able to buy an AMD 6900 XT as well as a RTX 380 Founders Edition at MSRP. Now, I have to decide which one to keep. Here are my current thoughts:

Pro 6900 XT: The card has more VRAM and if Microsoft optimizes MSFS for XBox, the Radeon could benefit. In general, Radeons tend to age quite well and the card is really well build and silent.

Pro RTX 3080: It is cheaper, performs the same in MSFS like to the 6900 XT (I play in 4K) and it is much faster in Ray Tracing, which is nice in other games. And it looks really nice. All in all, it is better value for money.

If they had the same VRAM, I would certainly keep the 3080. On the other hand, even though a lot of people claim that 10 Gb VRAM is not enough, I haven't seen any real proof of that claim. The 3080 seems to perform just fine in MSFS even with less VRAM. As a side note: I'm on an Intel 10700K so I do not benefit from SAM with the Radeon.

Maybe someone has some thoughts on my decision problem. 😉

Thanks!

Edited January 13, 2021 by carlito777

[Bob Scott 7,719]

I spent the extra money for an RTX3090 because I strongly believe that VRAM is going to be the long pole in the tent for lots of DX12 applications going forward, flight simulations being first and foremost amongst them.  Given that evolving trend, I find 10GB of VRAM in the 3080 an underwhelming prospect--my two 4-year-old 1080Ti boards and my 2-year old 2080Ti all came packing 11GB...what in the world made these guys think 10GB would be acceptable on a mainstream GPU after 4 years of putting 11GB in their boards??!  A 10GB 3080 may handle MSFS just fine today while it remains a DX11 application, but incorporating DX12 is on Asobo's roadmap.

That said, I've never had good luck with AMD video cards in flight simulation.

Tough call.

[evaamo 549]

I would keep the 6900 XT just because of the VRAM. The RTX 3080 is hardly attractive with only 10GB.

I agree with @w6kd with regards to AMD and flightsims, but I've heard good things on the 6900 XT. 

Tough call indeed

[carlito777 712]

Thanks guys. The 3090 is really no option for me. Even though the specs are perfect, but the price is ridiculous. Tomorrow I will receive the 3080 and do some testing. I'll report back.

[Sunshine13 234]

I have been sayin this in many of my posts, Nividia has an excellent track record when you are talking about flight simulator's.  Just go back the last 15-20 years and most people who have been flying, are using Nivida.  The other issue with AMD their driver updates in the past have always been an issue.  I personally have a 3080, the price is right, and more importantly, the performance is fine.

[carlito777 712]

9 hours ago, Sunshine13 said:

I have been sayin this in many of my posts, Nividia has an excellent track record when you are talking about flight simulator's.  Just go back the last 15-20 years and most people who have been flying, are using Nivida.  The other issue with AMD their driver updates in the past have always been an issue.  I personally have a 3080, the price is right, and more importantly, the performance is fine.

Do you use MSFS? If yes, then at which resolution?

[jomcci 17]

After 3 months I switched from a 3090 to a 6900XT and I am very happy. I dropped the 3090 because of crazy power consumption which resulted in crazy thermals and acoustics in my opinion. The summer is coming....

For sure, in P3D/XP it was no problem at all, as ALL high-end Cards will manage these sims fine. 3080 was no option for me as the card only has 10GB in 2021....

Performance is really really good here. All the games and Sims I run. The drivers are perfectly fine for RDNA2. No complaints at all.

There is one thing you have to consider, but very easy to sort out. There is no "Prefere Maximum Performance" in the Driver like Nvidia Control Panel (Nvidia avoids down-clocking of the GPU while you have low loads with this option. It avoids stutters and low fps). The counter-part at AMD works much more in detail:

You can choose it for a 3D application like P3D or as Global 3D Setting  (same as Nvidia). You go on the Performance Tab (Leistung), choose TUNING (Konfiguration), go from Automatic to MANUAL and turn-on GPU-Tuning and Advanced Control. You'll see your Min Frequency and Max Frenquence. Leave Max. where it is and set Min to 300Mhz less (example). Mine is at Min 2206Mhz and Max 2524Mhz....It will never drop below....Ignore Voltage, Vram, Fan Speed, Power Target and so on for the beginning. 

The AMD Driver is very powerful and a combination of NVidia Config Panel + MSI Afterburner + and all other tools you are used while tuning a NV-GPU.

You can contact me for further questions 😉

[Iadbound 211]

On 1/15/2021 at 3:27 PM, jomcci said:

After 3 months I switched from a 3090 to a 6900XT and I am very happy. I dropped the 3090 because of crazy power consumption which resulted in crazy thermals and acoustics in my opinion. The summer is coming....

For sure, in P3D/XP it was no problem at all, as ALL high-end Cards will manage these sims fine. 3080 was no option for me as the card only has 10GB in 2021....

Performance is really really good here. All the games and Sims I run. The drivers are perfectly fine for RDNA2. No complaints at all.

There is one thing you have to consider, but very easy to sort out. There is no "Prefere Maximum Performance" in the Driver like Nvidia Control Panel (Nvidia avoids down-clocking of the GPU while you have low loads with this option. It avoids stutters and low fps). The counter-part at AMD works much more in detail:

You can choose it for a 3D application like P3D or as Global 3D Setting  (same as Nvidia). You go on the Performance Tab (Leistung), choose TUNING (Konfiguration), go from Automatic to MANUAL and turn-on GPU-Tuning and Advanced Control. You'll see your Min Frequency and Max Frenquence. Leave Max. where it is and set Min to 300Mhz less (example). Mine is at Min 2206Mhz and Max 2524Mhz....It will never drop below....Ignore Voltage, Vram, Fan Speed, Power Target and so on for the beginning. 

The AMD Driver is very powerful and a combination of NVidia Config Panel + MSI Afterburner + and all other tools you are used while tuning a NV-GPU.

You can contact me for further questions 😉

Jomcci -- I just got P3D v.5.1 (new to this sim but have XP11 and MSFS 2020).  I've also got a 6900xt.  I was wondering if you can provide more details on your AMD driver settings, P3D settings, and monitor (I have a Dell 34" fixed refresh of 60hz).  I've been using FSLabs A320 and I notice that frame rates bounce around a lot.  Sometimes I see an ever so subtle stutter and yesterday there a lot of marching ants.  Thanks in advance!  Oh, and processor is 5950x, RAM 64GB, Nvme drives. (Yes.  I use this computer for more than flight simulation). 

[Flyfaster_MTN002 412]

On 1/14/2021 at 11:52 AM, carlito777 said:

Thanks guys. The 3090 is really no option for me. Even though the specs are perfect, but the price is ridiculous. Tomorrow I will receive the 3080 and do some testing. I'll report back.

3080ti should be shipping any day as well...

[somiller 694]

5 hours ago, Flyfaster_MTN002 said:

3080ti should be shipping any day as well...

Assuming this was sarcasm?!

[Flyfaster_MTN002 412]

4 hours ago, somiller said:

Assuming this was sarcasm?!

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-ti-specifications-and-launch-date

[somiller 694]

9 hours ago, Flyfaster_MTN002 said:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-ti-specifications-and-launch-date

What does it matter when they won't be available anyway...lol.