With the Radeon RX 6800 XT at the end of 2020, AMD succeeded in catching up with Nvidia after years of abstinence from high-end graphics cards. Currently it is also clearly cheaper than its main competitor Geforce RTX 3080. But what does that mean for AMD’s market share?
We look at the price development of the RX 6800 XT and the RTX 3080 from November 2020 to the current point in time and clarify why the new Radeon graphics card probably has no chance against Nvidia in terms of distribution despite the currently significantly lower acquisition costs.
If you want to know how the RX 6800 XT compares to the RTX 3080 in terms of gaming performance, we recommend the following video:
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AMD versus Nvidia – That’s how strong the Radeon RX 6800 XT is compared to the RTX 3080
RTX 3080 vs. 6800 XT: From very expensive to extremely expensive
The following price comparison refers to GPUs sold on Ebay. Online retailers such as Alternate or Mindfactory have only rarely listed both graphics cards for months, although the RTX 3080 can be found a little more often. The cost is here according to Geizhals
When it was released in November 2020, the RX 6800 XT was a bit more expensive than the RTX 3080, but the tide has clearly turned in the meantime. This is because the price of the RX 6800 XT has only increased moderately. The RTX 3080, on the other hand, has grown significantly.
As a result, the Geforce GPU now costs around 500 dollars more than the Radeon graphics card, while the RRP of both graphics cards is similar:
|
Geforce RTX 3080 |
UVP: 719 Euro |
|---|---|
|
Radeon RX 6800 XT |
UVP: 657,51 Euro |
Geforce is much more widespread than Radeon
Regardless of which numbers you look at: Nvidia is clearly ahead of AMD when it comes to graphics cards, especially in the case of the new models.
In our own survey of the GPUs you use, the RTX 3000 series had a share of 17.5 percent, while the RX 6000 only had 1.8 percent. Overall, Nvidia achieved 83.5 percent, AMD accordingly 16.5 percent.
In Steams current hardware survey With the exception of the RTX 3060, which was only released at the end of February, all new Nvidia models appear, but you won’t find AMD’s RX 6000 series. Data for fourth quarter 2020 by John Peddie Research see Nvidia at the same time with 82 percent before AMD with 18 percent.
Since the price gap between the RX 6800 XT and the RTX 3080 has only been so great for a relatively short time, it has not yet been reflected in these figures. If the gap remains so large, one could assume that this will have a positive effect on AMD’s market share.
From our point of view, however, there are several reasons that suggest that the RX 6800 XT will remain clearly behind the RTX 3080 in the future. To what extent we ourselves are to blame for the generally very high prices for graphics cards, you can find out in the following column at GameStar Plus:
more on the subject
Insane GPU prices: the biggest problem is ourselves
What does Nvidia have ahead of AMD with the RTX 3080?
- The bigger name: Nvidia was in our own polls for almost 13 years and on Steam clearly ahead of AMD or ATI (although not as clearly as today). Compared to “Radeon”, »Geforce« is generally the much better known brand among gamers.
- Deep Learning Super Sampling: With DLSS, Nvidia offers a feature that, after a somewhat bumpy start, can ensure significantly higher frame rates with almost the same image quality (see our most recent test using Outriders). DLSS must be explicitly supported by the respective game, but the number of titles is increasing. AMD’s counterpart is not expected until later this year and has yet to prove itself
- The better ray tracing performance: With the RTX-3000 graphics cards, Nvidia already offers the second generation of GPUs with special processing units for ray tracing, while AMD has only had the right hardware acceleration since the RX-6000 generation. As in the case of DLSS, a game must explicitly support ray tracing, if that is the case, the FPS drop with Nvidia graphics cards much less than with AMD GPUs (see, for example, our matching ray tracing benchmarks in Cyberpunk 2077 with patch 1.2) .
The better drivers from Nvidia are also often mentioned in discussions. Looking at our own, long-term test experience, we cannot confirm this: We see AMD and Nvidia largely the same on this point, although AMD currently even offers the clearly more modern drivers, at least visually (even if that does not necessarily help the overview) .
Other possible factors can be special software features such as Nvidia Broadcast, Nvidia Reflex or Nvidia Ansel. In some cases, however, AMD has similar functions to offer, and it is also difficult to assess how much players value such extras.
Last but not least, it is also questionable to what extent AMD could serve a significantly higher demand. After all, the company not only produces graphics cards, but also processors (AMD Ryzen) and the chips for the new consoles (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X).
How do you assess the situation? Will the RX 6800 XT become more popular with gamers as the price of the RTX 3080 continues to rise, unless its price also increases significantly? Feel free to write it in the comments!
