Radeon RX 6900 vs RX 6500 XT

Place in the ranking	218	23
Place by popularity	85	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	58.58	no data
Power efficiency	16.17	18.99
Architecture	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Navi 24	Navi 21
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	19 January 2022 (2 years ago)	28 October 2020 (4 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$199	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	1024	4608
Core clock speed	2610 MHz	no data
Boost clock speed	2815 MHz	2105 MHz
Number of transistors	5,400 million	23,000 million
Manufacturing process technology	6 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	107 Watt	255 Watt
Texture fill rate	180.2	606.2
Floating-point processing power	5.765 TFLOPS	19.4 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	64
TMUs	64	288
Ray Tracing Cores	16	no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 4.0 x4	PCIe 4.0 x16
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin	2x 8-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR6	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	8 GB	16 GB
Memory bus width	64 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	2248 MHz	16 GB/s
Memory bandwidth	143.9 GB/s	512.0 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	1x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4a	1x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort, 1x USB Type-C
HDMI	+	+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	12 Ultimate (12_2)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.6	6.5
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	2.2	2.0
Vulkan	1.3	1.2

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

RX 6500 XT 24.81

RX 6900 69.45
+180%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

RX 6500 XT 9569

RX 6900 26791
+180%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD	63 −170%	170−180 +170%
1440p	30 −167%	80−85 +167%
4K	17 −165%	45−50 +165%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	3.16	no data
1440p	6.63	no data
4K	11.71	no data

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

72
−178%

200−210

+178%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	50−55 −178%	150−160 +178%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	51 −175%	140−150 +175%
Battlefield 5	80−85 −172%	220−230 +172%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55 −160%	130−140 +160%
Cyberpunk 2077	54 −178%	150−160 +178%
Far Cry 5	55−60 −163%	150−160 +163%
Far Cry New Dawn	65−70 −177%	180−190 +177%
Forza Horizon 4	140−150 −176%	400−450 +176%
Hitman 3	50−55 −160%	130−140 +160%
Horizon Zero Dawn	110−120 −163%	300−310 +163%
Metro Exodus	85−90 −171%	230−240 +171%
Red Dead Redemption 2	60−65 −166%	170−180 +166%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	80−85 −174%	230−240 +174%
Watch Dogs: Legion	100−110 −172%	280−290 +172%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	50−55 −178%	150−160 +178%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	43 −179%	120−130 +179%
Battlefield 5	80−85 −172%	220−230 +172%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55 −160%	130−140 +160%
Cyberpunk 2077	34 −179%	95−100 +179%
Far Cry 5	55−60 −163%	150−160 +163%
Far Cry New Dawn	65−70 −177%	180−190 +177%
Forza Horizon 4	140−150 −176%	400−450 +176%
Hitman 3	50−55 −160%	130−140 +160%
Horizon Zero Dawn	110−120 −163%	300−310 +163%
Metro Exodus	85−90 −171%	230−240 +171%
Red Dead Redemption 2	60−65 −166%	170−180 +166%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	107 −171%	290−300 +171%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	50−55 −164%	140−150 +164%
Watch Dogs: Legion	100−110 −172%	280−290 +172%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	50−55 −178%	150−160 +178%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	31 −174%	85−90 +174%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55 −160%	130−140 +160%
Cyberpunk 2077	30 −167%	80−85 +167%
Far Cry 5	55−60 −163%	150−160 +163%
Forza Horizon 4	140−150 −176%	400−450 +176%
Hitman 3	50−55 −160%	130−140 +160%
Horizon Zero Dawn	92 −172%	250−260 +172%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	83 −177%	230−240 +177%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	54 −178%	150−160 +178%
Watch Dogs: Legion	25 −160%	65−70 +160%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

60−65
−166%

170−180

+166%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	45−50 −177%	130−140 +177%
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40 −163%	100−105 +163%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27 −169%	70−75 +169%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	23 −161%	60−65 +161%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 −168%	75−80 +168%
Cyberpunk 2077	17 −165%	45−50 +165%
Far Cry 5	27−30 −168%	75−80 +168%
Forza Horizon 4	140−150 −148%	350−400 +148%
Hitman 3	27−30 −176%	80−85 +176%
Horizon Zero Dawn	66 −173%	180−190 +173%
Metro Exodus	57 −163%	150−160 +163%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	56 −168%	150−160 +168%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−33 −167%	80−85 +167%
Watch Dogs: Legion	140−150 −150%	350−400 +150%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

40−45
−168%

110−120

+168%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	24−27 −171%	65−70 +171%
Far Cry New Dawn	18−20 −163%	50−55 +163%
Hitman 3	10 −170%	27−30 +170%
Horizon Zero Dawn	120−130 −176%	350−400 +176%
Metro Exodus	27−30 −168%	75−80 +168%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	28 −168%	75−80 +168%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 −167%	40−45 +167%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6 −167%	16−18 +167%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	14−16 −150%	35−40 +150%
Cyberpunk 2077	4 −150%	10−11 +150%
Far Cry 5	14−16 −150%	35−40 +150%
Forza Horizon 4	30−35 −179%	95−100 +179%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	25 −160%	65−70 +160%
Watch Dogs: Legion	10 −170%	27−30 +170%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

21−24

−162%

55−60
+162%

This is how RX 6500 XT and RX 6900 compete in popular games:

RX 6900 is 170% faster in 1080p
RX 6900 is 167% faster in 1440p
RX 6900 is 165% faster in 4K

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	24.81	69.45
Recency	19 January 2022	28 October 2020
Maximum RAM amount	8 GB	16 GB
Chip lithography	6 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	107 Watt	255 Watt