Average Relative Performance, Bang4Buck, Bang4Watt
Looking at the relative 4K performance of each card and normalising numbers to the GeForce RTX 3090 across seven rasterisation titles gives greater insight into how everything really stacks up.
Our findings suggest the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT obtains 93.5 per cent of its performance, putting it firmly into second place. Expressing it another way, where an AIC RTX 3090 card would notionally score 100fps, AMD's board scores 93.5fps. A partner card such as a Sapphire Nitro+ is sure to narrow the gap further.
We can also tease out rudimentary comparative value and energy efficiency by looking at performance and evaluating it against power consumption and price.
Taking the same relative performance in the first graph and plotting it against the dollar SRP - which in times of stock constraint is only a guide - gives us the following graph. It's the relative positions that are important, not the absolute score.
No $999 card will be considered good value. Compared to its performance peers - RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 - AMD splits the two. $999 feels about right for the red team's range-topper, but it's some way off the 10 per cent slower RX 6800 XT, and that is the biggest problem it faces.
Radeon RX 6900 XT offers more performance than 6800 XT at the same board power. It stands to reason its efficiency is also better. RTX 30 Series and AMD 6000 Series all do well here.