AMD Radeon RX 6000 RDNA 2 Graphics Cards To Support All Raytracing Games Based on Microsoft DXR & Vulkan APIs

Details regarding AMD's raytracing support for its Radeon RX 6000 RDNA 2 based graphics cards have been unearthed by AdoredTV. There was recently some discussion regarding how will AMD implement its own raytracing features in gaming titles and it looks like AMD's gaming GPUs will already have full support in titles that are based on Microsoft's DXR or Vulkan Raytracing APIs.

AMD Announces Raytracing Support For Radeon RX 6000 RDNA 2 Graphics Cards In All Microsoft DXR & Vulkan Raytracing APIs Based Games

AMD clarified that their Radeon RX 6000 RDNA 2 graphics cards will feature full raytracing support in gaming titles that use industry-based standards. According to AMD, they will allow full raytracing support in games that are based on Microsoft's DXR and Vulkan Raytracing APIs and there are a lot of titles that already do that.

AMD will support all ray tracing titles using industry-based standards, including the Microsoft DXR API and the upcoming Vulkan raytracing API. Games making of use of proprietary raytracing APIs and extensions will not be supported.

AMD Marketing via AdoredTV

For starters, there are only a handful of titles that are locked behind NVIDIA's RTX implementation and therefore, regarded as a proprietary standard. Major game engines such as Frostbite, Unreal, Seed & Unity are based on Microsoft's DXR APIs. Vulkan Raytracing is also implemented in Id tech's new engines for its next-generation title however, currently, they are only supported for RTX GPUs.

There is a big possibility that developers who have their games based on industry-standard APIs for raytracing will at some point enable support for AMD's Radeon RX 6000 RDNA 2 graphics cards but that remains to be seen. We could also see a drastic difference between NVIDIA's RTX & AMD's own raytracing implementation in the same titles too. Following is a list of all the games available that are based on Microsoft's DXR API:

• Battlefield V
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
• Control
• Deliver Us The Moon
• Dirt 5
• Fortnite
• Metro Exodus
• Shadow of The Tomb Raider
• Wolfenstein Youngblood

We recently got to see some impressive raytracing performance numbers of the Radeon RX 6800 series graphics card which shows that AMD might just have a strong RT solution of their own. AMD still lacks behind NVIDIA when DLSS is enabled however, AMD is also working on its own DLSS solution under the Microsoft DirectML banner. It will definitely be interesting to see how well the AMD RA (Ray Accelerator) cores compare against NVIDIA's RT cores.

We are always looking to help developers with new initiatives and we are already working on a super-resolution feature to give gamers an option for more performance when using ray tracing.

Scott Herkelman - AMD

AMD's Scott Herkelman has already stated that they are currently working on their own super-resolution feature to be implemented along raytracing however as per The Verge, the solution might not be available on the launch of the Radeon RX 6000 series cards.

Those answers will come between now and our availability dates. Please stay tuned. Thank you for your support and interest.

— Frank Azor (@AzorFrank) October 29, 2020

We can definitely expect more detailed information on raytracing and AI-based super-resolution features for Radeon RX 6000 RDNA 2 based graphics cards in the coming week as promised by AMD's Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions and Marketing, Frank Azor.

Radeon RX 6000 Series Graphics Cards Pricing & Availability

The Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards will be available starting 8th of December. The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is said to carry a price tag of $999 US and is expected to be a reference only model for this year unless AMD gives its AIB partners a greenlight for custom variants which may be in the plans. The RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 will be launching in the retail market on 18th November for $649 US and $579 US, respectively.

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AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series "RDNA 2" Graphics Card Lineup:

Graphics Card	AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6800	AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6700	AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6600	AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6400
GPU	Navi 21 KXTX	Navi 21 XTX	Navi 21 XT	Navi 21 XL	Navi 22 KXT	Navi 22 XT	Navi 22 XL	Navi 23 KXT	Navi 23 (XT)	Navi 23 (XL)	Navi 24 (XT)	Navi 24 (XL)
Process Node	7nm	7nm	7nm	7nm	7nm	7nm	7nm	7nm	7nm	7nm	6nm	6nm
Die Size	520mm2	520mm2	520mm2	520mm2	336mm2	336mm2	336mm2	237mm2	237mm2	237mm2	107mm2	107mm2
Transistors	26.8 Billion	26.8 Billion	26.8 Billion	26.8 Billion	17.2 Billion	17.2 Billion	17.2 Billion	11.06 Billion	11.06 Billion	11.06 Billion	5.4 Billion	5.4 Billion
Compute Units	80	80	72	60	40	40	36	32	32	28	16	12
Stream Processors	5120	5120	4608	3840	2560	2560	2304	2048	2048	1792	1024	768
TMUs/ROPs	320 / 128	320 / 128	288 / 128	240 / 96	160/64	160/64	144/64	128/64	128/64	112/64	64/32	48/32
Game Clock	2116 MHz	2015 MHz	2015 MHz	1815 MHz	2495 MHz	2424 MHz	2330 MHz	2410 MHz	2359 MHz	2044 MHz	2610 MHz	2039 MHz
Boost Clock	2324 MHz	2250 MHz	2250 MHz	2105 MHz	2600 MHz	2581 MHz	2495 MHz	2635 MHz	2589 MHz	2491 MHz	2815 MHz	2321 MHz
FP32 TFLOPs	23.80 TFLOPs	23.04 TFLOPs	20.74 TFLOPs	16.17 TFLOPs	13.31 TFLOPs	13.21 TFLOPs	11.50 TFLOPs	10.79 TFLOPs	10.6 TFLOPs	9.0 TFLOPs	5.7 TFLOPs	3.5 TFLOPs
Memory Size	16 GB GDDR6 +128 MB Infinity Cache	16 GB GDDR6 +128 MB Infinity Cache	16 GB GDDR6 +128 MB Infinity Cache	16 GB GDDR6 +128 MB Infinity Cache	12 GB GDDR6 + 96 MB Infinity Cache	12 GB GDDR6 + 96 MB Infinity Cache	10 GB GDDR5 + 80 MB Infinity Cache	8 GB GDDR6 + 32 MB Infinity Cache	8 GB GDDR6 + 32 MB Infinity Cache	8 GB GDDR6 + 32 MB Infinity Cache	4 GB / 8 GB GDDR6 + 16 MB Infinity Cache	4 GB GDDR6 + 16 MB Infinity Cache
Memory Bus	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	192-bit	192-bit	160-bit	128-bit	128-bit	128-bit	64-bit	64-bit
Memory Clock	18 Gbps	16 Gbps	16 Gbps	16 Gbps	18 Gbps	16 Gbps	16 Gbps	17.5 Gbps	16 Gbps	14 Gbps	18 Gbps	14 Gbps
Bandwidth	576 GB/s	512 GB/s	512 GB/s	512 GB/s	432 GB/s	384 GB/s	320 GB/s	280 GB/s	256 GB/s	224 GB/s	144 GB/s	112 GB/s
TDP	335W	300W	300W	250W	250W	230W	220W	176W	160W	132W	107W	53W
Price	$1099 US	$999 US	$649 US	$579 US	$549 US	$479 US	TBD	$399 US	$379 US	$329 US	$199 US	$159 US?