{"id":428134,"date":"2022-01-01T15:05:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T13:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=428134"},"modified":"2022-01-02T16:28:10","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T14:28:10","slug":"nvidia-vs-amd-2021-graphics-card-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/hardware\/428134-nvidia-vs-amd-2021-graphics-card-showdown.html","title":{"rendered":"Nvidia vs AMD \u2014 2021 graphics card showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>2021 was not a good year for the graphics card market, with a global shortage and only a few new cards launched.<\/p>\n<p>Nvidia and AMD released their latest flagship graphics cards in 2020, working this year to combat the global shortage by releasing more affordable cards.<\/p>\n<p>Nvidia committed to reissuing some of its older units, specifically the RTX 2060 and the GTX 1050 Ti.<\/p>\n<p>However, the graphics card manufacturer only managed to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/hardware\/425828-nvidia-unveils-new-rtx-2060-to-combat-graphics-card-shortage.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">unveil its revamp of the RTX 2060<\/a><\/strong> in December.<\/p>\n<p>The new version features 6GB more video memory (VRAM) than the original RTX 2060 and 4GB more VRAM than the &#8220;Super&#8221; version of the card.<\/p>\n<p>The 2021 RTX 2060 is made from the same TU106 silicon fabricated on TSMC&#8217;s 12nm FinFET manufacturing process but features more memory and CUDA cores, as well as a higher base clock speed than the original model.<\/p>\n<p>Nvidia has yet to reveal recommended retail pricing for its new graphics card.<\/p>\n<p>AMD <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/hardware\/418298-radeon-rx-6600-graphics-card-launched-south-african-pre-order-prices.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released its Radeon RX 6600<\/a><\/strong> graphics processing unit (GPU) in October 2021, offering 8GB of VRAM.<\/p>\n<p>The card is based on AMD&#8217;s RDNA 2 graphics architecture, packing 28 compute units and ray accelerators, a game clock running at 2,044MHz and boost speed up to 2,491MHz, and 32MB of AMD Infinity Cache.<\/p>\n<p>AMD says it offers up to 1.3 times better performance-per-watt than the RTX 3060 in 1080p at maximum settings and can run triple-A titles at over 100 frames per second.<\/p>\n<p>The Radeon RX 6600 is now available from AMD board partners, including ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and XFX, starting at a single exit price of $329 (R5,227 excl. VAT and import costs) in the US.<\/p>\n<p>In South Africa, Wootware is taking orders for three versions of the card, starting at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wootware.co.za\/xfx-radeon-rx-6600-speedster-swft210-core-rx-66xl8lfdq-8gb-gddr6-128-bit-pci-e-4-0-desktop-graphics-card.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">R8,799<\/a><\/strong> for the XFX Speedster Swift 210 edition.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Graphics-card-showdown-featured-image.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-428268\" src=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Graphics-card-showdown-featured-image.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Graphics-card-showdown-featured-image.jpg 800w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Graphics-card-showdown-featured-image-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Graphics-card-showdown-featured-image-640x426.jpg 640w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Graphics-card-showdown-featured-image-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The graphics card shortage is caused primarily by the global silicon shortage and &#8220;bots&#8221; used to automatically buy out the cards as they are released to resell them at inflated prices.<\/p>\n<p>Another factor impacting the availability of graphics cards is the demand created by cryptocurrency miners, which use powerful graphics cards in their mining rigs.<\/p>\n<p>The specifications of AMD and Nvidia&#8217;s flagship graphics cards, as well as their newer products, are provided in the table below. The manufacturers&#8217; new cards are marked with an asterisk.<\/p>\n<div class=\"mybb_table\">\n<div class=\"table-responsive\"><table class=\"table\" style=\"width: 100%;\" width=\"100%\" cellpadding=\"7\">\n<thead>\n<tr style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<th style=\"text-align: center; width: 99.9762%;\" colspan=\"7\">Graphics card specifications<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"background-color: #efefef;\">\n<td bgcolor=\"#EFEFEF\" width=\"16%\"><strong>Specification<\/strong><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#EFEFEF\" width=\"14%\"><strong>Radeon RX 6800 XT<\/strong><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#EFEFEF\" width=\"14%\"><strong>GeForce RTX 3080<\/strong><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#EFEFEF\" width=\"14%\"><strong>Radeon RX 6900 XT<\/strong><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#EFEFEF\" width=\"14%\"><strong>GeForce RTX 3090<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Radeon RX 6600*<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>RTX 2060 12GB*\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Base frequency<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>2,015MHz<\/td>\n<td>1,440MHz<\/td>\n<td>2,015MHz<\/td>\n<td>1,395MHz<\/td>\n<td>2092MHz<\/td>\n<td>1,470MHz<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Boost frequency<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>2,250MHz<\/td>\n<td>1,710MHz<\/td>\n<td>2,250MHz<\/td>\n<td>1,695MHz<\/td>\n<td>2,589MHz<\/td>\n<td>1,650MHz<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>RAM<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>16GB GDDR6<\/td>\n<td>10GB DDR6X<\/td>\n<td>16GB GDDR6<\/td>\n<td>24GB GDDR6X<\/td>\n<td>8GB GDDR6<\/td>\n<td>12GB GDDR6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Memory Interface<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>256-bit<\/td>\n<td>320-bit<\/td>\n<td>256-bit<\/td>\n<td>384-bit<\/td>\n<td>128-bit<\/td>\n<td>192-bit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>TDP<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>300W<\/td>\n<td>320W<\/td>\n<td>300W<\/td>\n<td>350W<\/td>\n<td>150W<\/td>\n<td>185W<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Pricing<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>$649 (R10,310)<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>$699 (R11,105)<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>$999 (R15,781)<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>$1,499 (R23,814)<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>\u00a0$329 (R5,227)<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>\u2014<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<tfoot>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"7\"><em>Recommended prices converted to rand exclude US sales taxes and differences in import costs.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>* New cards<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tfoot>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/hardware\/426090-goodbye-windows-what-googles-chromebook-offers-south-africans.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Goodbye Windows \u2014 What Google&#8217;s Chromebook offers South Africans<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Instead of releasing flagship graphics cards in 2021, Nvidia and AMD unveiled more affordable cards this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":428544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[577,67417,67413,67415,66524,73992,35,3838],"class_list":["post-428134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware","tag-amd","tag-amd-radeon-rx-6800","tag-amd-radeon-rx-6800xt","tag-amd-radeon-rx-6900xt","tag-geforce-rtx-3080","tag-geforce-rtx-3090","tag-headline","tag-nvidia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428134"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428542,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428134\/revisions\/428542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}