Ampere is underperforming at lower resolutions. RDNA2 is scaling fine.
Ampere's poor scaling could be seen even before RDNA2 came out because the performance gains over the 2080ti weren't what they should be at 1440p.
The question is whether it is an architecture issue where it is best suited to 4K or if it is a software issue. AMD better hope its the former because if nvidia find a way of getting the 4K performance scaling (over Turing) at 1440p then it will apply some pressure on AMD.
That isn't to say AMD are not hampered by the lower bandwidth at 4K, but it's not the main reason why Ampere catches up and overtakes at 4K.
The problem is it does not matter too much if Ampere is underperforming at lower resolutions. That could be the case but you still get insane fps. Sure the 6800xt is a little better but playing a game on 1440p ultra at 100 fps instead of 103 fps, is still fine.
But it can matter a lot in 4k if the frame rates are close to 60. Some think the Ampere is overperforming at 4k, some think that the 6800xt is underperforming. But anyone can notice the 6800xt drops more fps from 1440 to 4k than the 3080.
I hope it is a driver problem and in fact it seems that the latest driver
boosted the performance in 1440p and 4k so the 6800xt could do a little better now in 4k. Probably they will do even better with future drivers. I can see the 6800xt doing pretty well in 4k Ultra and even beating the 3090 in AC Valhalla.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L_dAynbKbo
But there are rumors that there is also a problem with the memory bandwidth. Once the Vram frequency goes over 2000Mhz, you won`t see the same linear progression that you can see at lower frequencies and after 2100Mhz, you can even see a regression in performance.
https://twitter.com/CapFrameX/status/1330495454233174017
Let`s hope that can be fixed.
BTW the performance in CoD Cold War is also pretty bad on
Nvidia cards. Sure you get more FPS but the frames are all over the place even on the 3090. Which shows once again that this generation of video cards in not prepared for 4k Ultra with RT.