sprite Today at 10:07 AM
Updated Analysis: So I took the 4K 6800XT chart and 6900XT charts presented by AMD and then used the chart they showed the % gain on 6800XT you get with rage mode and SAM. Using those titles, means 6900XT is 6-9% faster than 6800XT.
Borderlands 3: 6900XT is 9% faster than 6800XT
Doom Eternal: 6900XT is 6% faster than 6800XT
Forza Horizon 3: 6900XT is 9% faster than 6800XT
Gears 5: 6900XT is 9% faster than 6800XT
Resident Evil 3: 6900XT is 6% faster than 6800XT
Wolfenstein Young Blood: 6900XT is 8% faster than 6800XT
So on average 7.8% performance increase for 54% increase in cost.
Over same titles using Hardware Unboxed figures (FH4 and BL3 uses Tom's Hardware figures), 3080 FE vs 3090 FE difference at 4K.
Resident Evil 3: 3900 is 14% faster than 3800
Wolfenstein Young Blood: 3900 is 13% faster than 3800
Doom Eternal: 3900 is 11% faster than 3800
Gears 5: 3900 is 5% faster than 3800
Forza Horizon 4: 3900 is 9% faster than 3800
Borderlands 3: 3900 is 15% faster than 3800
So on average 11.1% performance instead for 114% increase in cost.
Pretty much a wash between the two in terms of both 6900XT and 3090 being rip off products for both AMD and Nvidia. Both offer the same value performance to value increase over the tier below. AMD doing a good job of imitating Nvidia.
I think it's people using it for work and/or those that aren't worried about spending money on their hobby to have the best? Now, I won't be recommending either the 6900xt or the 3090 to many of my friends, but I have hobbies and can understand others wanting the best if it's within their budget. So, as you said, it's not the mainstream product, it's a niche for those wanting just a little better than most others, but in order to get the highest binned parts, you are going to have to pay for them. This is the same way pre-binned CPU's works in the 3rd party market, they buy CPU's, test/bin them as high as they can and sell them at a marked up price based on how well they binned. The higher binned, the quicker cost goes up because they are more rare/difficult to find.I'm not sure what sort of unreasonable person would engage in this GPU company degeneracy of selling you high single-digit percentage point gains for high double-digit percentage point increases in price.
If you want a killer GPU, you get something like a 6800 XT instead.
Invest the money you didn't waste on a 6900 XT/3090 into a waterblock, clock the snot out of it.
you know, fun things
Now, I had planned to go to a 4K 120Hz monitor anyway. So far, I haven't liked some of my options but even if I do find something I want, actually getting it will depend on several factors. First and foremost, 2020 has been a hellish piece of **** of a year and my house has been the house from the Money Pit. (A film from the 1980's that some of you should remember.) I have some upcoming expenses coming up like possible foundation work. I will grab a new video card for sure, but whether or not I can do a monitor, CPU and video card is a long shot and its looking less likely every day.