AMD’s most powerful RDNA 3 GPU manages to surpass its predecessor RTX 4080 in several games, but at a $200 less cost. However, ray-tracing performance is a long way further behind Nvidia.
The Radeon RX 7900 XT ($899) and XTX ($999) cards are made to offer next-generation gaming performance for less than 1,000 dollars. And at the top of the range (XTX), AMD manages to easily beat Nvidia’s most recent RTX 4080 ($1,199) card for a wide range of games in 4K.
If I was looking to buy an $1,000 GPU at the moment I’d be forced to reconsider investing the additional $200 in an RTX 4080 to get the best rendering capabilities of ray-tracing. AMD is truly a leader in native 4K gaming even if ray-tracing and super-sampling performance are disappointing once more.
Hardware
The performance enhancements in the brand latest Radeon RX 7900 XT / XTX cards can be attributed to AMD’s most recent RDNA 3 architecture and chiplet technology. They are the first gaming GPUs that use chiplets and feature AMD employing the same number of dies that are connected to the fast interconnect technology that it employs to connect the Ryzen as well as EPYC CPUs.
Effectively AMD is able to split these Radeon GPUs using 5nm technology on the GPU compute die, and a process that is 6nm for the GDDR6 memory side. A 5.3TB/s interconnect allows both sides to communicate with one another. The result is an improved GPU that can deliver better performance without increasing your energy costs. This is similar to the way Apple uses with their M1 Ultra that combines two M1 Max chips.
The total power on the board begins at 355 watts on the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which is 20 watts more in comparison to previous models, including the Radeon RX 6950 XT. AMD recommends the use of a power supply that is 800 watts this time which is a little lower than the 850-watt recommended in the 6950 XT. For the price of $899 for the Radeon RX 7900 XT, the power of the board starts at 315 watts. it is recommended to use 775 milliwatts. AMD raised its power consumption from 300 milliwatts to 315 watts for the RX 7900 XT, just prior to launch due to the fact that it observed that the slight increases in power resulted in better performance.
Both the Radeon 7900 XT and XTX appear very similar from the outside, and feature three fan layouts inside the 2.5-slot casing. However, while Nvidia is proud to stamp their RTX model numbers on the front and in the middle, AMD leaves that for an unimportant information on the plate of connectors that is located at the top of the card. Both come with the two DisplayPort 2.1 outputs as well as an individual HDMI 2.1 output as well as a USB Type-C display output.
Although Nvidia has gone with the most recent 12VHPWR power connector which has been melting in a few instances, AMD is still using the traditional eight-pin connectors. There are two connectors on the side, which means you don’t be able to think about bulky adapters or the overall length of RX 7900 XT and XTX cards. It’s the XTX is slightly bigger than the XT however, in the event that third-party companies do not go overboard I’d imagine that the cards to fit into most cases.
The inclusion to DisplayPort 2.1 for AMD’s newest GPUs will enable you to utilize an suitable DisplayPort 2.1 display (due in 2023 or early 2023) to enjoy high frame rates in four-channel resolution (up up to the 480Hz) and with HDR enabled. Nvidia hasn’t made the leap to DisplayPort 2.1 using its RTX 40-series cards, however it’s wonderful to witness AMD taking on this latest technology, even though it’s unlikely that you’ll have any DisplayPort 2.1 monitors available for some time. It’s not likely that these cards will reach the frame rates needed that will truly benefit from DisplayPort 2.1 without reducing the quality of visuals down in games.
The last aspect of hardware on AMD’s latest RDNA GPUs will be memory. AMD offers 24GB GDDR6 for the Radeon RX 7900 XTX that we’ve been able to see on premium Nvidia cards including those that include the RTX 3090 ($1,499) and RTX 4090 ($1,599). The 7900 XT also comes with 20GB of memory, which are both an improvement over the 16GB of memory found in the RTX4080.
1440p benchmarks
For testing at 1440p I used with the Radeon 7900 XT and XTX with Intel’s most recent Core i9-13900K processor. It is that is pushing 32-inches of Samsung Odyssey G7 monitor. The monitor can run at refresh rates as high as 240Hz. My testing program included various AAA games like Forza Horizon 5 Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Cyberpunk 2077.
The games tested on the maximum and ultra settings for each of the GPUs with, and the majority of games aside those from Microsoft Flight Simulator managed to achieve frame rates above 100fps with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
In terms of pure rasterization, it is the Radeon RX 7900 XTX comfortably surpasses the RTX 4080 across the board in all games. It falls short on Shadow of the Tomb Raider but it delivers solid improvements on Cyberpunk 2077 Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Watch Dogs: Legion. The only thing it fails to do is ray-tracing and competition with Nvidia’s DLSS.
There aren’t enough games that are compatible with AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) scaling technique. Three of the games I tested support FSR support. While it has helped on Microsoft Flight Simulator, titles such as Metro Exodus, Control, and Watch Dogs: Legion suffer without it.
Although it’s true that the Radeon RX 7900 XT manages to beat RTX 4080 when it comes to native Control and after you enable Ray Tracing, it falls in comparison, even without taking advantage of the Nvidia DLSS advantage. This is the reason you’re paying $200 to get with Nvidia enhanced ray tracing capabilities and DLSS support in many more games.
DLSS 3 isn’t present in all games however, it is available in Cyberpunk 2077, the technology takes the speed way above what AMD could offer. With FSR 2.1 activated, Nvidia still delivers superior speed for ray-tracing. It’s unfortunate that two years later AMD still falls well ahead of Nvidia in ray tracing performance, even though it has achieved significant performance improvements on that of the Radeon RX 6800 XT.
4K benchmarks
AMD’s performance on the 4K aspect are similar. To test the resolution of this, I used each of the Radeon RX 7900 XT and the XTX with an 31.5-inch Acer Nitro XV2 display. The monitor can be set to refresh as high as 144Hz, however neither card could come near enough to benefit from the fastest rate of refresh.
If you’re playing at 4K resolution, you’re likely to be looking to spend an extra $100 for the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. It easily outperforms the RX 7900, which retails for $899. XT, and in some difficult ray-tracing games it will still deliver 60 frames per second instead of falling below.
This time it is this time, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the main attraction when compared to the RTX 4080. While it falls short on Microsoft Flight Simulator this time but it does well with Gears 5 and Forza Horizon 5 while also making impressive gains in performance on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Cyberpunk 2077.
Similar to the tests at 1440p, AMD once again loses out to Nvidia in ray tracing and upscaling. Cyberpunk 2077 is an impressive examination of the performance of 4K in modern graphics cards. And although there is no doubt that AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX convincingly outdoes the RTX 4080 in ultra settings, once you enable ray tracer and upscaling, the gains in performance are lost and cause Cyberpunk 2077 less fun with less than 40fps.
Nvidia is able to provide 82 fps for Cyberpunk 2077 on ultra settings using ray tracing and DLSS 3. This is twice what AMD offers with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. It’s the difference between day and night in the ray-tracing speed here in the battle between Nvidia or AMD.
In the realm of software I’m always impressed by AMD’s enhancements. It displays a small pop-up whenever you launch a game that will inform you what AMD features are available and if you’ve enabled them. Additionally, this overlay allows users to swiftly explore settings to manage and even boost the performance of the GPUs effortlessly. However, Nvidia still splits up its settings into an control panel as well as a GeForce experience application, and I’d like to be able to see it be like AMD and modernize its settings into one easy-to-use spot.
With regards to noise, the noise and thermals, AMD has added a specific thermistor in the Radeon 7900 XTX which measures the temperature within a case. It can dynamically adjust the performance according to airflow and thermals and AMD promises to eventually make this sensor available to DIY builders, so that they can better optimize the location of the fan as well as the overall design of the case.
Like Nvidia AMD’s newer cards have a tendency to be a bit hot. AMD states that it’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX can operate up to 110 degrees Celsius junction temperature in an average gaming session and I’ve observed temperatures reaching close to 100 degrees during intense games. There is a bit of sound as well. The fans were louder on the 7900 XTX and the 7900XT was quieter, both made a sound effects during high frame rate games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Nvidia’s cooling technology is superior but you’ll have to have to pay for it in the sheer dimension of the RTX 4080.
AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX is definitely the best card to purchase for GPUs in the $1,000 range. This $899 RX 7900 XT may not be quite as close in comparison to RTX 4080, however If you’re looking to save $100, it’s definitely an alternative.
AMD provides some impressive performance for its dollar however it’s affected by the speed of upscaling and raytracing. If you’re not interested in the ray-tracing feature and want pure rasterization , then you should consider the Radeon RX 7900 XTX will most likely provide. It’s a winner in the latest games and, at only $200 less than the RTX4080, it will put the pressure on Nvidia’s pricing plans for the most recent version of GPUs.
