AMD’s newest flagship Radeon GPU is lastly right here, and whereas the Radeon RX 7900 XTX remains to be overpriced at $999 (£999), it appears like a veritable cut price subsequent to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 and 4080.
At Customized PC, we have been reviewing the newest gaming GPUs since 2003, and we run a lot of grueling benchmarks in an effort to gauge efficiency. Our sport assessments embody measuring the body fee in Cyberpunk 2077, Doom Everlasting, and Metro Exodus, all with and with out ray tracing, and we additionally take a look at with Murderer’s Creed Valhalla.
The brand new Radeon RX 7900 XTX is predicated on AMD’s new RDNA 3 structure, which sees AMD make its first transfer to a modular, chiplet-based strategy to GPU package deal design. As an alternative of getting the whole thing in a single monolithic die below the heatspreader, AMD has separated the L3 cache and reminiscence controller from the primary processing models, dividing them into chiplets.
Each the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and the 7900 XT are primarily based on the Navi 31 GPU, which within the case of the 7900 XTX offers you 96 AMD Compute Models, providing you with a complete of 6,144 dual-issue stream processors, and every Compute Unit offers you a 2nd-generation AMD RT core as properly.
You additionally get 96MB of L3 cache within the Reminiscence Cache Dies (MCD) surrounding the primary GPU, known as the Graphics Compute Die (GCD). This association offers the Radeon RX 7900 XTX a large 384-bit reminiscence interface which, when mixed with the 24GB of 2500MHz (20GHz efficient) GDDR6 reminiscence, offers you a complete reminiscence bandwidth of 960GB/sec – not far off the 1TB/sec+ figures we have seen from Nvidia’s top-end GPUs.
As some extent of comparability, the top-end RDNA 2 GPU, the Radeon RX 6950 XT, had 5,120 stream processors and a 256-bit reminiscence interface which, when mixed with its 16GB of 2250MHz (18GHz efficient) GDDR6 reminiscence, gave it a complete reminiscence bandwidth of 576GB/sec. Nonetheless, the Radeon RX 69550 XT did have 32MB extra L3 cache.
Clock speeds have additionally elevated over RDNA 2. The Radeon RX 6950 XT had a quoted sport clock of 2100MHz and a lift clock of 2310MHz, however the Radeon RX 7900 XTX raises these figures to 2269MHz and 2499MHz respectively. These quoted figures are additionally fairly conservative – we noticed the Radeon RX 7900 XTX hit a peak enhance clock of 3106MHz in our sport assessments, and it was persistently working at over 3GHz.
The AMD-made card we examined for this evaluation additionally has a way more elegant design than Nvidia’s newest Founders Version playing cards. It sticks with the tried-and-tested 8-pin PCIe energy connectors, avoiding potential for melting energy sockets, whereas additionally offering large compatibility with current PSUs. It additionally solely takes up two (and a bit) enlargement slots.
Irritating fan noise was by no means a problem throughout testing, and our pattern hit a peak GPU temperature of 62°C with a peak sizzling spot studying of 89°C. The latter is fairly toasty, and the backplate turned sizzling to the touch, however we did not observe any throttling.
RX 7900 XTX efficiency
With a revised GPU structure, extra and sooner reminiscence and a larger variety of stream processors, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX needs to be considerably faster than its predecessor, and that is totally borne out in our take a look at outcomes. Not solely that, however the 7900 XTX can also be faster than Nvidia’s pricier GeForce RTX 4080 in some assessments.
In actual fact, it even beats the RTX 4090 in some video games at 1,920 x 1,080. Nonetheless, you do not spend a grand on a GPU to run video games at 1080p, so we will deal with efficiency at 4K and a pair of,560 x 1,440.
Murderer’s Creed Valhalla RX 7900 XTX body fee
Even at 4K, there’s one sport the place the Radeon RX 7900 XTX outperforms the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, which is Murderer’s Creed Valhalla. The 2 GPUs carry out equally on this sport at 4K, and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX’s 99th percentile body fee of 79fps and common body fee of 106fps common are very good.
Metro Exodus RX 7900 XTX body fee
Metro Exodus can also be a powerful title for the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The RTX 4090 is in entrance, however that is to be anticipated from a card that prices upwards of $1699 / £1699. With no ray tracing enabled, the 7900 XTX stays forward of the RTX 4080 right here, although – the averages are related, however the Radeon has a considerably increased 99th percentile determine.
Nonetheless, the 2 playing cards swap locations when you add ray tracing. AMD has clearly achieved quite a lot of work on enhancing its ray tracing efficiency, however Nvidia’s newest GPUs have the higher hand. That mentioned, the Radeon’s common of 61fps on this sport at 4K with ray tracing remains to be a cracking end result, and its 99th percentile determine of 44fps is properly forward of the 39fps from the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, Nvidia’s former flagship.
Cyberpunk 2077 RX 7900 XTX body fee
The scenario in Cyberpunk 2077 was related, with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX’s body fee out-performing the GeForce RTX 4080 at the usual Extremely preset with a median body fee of 62fps. Nonetheless, the Radeon dropped behind as soon as ray tracing was enabled. To be honest, not even the RTX 4090 can play this sport at 4K easily with ray tracing except you allow DLSS, however the Radeon RX 7900 XTX once more carried out equally to the RTX 3090 Ti.
Not even enabling FSR 2.1 could make this sport easily playable at 4K with Medium ray tracing on the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, with a 48fps common body fee and 41fps 99th percentile end result. Comparatively, the RTX 4090 body fee averages 68fps on the identical preset with DLSS enabled, and the RTX 4080 hits 57fps.
The Nvidia playing cards even have the added bonus of AI body era through DLSS 3, which massively improves the body fee with ray tracing, even when it would not at all times look good. AMD has clearly labored exhausting on its silicon with this era of GPUs, however there’s not one of the ground-breaking software program innovation we noticed with DLSS 3 on present right here.
Doom Everlasting RX 7900 XTX body fee
In terms of excessive body charges, in Doom Everlasting, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX was behind each the brand new Nvidia GPUs, buts its body fee was nonetheless very good, averaging an enormous 308fps at 4K, and nonetheless sustaining a 167fps common with ray tracing enabled.
RX 7900 XTX energy draw
Lastly, we come to energy draw, the place the Radeon RX 7900 XTX could not be described as frugal, however is rather more environment friendly than the last-gen GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, and our system additionally did not spike into the 600W vary when working at 4K, which we noticed with the GeForce RTX 4090. Our system drew a peak of 546W with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX put in.
RX 7900 XTX professionals and cons
Execs
- Cheaper than RTX 4080
- Improved ray tracing efficiency
- Robust shader efficiency
- Customary energy connectors
Cons
- Severely restricted inventory
- No AI body era tech
- Nonetheless costly
- Nvidia remains to be sooner at ray tracing
Radeon RX 7900 XTX specs
The Radeon RX 7900 XTX specs record is:
| Stream processors | 6,144 dual-issue |
| RT cores | 96 |
| ROPs | 192 |
| Sport clock | 2269 MHz |
| Max enhance clock | 2499 MHz |
| Reminiscence | 24GB GDDR6 |
| Reminiscence clock | 2500 MHz (20 GHz efficient) |
| Reminiscence bandwidth | 960 GB/s |
| Reminiscence interface | 384-bit |
| L3 cache | 96 MB |
| Card interface | 16x PCIe 4 |
| Energy connectors | 2 x 8-pin |
| Card size | 287 mm |
| Enlargement slots | 2.5 |
RX 7900 XTX worth
With a worth of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is $999 (£999), making this a really costly card, nevertheless it’s nonetheless far cheaper than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 and 4090.
Worth: Anticipate to pay $999 (£999)
RX 7900 XTX evaluation conclusion
With a worth of $999 (£999), AMD has minimize out a pretty market slot for the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Its uncooked shader energy is correct up there with a lot pricier Nvidia GPUs, and its ray tracing energy is on par with the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.
AMD nonetheless cannot catch Nvidia’s newest GPU tech with regards to ray tracing, and it is a disgrace there are not any huge software program improvements equivalent to DLSS 3, however the Radeon RX 7900 XTX has energy the place it counts. Let’s hope extra inventory seems within the new yr and that the worth ultimately sticks. When you’re in search of extra gaming GPU choices, try our greatest graphics card information.
Curious to see how this card runs when enjoying different video games? Take a look at these GPU benchmarks over on the PCGameBenchmark FPS calculator.
