In its latest data dump on its powerful new Radeon RX 7900 series graphics cards, AMD raises hopes for a favorable comparison to Nvidia’s second-tier RTX 4080 GPUs. According to AMD, the RX 7900 boards are more efficient, better designed, more reliable, cheaper, offer more graphics memory and are simply more powerful.
However, when AMD released the data, the RTX 4080’s NDA was still ticking, which led to the release of direct performance comparison data between the RX 7900 XTX and Nvidia’s RTX 4080.
AMD showed off the designs of its 7900 XT and XTX boards, highlighting that even the XTX is shorter than the RTX 4080 at 287mm and slimmer at 2.5 slots. 4090 card. The AMD board also features more power phases than his RTX 4080 card on par, completely sidestepping the 16-pin power connector that has proven so problematic for Nvidia.
AMD predictably reminds the world and its PC gamers that only AMD can offer graphics cards with both DisplayPort 2.1 and USB Type-C for maximum refresh rates and resolutions I took the opportunity.
And, of course, more graphics memory is available from AMD (20GB on the 7900 XT and 24GB on the 7900 XTX). The RTX 4080 16GB has 16GB.
Of course, behind all of the above is pricing, with the XT and XTX priced at $899 and $999 respectively and the RTX 4080 16GB at $1,199. Of course, all of these numbers are manufacturer’s suggested retail prices, not what you actually pay. But it’s true that AMD boards are cheaper.
| RX7900XTX | RX7900XT | |
|---|---|---|
| compute unit | 96 | 84 |
| RDNA 3 core | 6,144 | 5,376 |
| Game Clock (GHz) | 2.3 | 2 |
| memory | 24GB GDDR6 | 20GB GDDR6 |
| memory bus | 384 bits | 320 bits |
| infinity cache | 96MB | 80MB |
| Total Board Power (Watts) | 355 | 300 |
| Price (Suggested retail price) | $999 | $899 |
If all this makes for a great story for AMD, there are definitely some pitfalls. First, even with AMD’s price lower than his Nvidia’s, the RX 7900 series is still expensive. Especially disappointing is XT’s only $100 discount for XTX.
Another issue is performance. As we mentioned earlier, AMD has yet to provide head-to-head comparison data between the RX 7900 series and his Nvidia’s RTX 40 series boards. However, the latest slide deck provided more data points comparing the RX 7900 XT and XTX to AMD’s own Radeon RX 6950 XT. (opens in new tab) board. Bearing in mind that AMD has carefully chosen the numbers to put their new GPUs in the best possible shape, the performance boost isn’t always great.
image 1 of Four
AMD cites a headline of “up to” a 67% increase in traditional raster performance. Of course, that number also applies to his top-spec RX 7900 XTX. However, a closer look reveals that the RX 7900 XT averages about 25% faster than the old RX 6950 in his four games, which AMD cites for normal raster performance. 2077, and Watch Dogs: Legion.
The RX 7900 XT may not be the top-of-the-line GPU, but it still has an MSRP of $899 and could sell well above that number, at least in the short term. can also be expensive.
(opens in new tab)
AMD claims up to 82 more performance than the RX 6950 XT, with better ray tracing performance numbers. But again, for the RX 7900 XT instead of the XTX, AMD’s own numbers show a ray tracing boost of just 17% to 64% over the 6950.
Needless to say, if you’re looking to compare the RX 7900 XT to the RX 7900 XTX, this all comes in handy to see. (opens in new tab), the more powerful XTX is clearly the better value option. But the problem remains that 4-digit $ or £ GPUs are far from being a true value proposition. With any luck, we’ll see prices drop for all these new GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia. But with current pricing, even if these new GPUs are good, they’re not as exciting as they used to be at a more affordable price point.
