AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT review: Stellar performance, smashing value

Price When Reviewed

$999

The struggle for the next-generation of graphics supremacy is lastly on. AMD’s new RDNA 3-powered $999 Radeon RX 7900 XTX and $899 Radeon 7900 XT lastly hit streets on Tuesday, December 13, primed for battle with Nvidia’s monstrous GeForce RTX 4090. To minimize proper to the chase: In some ways, this launch may be very harking back to the battle between last-gen’s Radeon RX 6900 XT and RTX 3090.

Despite costing lots of much less, AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX comes inside spitting distance of the $1,600 RTX 4090 in lots of video games, assembly and even beating it in some titles—identical to final technology. Ray tracing can be now not a weak spot, with the 7900 XTX on par with the 3090’s previously best-in-class efficiency however trailing behind Nvidia’s newest ferocious capabilities—identical to final technology. New capabilities unlock specialised experiences while you pair AMD’s newest Radeon GPUs with its newest Ryzen processors—identical to final technology.

But this time round, there’s an enormous distinction. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX isn’t in competitors with the RX 4090, regardless of its capacity to go toe-to-toe with Nvidia’s juggernaut. The ludicrously priced $1,200 GeForce RTX 4080 is. Nvidia slapped the cardboard with a mammoth $500 greenback worth improve gen-over-gen, whereas AMD caught to the identical $999 for its flagship card. And each members of the 7900 duo blow previous the RTX 4080’s efficiency at these cheaper MSRPs.

Let’s dig in.

Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT specs, worth, and options

AMD radically reconfigured its underlying GPU structure with RDNA 3. The most placing change? This is the primary Ryzen-like chiplet-based GPU ever created.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

Previously, GPUs had been constructed utilizing large “monolithic” dies that cram all vital bits inside. But with RDNA 3 the principle 5nm core graphics die is flanked by as much as six complementary reminiscence dies. Built utilizing the extra mature and cost-efficient 6nm course of, these home the GPU’s on-chip Infinity Cache and reminiscence controllers. The design helps AMD hold prices down on each nodes, and little doubt helps the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT obtain their extra palatable costs. The central RDNA 3 GPU die measures simply 300mm squared, whereas Nvidia’s RTX 4090 die is over twice as massive. All of the 4090 die is made utilizing TSMC’s costly cutting-edge node, too.

AMD additionally overhauled RDNA 3’s ray tracing capabilities to supply as much as 50 % extra efficiency in these cutting-edge lighting results; added a pair of AI accelerators in every compute unit (which can probably come into play when FSR 3.0 lands in 2023); tuned the Infinity Cache for enhanced efficiency; launched a brand new “Radiance Display Engine” that helps HDMI 2.1a, USB-C, and DisplayPort 2.1 (not like the RTX 40-series); amped up the “dual” media engine with AV1 encoding (yay!) and simultaneous AVC/HEVC encode/decode; and extra—together with switching to a newly “unified” compute unit.

AMD

We’re not going to lavatory down this assessment with the complete particulars, although. Our initial Radeon RX 7900 XTX reveal coverage has all of the technical information you want if you wish to wade in deeper. This assessment focuses on extra sensible issues.

That begins with the technical configuration particulars of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT, and the way they examine towards last-generation’s Radeon RX 6900 XT flagship. As you’ll be able to see, AMD crammed lots, lot extra of these extra superior CUs into these RDNA 3 chips:

AMD

A pair different sensible technical tidbits are price calling out right here. First, AMD realized its classes from RDNA 2. While Infinity Cache works wonders for enhancing efficiency in lots of video games, at increased resolutions, you want ample VRAM and huge reminiscence busses to sort out high-performance textures with grace. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX packs 24GB of GDDR6, whereas the 7900 XT gives 20GB, properly above the 16GB discovered within the RTX 4080 and last-gen’s 6900 XT. It’s overkill however content material creators will find it irresistible, they usually’re paired with a lot wider 384-bit and 320-bit (respectively) buses than earlier than. Between that and Infinity Cache, reminiscence isn’t a problem with the 7900 sequence, full cease.

Also take note of the facility draw of the flagship XTX mannequin. While the $899 Radeon RX 7900 XT consumes a bit much less energy than its predecessor, the $999 7900 XTX cranks up the juice to compete with Nvidia’s newest and biggest. AMD recommends utilizing an 800-watt energy provide at minimal, and in our energy testing benchmarks, we found that the XTX solely attracts a hair much less energy than the ferocious RTX 4090. Yes, this card is extra environment friendly than prior GPU generations, nevertheless it’s nonetheless power-hungry.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

….Which makes the comparatively tiny measurement of AMD’s in-house GPUs all of the extra noteworthy. Nvidia and its companions slapped gargantuan 3- or 4-slot coolers on their 4080 and 4090 playing cards, powered by the melty new 12VHPWR connectors. Though customized RX 7900 boards additionally go massive, AMD’s choices keep on with a modest 2.5-slot design that “fits in everything,” per small kind issue PC guru Optimum Tech. That’s nice for compatibility with present PCs.

Also nice: AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 sequence reference playing cards use simply two conventional 8-pin energy connectors. The playing cards sport twin DisplayPort 2.1 connections, a singular HDMI 2.1a port, and a USB-C connection appropriate with DP 2.1 as properly. Nvidia’s RTX 40-series lack USB-C, and most customized RX 7900 sequence playing cards we’ve seen thus far swap it out for the standard DP 2.1 connection. So if that’s a key characteristic for you, AMD’s reference playing cards are those to focus on.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

For a deeper glimpse at these attractive GPUs, take a look at our separate close-up look at the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT.

Of course, these playing cards additionally help AMD’s plentiful software program options, a few of that are solely obtainable when paired with an AMD Ryzen CPU. Those embody FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.0 and 2.0 upscaling tech and its universal Radeon Super Resolution cousin, the performance-boosting Smart Access Memory, a brand new Smart Access Video characteristic for accelerating encoding duties (which we hope to check quickly), Radeon Anti-Lag for diminished latency, AMD Noise Suppression to get rid of background noise throughout video calls and streams, AMD Link to beam gameplay to different units, Radeon Boost, power-saving Radeon Chill, Radeon Image Sharpening, AMD Privacy View, and extra. They’re all nice choices to have at hand.

But sufficient discuss. Let’s get to the benchmarks. Giddy-up.

Our check system

We consider graphics playing cards on an AMD Ryzen 5900X PC used completely for benchmarking GPUs. We now check with PCIe Resizable BAR (often known as Smart Access Memory on Ryzen techniques) lively, as most fashionable gaming PCs launched within the final 4 years help the performance-boosting characteristic, both natively or through a motherboard firmware replace. Nvidia additionally recommends turning on the non-obligatory “Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling” choice in Windows to let the RTX 40-series stretch its legs to the fullest, so we’ve made that tweak as properly. Most of the {hardware} was supplied by the producers, however we bought the storage ourselves.

We’re evaluating AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 sequence towards the $1,200 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 and $1,600 RTX 4090, their pure next-gen rivals. We’ve additionally included benchmarks from the last-gen Radeon RX 6900 XT, in addition to Nvidia’s RTX 3080, 3080 Ti, and 3090, to indicate generational enhancements. All of those playing cards stay strong 4K choices, even the last-gen fashions.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

We’ve additionally up to date the video games in our testing suite for this new technology. Our lineup of video games spans varied engines, genres, vendor sponsorships (Nvidia, AMD, and Intel), and graphics APIs (DirectX 9, 11, DX12, and Vulkan), in an effort to characterize a full vary of efficiency potential. Each title is run utilizing its in-game benchmark, sanity checked by Nvidia’s FrameView tool, on the highest attainable graphics presets except in any other case famous, with VSync, body charge caps, real-time ray tracing or DLSS results, and FreeSync/G-Sync disabled, together with every other vendor-specific applied sciences like FidelityFX instruments or Nvidia Reflex. We’ve additionally enabled temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) to push these playing cards to their limits.

Each benchmark will get run a minimum of 3 times, with the typical end result for every check listed as the ultimate end result. Outside of esports, we’ve restricted our benchmarks to 4K and 1440p resolutions, as these are the pure suits for these bruising GPUs. Most price 4 figures or extra at launch. Pay shut consideration to how the 7900 XTX and RTX 4090 commerce blows at each resolutions—normally, AMD’s card is quicker at 1440p decision than the Nvidia card that prices $600 extra (thanks Infinity Cache!), whereas 4K efficiency varies wildly. Sometimes the 7900 duo struggles to surpass the RTX 4080, whereas different instances it might probably meet (and, not often, beat) even the 4090.

Gaming efficiency benchmarks

Esports and older APIs

Let’s kick issues off with a pair of ultra-popular esports video games, and a tactical technique sport working on DX11.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

It’s a killer begin for RDNA 3. In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the Radeon RX 7900 sequence mops the ground with the 4080 in any respect resolutions, with the XTX tying or surpassing the 4090. Things get a bit extra difficult within the ever-popular CSGO, the place Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace structure flexes a bit extra, delivering unequalled 1080p efficiency. The $899 7900 XT manages to barely trump the $1,200 RTX 4080 in any respect different resolutions, nonetheless, whereas the XTX beats the 4090 at 1440p, however will get edged at 1080p and whomped at 4K. These are all fantastically quick playing cards for CSGO although—even the last-gen fashions.

AMD’s new GPUs are clearly favored within the DX11-powered Total War Troy alternatively, with the XT breezing forward of the 4080 and the XTX taking the vaunted 4090 down fully.

DX12 and Vulkan

With that out of the way in which, let’s flip to the extra fashionable DX12 and Vulkan graphics APIs being utilized in many (most?) triple-A video games lately. Once once more, pay shut consideration to how the varied Radeon RX 7900 sequence and RTX 40-series GPUs stack up towards one another, at each resolutions. We received’t dive right into a play-by-play for all of those video games, however efficiency can differ tremendously relying on the sport and determination. Peep these Gears Tactics outcomes for an excessive instance.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Taking probably the most wild game-to-game fluctuations out of the image, normally, AMD’s GPUs are inclined to have a bonus at 1440p, whereas Nvidia’s nonetheless personal 4K—however that’s not a common reality.

Skittering bugs

Now for a light awkward observe: We encountered a number of bugs throughout our testing. None proved extreme or pervasive, except for Red Dead Redemption 2 consistently crashing at 1440p decision with FSR 2 enabled, however we don’t normally stumble upon oddities fairly so commonly throughout evaluations. That stated, they are usually extra widespread on the introduction of a brand new GPU structure (like RDNA 3) and normally get mopped up shortly, and we’ve already made AMD conscious of those points. The bugs we encountered are:

• Red Dead Redemption 2 benchmark persistently crashes with FSR 2 Balanced at 1440p decision. This impacts prior-gen Radeon GPUs as properly. AMD says a repair is being investigated, however to make use of the FSR Quality preset as a workaround within the meantime.
• Hitman 3 benchmark crashes sporadically on the identical 1440p, FSR 2 Balanced settings, however solely generally, and solely on the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
• In one Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 benchmark run out of 15 with the $899 7900 XT, one thing glitched and all of the buildings rendered in neon rainbow for some motive—fairly trippy and funky, however not perfect. Fortunately, it didn’t resurface once more in every other runs, or in a number of hours of enjoying COD multiplayer with the extra highly effective XTX.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

• Twice, video games refused to acknowledge the 7900 XT, reverting to a “Windows DirectX Render Device” as an alternative and drastically lowering efficiency. Running DDU and reinstalling the drivers fastened the problems each instances, however I’ve by no means seen that earlier than.

Bottom line? You would possibly run into rare bugs throughout the early days of the brand new Radeon RX 7900 sequence, particularly if you happen to’re utilizing FSR 2.1 Balanced to extend 1440p gaming efficiency. None had been true showstoppers, nonetheless. While bugs are all the time irritating, I don’t really feel these minor, sporadic ones diminish the 7900 XTX and XT’s total attraction, particularly with AMD already working to squash them.

Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT ray tracing benchmarks

We additionally have to dig into the Radeon RX 7900-series’ uncooked ray tracing efficiency. AMD considerably overhauled how RDNA 3 handles ray tracing, enhancing not solely the uncooked efficiency of its RT accelerators, but in addition including a pair of devoted AI accelerators per CU for the primary time. Those AI accelerators aren’t doing a lot now, however it’s a must to suppose they’ll be an enormous a part of the next-gen FSR 3.0 already teased to launch in 2023. Read our initial Radeon RX 7900 series coverage for a deeper dive into the architectural adjustments AMD made with RDNA 3.

AMD

Want a pre-benchmark TL;DR? AMD made large strides right here, with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX assembly the last-gen RTX 3090’s ray tracing efficiency ranges—a.okay.a. the perfect ever till a pair months in the past. Ray tracing is now not a weak spot for AMD, although it stays a transparent Nvidia energy. That is sensible, as Nvidia is a technology forward, having launched RT and AI {hardware} within the RTX 20-series years in the past. It’s price noting that AMD’s FSR upscaling expertise is seeing a fast uptick in adoption now that it’s established. At the RTX 4090’s launch, a lot of the ray-traced video games in our testing suite supported Nvidia’s DLSS, however not any iteration of FSR. Now, solely Watch Dogs Legion lacks it (which is why AMD’s playing cards present a 0 rating there). Huzzah to extra choices that cowl extra avid gamers!

The charts beneath present the uncooked efficiency of the examined GPUs within the chosen video games with ray tracing off, to get a baseline. Next, we present efficiency with all obtainable ray tracing results lively and set to Ultra. The necessary factor to notice right here is how these ray-traced body charges examine proportionally to the sport working with RT off, which reveals how environment friendly every GPU’s uncooked ray tracing capabilities are. (If a sport runs at 100fps with ray tracing off, and two completely different GPUs run the sport with ray tracing on at 50fps and 25fps, for instance, the previous GPU gives higher uncooked ray tracing chops.)

Finally, since these cutting-edge lighting results ship body charges plummeting, pairing ray tracing with some form of picture upscaling expertise (like Nvidia’s DLSS, AMD’s FSR 2, and Intel’s XeSS) is commonly a necessity. We’ve additionally included efficiency metrics with DLSS or FSR working in balanced mode to indicate the form of full-stack ray tracing efficiency you’ll see in the true world. Running FSR/DLSS in Performance or Ultra Performance mode would lead to even increased body charges, however with probably extra picture oddities. We just like the steadiness of velocity and constancy that DLSS Balanced supplies.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

We’ve additionally included a chart beneath exhibiting Red Dead Redemption 2 4K efficiency with FSR 2/DLSS Balanced on the varied GPUs. That sport lacks ray tracing, nevertheless it’s graphically intense, and these outcomes can present us the form of velocity boosts we will count on utilizing the upscaling applied sciences on newer playing cards versus older ones. (One caveat: As talked about within the Bugs part, RDR2 at present crashes on all AMD GPUs when attempting to run at 1440p with FSR Balanced mode enabled. Use Quality mode as an alternative for now at that decision.)

Brad Chacos/IDG

Across the board, RTX 40-series GPUs get about 30 extra frames per second with DLSS Balanced, on, whereas older RTX 30-series GPUs get 20fps—clearly exhibiting improved effectivity in Nvidia’s newest technology of devoted AI tensor cores, which energy DLSS. AMD’s FSR 2 runs on commonplace GPU shaders quite than requiring specialised {hardware} and boosts body charges by about 30fps on the 7900 duo and the older Radeon RX 6900 XT alike.

All of those upscaling applied sciences look nice in observe, although F1 22’s use of the a lot easier FSR 1.0 upscaling ends in a extra shimmering image at 1440p decision. It’ll be including FSR 2.0 quickly nonetheless. One factor Radeon GPUs received’t be getting? DLSS 3 Frame Generation, a surprising technical achievement that’s already an actual weapon in Nvidia’s arsenal regardless of being in its early days. AMD has no reply for it and it may be an enormous boon if you happen to’re attempting to gasoline a high-refresh charge 4K monitor.

Power and thermals

We check energy draw by looping the F1 22 benchmark at 4K for about 20 minutes after we’ve benchmarked all the things else (to heat up the GPU) and noting the best studying on our Watts Up Pro meter, which measures the facility consumption of our whole check system. The preliminary a part of the race, the place all competing automobiles are onscreen concurrently, tends to be probably the most demanding portion. 

This isn’t a worst-case check; it is a GPU-bound sport working at a GPU-bound decision to gauge efficiency when the graphics card is sweating laborious. If you’re enjoying a sport that additionally hammers the CPU, you might see increased total system energy attracts. Consider your self warned.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Well properly properly, isn’t this a shock. AMD has been touting the effectivity positive aspects in RDNA 3 and smack-talking Nvidia’s transfer to 12VHPWR energy connectors, however as you’ll be able to see right here, each 7900 XT fashions draw extra energy than the RTX 4080, although the XT is neck-and-neck. The 7900 XTX sucks down roughly as a lot juice because the power-hungry RTX 3090 and whereas it’s decently behind the the brand new RTX 4090, the entire system nonetheless attracts properly over 500W below load.

That’s not essentially dangerous—bear in mind, AMD’s 7900 GPUs are all the time sooner in sport efficiency than the RTX 4080, and fairly often rivals (generally even beating) the RTX 4090, so the elevated energy draw is sensible. The XT attracts roughly the identical energy because the 4080 (and fewer than the 6900 XT) whereas providing considerably increased efficiency, highlighting RDNA 3’s improved effectivity.

We check thermals by leaving GPU-Z open throughout the F1 22 energy draw check, noting the best most temperature on the finish.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Here’s the place AMD’s resolution to stay to a historically sized card impacts the Radeon RX 7900-series. Yes, they’ll match into most any PC, however though AMD’s reference GPUs are extremely dense and heavy in-hand, the a lot bigger Nvidia (and XFX) GPUs do a greater job at dissipating warmth. You can’t see it a lot within the uncooked numbers, as sub-70-degree maximums are nice regardless, however you’ll be able to undoubtedly hear AMD’s reference playing cards below load. (It’s a pleasing sufficient sound, although—not too shrill, or too loud.) Our Radeon RX 7900 XTX assessment unit additionally exhibited coil whine in a number of circumstances.

The Nvidia RTX 40-series GPUs and XFX’s customized 7900 XTX depend on far bulkier cooling designs that run each cool and very quiet—damned close to silent. AMD undoubtedly made a trade-off choosing a smaller development, however for the reason that 7900’s sound profile isn’t obnoxious, it feels worthwhile to make sure smaller RNDA 3 playing cards can be found. That stated, if you’d like really silent working, you’ll have to pony up for a bigger customized 7900.

Should you purchase the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT?

Most individuals ought to undoubtedly go for the $899 Radeon RX 7900 XT and $999 Radeon RX 7900 XTX over Nvidia’s $1,200 GeForce RTX 4080. Heck, many individuals could be pleased choosing up the XTX over Nvidia’s juggernaut RTX 3090 for $600 much less.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

AMD’s duo gives extra efficiency in conventional video games and way more reminiscence for lots of of {dollars} lower than the 4080. Plus, the XTX gives ray tracing efficiency on par with Nvidia’s best-in-class final technology GPU, the RTX 3090. FSR 2.0 can be shortly being embraced by video games that deploy the cutting-edge lighting results, supplying you with much more efficiency. You also can flip on AMD’s common Radeon Super Resolution upscaling characteristic in any sport that doesn’t help FSR for even increased efficiency, and it seems to be nice on the 4K resolutions the 7900 sequence targets. These playing cards as dear as hell however ship excellent worth versus the Team Green competitors.

These reference Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT playing cards additionally win when it comes to compatibility, because of their slim but engaging 2.5-slot design and twin 8-pin connectors. These match into just about any PC, not like the large 3- and 4-slot RTX choices, which additionally require the usage of finicky new 12VHPWR power cable adapters—although their small measurement additionally makes them extra audible below load than bigger GPUs.

Enough stated, proper? Not fairly.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

Ray tracing isn’t a weak spot for Radeon anymore, nevertheless it stays a energy for GeForce. AMD’s second-gen RT implementation within the 7900 sequence caught as much as the RTX 3090’s second-gen prowess, however the RTX 4080 and 4090 pushed the benefit even additional, to the purpose that you simply don’t even have to make use of DLSS to hit 60fps in most 4K/Ultra ray-traced video games (although it’s best to to push body charges even increased). That’s superb, and AMD can’t examine.

AMD can also’t compete towards Nvidia’s superior new DLSS 3 Frame Generation characteristic, which inserts AI-created frames between each different picture for unparalleled visible smoothness and the flexibility to shatter CPU bottlenecks. Team Red does plan to launch FSR 3 with AI-created “Fluid Motion Frames” someday in 2023, nonetheless.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

If you care about peak ray tracing efficiency and wish to get in on the AI body hype prepare sooner quite than later, you could wish to go for a 4080 as an alternative (although I’d strongly recommend towards it after Nvidia jacked its worth up by a staggering $500 over the 3080). Or even the GeForce RTX 4090, which boasts these options and ferocious total efficiency—it’s the last word no-compromises GPU of this technology. That’s very true for prosumers who can put its twin AV1 encoders and 24GB of ultra-fast GDDR6X VRAM to correct work. You’ll pay dearly for it although: $600 greater than the 7900 XTX.

That stated, whereas ray tracing is choosing up steam, it’s solely a must-use characteristic in a handful of video games, like Cyberpunk 2077, Metro Exodus, Minecraft RTX, and Control. Portal RTX additionally seems to be dope as heck (and requires DLSS 3 Frame Gen to run successfully). If it’s extra of a nice-to-have characteristic on your gameplay wants, AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT are a lot better values.

That that stated, we’re at present in a bizarre time for GPUs, with a glut of last-gen fashions flooding the market after the pandemic-fueled crypto bubble burst. Most individuals don’t want a $1,000 graphics card. If you aren’t trying to push body charges on a high-refresh 4K monitor, last-gen GPUs just like the 6900 XT and Nvidia’s RTX 3080 are nonetheless strong sensible choices for 4K/60 and high-refresh 1440p shows, they usually can normally be discovered for round $600 to $750 on-line. They’re nice if you happen to don’t want the most recent and biggest. You can save a couple of hundred extra bucks now that the GPU crunch has subsided, and even attempt to danger holding out for even deeper reductions.

Our information to the best graphics cards for gaming may help you make the perfect resolution for you.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

Bottom line? AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX ship staggering efficiency, ample reminiscence, straightforward compatibility, and software program options galore for much lower than Nvidia’s newest. They might not unseat the RTX 4090 because the towering uncooked efficiency champion, particularly if you happen to’re fascinated by ray tracing, however not like Nvidia’s price-jacked but performance-lacking RTX 4080, the Radeon RX 7900 sequence gives gorgeous worth over their predecessors for a similar worth as earlier than. If you’re already contemplating spending $899 for the XT, nonetheless, we’d advise saving up some further pennies and grabbing the $999 XTX as an alternative if you happen to can. It gives much more efficiency in some conditions, like Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing enabled.

After Nvidia’s next-gen reveal, my colleague Michael Crider stated that “Nvidia’s tone-deaf RTX 40-series pricing is a golden opportunity for AMD and Intel.” With the Radeon RX 7900 sequence, AMD is urgent the purpose. Here’s to a brand new period of GPU competitors after years of stagnation!