The time has by no means been higher to think about a brand new mid-range graphics card now that AMD made its newest GPU out there worldwide. Naturally, potential patrons are going to match the RX 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070, given their shut proximity in value, nevertheless it’s additionally vital to think about what they every provide when it comes to efficiency, options, and total worth in your cash.
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE is a curious graphics card, launching in February 2024 after being launched completely in China again in June 2023, nevertheless it’s now out there to the remainder of the world and affords phenomenal efficiency for a much more palatable price ticket than lots of the best graphics cards available on the market proper now. With the promise of the Big Navi 31 die and 16GB VRAM underneath the hood, it even proves itself to be one of many best 4K graphics cards for many who are on a tighter price range however need a few of that candy, candy 2160p gaming (with acceptable settings tweaks).
The RTX 4070 has had one thing of a resurgence just lately, having been successfully changed by the RTX 4070 Super again in January of this yr. The latter card provided 20% extra CUDA cores on the similar $599 value level, basically getting you considerably extra efficiency with out the necessity to splash out. But that launch additionally dropped Nvidia‘s prompt retail value of the Nvidia RTX 4070 by about 10%, making it a good stronger contender for the title of best 1440p graphics card.
But there’s extra to it than all that, and whereas we’re keen on each mid-range GPUs, we would not be TechSwitch if we did not dig deep into our check bench to place every of those fan-favorites to our in depth battery of efficiency assessments to seek out out which one comes out on high.
RX 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070: Price
When weighing up a mid-range graphics card, the pricing is all the time paramount. The model new RX 7900 GRE is available in clutch with a bonus straight out of the gate with its advisable retail value of simply $549 / £529.99 / AU$929. In distinction, the RTX 4070 launched at $599 / £589.99 / AU$999 for the Founders Edition mannequin, however has additionally dropped right down to $549 / £529.99 / AU$929 in February.
What’s notably aggressive concerning the RX 7900 GRE is the way it slots into the present RDNA 3 lineup, being simply $50 greater than the wonderful AMD RX 7800 XT from final yr. In comparability, the RTX 4070 is sort of the leap up from its sibling, the Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti, which begins at $399 within the US.
On value alone, then, this could seem like a tie between the RX 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070, however value is not the identical factor as worth, and within the case of the RX 7900 GRE, it is total performance-to-price ratio after our testing reveals that it provides you extra for that funding, giving it the decisive edge right here.
- Winner: AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE
RX 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070: Specs
AMD’s RX 7900 GRE instantly stands out as a mid-range GPU by providing 16GB GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit reminiscence bus. It’s constructed on the AMD Navi 31 die with a complete of 5,120 Stream Processors. By comparability, the RTX 4070 is constructed on the AD104 die with a complete of 5,888 CUDA cores and 12GB GDDR6X reminiscence on a 192-bit reminiscence bus.
There we see the speedy architectural variations between mid-range RDNA 3 and Ada respectively. The former opts for a bigger reminiscence bus with a better quantity of slower reminiscence, in comparison with the latter’s decrease reminiscence pool that’s significantly faster. Despite their variations, the 2 fashions are remarkably shut in whole bandwidth out there with the GRE boosting 576 GB/sec to the RTX 4070’s 504.2 GB/sec.
That slight lead in bandwidth comes on the value of elevated energy draw, nonetheless. That’s as a result of the 7900 GRE has a 260W TDP in comparison with the 4070’s 200W TDP, for a distinction of 30%. Ada’s structure is subsequently significantly extra environment friendly than its rival. With that mentioned, the pink nook wins favor by becoming its newest GPU out with the usual two 8-pin PCIe connectors without having for the likes of a 16-pin adapter, although.
The design languages of each are related at base stage. The 7900 GRE and 4070 are each dual-slot GPUs which suggests they need to be supreme for a smaller type issue mini-ITX construct simply as a lot as a wider tower.
It’s value noting that the GRE makes use of the identical chip because the AMD RX 7900 XT and AMD RX 7900 XTX, simply with considerably much less VRAM and a smaller reminiscence bus to make the most of, and the reminiscence interface matches that of the RX 7800 XT, even with barely slower reminiscence pace. It’s attention-grabbing to see how Team Red has successfully repurposed the Navi 31 silicon for a worth play, although.
In the top, then, AMD’s providing has extra VRAM, a bigger reminiscence bus, and a better bandwidth for much less cash, so for that purpose, we’re giving Team Red the sting right here.
- Winner: AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE
RX 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070: Performance
It all comes right down to efficiency as as to whether you must spend money on both an RX 7900 GRE or the RTX 4070, and right here we have completed an unhealthy quantity of benchmarking and testing on these two playing cards and picked up reams of knowledge to assist spotlight what you possibly can anticipate from every. Measuring their normal efficiency utilizing artificial benchmarks, some issues grow to be fairly clear proper out the gate.
The lead taken by the RX 7900 GRE extends into our industry-standard artificial benchmarks as properly.
Taking 3DMark Sky Diver and Fire Strike Extreme as prime examples, AMD’s GPU achieved scores of 169,170 and 27,595 when in comparison with Nvidia’s providing of 120,719 and 20,457, trailing behind by fairly a big margin.
This can be true with the ray tracing-focused Port Royal with the RX 7900 GRE scoring 11,768 in opposition to the RTX 4070’s 10,415. The RTX 4070 does handle to attain properly forward of the RX 7900 GRE relating to uncooked compute efficiency although, so knowledge scientists and ML researchers are going to wish to go for the Nvidia RTX card.
Where we deviate from the script considerably is with artistic workloads the place the Nvidia GPU pulls out some very stable wins.
This is most evident in Blender 4.0 with the Monster, Junkshop, and Classroom benchmarks with respective scores of two,657, 1,267, and 1,332. There’s no different approach to phrase this, the GRE simply can’t match the output with scores of 1,252, 623, and 618, respectively.
In Adobe Photoshop, AMD does handle a greater displaying, with the RX 7900 GRE beating the RTX 4070 within the PugetBench for Creators 1.0 Photoshop benchmark, 10,650 to 9,695, although the RTX 4070 beats the RX 7900 GRE in Adobe Premiere, getting a rating of 12,317 to the RX 7900 GRE’s 11,200 in PugetBench. The RX 7900 GRE additionally manages to encode 4K video into 1080p about 10 FPS quicker than the RTX 4070, although each nonetheless carry out exceptionally properly on this check.
But these are actually gaming graphics playing cards on the finish of the day, and placing the RX 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 throughout a number of gaming benchmarks actually did shock us.
These playing cards have greater than sufficient assets to recreation properly above 1080p, however for many who is likely to be utilizing older displays or would possibly wish to deliver issues right down to full HD to reap the benefits of quicker body charges can have quite a bit to love about each playing cards, however the RX 7900 GRE nonetheless comes out properly forward of the RTX 4070.
In Cyberpunk 2077 at max settings with out RT or upscaling enabled, the RX 7900 GRE manages to drag out a blazing quick 151 FPS in comparison with the RTX 4070’s 97 FPS, a distinction of about 55% within the RX 7900 GRE’s favor. The RX 7900 GRE is even capable of match the RTX 4070’s ray-tracing efficiency in Cyberpunk 2077 (each scoring 46 FPS with Psycho RT on Ultra high quality), although notably, the RX 7900 GRE’s minimal FPS is sort of twice that of the RTX 4070’s, so you may get a lot smoother gameplay total.
In whole, the RX 7900 GRE averages about 111 FPS at 1080p, in comparison with the RTX 4070’s 82 FPS, a distinction of about 35% within the RX 7900 GRE’s favor.
Starting with AMD’s newest providing, the RX 7900 GRE was capable of obtain 60 FPS common in Metro Exodus with Extreme settings, in addition to 102 FPS common in Cyberpunk 2077 at Ultra. Impressively, this streak continued in Returnal with 121 FPS common at Epic settings, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderland at 116 FPS on Badass.
The RTX 4070 is not any slouch both. The mid-range Ada additionally acquired a mean of 60 FPS in Metro Exodus on the Extreme preset however simply 65 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 when set to Ultra. Scores are related with Returnal and Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, with averages of 88 FPS and 97 FPS, falling simply wanting what the RX 7900 GRE was capable of output. This is probably going as a result of smaller reminiscence pool out there.
Neither card prospers in 4K, sadly, so in the event you’re contemplating both GPU you’ll wish to hold issues locked to QHD for probably the most half.
Looking at Metro: Exodus, you’re going to get round half the framerate with the GRE pulling in solely 35 FPS; playable, however removed from supreme. It’s an analogous story with Cyberpunk 2077 with the RX 7900 GRE scoring 43 FPS on common. Returnal fared higher with 68 FPS on common and Tiny Tina’s Wonderland protecting rock stable at 60 FPS. Playing at 2160p is feasible with the RX 7900 GRE, however your outcomes shall be much less constant until you tinker with the settings some.
The RTX 4070 falls properly wanting the RX 7900 GRE at 4K. You’re fairly the discount in Metro: Exodus and Cyberpunk 2077 with a mean of simply 29 FPS apiece, falling simply wanting playability. Returnal does a bit higher at 51 FPS however is properly behind the 4K@60+ provided by the RX 7900 GRE. Tiny Tina’s Wonderland additionally lags behind with 50 FPS – a full 10 FPS deficit – or about 18% slower.
In the top, its not likely all that shut, with the RX 7900 GRE outperforming the RTX 4070 throughout all however just a few benchmarks, and it solely will get soundly crushed in Blender 4.0 3D rendering, a check that Nvidia has a pure benefit because of it being tied so closely to Nvidia’s CUDA graphics language.
Other than that, although, the RX 7900 GRE scores practically 27% higher than the RTX 4070, which is unbelievable contemplating that they’re each the identical value. In Nvidia’s favor although, it is taking lots of energy for the RX 7900 GRE to drag this off, so if effectivity and sustainability are vital to you, the Nvidia RTX 4070 will get lots of efficiency with a lot decrease energy.
- Winner: AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE
Which one must you purchase?
Which GPU you should purchase will finally come right down to your wants.
If you primarily desire a mid-range graphics card for gaming at the beginning, then you definately’re going to be higher served by the AMD RX 7900 GRE. AMD’s card performs higher and extra constantly in 1080p, 1440p, and even 4K.
However, if gaming is extra of a secondary exercise and also you desire a graphics card for creativity and productiveness then there’s a case to be made for the RTX 4070 right here. If you are trying to get into 3D modeling on the (relative) low cost, Nvidia’s midrange card can get you a large number farther than AMD’s, however that is truthfully a really slim benefit, and most of the people are going to wish to get the RX 7900 GRE. Considering there is not any distinction in value between the 2, it is a straightforward name to make on this one.
- Winner: AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE