After championing AMD and contemplating utilizing it in my subsequent construct, I nonetheless ended up shopping for one among Nvidia’s greatest graphics playing cards — though arguably, the GPU in query can be amongst Nvidia’s worst. Positive, it’s a strong card, however by way of worth, it’s most likely one of many worst choices I might have gone with.
I’m speaking in regards to the RTX 4080. There’s little question it will probably blitz via any sport you’ll be able to throw at it, as you’ll be able to learn in our RTX 4080 assessment, however it’s additionally $1,200 — a full $500 greater than last-gen’s RTX 3080.
Do I remorse it? No, under no circumstances. I nonetheless imagine that my poor-value Nvidia GPU is a greater deal than no matter AMD needed to provide on the time. But when I used to be making my choice now, AMD might have lastly made me suppose twice.
I actually needed it to be AMD
After I first heard about AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX, I used to be excited and all however prepared to leap ship after years of shopping for solely Nvidia. I didn’t all the time revert again to Crew Inexperienced out of some form of model loyalty, or at the least I’d prefer to suppose that it didn’t play a lot of a component. Nonetheless, having been dissatisfied by AMD up to now, I didn’t do a lot to problem the truth that Nvidia merely had the higher GPUs for a few years in a row. That sentiment stopped being true with the arrival of RDNA 2, and AMD was as soon as once more on my radar. The RX 7900 XTX solidified my want to go for the underdog and provides AMD one other likelihood.
And but, right here I’m, the (mildly) proud proprietor of an RTX 4080 — a GPU the place the numbers actually simply don’t add up. It’s costly, however not fairly highly effective sufficient to justify the inflated price ticket. Have I misplaced my thoughts? You would possibly make that argument, however for essentially the most half, I made an knowledgeable choice and acquired the RTX 4080 realizing the entire caveats.
Sure, I nonetheless suppose that it was the higher alternative than the RX 7900 XTX.
With that stated, I selected the RTX 4080 considerably begrudgingly, and that’s largely all the way down to Nvidia’s method to pricing its GPUs. Market domination has made Nvidia slightly too snug, or so it appears, as a result of not solely does it have a reasonably outrageous pricing technique, however it additionally stands by it and doesn’t appear wanting to make any adjustments.
Sadly, the RX 7900 XTX lacked a couple of of the explanations that make the RX 7800 XT an attention-grabbing decide, which is why I used to be in the end tempted again in Nvidia’s route.
Not fairly there but
The RX 7900 XTX is a good GPU, and it truly outpaces the RTX 4080 in some video games. Nevertheless, in our assessment of the cardboard, you’ll see that it turned out to be round 6% slower than the RTX 4080 at 4K with ray tracing enabled. In a means, that’s a terrific end result, given AMD’s less-than-stellar document the place ray tracing is concerned, however it’s not precisely a dealbreaker in both route. These two playing cards are pretty comparable.
Nvidia has the higher hand with Deep Studying Tremendous Sampling 3 (DLSS 3), although. This upscaling know-how that generates whole frames as a substitute of simply pixels is highly effective sufficient to let an RTX 4070 obtain greater frames per second than an RTX 4090.
It’s not obtainable in each sport, however it’s mighty spectacular, and whereas it’s not with out flaws, it’s nonetheless much better than AMD’s FidelityFX Tremendous Decision 2 (FSR 2).
By now, AMD additionally has FSR 3, which marks yet one more step in the best route. Nevertheless, in contrast to DLSS 3, FSR 3 is obtainable on any GPU. It’s good of AMD to make it way more accessible, however it additionally signifies that you don’t essentially want to purchase an AMD graphics card to reap the benefits of it. DLSS 3 is unique to Nvidia’s RTX 40-series, and among the GPUs in that lineup are little greater than vessels for Nvidia’s AI-driven body era — take the RTX 4060 Ti as a primary instance.
All that put collectively signifies that we’ve received two GPUs which are shut in efficiency, however solely one among them has entry to Nvidia’s tech stack. Ray tracing turns into good to have at this stage, and DLSS 3 is attractive if it’s not too costly to get.
That’s the issue — the worth hole between the RX 7900 XTX and the RTX 4080 simply wasn’t sufficiently big for me to justify giving up on DLSS 3 and improved ray tracing. The really helpful record worth for the RTX 4080 sits at $1,200, whereas the 7900 XTX is priced at $1,000. In follow, yow will discover many fashions of the RTX 4080 at round $1,100, whereas the RX 7900 XTX is about $950 to $1,020. Once you’re already spending over $2,000 on a pc, including an additional $100 to get a extra spectacular GPU seems like much less of an issue than it does in a budget-oriented PC construct.
If there’s one factor I remorse, it’s not saving up extra and doubling down on my budget-breaking journey to simply get the (surprisingly higher worth) RTX 4090. However, I, like most individuals, actually don’t want that form of a GPU.
Had the RX 7900 XTX been cheaper, it seemingly would have been extra fashionable. I do know I wouldn’t have hesitated if it was within the $800 to $850 vary. Nvidia’s RTX 4080 was too costly to start with, so if AMD saved issues affordable in flip, it could have made far more sense to snub Nvidia and go for AMD. Sadly, each producers went with excessive costs, and I went with the controversial RTX 4080 regardless of my earlier plans.
That brings us again to the brand new RX 7800 XT. It’s not the category of GPU I used to be for my subsequent PC construct, however it’s clear AMD didn’t take the pricing bait this time round.
AMD is lastly on target
The RX 7800 XT is the GPU I’ve been hoping to see for a very long time. At simply $500, it reveals a commanding lead over Nvidia’s RTX 4070, to not point out the RTX 4060 Ti. Operating at 1440p, which is the cardboard’s meant decision, it beats the 4070 by a median of 9%. It additionally outpaces its Nvidia counterpart by 6% at 4K. That will not sound large, however the RX 7800 XT is $100 cheaper. And at this worth, $100 makes an enormous distinction.
We’re additionally seeing higher leads to ray tracing at 1440p, and that’s encouraging. AMD’s climb up the ray tracing ladder has been relatively sluggish, however whereas the 7800 XT continues to be behind the RTX 4070 in that regard on common, there are video games the place it retains up. It maintains a median of 74 frames per second (fps) in Returnal with ray tracing enabled at 1440p, which is greater than playable. Nvidia’s minuscule lead isn’t an issue right here — it hits 76 fps on common, which makes no distinction throughout gameplay. Resident Evil 4 pits the 2 playing cards towards one another in an analogous means, with the 2 reaching the identical 93.3 fps common.
Cyberpunk 2077 is one sport the place AMD nonetheless lags behind in an enormous means, reaching 27 fps on common in comparison with Nvidia’s 38.8 fps. Regardless of that end result, I’m nonetheless impressed with AMD’s enchancment within the ray tracing division.
You’d anticipate a $1,000 GPU to have the ability to deal with 4K and ray tracing with ease, which is the place the RX 7900 XTX proved to be a disappointment. Nevertheless, when a GPU that’s half the worth manages to beat a competitor that’s priced greater, it’s a victory to be celebrated.
There’s additionally the continued VRAM dilemma. Whereas the RX 7900 XTX has a formidable 24GB of video reminiscence, which is the equal of Nvidia’s flagship RTX 4090, it makes much less of a distinction at this stage. The RTX 4080 has a lot much less (16GB), however it nonetheless has loads to deal with even essentially the most demanding video games. Nevertheless, at these decrease GPU tiers, each the 7800 XT and the 7700 XT shine when in comparison with their starved-for-VRAM counterparts. The RTX 4070 skirts by with 12GB, however you’re caught with solely 8GB with something decrease.
The RX 7800 XT is what the RX 7900 XTX ought to have been. It’s nice worth, a lot in order that it’s now onerous to advocate another graphics card at this worth level. It performs rather well for the worth, it’s not a letdown by way of ray tracing, and it’ll have the identical entry to FSR 3 as each different AMD GPU. At $500, it’s refreshing to see within the present GPU panorama that’s full of overpriced playing cards.
With that stated, I nonetheless don’t remorse my overpriced RTX 4080.
Why? As a result of AMD nonetheless doesn’t have an attractive counterpart at that efficiency tier. I needed a GPU able to dealing with 4K gaming, ray tracing at excessive body charges, and all these different bells and whistles. The RX 7900 XTX can’t give me that whereas concurrently being considerably cheaper than the graphics card I selected in the long run.
The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is unquestionably a step in the best route for AMD, and it’s precisely why I’m not upset about AMD probably skipping the high-end section in its next-gen graphics playing cards. If I needed a 1440p GPU, I wouldn’t have thought twice and I’d have gone for AMD this time round.
As it’s now, I’m sticking to my horrible worth RTX 4080 and hoping that AMD will sustain this pattern going ahead, as a result of the RX 7800 XT is absolutely the best way to go.
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