AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT Assessment

Launching at $899, AMD’s new RDNA 3-based Radeon RX 7900 XT is nothing like a price range graphics card. PC avid gamers will seemingly have to attend nicely into 2023 for something constructed on AMD’s new structure that we would think about really “budget-friendly,” however that is now probably the most inexpensive ultra-high-end GPU of AMD’s and Nvidia’s new generations. It is also your solely possibility, up to now, between AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 line and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 40 sequence, that is below $1,000—the choice is shopping for a last-generation card. It is a corker, however the efficiency drop that comes with this value reduce makes it a notably much less engaging possibility than AMD’s Editors’ Selection award-winning Radeon RX 7900 XTX that debuted alongside it. Nevertheless, the smaller RX 7900 XT nonetheless could be price choosing up in case you catch it on sale…or in case you merely cannot lay your arms on an RX 7900 XTX, which bought out inside minutes of launch earlier this week.

The Design: Meet the Step-Down RX 7900

AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XT doesn’t fall removed from the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX in any important method. Put one other method, they’re about 10% off one another in value, with the Radeon RX 7900 XT costing $899 and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX coming in at $999. We see an analogous development by way of {hardware} assets, because the Radeon RX 7900 XT makes use of the identical graphics processor because the 7900 XTX—simply with just a few items lacking.

(Credit score: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)

A number of {hardware} parts have been disabled on the RX 7900 XT, seemingly as a result of chips with slight flaws binned to be 7900 XT GPUs, however this solely creates a comparatively small distinction between AMD’s two new graphics playing cards. In our assessment of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, we lined AMD’s new RDNA 3 microarchitecture and its chip, so we received’t go over these particulars in depth right here. As an alternative, we are going to give attention to the fundamentals of what’s within the Radeon RX 7900 XT.

(Credit score: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)

A cornerstone of AMD’s new RDNA 3 GPUs is that they’re constructed utilizing chiplets as a substitute of enormous monolithic chips. This features a single massive chip known as a Graphics Compute Die (or GCD) and several other smaller chips which might be known as Reminiscence Cache Dies (MCDs). The GCD holds many of the core operate items, like shaders, TMUs, and ROPs. The MCDs maintain reminiscence controllers, and the GPUs have Infinity Cache.

(Credit score: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)

On the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, the GCD incorporates 6,144 streaming processors, 384 TMUs, 192 ROPs, and 96 Ray Tracing cores, and the shaders are clocked at 2,300MHz with a lift clock of two,500MHz. The Radeon RX 7900 XT incorporates the identical GCD, however with some shaders disabled, leaving 5,376 streaming processors, 336 TMUs, 168 ROPs, and 84 Ray Tracing cores energetic. The clock velocity was additionally lowered barely, to 2,000MHz with a lift clock of two,400MHz.

(Credit score: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and the Radeon RX 7900 XT each have six MCDs, however certainly one of these items is disabled on the Radeon 7900 XT. The Radeon 7900 XTX, with 96MB of Infinity Cache and a 384-bit reminiscence interface, has 20GB of GDDR6X RAM that permits 960GBps of bandwidth for that card; the Radeon RX 7900 XT loses a few sixth of this throughout the board, giving it 80MB of Infinity Cache, a 320-bit reminiscence interface, and 800GBps of bandwidth whereas additionally utilizing 20Gbps GDDR6X vRAM.

(Credit score: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)

AMD reworked numerous facets of the Radeon RX 7900 XT to suit these reductions. Along with having fewer cores and fewer bandwidth, the Radeon RX 7900 XT has a decrease 315-watt TDP and a smaller general bodily measurement, because it measures 4.4 by 10.9 by 2.1 inches (HWD). Three followers are match over the cardboard to offer cooling on this AMD reference design.

(Credit score: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)

The ports on the cardboard are an identical to the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, with each playing cards that includes two eight-pin PCI Specific energy connectors, two DisplayPort outputs, one HDMI port, and a USB Sort-C port.

Testing the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT: Setup and Competitors

We examined the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT on our 2022 GPU check mattress, which consists of an Intel Core i9-12900K processor working at inventory clocks on an Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard. The processor has entry to 32GB of Corsair Vengeance RAM working at 5,600MHz, and the processor is saved cool by a Corsair Hydro Collection H100X water cooler.

The system additionally incorporates a 1TB Corsair MP600 Professional NVMe 4.0 SSD as its main storage machine with Home windows 11 Professional put in. Energy is equipped through a Corsair HX1500i 1,500W 80 Plus Platinum energy provide.

With each AMD and Nvidia solely having two graphics playing cards every of their new product generations, competitors in the meanwhile is a bit scarce. Each of Nvidia’s new RTX 40-series graphics playing cards are considerably dearer, with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 costing $1,199 and $1,599, respectively.

Because of the massive value distinction, the primary competitor of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is presently AMD’s personal Radeon RX 7900 XTX. With only a $100 distinction between them, if you’re contemplating both, it’s nicely price pondering of each. There are additionally last-gen playing cards, however as you’ll see in a second, even the most effective of these don’t supply a lot competitors in opposition to the Radeon RX 7900 XT, particularly when the worth is considered. We could not advocate upgrading if you have already got one of many high-end, last-gen playing cards within the chart, however we’d additionally hesitate earlier than shopping for a kind of at this level.

Artificial Benchmarks

Artificial check outcomes present the Radeon RX 7900 XT and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX comparatively shut along with between an 18% and 26% distinction within the worst and finest instances, respectively.

These checks don’t imply a lot, as they’re extra of a sign of the best-case situation for every card below slim utilization instances, and aren’t actually indicative of real-world efficiency. Actual check outcomes are a bit much less constant, however on this case, they match up with the artificial outcomes most of the time.

Ray-Tracing, DLSS, and FSR Testing

With or with out FSR on, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX manages to carry between an 11% and 17% efficiency hole over the Radeon RX 7900 XT in F1 22 and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

Nvidia’s RTX 40-series notably have superior efficiency in video games that implement Ray-Tracing, their efficiency when FSR and DLSS—AMD and Nvidia’s upscaling applied sciences, respectively—are used appears to favor AMD’s FSR, at the least in F1 22. The GeForce RTX 4080 nonetheless beats the Radeon RX 7900 XT on this check indubitably, however the 5% lead at 2K and the 6% lead at 4K are particularly small when you think about the $300 value distinction between these two playing cards.

Trendy Recreation Exams

Right here is the place issues get a little bit extra adverse for the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT. The efficiency outcomes from these checks closely favor the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, with a ten% to 24% efficiency benefit. A efficiency hole of round 10% isn’t so dangerous, as that matches the relative drop in value between these two playing cards. Nevertheless, a whopping 24% benefit signifies that you’d get much better worth from a Radeon RX 7900 XTX for simply $100 extra.

There are just a few checks that present the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT and the RX 7900 XTX shut collectively, however we now have purpose to imagine that the CPU is making a bottleneck in these checks. The very best we are able to say for the Radeon RX 7900 XT right here is that its efficiency, as soon as once more, attracts surprisingly near the GeForce RTX 4080 in just a few choose checks. The distinction in Far Cry 5 at 4K is barely 5% within the RTX 4080’s favor, and it’s simply 14% behind in Pink Useless Redemption 2.

Legacy Recreation Exams

Efficiency in legacy video games is incessantly in all places, with the most effective we are able to say is that each one of those checks succeeded in working. That is one thing we aren’t at all times in a position to say.

The legacy video games we check do use usually run higher on Nvidia’s RTX 40-series playing cards, however that win is undercut by these video games working even higher on the older RTX 30-series playing cards than the RTX 40-series. General, the video games run nicely sufficient on most playing cards, together with the Radeon RX 7900 XT. Should you plan to play older video games, nonetheless, we propose choosing up an older graphics card or PC for that goal.

Radeon RX 7900 XT: Energy and Thermals

We check the facility draw of the whole system utilizing a Kill-A-Watt monitor to gauge energy consumption between playing cards. Energy consumption on the Radeon RX 7900 XT is available in about on par with most of the card’s different check scores—which is to say roughly 10% decrease than the 7900 XTX.

The temps we measured throughout testing are barely larger, however nonetheless fairly low in comparison with many last-gen playing cards. We additionally observed throughout testing that the 7900 XT would not get as loud because the 7900 XTX, and it was usually considerably quieter. This factors to the GPU’s followers not working fairly as laborious, and the marginally larger temps and quieter operation are seemingly as a result of a distinction in cooling settings proper out of the field.

The Verdict: A Screamer That Ought to Be Cheaper

It’s laborious to disclaim that the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT performs nicely within the video games that we examined. This card runs all the things easily, cleanly outperforming the last-gen AMD playing cards, and sometimes pressuring the a lot pricier Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080. On the identical time, nonetheless, it falls a bit additional behind the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX than we want to see for the slim $100 distinction in value.

(Credit score: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)

Should you’re prepared and prepared to pay $899 for a high-end graphics card, are you actually going to cease there and never pay the additional $100 for a card that performs anyplace from 10% to 24% higher in video games, and most of the time touchdown nearer to being 20% sooner?

Not everyone seems to be prepared or in a position to pay this a lot for a graphics card to start with, however we now have hassle believing that those that can and can received’t simply get the higher card…particularly once you get general higher worth and efficiency for a comparatively small value improve. In brief, we advocate the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, if each playing cards can be found at their instructed costs.

(Credit score: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)

Given the check knowledge, $849 (and even $799) seems like a extra cheap value for the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, because the distinction in financial savings would extra precisely match the distinction in efficiency. If and when the cardboard goes on sale, think about shopping for it then…or if the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is solely unavailable and also you don’t need to wait any longer.