It’s an exciting day since the new AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has arrived! These new graphics cards, which are marketed as a vastly enhanced replacement for the outgoing RX 6900 series, are constructed using the RDNA 3 architecture. AMD’s premium 7900 GPU was created to provide the best gaming experience for less than $1,000. Is this a veiled jab at the cost of NVIDIA’s RTX 40 series? The performance will decide that.
Okay, if you’re in a hurry, we’ll cut it short. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card is a beast. In fact, it’s quite possibly one of the greatest graphics cards available for less than $1,000 right now. You’ll have a great time playing your favorite games at QHD (2K) or UHD (4K) resolutions with this GPU. There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s get started and explain what I discovered.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX: Availability
On December 12, 2022, AMD announce the Radeon RX 7900 XTX with the RX 7900 XT. The two graphics cards will cost $999 and $899, respectively. AIB partners such as ASUS, MSI, XFX, and ZOTAC will charge a premium for their aftermarket versions, which will outperform the standard cards we have in for review.
AMD is clearly seeking to give greater value by lowering NVIDIA’s launch costs, with the RTX 4080 (against which the Radeon RX 7900 series is compared) priced at $1,199.
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is available for $999.
Design & Features
- 2.5-slot architecture with tri-fan cooling for maximum thermal capacity.
- A new thermistor on the reference card measures the ambient temperature within the casing.
- One HDMI 2.1a port, two Display 2.1 ports, and one USB-C port (with DP 2.1).
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is a benchmark card. It’s a welcome difference from the usual glitter and lights found on AIB graphics cards. This is an extremely attractive GPU. There isn’t much of a difference in cooling between the current 7900 series and the outgoing 6900 series, which is mostly due to AMD extracting more performance per watt with its architecture update. Thermal design power (TDP) and power draw are nearly the same.
We’re looking at three 92mm fans for the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The PCB runs the entire length of the card, allowing AMD to utilize more PCB surface area, but we don’t get the ventilation pass-through present on NVIDIA’s more recent RTX reference cards. It has a big shroud, which is good for durability and looks but also means it has a large GPU.
It is, however, a 2.5-slot GPU, and AMD is not requiring anyone to utilize the 12-pin power adaptor that has been reported as a fire danger on certain NVIDIA GPUs. It’s a fortunate omission for AMD because these GPUs don’t need the connection because two 8-pin connectors and the PCIe slot are more than plenty. We’ll have to wait and see how AMD manages a card that requires more than 400W of power.
A PCI bracket with no vents can be found on the back of the GPU. This is most likely owing to the heatsink fins’ layout and orientation. They are vertical rather than horizontal and should be driven out of the two sides by the three blowers. Back to the plate, you’ll find a single HDMI 2.1a port, two Display 2.1 ports, and a USB-C port (with DP 2.1) for displays that support video signals through USB.
RDNA 3 Architecture
- Switch to chiplets, which were originally used in gaming GPUs.
- Introduction of AMD Infinity Cache 2nd Generation.
- Smart Access Memory provides up to 3,494GB/s of bandwidth.
All of the significant improvements to the new RX 7900 series can be attributable to the transition from RDNA 2 to RDNA 3. AMD’s latest generation of GPU architecture is quite outstanding, both on paper and in practice. Let’s begin with the new chiplet design, which was ported over from AMD’s Ryzen and EPYC processors. AMD was able to develop two specialized dies with a 5.3TB/s (terabytes per second) interface using this technique.
It was a significant step forward for AMD in its effort to maximize performance per watt. This also had the effect of lowering costs by allowing the newer 5nm process technology to be dedicated to the Graphics Compute Die (GCD), where all the magic happened, while the smaller Memory Cache Die (MCD) employed the more mature and less expensive 6nm process.
Making RDNA 3 more efficient led to the introduction of the AMD Infinity Cache 2nd Generation. The first version, which uses Smart Access Memory to increase system performance with AMD CPUs and motherboard chipsets, pleasantly impressed us. With RDNA 3, AMD claimed 3,494GB/s of bandwidth using the latest Radeon RX 7900 XTX. To put this in context, the previous-generation RX 6950 XT only managed 1,794GB/s.
Ray accelerators, which are generally utilized for high-performance raytracing acceleration, were also improved over RDNA 2. The new Dual Media Engine provides hardware-accelerated AV1 codecs up to 8K at 60FPS, as well as some noteworthy streaming improvements. Finally, AMD unveiled the Radiance Display Engine, which virtually doubles the display bandwidth over RDNA 2 with DisplayPort 2.1. This will enable 1440p, 4K, and 8K monitors to have refresh rates of up to 900Hz, 480Hz, and 165Hz, respectively.
Gaming Performance
It’s all well and well to review a GPU and talk about architecture improvements, as well as a cool-looking updated reference card design, but none of this matters if the GPU can’t perform effectively in games. Consider our test bench system, which was utilized to put the new AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX to the test:
- AMD Ryzen 9 7950X CPU.
- ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming WiFi motherboard.
- 32GB of Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5-7200 RAM.
- Sabrent PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD.
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The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX was tested with UHD (2160p) and QHD (1440p) panels, and all games were loaded and unloaded from the Sabrent PCIe 4.0 SSD. The performance of an Intel and AMD PC will differ due to the GPU’s access to AMD’s Smart Access Memory, but this will have a small influence on most users unless you’re looking for the very greatest performance. On an Intel PC, performance is still excellent.
We also employ a kilowatt measurement device to determine how much electricity our test bench draws from the wall, as well as virtual sensor representation via monitor software. Synchronization technologies like as V-Sync, AMD FreeSync, and NVIDIA G-Sync are disabled. Despite the fact that test runs are performed with them enabled for comparison and comments.
Let’s take a look at how the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and the Radeon RX 7900 XT compare against one another:
| AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT | |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | RDNA 3 | RDNA 3 |
| Process | 5nm, 6nm | 5nm, 6nm |
| Transistors | 57.7 billion | 57.7 billion |
| Compute Units | 96 | 84 |
| Ray Accelerators | 96 | 84 |
| AI Accelerators | 192 | 168 |
| Stream Processors | 6,144 | 5,376 |
| Base Clock Speed | 2,300 MHz | 2,000 MHz |
| Boost Clock Speed | 2,500 MHz | 2,400 MHz |
| Memory Capacity | 24 GB GDDR6 | 20 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bus | 384-bit | 320-bit |
| AMD Infinity Cache | 96 MB | 80 MB |
| Memory Bandwidth (w/ Infinity Cache) | 3,500 GB/s | 2,900 GB/s |
| Power Draw | 355W | 315W |
| Price | $999 | $899 |
Let’s have a look at some real numbers utilizing 3DMark’s range of tools. If AMD’s marketing is to be believed, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX will perform on par with, if not better than, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080.
| Benchmark | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX |
|---|---|
| Fire Strike Ultra | 19,984 |
| Time Spy (DX12) | 29,119 |
| Time Spy Extreme (DX12) | 14,471 |
These are some very impressive AMD outcomes. RDNA 3 and its innovative chiplet design have definitely enabled AMD to extract even more performance without significantly raising power consumption. The RTX 4080 can only manage 17,000 (or so) in the 4K Fire Strike Ultra test, giving AMD a significant advantage. The RTX 4090 scored 24,000, thus the RX 7900 XTX is a stopgap between NVIDIA’s two top-tier GPUs.
But what about games? We’ve compiled a set of test results below to show how the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX performs at 1440p and 2160p resolutions, with and without ray tracing enabled. They’re all positive results, just behind the RTX 4080 marginally, but things take a turn for the worst when ray tracing is enabled. RDNA 3 is equipped with second-generation RT accelerators, however, it falls short of NVIDIA’s RTX 40 series.
| Game | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX |
|---|---|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 2K, Ultra: 123 FPS2K, Ultra, RT Ultra: 37 FPS4K, Ultra: 64 FPS4K, Ultra, RT Ultra: 21 FPS |
| DOOM Eternal | 2K, Ultra Nightmare: 301 FPS4K, Ultra Nightmare: 201 FPS4L, Ultra, RT: 119 FPS |
| Fay Cry 6 | 2K, Ultra: 165 FPS4K, Ultra: 119 FPS4K, Ultra, RT: 88 FPS |
| Metro Exodus | 2K, Extreme: 149 FPS2K, Extreme, RT Ultra: 111 FPS4K, Extreme: 89 FPS4K, Extreme, RT Ultra: 57 FPS |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 2K, Ultra: 155 FPS4K, Ultra: 98 FPS |
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Using AMD’s own software, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX sample we obtained to test can comfortably pull 346W on average. We may get a comparable amount by subtracting the CPU and other components using a kilowatt measurement meter at the wall. When its cores are active, the RX 7900 XTX will definitely sit at 350W.
With an average junction temperature of 81C and an overall temperature of 65C, the cooling solution is basically overkilled for the GPU. The three fans accelerate to 1,700 RPM, producing noticeable noise of around 44dBA. However, this was on an open-air test bench, and you can expect better results inside a PC case where improved ventilation and surrounding materials can assist in lower temperatures and reduce fan noise.
Using AMD’s software solution for CPUs and GPUs is now a joy, which wasn’t always the case. NVIDIA was known for its superior software support, but AMD has worked hard to improve its own offering, and the current edition makes it simple to control, monitor, and optimize both the AMD Ryzen 9 7590X and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Except for Smart Access Memory, almost everything is disabled in the default settings.
It’s simple to use the software’s settings, or (if you know what all the sliders and buttons do) you may fine-tune the card and CPU to get the most out of the system. The measured temps indicate that we have some leeway to push the GPU harder, but even at stock (and this isn’t an AIB card), the results for 2K and 4K are promising.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX: Is it better
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is a great graphics card, and RDNA 3 has enabled the company to step up its efforts to produce a performance that rivals NVIDIA’s best. With current GPU pricing continuing to increase the cost of a new PC build, which is frequently out of reach for consumers, it’s encouraging to see AMD offer greater value here. It’s not quite back to pre-pandemic costs, but it’s better than the RTX 4080 launch price of $1,999.
