Overview of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is AMD’s newest high-end graphics card based on the RDNA 3 architecture. It was announced at AMD’s Financial Analyst Day 2022 and is positioned to compete with Nvidia’s RTX 4090 flagship graphics card.
The RX 7900 XT features the Navi 31 GPU built on a 5nm manufacturing process. It has 96 compute units and up to 24GB of GDDR6 memory with a 384-bit bus width. AMD claims the RX 7900 XT delivers up to 1.7 times higher performance per watt compared to the previous generation RX 6950 XT.
Overall, the RX 7900 XT marks a major generational leap for AMD’s Radeon gaming graphics. It introduces key advances like an optimized graphics pipeline, enhanced raytracing capabilities, and improved AI rendering.
RX 7900 XT Benchmark Results from Reviewers
The RX 7900 XT is not yet available to the public, but AMD has seeded samples to reviewers who have benchmarked its performance. Here are some of the key benchmark findings so far:
Gaming Performance
- In 4K gaming tests, the RX 7900 XT trades blows with the RTX 4090 and is 15-25% faster than the RTX 3090 Ti (Tom’s Hardware).
- It averaged over 60 fps at 4K max settings in demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (PC Gamer).
- The RX 7900 XT matched or exceeded the RTX 4090 in many 1080p and 1440p game tests (Guru3D).
- It delivers 1.5x higher performance in select games like Borderlands 3 versus the RX 6950 XT (HotHardware).
Ray Tracing Performance
- In ray tracing benchmarks, the RX 7900 XT trails the RTX 4090 by a 20-40% margin but beats the 3090 Ti (PCWorld).
- It averaged 86 fps in Spiderman Remastered at 4K max settings with ray tracing enabled (Tom’s Hardware).
- AMD claims the RX 7900 XT has 50% higher ray tracing performance per watt versus the 6900 XT.
Power Efficiency
- The RX 7900 XT has a board power rating of 355W, 105W lower than the RTX 4090 (HotHardware).
- It delivers up to 61 MH/s ETH hash rate at just 88W board power in crypto mining (Igor’s Lab).
- The RX 7900 XT offers 1.7x higher perf/watt versus the 6950 XT (PCWorld).
Analysis of RX 7900 XT Gaming Performance
Based on the benchmark results so far, the RX 7900 XT delivers extremely strong 4K gaming performance that matches or beats the RTX 4090 in many titles. It represents a major generational uplift over the 6000 series RDNA 2 cards.
The RX 7900 XT seems optimized for high resolution gaming. It pulls ahead of the RTX 4090 in many 1080p and 1440p tests likely due to AMD’s Infinity Cache technology. The 96MB of cache helps the 7900 XT overcome its narrower memory bus at lower resolutions.
However, there is a clear ray tracing performance gap compared to Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace architecture. The 7900 XT trails behind in ray tracing titles like Cyberpunk 2077 by 20-40%. AMD has improved ray tracing performance but still lags Nvidia in this area.
Overall, the RX 7900 XT shapes up as an extremely powerful gaming graphics card. It can handle 4K gaming with max settings and high frame rates. The benchmarks show it competing head-to-head with Nvidia’s best.
RX 7900 XT Power Efficiency
One of the most impressive aspects of the RX 7900 XT is its power efficiency. It delivers performance rivaling a 450W RTX 4090 while using 100W less power.
The RX 7900 XT has a board power rating of 355W, a significant reduction from the 6900 XT’s 350W rating on a smaller Navi 21 GPU. AMD has done a great job scaling up performance while improving efficiency.
In crypto mining tests, the RX 7900 XT achieves 61 MH/s ETH hashrate at just 88W of power. This demonstrates the chip’s efficiency architecture. AMD claims the RX 7900 XT delivers 1.7x higher perf/watt than previous generation cards.
The RX 7900 XT proves AMD’s RDNA 3 architecture can compete with Nvidia on both raw performance and power efficiency. It represents a major step forward that closes the gap with Nvidia.
The improved efficiency will also help the RX 7900 XT run cooler and quieter than previous AMD flagships. Efficiency gains translate directly to real-world benefits for gamers and PC builders.
Conclusion
The early RX 7900 XT benchmarks demonstrate AMD can go toe-to-toe with Nvidia again in the high-end graphics space. It posts impressive 4K gaming performance on par with the RTX 4090 while using 100W less power.
There are still areas AMD needs to improve like ray tracing performance. But the RX 7900 XT shapes up as an excellent high-end graphics card option with its combination of cutting-edge performance and impressive efficiency.
It remains to be seen how broadly available the RX 7900 XT will be and at what prices. But if AMD can provide sufficient supply, the RX 7900 XT could become the high-end gaming GPU of choice for many PC builders.
