AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Review & GPU Benchmarks: Gaming, Thermals, Power, & Noise
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Date: 2022-12-13
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Comments and reviews: 15
Riley
Gonna be a bit nostalgic here.
The state of GPU prices compelled me to check back on two of my favourite launches of the past: the HD4870 and the 7970. I really liked the Let's start with the price point most people buy at and just ace it approach of the 4870 small die launch. I ran the launch MSRP of 300 through the Bank of Canada Inflation Calculator and that puts it at just over 400 in 2022 dollars. The closest launch MSRP and die size equivalent earlier this year would be the 6650XT. I know an apples to apples comparison in performance is hard when featuresets change so much and one of those apples is 14 years old, but the 4870 sat much higher in charts back then than the 6650XT did last year.
The higher end, bigger die release of the HD7970 at 550MSRP in 2012 (Just under 700 in 2022 dollars) was also good value for the money. The 7950 at 450 was arguably even better. Both of them traded blows with the more expensive 590 and 580s. Even accepting that the 7900XTX is at a tier or two higher than the 7970 in its day, I think we'd be lucky to see that kind of value at the predicted prices I'm seeing for the 7800XT and 7700XT.
I know the fact that prices have drastically outpaced CPI (and incomes) is old news, but I thought it'd be helpful to make that value comparison. Offering better value than the 4080 and 4090 is a good start but that's far short of where we could be.
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Gonna be a bit nostalgic here.
The state of GPU prices compelled me to check back on two of my favourite launches of the past: the HD4870 and the 7970. I really liked the Let's start with the price point most people buy at and just ace it approach of the 4870 small die launch. I ran the launch MSRP of 300 through the Bank of Canada Inflation Calculator and that puts it at just over 400 in 2022 dollars. The closest launch MSRP and die size equivalent earlier this year would be the 6650XT. I know an apples to apples comparison in performance is hard when featuresets change so much and one of those apples is 14 years old, but the 4870 sat much higher in charts back then than the 6650XT did last year.
The higher end, bigger die release of the HD7970 at 550MSRP in 2012 (Just under 700 in 2022 dollars) was also good value for the money. The 7950 at 450 was arguably even better. Both of them traded blows with the more expensive 590 and 580s. Even accepting that the 7900XTX is at a tier or two higher than the 7970 in its day, I think we'd be lucky to see that kind of value at the predicted prices I'm seeing for the 7800XT and 7700XT.
I know the fact that prices have drastically outpaced CPI (and incomes) is old news, but I thought it'd be helpful to make that value comparison. Offering better value than the 4080 and 4090 is a good start but that's far short of where we could be.
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Paul
The only real reason to use 8k for gaming is upscaling from 4k to 8k with FSR or DLSS, none of these cards are really powerful enough unless you're targeting 30fps.
As for ray tracing, I was expecting the 7900XTX to be in the ballpark of the 3080 or 3090, looking at the results, it seem to do well against the 3090ti, which isn't great against the newer Nvidia cards but isn't bad and will do 4k gaming with ray tracing fine with a few tweaks but honestly, raster performance is still far more important and I do wonder how much better performance this card gets with more mature drivers as it's clear some work is needed in that area.
As for the price point, none of these cards from AMD or Nvidia are good value, it's just that AMD is better value than what Nvidia is offering but both are poor value that I feel the last gen of cards are a much better deal which are more than good enough to do 4k gaming.
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The only real reason to use 8k for gaming is upscaling from 4k to 8k with FSR or DLSS, none of these cards are really powerful enough unless you're targeting 30fps.
As for ray tracing, I was expecting the 7900XTX to be in the ballpark of the 3080 or 3090, looking at the results, it seem to do well against the 3090ti, which isn't great against the newer Nvidia cards but isn't bad and will do 4k gaming with ray tracing fine with a few tweaks but honestly, raster performance is still far more important and I do wonder how much better performance this card gets with more mature drivers as it's clear some work is needed in that area.
As for the price point, none of these cards from AMD or Nvidia are good value, it's just that AMD is better value than what Nvidia is offering but both are poor value that I feel the last gen of cards are a much better deal which are more than good enough to do 4k gaming.
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itech
I wonder how long it'll be until real-time raytracing is a refined, mature technology. First we need to catch up to pure rasterized performance, so that's probably 2-3 product generations out, maybe 5 years or so. Then we need to increase ray density by probably at least 4-16x to have a hope of eliminating disocclusion/accumulation noise - probably another 3-5 product generations, assuming continued exponential gains from a combination of both silicon and software/driver improvements. At some point we'd ideally switch over to pure raytracing instead of the current hybrid renderers with raytraced lighting, reflections, and effects overlaid on top of rasterized geometry, and this'll require even more performance gains to make practical. We're looking at 20-30 years. At least Steve's got job security?
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I wonder how long it'll be until real-time raytracing is a refined, mature technology. First we need to catch up to pure rasterized performance, so that's probably 2-3 product generations out, maybe 5 years or so. Then we need to increase ray density by probably at least 4-16x to have a hope of eliminating disocclusion/accumulation noise - probably another 3-5 product generations, assuming continued exponential gains from a combination of both silicon and software/driver improvements. At some point we'd ideally switch over to pure raytracing instead of the current hybrid renderers with raytraced lighting, reflections, and effects overlaid on top of rasterized geometry, and this'll require even more performance gains to make practical. We're looking at 20-30 years. At least Steve's got job security?
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Hybris51129
The feeling of vindication I am feeling in beyond measure. Watching all the reviewers grind their teeth to various degrees trying to cover for AMD's clear weaknesses is exactly the dose of reality that is needed in the PC enthusiast field. I think AMD is still at least a generation or two if they can leverage their chiplet design right from finally delivering a GPU that has the performance from launch that it doesn't need a string of asterisks after their name to paper over their shortfalls.
Until they are honestly able to compete with Nvidia upfront then Nvidia will continue to be the name in GPU's that the bulk of the market will gravitate to.
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The feeling of vindication I am feeling in beyond measure. Watching all the reviewers grind their teeth to various degrees trying to cover for AMD's clear weaknesses is exactly the dose of reality that is needed in the PC enthusiast field. I think AMD is still at least a generation or two if they can leverage their chiplet design right from finally delivering a GPU that has the performance from launch that it doesn't need a string of asterisks after their name to paper over their shortfalls.
Until they are honestly able to compete with Nvidia upfront then Nvidia will continue to be the name in GPU's that the bulk of the market will gravitate to.
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LeitoAE
7900xtx shows the performance I expected from it - fight with 4080, not 4090.
I am happy with this performance as this is the price point that i am about be interested in and as Steve mentioned - here is the biggest fight on the market about to happen. Waiting to see them appear in Poland. Also some time ago in Poland I have spotted some nice prices on used 5700, 6700 and 3070. Propably mined ones, but still price is quite good.
The real question is... Do I need a new GPU? Tons of games are waiting on gog, steam and epic games launcher. Bought or added for free and played just a bunch of minutes or couple of hours.
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7900xtx shows the performance I expected from it - fight with 4080, not 4090.
I am happy with this performance as this is the price point that i am about be interested in and as Steve mentioned - here is the biggest fight on the market about to happen. Waiting to see them appear in Poland. Also some time ago in Poland I have spotted some nice prices on used 5700, 6700 and 3070. Propably mined ones, but still price is quite good.
The real question is... Do I need a new GPU? Tons of games are waiting on gog, steam and epic games launcher. Bought or added for free and played just a bunch of minutes or couple of hours.
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AgneDei
600-800 for a single component for a gaming toy (pretty much) is not at all an affordable card unless you earn sh t load of money, or have absolutely no family to depending on you, so connecting to the real world, and moreover not assuming that USA is the center of the universe, I'd say that just as 10-15 years ago, a reasonable sweet spot affordable, good bang for the buck GPUs should sit in the 300-500 range (the upper bound being so high because of inflation etc), anything higher, being more than a whole console makes no real sense for majority of consumers worldwide.
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600-800 for a single component for a gaming toy (pretty much) is not at all an affordable card unless you earn sh t load of money, or have absolutely no family to depending on you, so connecting to the real world, and moreover not assuming that USA is the center of the universe, I'd say that just as 10-15 years ago, a reasonable sweet spot affordable, good bang for the buck GPUs should sit in the 300-500 range (the upper bound being so high because of inflation etc), anything higher, being more than a whole console makes no real sense for majority of consumers worldwide.
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gamersnexus
Haha, I did it, I was so anoyed with todays GPU shenanagans, When you have the money to build your dream PC but dont like the ethics (power usage, size, buying good DDR5 ect.) , I decided ill build an intel nuc with intel arc, and it payed off for how i use my computer, Sub 350w for the whole PC beating both flagship GPUs in power, and being smaller than the big boi variants of the 4090.
and today, Nvidia sets the prices, AMD set their prices relative to them, and im not taking part in this until something decent actually does release.
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Haha, I did it, I was so anoyed with todays GPU shenanagans, When you have the money to build your dream PC but dont like the ethics (power usage, size, buying good DDR5 ect.) , I decided ill build an intel nuc with intel arc, and it payed off for how i use my computer, Sub 350w for the whole PC beating both flagship GPUs in power, and being smaller than the big boi variants of the 4090.
and today, Nvidia sets the prices, AMD set their prices relative to them, and im not taking part in this until something decent actually does release.
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Guardian
I am now really intrigued for the partner models. The GPU is really good, but the reference model is definitely not great. But I don't expect much more performance from the partner models, but coil whine is definitely a deal breaker for me. I once had a gigabyte gtx 970 and it coil whine. Every time it went into 3d mode you could immediately hear the whine. It was infuriating. (and I have to admit I got all my money back, because of the 3.5GB memory drama and I went for a 290x instead)
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I am now really intrigued for the partner models. The GPU is really good, but the reference model is definitely not great. But I don't expect much more performance from the partner models, but coil whine is definitely a deal breaker for me. I once had a gigabyte gtx 970 and it coil whine. Every time it went into 3d mode you could immediately hear the whine. It was infuriating. (and I have to admit I got all my money back, because of the 3.5GB memory drama and I went for a 290x instead)
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lawshadow2011
All i hear is cheap cheap cheap not cheap 1200 for a 4080 and 1500/1600 for a 4090 not cheap.....LOL. Just come over to Europe to see what REAL NOT CHEAP is....lol 4080 at 1700 to 1900 euros yup! And 2100 to 2900 euros for a 4090 (thats almost the same price for TWO usa RTX 4090!!!!!!!). Americans your the lucky ones getting a 4080 or 4090 for 1200 or 1600 bucks! And even those prices are indeed criminal prices TO expensive but it can go even more bat sh t crazy in EU....
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All i hear is cheap cheap cheap not cheap 1200 for a 4080 and 1500/1600 for a 4090 not cheap.....LOL. Just come over to Europe to see what REAL NOT CHEAP is....lol 4080 at 1700 to 1900 euros yup! And 2100 to 2900 euros for a 4090 (thats almost the same price for TWO usa RTX 4090!!!!!!!). Americans your the lucky ones getting a 4080 or 4090 for 1200 or 1600 bucks! And even those prices are indeed criminal prices TO expensive but it can go even more bat sh t crazy in EU....
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Bikes
For those of us that game on a TV that maxes out at 120hz, the Ray Tracing performance is what matters most. Ray Tracing is the future of graphics technology. Anyone saying they don t care about RT is likely because their card doesn t have the power to run it above 60fps, and so they just aren t using it and thus can claim they don t care about it. If the 4080 came down in price then that would make the XTX overpriced due to its inferior Ray Tracing performance.
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For those of us that game on a TV that maxes out at 120hz, the Ray Tracing performance is what matters most. Ray Tracing is the future of graphics technology. Anyone saying they don t care about RT is likely because their card doesn t have the power to run it above 60fps, and so they just aren t using it and thus can claim they don t care about it. If the 4080 came down in price then that would make the XTX overpriced due to its inferior Ray Tracing performance.
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aaron
sub 900 aka Mid-range
Can we maybe not normalize crazy pricing? I have a hard time believing that the median video card purchase is anywhere close to 900. I'd guess Maybe 500 is the mid-range to high-end cutoff? Are there sales statistics that can help us get quadrants and actual ranges grounded by consumer behavior rather than the fantasy league pricing structures we're getting from OEMs? That would be a useful framework for understanding prices.
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sub 900 aka Mid-range
Can we maybe not normalize crazy pricing? I have a hard time believing that the median video card purchase is anywhere close to 900. I'd guess Maybe 500 is the mid-range to high-end cutoff? Are there sales statistics that can help us get quadrants and actual ranges grounded by consumer behavior rather than the fantasy league pricing structures we're getting from OEMs? That would be a useful framework for understanding prices.
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Rogoth01
appreciate the work you do, however, isn't it a bit disingenuous using an Intel CPU on the AMD GPU when it's been shown last gen (Ryzen 5000) that S.A.M is far superior to just resizable B.A.R due to architecture and other aspects that mesh with full AMD platform than mixing and matching, i would have preferred to see these results then followed up with a full AMD platform comparison because of that change, just to be completely thorough.
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appreciate the work you do, however, isn't it a bit disingenuous using an Intel CPU on the AMD GPU when it's been shown last gen (Ryzen 5000) that S.A.M is far superior to just resizable B.A.R due to architecture and other aspects that mesh with full AMD platform than mixing and matching, i would have preferred to see these results then followed up with a full AMD platform comparison because of that change, just to be completely thorough.
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Technological
Hey Steve, I'm locked in on wanting to get a 7900xtx, however I'm a bit worried about the coil whine. I have an NZXT H1 V2 case for my first build, is there any partner models that will fit in the case at the 999 MSRP? I also plan on undervolting and power limiting the GPU to gain power efficiency and decrease fan noise, would I have to worry about the coil whine then? I would heavily appreciate an answer, thanks for reading.
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Hey Steve, I'm locked in on wanting to get a 7900xtx, however I'm a bit worried about the coil whine. I have an NZXT H1 V2 case for my first build, is there any partner models that will fit in the case at the 999 MSRP? I also plan on undervolting and power limiting the GPU to gain power efficiency and decrease fan noise, would I have to worry about the coil whine then? I would heavily appreciate an answer, thanks for reading.
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Azenturi
So basically, my takeaway from this is that I should hate that I like ray tracing, because it's between the 7900 XTX and the 4080 for me (for now), and I care enough about ray tracing to still want that overpriced 4080. Especially since I plan on upgrading to a 4K monitor.
Also I very much like having the pressure map overlaid on a photo of the card rather than on its own. Makes it a _lot_ easier to visualize things.
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So basically, my takeaway from this is that I should hate that I like ray tracing, because it's between the 7900 XTX and the 4080 for me (for now), and I care enough about ray tracing to still want that overpriced 4080. Especially since I plan on upgrading to a 4K monitor.
Also I very much like having the pressure map overlaid on a photo of the card rather than on its own. Makes it a _lot_ easier to visualize things.
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Jackson
I an as usual impressed by the in depth power, thermal, and flatness testing by GN outside of just performance testing, but I was disappointed to see that only 12700K was used for performance testing. Yes it is difficult to retest all older gpus on a new CPU platform but using a newer processor could reveal scaling that is not present with older models. Anyways that's why it's a good thing there are multiple reviewers.
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I an as usual impressed by the in depth power, thermal, and flatness testing by GN outside of just performance testing, but I was disappointed to see that only 12700K was used for performance testing. Yes it is difficult to retest all older gpus on a new CPU platform but using a newer processor could reveal scaling that is not present with older models. Anyways that's why it's a good thing there are multiple reviewers.
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