AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU Review & Benchmarks vs. RX 6800 XT, RTX 4070, & More
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Date: 2023-09-06
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Comments and reviews: 19
Julian
I see a lot of vaguely-negative thumbnails and hot-takes on the 7800 XT, but personally I'm super excited about it. Remember: despite it being almost a year after the 7900 launch, we're still on round one of chiplet-based GPUs. So when I see people saying stuff like, AMD just re-released the 6800 XT: it's called the 7800 XT now! I kind of roll my eyes. Yes: the performance increase from last-gen isn't much, but AMD managed to deliver:
- A completely new kind of GPU architecture
- Power efficiency gains
- Modern QOL features (encoding)
- A seriously compelling price
And last but not least, a modestly-sized card! Look at those svelte little things!
I'm personally super excited about the 7800 XT. The but the 6800 XT is the same performance for the same price situation won't last: the old card inventory will dry up eventually (probably soon, we can guess-- since why would AMD launch the new one before that process was mostly complete?). It's the only card we've seen this generation that offers a compelling value proposition for a mainstream high-end (1440p high settings) GPU: the only card that even came close previously was the vanilla 4070 and that has still been overpriced since it lacked any meaningful competition.
The 7800 XT is an absolute breath of fresh air IMO. I'm just kind of sad that I won't get to buy one: I had made the decision to wait for this card to release before upgrading from my old GTX 1080, but unfortunately that card died in June and I needed a replacement immediately, so I went with a 4070 because it was the best available option at the time. But if that 1080 hadn't died, I would be 100% ordering a 7800 XT right now.
I understand (kind of) why 6800-series owners are a little underwhelmed by this card (there's certainly no reason to bin a 6800 for a 7800 if you already have one), but at the same time you gotta recognize that there are a lot of people out there who play PC games who don't buy a new graphics card every generation, and the 7800 XT is literally THE CARD that we've all been waiting for-- some of us for many years. There's finally a GPU that delivers great 1440p performance at a price we can feel good about, with modern a modern feature-set and power efficiency to match. I'm actually thrilled with this launch: the 7800 XT is basically a 6800 / 6800 XT with all the tradeoffs (old hardware, sometimes hard to find, poor power efficiency, no features like hardware video encoding) scratched out and delivered at basically the same price. Maybe it will even force price drops on Nvidia hardware as well, for the people who thirst for RT performance. It's nothing but good news for us consumers, IMO.
Edit: from my perspective as a 1440p-enjoyer, the cards I would buy now at various market positions would be: 6700 XT ( budget ), 7800 XT ( flagship ), 7900 XT ( money no object ). There is now no Nvidia card that I would really consider: the vanilla 4070 was the only card in Nvidia's lineup that made any sense at all, and the 7800 XT has just rendered it entirely superfluous. 4070 Ti is an 800 card with no VRAM. 4080 is a great card but needs 300-400 cut off the price tag to make any sense.
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I see a lot of vaguely-negative thumbnails and hot-takes on the 7800 XT, but personally I'm super excited about it. Remember: despite it being almost a year after the 7900 launch, we're still on round one of chiplet-based GPUs. So when I see people saying stuff like, AMD just re-released the 6800 XT: it's called the 7800 XT now! I kind of roll my eyes. Yes: the performance increase from last-gen isn't much, but AMD managed to deliver:
- A completely new kind of GPU architecture
- Power efficiency gains
- Modern QOL features (encoding)
- A seriously compelling price
And last but not least, a modestly-sized card! Look at those svelte little things!
I'm personally super excited about the 7800 XT. The but the 6800 XT is the same performance for the same price situation won't last: the old card inventory will dry up eventually (probably soon, we can guess-- since why would AMD launch the new one before that process was mostly complete?). It's the only card we've seen this generation that offers a compelling value proposition for a mainstream high-end (1440p high settings) GPU: the only card that even came close previously was the vanilla 4070 and that has still been overpriced since it lacked any meaningful competition.
The 7800 XT is an absolute breath of fresh air IMO. I'm just kind of sad that I won't get to buy one: I had made the decision to wait for this card to release before upgrading from my old GTX 1080, but unfortunately that card died in June and I needed a replacement immediately, so I went with a 4070 because it was the best available option at the time. But if that 1080 hadn't died, I would be 100% ordering a 7800 XT right now.
I understand (kind of) why 6800-series owners are a little underwhelmed by this card (there's certainly no reason to bin a 6800 for a 7800 if you already have one), but at the same time you gotta recognize that there are a lot of people out there who play PC games who don't buy a new graphics card every generation, and the 7800 XT is literally THE CARD that we've all been waiting for-- some of us for many years. There's finally a GPU that delivers great 1440p performance at a price we can feel good about, with modern a modern feature-set and power efficiency to match. I'm actually thrilled with this launch: the 7800 XT is basically a 6800 / 6800 XT with all the tradeoffs (old hardware, sometimes hard to find, poor power efficiency, no features like hardware video encoding) scratched out and delivered at basically the same price. Maybe it will even force price drops on Nvidia hardware as well, for the people who thirst for RT performance. It's nothing but good news for us consumers, IMO.
Edit: from my perspective as a 1440p-enjoyer, the cards I would buy now at various market positions would be: 6700 XT ( budget ), 7800 XT ( flagship ), 7900 XT ( money no object ). There is now no Nvidia card that I would really consider: the vanilla 4070 was the only card in Nvidia's lineup that made any sense at all, and the 7800 XT has just rendered it entirely superfluous. 4070 Ti is an 800 card with no VRAM. 4080 is a great card but needs 300-400 cut off the price tag to make any sense.
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Roman
Exactly as I expected, guess it was the right decision buying an open box 2 weeks used 6800xt more than a year ago for 500 , had this performance all this time, playing mostly 4k 60, downloading Starfield now, got a nice deal, Logitech g502x lightspeed (NO RGB. The RGB 1 was almost the same price but NO TY) with Starfield as gift on Steam for 150 , looks like I will need to use FSR for 4k 60.
Don't buy AMDs lies, plenty of good used cards, only in the past year and a bit I bought 6 used cards all work great, just need to be careful and either check the GPU before buying if it's local or use a site that has buyer protection or Paypal so won't have any problems, 1 time I didn't check well enough buying a Mobo and had 2 a bit bent pins that where visible only from a certain angle and it was hot where we met so rushed a bit but was able to strateng them no problem and the mobo worked fine.
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Exactly as I expected, guess it was the right decision buying an open box 2 weeks used 6800xt more than a year ago for 500 , had this performance all this time, playing mostly 4k 60, downloading Starfield now, got a nice deal, Logitech g502x lightspeed (NO RGB. The RGB 1 was almost the same price but NO TY) with Starfield as gift on Steam for 150 , looks like I will need to use FSR for 4k 60.
Don't buy AMDs lies, plenty of good used cards, only in the past year and a bit I bought 6 used cards all work great, just need to be careful and either check the GPU before buying if it's local or use a site that has buyer protection or Paypal so won't have any problems, 1 time I didn't check well enough buying a Mobo and had 2 a bit bent pins that where visible only from a certain angle and it was hot where we met so rushed a bit but was able to strateng them no problem and the mobo worked fine.
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Micka l's
But you see, I disagree with the intro already. Sure, let's compare it to the RX 6800 XT because they messed up in marketing and that's not your / our problem. But if the idea is that we can find it at the same price used and considered that if people are ok with dealing with used cards , that's a fair comparison.... No. Just no. Power consumption
new tech and new features are more important than used or new.
I would never consider the RX 6800 XT due to the power consumption. And size. So for me, that's not even a question. Maybe I'm alone there. But I still feel there is more to the comparison than there exists used card at that price, so tough luck . I know others who would go for a RX 6950 XT or RTX 3090 (TI) either, even if in good condition used, so I think that's fair.
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But you see, I disagree with the intro already. Sure, let's compare it to the RX 6800 XT because they messed up in marketing and that's not your / our problem. But if the idea is that we can find it at the same price used and considered that if people are ok with dealing with used cards , that's a fair comparison.... No. Just no. Power consumption
new tech and new features are more important than used or new.
I would never consider the RX 6800 XT due to the power consumption. And size. So for me, that's not even a question. Maybe I'm alone there. But I still feel there is more to the comparison than there exists used card at that price, so tough luck . I know others who would go for a RX 6950 XT or RTX 3090 (TI) either, even if in good condition used, so I think that's fair.
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Bearded
Don't get fooled again... meet the new boss... Same as the old boss... Oh wait, it's actually worse. This whole generational downpull (opposite of uplift? lol), is ridiculous.
How cheap can we make our cards to maximise profits, while still being about on par and the same price as last gen? Refering to both Nvidia and AMD here obviously.
Pretty happy I got my 4090 at retail price on launch day. Yeah it was expensive, but it's the only card that has actually really solid generational uplift, and price to performance ratio. It's been all downhill ever since.
Next generation will probably be even worse. Whenever that happens. There seems to be no sense of urgency or interest from AMD or Nvidia.
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Don't get fooled again... meet the new boss... Same as the old boss... Oh wait, it's actually worse. This whole generational downpull (opposite of uplift? lol), is ridiculous.
How cheap can we make our cards to maximise profits, while still being about on par and the same price as last gen? Refering to both Nvidia and AMD here obviously.
Pretty happy I got my 4090 at retail price on launch day. Yeah it was expensive, but it's the only card that has actually really solid generational uplift, and price to performance ratio. It's been all downhill ever since.
Next generation will probably be even worse. Whenever that happens. There seems to be no sense of urgency or interest from AMD or Nvidia.
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itech
It's basically a rerelease of the RX 6800 XT with a new name and number. It's b.s.. However I would prefer it over my RTX 3070 ti with only 8 gigs of VRAM. I would easily trade either AMD card over the one I have now. I will not buy another NVIDIA card, they charge too much and they keep pumping out new cards less than a year after the last one and it's usually better. What the hell is next after the RTX 4090? I don't know where they will go from there. The damn thing has three times the VRAM of any RTX 30 series card. So why did they fk over people that bought their RTX 30 series cards by only giving them 8 gigs of VRAM?
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It's basically a rerelease of the RX 6800 XT with a new name and number. It's b.s.. However I would prefer it over my RTX 3070 ti with only 8 gigs of VRAM. I would easily trade either AMD card over the one I have now. I will not buy another NVIDIA card, they charge too much and they keep pumping out new cards less than a year after the last one and it's usually better. What the hell is next after the RTX 4090? I don't know where they will go from there. The damn thing has three times the VRAM of any RTX 30 series card. So why did they fk over people that bought their RTX 30 series cards by only giving them 8 gigs of VRAM?
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Glaxous
6800xt also had a bad bench at launch but was fixed eventually by driver updates overtime. 7800xt matching the driver-updated 6800xt at launch may seem underwhelming, but it may be just a short-termed statement like how amd delivers their gpus like wines. It would be wise to be critically reserved for now, and might as well wait for some driver updates for 7800xt before becoming confident with the comparison. Specially the newer iteration will always house some sort of exclusive features that may take some time to become relevant or significant.
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6800xt also had a bad bench at launch but was fixed eventually by driver updates overtime. 7800xt matching the driver-updated 6800xt at launch may seem underwhelming, but it may be just a short-termed statement like how amd delivers their gpus like wines. It would be wise to be critically reserved for now, and might as well wait for some driver updates for 7800xt before becoming confident with the comparison. Specially the newer iteration will always house some sort of exclusive features that may take some time to become relevant or significant.
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Dylan
The head to head summary charts are a great addition, though I would find it easier to follow if it was consistent from chart to chart which GPU was the baseline.
I get why you didn t want to have a line down the middle of the screen and have all the bars to the left of that line for some charts. But it s a lot of data and charts in rapid succession and I think a consistent presentation is the better trade off.
HUB does a good job with those charts, where they also sort by magnitude.
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The head to head summary charts are a great addition, though I would find it easier to follow if it was consistent from chart to chart which GPU was the baseline.
I get why you didn t want to have a line down the middle of the screen and have all the bars to the left of that line for some charts. But it s a lot of data and charts in rapid succession and I think a consistent presentation is the better trade off.
HUB does a good job with those charts, where they also sort by magnitude.
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Nicholas
Gamers Nexus: For the summary charts could you please shade the back ground to represent which card is in the negative and which is in the positive. Its hard to visually make sense of the chart without reading the reference information, and even then (as with HUB) the orders on the charts are sometimes reversed. If you were to color code the card model in the legend the same color as the shaded area it would make quick glances easier to read. Just my .02c of comment.
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Gamers Nexus: For the summary charts could you please shade the back ground to represent which card is in the negative and which is in the positive. Its hard to visually make sense of the chart without reading the reference information, and even then (as with HUB) the orders on the charts are sometimes reversed. If you were to color code the card model in the legend the same color as the shaded area it would make quick glances easier to read. Just my .02c of comment.
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Rudolf
And here i am.... Completely fooled... Im waiting for somehow decent gpu to upgrade my current gtx1080 strix oc, i was thinking that 7800xt will be a decent option but no.... 6800xt was like 650 in my country which is pretty expensive so i waited for new gpus.... all this sh t just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and i feel like i dont want to upgrade my setup anymore and when my pc will kick the bucket then i will just throw it away and stop playing pc games...
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And here i am.... Completely fooled... Im waiting for somehow decent gpu to upgrade my current gtx1080 strix oc, i was thinking that 7800xt will be a decent option but no.... 6800xt was like 650 in my country which is pretty expensive so i waited for new gpus.... all this sh t just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and i feel like i dont want to upgrade my setup anymore and when my pc will kick the bucket then i will just throw it away and stop playing pc games...
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Veraxis
Hmm, I would have liked to see performance gains, but the lower power consumption is nothing to scoff at I suppose. I think if I were in the market for a GPU, for the same price as the 6800XT I might still go with the 7800 XT over the 6800 XT just for lower heat and longer driver support horizon. That said, for me personally, all I am seeing from this is that my 30-series card will probably remain usable for years to come.
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Hmm, I would have liked to see performance gains, but the lower power consumption is nothing to scoff at I suppose. I think if I were in the market for a GPU, for the same price as the 6800XT I might still go with the 7800 XT over the 6800 XT just for lower heat and longer driver support horizon. That said, for me personally, all I am seeing from this is that my 30-series card will probably remain usable for years to come.
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Nico
Some constructive feedback concerning the comparison charts:
I found them a bit confusing, I'd honestly prefer the reviewed GPU to always be on the same side . So to have all positive numbers mean the GPU in question winning and all negative numbers losing to the competitor. I get what you were trying to do but I found myself be a bit confused by how the 7800XT wins were jumping sides. I hope you understand what I mean.
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Some constructive feedback concerning the comparison charts:
I found them a bit confusing, I'd honestly prefer the reviewed GPU to always be on the same side . So to have all positive numbers mean the GPU in question winning and all negative numbers losing to the competitor. I get what you were trying to do but I found myself be a bit confused by how the 7800XT wins were jumping sides. I hope you understand what I mean.
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Mirenilla
charts at the end were confusing because the review card kept switching sides. to be frank, you are getting lost in the weeds with the % scaling mumbojumbo and it hurt your charts legibility. keep in mind a lot of viewers have your review on a 2nd monitor while they do something else. they are not going to read the title and try the parse out what direction the graph is going.
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charts at the end were confusing because the review card kept switching sides. to be frank, you are getting lost in the weeds with the % scaling mumbojumbo and it hurt your charts legibility. keep in mind a lot of viewers have your review on a 2nd monitor while they do something else. they are not going to read the title and try the parse out what direction the graph is going.
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Get
I definitely wasn t expecting the 7800XT to fill this need, but it s astounding to me that three years on from the release of the RTX 3080, there s still no reasonable upgrade. Anything around its MSRP just isn t fast enough to justify the purchase, and anything fast enough to be an upgrade costs so much more it just plain doesn t make sense. Such a weird time for the GPU market.
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I definitely wasn t expecting the 7800XT to fill this need, but it s astounding to me that three years on from the release of the RTX 3080, there s still no reasonable upgrade. Anything around its MSRP just isn t fast enough to justify the purchase, and anything fast enough to be an upgrade costs so much more it just plain doesn t make sense. Such a weird time for the GPU market.
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Emily1963eh
Question for Steve or the hivemind. Really looking to maximise my 8700K, can't afford a full system upgrade right now. Would this be good to pair with an 8700k as an upgrade from a 1080ti? Or is that over investment. I play racing games (iracing, assetto corsa ect) on tripple 1080p, arma 3, DCS. I dont play rt titles. Any guidance would be appreciated.
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Question for Steve or the hivemind. Really looking to maximise my 8700K, can't afford a full system upgrade right now. Would this be good to pair with an 8700k as an upgrade from a 1080ti? Or is that over investment. I play racing games (iracing, assetto corsa ect) on tripple 1080p, arma 3, DCS. I dont play rt titles. Any guidance would be appreciated.
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Lionel
Thanks Steve to you and the crew for all the extra time on benchmarks to get these videos out so quickly. I got lucky a couple of months ago when I bought a 6800XT for 500. At the time, it was before the 7800XT news surfaced. Glad to see performance is still solid compared to the 7800XT. Thanks again for this video + all the others in the last week or so!
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Thanks Steve to you and the crew for all the extra time on benchmarks to get these videos out so quickly. I got lucky a couple of months ago when I bought a 6800XT for 500. At the time, it was before the 7800XT news surfaced. Glad to see performance is still solid compared to the 7800XT. Thanks again for this video + all the others in the last week or so!
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The_Chad
You're the expert, so in your expert opinion, why didn't you benchmark with the fastest CPU possible? That way there probably wouldn't have been as much CPU bottlenecking, and giving us a better idea what all these cards are actually capable of. You've probably answered this before, and like I said, you're the expert, it just doesn't make sense to me.
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You're the expert, so in your expert opinion, why didn't you benchmark with the fastest CPU possible? That way there probably wouldn't have been as much CPU bottlenecking, and giving us a better idea what all these cards are actually capable of. You've probably answered this before, and like I said, you're the expert, it just doesn't make sense to me.
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Teodor
It's a relative view. If you consider that this card is like at least 600 euros, it's a mess: almost same performance of its predecessor. If you consider it versus the Nvidia alternatives in gaming, this card kicks ass to the 4060ti and 4070 till sunday. I won't buy it, since I already have an rx6800, it won't be a real upgrade for 600+ euros.
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It's a relative view. If you consider that this card is like at least 600 euros, it's a mess: almost same performance of its predecessor. If you consider it versus the Nvidia alternatives in gaming, this card kicks ass to the 4060ti and 4070 till sunday. I won't buy it, since I already have an rx6800, it won't be a real upgrade for 600+ euros.
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Matt
Good day and thank you for the review. As someone who recently moved to the United States from a country that uses the metric system, I was wondering if you could also include conversions from regular miles to 'Country Miles' so i can best understand and evaluate the true differences in your excellent graphs. Thanks in advance.
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Good day and thank you for the review. As someone who recently moved to the United States from a country that uses the metric system, I was wondering if you could also include conversions from regular miles to 'Country Miles' so i can best understand and evaluate the true differences in your excellent graphs. Thanks in advance.
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Cap
The 7900XTX and 7900XT were supposed to be the 7900XT and 7800XT.
But because AMD needs to charge more and they decided to rename it.
How come the 6800xt starts at 649 and now the 7800XT charges 499!?
Cleary this 7800XT should be intended to replace 6700XT, but not the 6800XT
This move really confuse consumers
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The 7900XTX and 7900XT were supposed to be the 7900XT and 7800XT.
But because AMD needs to charge more and they decided to rename it.
How come the 6800xt starts at 649 and now the 7800XT charges 499!?
Cleary this 7800XT should be intended to replace 6700XT, but not the 6800XT
This move really confuse consumers
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