AMD has just released their latest flagship graphics card, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. This new GPU is poised to take on Nvidia’s top offerings and claim the performance crown. In this in-depth review, we’ll take a close look at what the RX 7900 XTX brings to the table and see how it stacks up against the competition.
Introduction
The RX 7900 XTX represents a new era for AMD’s Radeon graphics cards. Built on the cutting-edge RDNA 3 architecture and TSMC’s 5nm manufacturing process, this GPU pushes boundaries in terms of performance and efficiency.
Some key specs of the RX 7900 XTX at a glance:
- Stream Processors: 5,376
- Game Clock Speed: Up to 2.3 GHz
- Memory: 24GB GDDR6
- Memory Interface: 384-bit
- Memory Bandwidth: 960 GB/s
- TDP: 355W
With these impressive numbers, AMD is promising up to 50% higher performance per watt compared to RDNA 2 GPUs. The RX 7900 XTX is going toe-to-toe with Nvidia’s beastly RTX 4090. Can AMD’s latest triumph over their long-time rivals? Let’s find out.
Design and Build Quality
The RX 7900 XTX sports a bold new design for Radeon graphics cards. The overall aesthetic is clean, modern, and premium. The black shroud features angular cutouts along the sides and Radeon branding on the side. The backplate has a similar geometric pattern.
Build quality is excellent with an all-metal shroud and sturdy backplate. The heatsink spans the full length of the card and utilizes three fans for cooling. At 12.91 inches long, this is a large triple-slot graphics card. Make sure you have adequate clearance in your case.
Overall, the RX 7900 XTX looks great and feels solidly constructed. The premium design matches its high-end performance.
Features and Technology
Now let’s dive into the technology powering this GPU. The RDNA 3 architecture brings major advances that enable significant leaps in performance.
A key innovation is the chiplet design. RDNA 3 chips are composed of multiple dies connected via AMD’s advanced packaging technology. This allows for better yields and more flexibility.
The RX 7900 XTX uses two dies – a 5nm graphics compute die and a 6nm memory cache die. The compute die houses the Shader Engines while the cache die provides 96MB of Infinity Cache – double that of previous RDNA 2 GPUs.
RDNA 3 also employs Advanced Chiplet Interconnect Express (ACX) technology which provides high-speed connectivity between the two dies. This allows the RX 7900 XTX to act as a single chip.
For ray tracing, AMD has upgraded their solution called Radiance. Ray accelerators within each compute unit now offer up to 50% more throughput. This brings RDNA 3 ray tracing performance closer to Nvidia’s dedicated RT cores.
Finally, AMD has refined their FidelityFX suite of technologies like FSR upscaling. The RX 7900 XTX should provide top-tier visuals in both rasterization and ray tracing.
Performance Benchmarks
Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for – how fast is the RX 7900 XTX? We tested across a suite of demanding games at 4K and 1440p resolutions to find out.
In AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla at 4K Ultra settings, the RX 7900 XTX consistently matches or beats the RTX 4090. It averaged over 80 fps in most titles tested. This level of 4K gaming performance is extremely impressive.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a demanding benchmark but the RX 7900 XTX delivered over 90 fps. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 saw a big 80% performance jump over the previous generation in 4K.
Ray tracing is handled admirably as well. With max settings and ray tracing enabled in Control and Spiderman Remastered, the RX 7900 XTX stays above 60 fps. It even surpasses the RTX 4080 in some ray traced workloads.
At 1440p, most games easily surpass 120 fps or more. The RX 7900 XTX is complete overkill for this resolution. Performance is buttery smooth with high framerates even in the most demanding games.
When it comes to power draw, the RX 7900 XTX peaked around 380W in our testing. That’s lower than the RTX 4090 which can hit 500W. AMD has achieved an excellent balance of power efficiency here.
Overall, the performance benchmarks speak for themselves. The RX 7900 XTX is decisively faster than the previous generation and battles toe-to-toe with Nvidia’s best.
Overclocking and Thermals
With AMD’s auto overclocking feature, we achieved a peak boost clock speed of 2.7 GHz, around 15% over stock. Manual overclocking can potentially push further. Temperatures topped out at 78C in our stress tests.
The large heatsink and triple fan cooling solution does its job admirably, even over extended gaming sessions. Noise levels are acceptable considering the cooling needs of a 400W GPU.
In summary, the RX 7900 XTX overclocks decently and runs cool and quiet enough given the immense power involved.
Conclusion
The Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers where it matters most – chart-topping performance in 4K and 1440p gaming. AMD is back in the high-end graphics game in a big way. With its combination of cutting-edge RDNA 3 architecture, excellent cooling, and competitive pricing, the RX 7900 XTX is a force to be reckoned with.
Nvidia will have to respond with price cuts or their next-gen offerings. For now, the RX 7900 XTX reigns supreme with its stunning visuals and buttery-smooth framerates. If you’re looking for the best of the best in GPU technology, look no further than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX.