Once once more, AMD is able to tackle NVIDIA’s newest video playing cards with highly effective alternate options at a cheaper price. And as soon as once more, AMD nonetheless lags behind in terms of ray tracing. That’s just about the story behind the Radeon RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX, two confusingly-named GPUs meant to be the top of AMD’s new RDNA 3 graphics structure. At $899 and $999, respectively, these playing cards are definitely simpler to abdomen than NVIDIA’s $1,199 RTX 4080 and the monstrously costly $1,599 RTX 4090 (each of which really promote for much extra at most shops).
For probably the most half, AMD’s new playing cards ship strong 4K gaming efficiency, particularly with the assistance of the corporate’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) upscaling expertise. It’s only a disgrace that you will have to reside with slower ray tracing efficiency than the competitors. (On the intense aspect, they provide a serious ray tracing improve over AMD’s final batch of Radeon GPUs.)
So what makes these playing cards so particular? They’re the primary GPU’s constructed on a chiplet-based design, much like AMD’s newest CPUs. That ought to enable AMD to tweak its designs simply down the road, making it easier to scale RDNA 3 right down to laptops and lower-end GPUs. The 7900 XTX and XT function a 5nm compute die and a 6nm reminiscence die related by a 5.3 TB/s interconnect. Together, meaning they will attain as much as 61 teraflops of computing energy and make the most of as much as 24GB of GDDR6 RAM.
AMD additionally claims it beefed up ray tracing efficiency by 50 p.c per compute unit, in comparison with its earlier RDNA 2 structure. Its video engine has been upgraded with help for AV1 encoding and decoding at as much as 8K/60fps. That format is not extensively adopted but, but it surely goals to ship higher video compression for 4K and 8K footage in comparison with present codecs like H.264.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
True to their names, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT aren’t very completely different. The top-end XTX sports activities 96 compute items, the identical quantity of ray accelerators and clock speeds between 2.3Ghz and a pair of.5GHz. The XT, in the meantime, presents 84 compute and ray tracing items and clocks between 2GHz and a pair of.4GHz. The increased finish card comes geared up with 24GB of GDDR6 RAM, in comparison with 20GB on the XT. (Notably, they each provide extra reminiscence than the 16GB RTX 4080.)
Given their similarities although, it is unclear why anybody would decide to avoid wasting $100 for the 7900 XT. If you are keen to spend near $1,000 on a video card, you would possibly as nicely go full-tilt and seize as a lot reminiscence and energy as you may. It would have been good to see one thing barely cheaper from AMD, even when it meant delivering a card that is a bit slower than the 7900 XT.
The reference GPUs we’re reviewing appear and feel like premium elements, as we have come to count on from AMD’s flagship playing cards. Most importantly, although, they solely take up two slots in your motherboard, whereas the big RTX 4080 and 4090 take up three. The 7900 XT and XTX additionally depend on two 8-pin energy connections, so you will not must string any new PSU cables or cram in a dongle like with NVIDIA’s playing cards. The 7900 XTX requires an 850-watt energy provide, due to its beginning energy draw of 355W, whereas the XT mannequin can work with a 750W PSU. Both playing cards hovered round 66C underneath load, which was proper between what we noticed on the RTX 4080 and 4090.
While I used to be wanting to see how these new GPUs in comparison with NVIDIAs, I needed to undergo a number of rounds of driver and motherboard BIOS updates on my Ryzen 9 7900X earlier than each playing cards had been steady sufficient to truly use. That’s one thing I often run into when testing cutting-edge {hardware} (NVIDIA’s playing cards additionally required a BIOS replace), however there have been nonetheless points with AMD’s playing cards even after that. Halo Infinite, for instance, refused to launch matches with both card. Sometimes my PC would fully shut down whereas testing Cyberpunk 2077, which required me to unplug my desktop and reset my BIOS earlier than Windows would boot once more.
I’ve been benching AMD and NVIDIA video playing cards on this PC, geared up with a premium Corsair 1000W PSU, for the previous a number of months with none stability points. So it was a shock to see simply how a lot havoc these GPUs might wreak. I have never seen different critiques complaining of comparable points, so I’ll chalk up my expertise to early drivers. AMD simply launched a brand new driver that resolves a problem of excessive energy draw throughout video encoding, so I’m hoping the corporate can be making an attempt to handle the bugs I’m seeing.
None
3DMark TimeSpy Extreme
Port Royal (Ray Tracing)
Cyberpunk
Blender
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
12,969
14,696/68fps
4K FSR RT: 57fps
2,899
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
11,688
13,247/61fps
4K FSRT RT: 50fps
3,516
NVIDIA RTX 4080
12,879
17,780/82fps
4K DLSS RT: 74fps
9,310
NVIDIA RTX 4090
16,464
25,405/117.62 fps
4K DLSS RT: 135fps
12,335
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
7,713
9,104/42.15fps
N/A
N/A
When the playing cards ran easily, they proved to be pretty aggressive with the RTX 4080. The 7900 XTX was on-par with the 4080 when it got here to 3DMark’s TimeSpy Extreme benchmark and Geekbench 5’s Compute take a look at. The 7900 XT scored 1,000 factors decrease on TimeSpy Extreme, which was 3,000 factors increased than final 12 months’s RTX 3080 Ti, but it surely was bested by that NVIDIA card when it got here to Geekbench. Hitman 3 additionally ran blazingly quick on each playing cards in 4K, reaching 165fps and 180fps once I flipped on FSR upscaling. Much like NVIDIA’s playing cards, there’s little cause to run any recreation in 4K with out the assistance of superior upscaling tech.
The efficiency gulf between AMD and NVIDIA appeared as soon as I began dabbling with ray tracing. The 7900 XTX and XT scored nicely beneath the RTX 4080 within the 3DMark Port Royal benchmark (at the very least they managed to beat the 3080 Ti). I additionally solely noticed round 57fps in Cyberpunk 2077 on the Radeon 7900 XTX whereas taking part in in 4K with full ray tracing and AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution expertise. Without FSR, that body charge dipped to an unplayable 25fps. The slower 7900 XT solely managed to hit 50fps in 4K with FSR and ray tracing enabled.
Basically, in case you’re wanting to get a video card that reaches nicely above 60fps in 4K with ray tracing, you may should look elsewhere. But in case you can reside with 1,440p, you may discover extra to love: The 7900 XTX reached 130fps in Cyberpunk with ray tracing, FSR and graphics settings maxed, whereas the 7900 XT hit 114fps. That’s virtually sufficient to max out a 120Hz gaming monitor! Personally, I nonetheless discover 4K gaming to be overrated — 1,440p nonetheless appears to be like nice, and it’s possible you’ll by no means discover the advantages of pushing extra pixels. But I’ll admit that I’ve been spoiled by NVIDIA’s DLSS3 upscaling expertise, which allowed me to hit 74fps in Cyberpunk whereas taking part in in 4K with ray tracing. That’s as near gaming heaven as I’ve ever been.
But there’s one factor you may discover with these AMD GPUs that you just will not with NVIDIA’s: Reasonable avenue costs. Even after their launch, you may nonetheless snag the 7900XT and XTX near retail. Many RTX 4080 fashions, in the meantime, are inching in direction of $1,500 at on-line retailers (assuming you’ll find them in inventory in any respect). Spending near $1,000 on a video card remains to be onerous to abdomen, however at the very least it makes extra sense than going all the best way to $1,500.
The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT are a strong step ahead for AMD, particularly in terms of 4K gaming. But I’m hoping the corporate can get its driver state of affairs so as, and maybe eke out higher ray tracing efficiency within the course of. Most avid gamers are nonetheless higher off ready for AMD and NVIDIA’s next-gen mid-range playing cards, that are positive to be launching quickly. But in case you’re an avowed AMD fan, you have lastly bought the high-end improve you have been ready for.
2022-12-24 09:00:02
Link from www.engadget.com