Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT assessment: AMD’s ‘reasonable’ stab at 4K gaming | Engadget

While I used to be desirous 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 have been secure sufficient to really use. That’s one thing I sometimes 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, outfitted 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 not seen different critiques complaining of comparable points, so I’ll chalk up my expertise to early drivers. AMD just released a new driver that resolves a problem of excessive energy draw throughout video encoding, so I’m hoping the corporate can be attempting to deal with the bugs I’m seeing.

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 check. 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 purpose 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 (a minimum of they managed to beat the 3080 Ti). I additionally solely noticed round 57fps in Cyberpunk 2077 on the Radeon 7900 XTX whereas enjoying in 4K with full ray tracing and AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution expertise. Without FSR, that body price dipped to an unplayable 25fps. The slower 7900 XT solely managed to hit 50fps in 4K with FSR and ray tracing enabled.

Basically, in the event you’re desirous to get a video card that reaches nicely above 60fps in 4K with ray tracing, you will should look elsewhere. But in the event you can stay with 1,440p, you will 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 nearly sufficient to max out a 120Hz gaming monitor! Personally, I nonetheless discover 4K gaming to be overrated — 1,440p nonetheless appears nice, and chances are 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 enjoying in 4K with ray tracing. That’s as near gaming heaven as I’ve ever been.

But there’s one factor you will discover with these AMD GPUs that you just will not with NVIDIA’s: Reasonable road 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 the direction of $1,500 at on-line retailers (assuming you could find them in inventory in any respect). Spending near $1,000 on a video card remains to be exhausting to abdomen, however a minimum of 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 players 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 the event you’re an avowed AMD fan, you have lastly obtained the high-end improve you have been ready for.