AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 Series Punches Well Above Its Price Point

After a stunning pre-announcement tease and the official reveal occasion on November third, AMD’s long-awaited RDNA 3, Radeon RX 7900 sequence GPUs are right here… beginning tomorrow. While you won’t be capable of press a purchase button as we speak, we now have our full evaluation able to share with you, together with our outcomes for thermal efficiency, energy draw, and benchmarks.

The Radeon RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX each have a tall process forward of them–particularly in gentle of the uncooked energy we noticed from NVIDIA’s monoli-thicc RTX 4090. AMD, nevertheless, doesn’t appear to be phased by this. The firm’s targets with the RX 7900 Series are clear: to supply “fantastic performance, but at a reasonable power,” all whereas preserving prices underneath $1000 USD.

Did AMD achieve attaining these targets? If so, which GPU is best for you – the RX 7900 XT or XTX?

Let’s discover out.

Under the RDNA 3 Hood: A Ryzen-Like GPU

When it got here to designing RDNA 3, AMD leveraged what it realized from its Ryzen and EPYC CPUs through the years, then utilized that data to Radeon graphics. Using a chiplet-style design like we noticed with Ryzen, AMD has separated the principle Graphics Compute Die (GCD) and Memory Cache Die (MCD).

This separation allowed AMD to do just a few issues in another way, together with multi-level processing. The GCD makes use of a 5nm course of know-how, whereas the smaller MCD dies make the most of a tried-and-true 6nm for dealing with the GDDR6 reminiscence interfaces. According to AMD, this enables the GPU to optimize the place it routes energy to, enabling each excessive efficiency and an uplift in performance-per-watt.

But that isn’t the one profit to this redesign. Enter AMD’s 2nd Generation Infinity Cache. This know-how serves as a “fast lane” for reminiscence bandwidth, increasing knowledge entry to the GPU by offering a further stage of cache. This allows faster entry to property, which interprets to a rise in frames-per-second. With 2nd Generation Infinity Cache, AMD has fine-tuned the L0, L1, and L2 caches in addition to expanded the bus bandwidth, permitting RDNA 3 to do extra with much less.

For context, the Radeon RX 6950 XT has 128MB of 1st Generation Infinity Cache on a 256-bit reminiscence bus with 18Gbps GDDR6 reminiscence. This setup offers a reminiscence bandwidth as much as 1793.g GB/s. Not too shabby, but it surely will get higher with the RX 7900 Series.

The 7900 XT has 80MB of 2nd Generation Infinity Cache, however bumps up the reminiscence bus to 320-bit and ever-so-slightly sooner (20Gbps) GDD6, giving it a reminiscence bandwidth of 2912 GB/s. That’s over 1 GB/s sooner, but it surely will get even higher.

The 7900 XTX stacks on 16MB of 2nd Generation Infinity Cache for a complete of 96MB, cranks the reminiscence bus as much as 384-bit with GDDR6 corresponding to the 7900 XT, and will get speeds of as much as 3494.4 GB/s of bandwidth.

When we put all of this collectively, the “real world” impact of a sooner Infinity Cache is that the GPUs are higher in a position to effectively retailer and recall lately processed knowledge, quite than having to return and reprocess it each time they want it. It’s very like having the ability to preserve browser tabs open for fast entry to, say, a sport information – the knowledge is there, prepared while you want it. This faster entry permits the GPU to maneuver on to different duties.

But wait, there’s extra.

AMD has been watching the ways in which customers have been leveraging their applied sciences in multitasking conditions, comparable to gaming and streaming from the identical system. So, with RDNA 3, the corporate inbuilt a brand new twin media engine to deal with simultaneous operations with out bogging down the consumer. This will enable for hardware-accelerated encoding and decoding for AVC and HEVC streaming hundreds, in addition to further assist for AV1 encoding as much as 8K60 – unbelievable information for streamers!

Additionally, RDNA 3 introduces AMD’s Radiance Display Engine, which provides assist for DisplayPort 2.1. With this new know-how, the RX 7900 Series has {hardware} for shows as much as 8K with refresh charges of 165 Hz. While this know-how is just not extensively out there simply but and the attain towards 8K gaming is formidable, it’s clear that AMD’s purpose to supply “fantastic performance” reaches far past framerates.

Radeon RX 7900 XT and Radeon RX 7900 XTX Specs:

Now that we now have a transparent image of what’s new with RDNA 3, it’s time to take a peek underneath the hoods of the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX.

Those are some good-looking numbers, however what does this all imply while you put all of them collectively?

To put it merely, compute items are like CPU cores, dealing with operations despatched to the GPU whereas stream processors deal with the extra complicated math. As for Clock speeds and Boost Clock, they decide how briskly the info might be processed. Memory serves as a useful resource to the GPU, whereas the reminiscence bandwidth determines the speeds of entry to these sources. When you set all of those collectively, every bit of the system impacts your general expertise, which ends up most notably in pixels and pixel high quality.

Speaking of supply, it’s value noting that AMD didn’t transition the RDNA 3 platform to a brand new or totally different energy connector like NVIDIA. AMD has been very clear that it didn’t need customers to have to interchange present cabling or have to swap out energy provides as a way to improve to a contemporary GPU.

When it involves bodily dimensions, the RX 7900 XT measures in at 10.86 inches lengthy (276mm) with a top of 4.44 inches (113mm), weighing in at 3.33 lbs (1.51 kg). The 7900 XTX is a bit chonkier at 3.97 lbs (1.80 kg), extending a bit longer than the XT at 11.29 inches lengthy (287mm) with a top of 4.84 inches (123mm). Both GPUs are labeled as 2.5 slot playing cards, however they don’t muscle their means far past the second slot.

This is nice information if you happen to want room for different PCIe playing cards! Speaking of dimensions, it’s value noting that the reference RX 7900 Series GPUs from AMD don’t dominate the instances they’re in. I used to be somewhat involved concerning the dimension till I attempted it out in one among my favorite smaller mid tower cases.

For context and comparability, the RTX 4080 is a three-slot card, roughly 11.96 inches lengthy (304mm) with a top of 5.39 inches (137mm). Now, these dimensions are the reference or Founders Edition GPUs, so the scale of add-in-board (AIB) associate playing cards (ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock, and many others.) will range considerably.

As for connectivity, each RX 7900 Series GPUs have two DisplayPort 2.1 ports, a single HDMI 2.1a port, and a USB-C with DisplayPort 2.1 connection.

All of this appears nice on paper, however how does it work?

Big Numbers: RDNA 3 Performance And Power

I do know what you’re right here for; you wish to know what sort of numbers this stuff put out. Before we are able to current our findings, let me share a peek behind the curtains to provide you some context for the numbers you’re about to see.

To acquire our knowledge from the Radeon RX 7900 Series, we utilized a check bench with the next parts: a Ryzen 9 7950X CPU, X670E AORUS Master motherboard, 32 GB G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO DDR5-6000 RAM, 1TB WD_Black SN770 M.2 NVMe SSD, NZXT C1000 Gold 1000W PSU, NZXT Kraken Z73 360mm all-in-one liquid cooler with three 120mm followers, and an NZXT H7 Elite mid-tower PC case outfitted with 4 140mm followers.

For our testing, we selected 5 titles that make the most of a wide range of trendy graphics applied sciences, together with ray tracing and AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). In every title, we recorded knowledge throughout a number of passes of the benchmarks at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, gathering outcomes throughout every decision with ray tracing on and off and with FSR enabled and disabled. When enabled, we used FSR’s Quality or Ultra Quality settings.

As we undergo this knowledge, we will probably be speaking about rasterization first after which transferring on to ray tracing.

It can be value noting that we didn’t have NVIDIA’s RTX 4080 available for comparability, so we recorded knowledge from an in depth value competitor to the RX 7900 Series, the RTX 3090. Spec-wise, it shares quite a lot of similarities to the RX 7900 XTX – 384-bit reminiscence interface, 24GB of GDDR (although, the 3090 has a bonus with GDDR6X), and an influence score of 350W. It’s not a precise match, but it surely’s shut sufficient the place the comparability is related.

Here is what we discovered:

We ran every check at Ultra settings and the RX 7900 Series met every process with a reasonably robust exhibiting general. The one exception to that assertion could be Metro Exodus at 4K. While we now have seen this check take even the strongest of GPUs to process at its most excessive settings, the remainder of the info reveals a promising image.

At 4K, the RX 7900 XT constantly put out body charges over 60 FPS in most titles. Aside from Metro Exodus, Cyberpunk 2077 did experience that line in pure rasterization, however that is on the highest settings with out the help of FSR. With FSR enabled at its Quality setting, the 7900 XTX crossed that threshold and held averages above 60 frames per second. However, if 4K isn’t the purpose, however 1440p is, the 7900 XT pushed constantly past 100 FPS generally, together with Cyberpunk 2077.

When we take a look at the RX 7900 XTX, we see an 18% improve in efficiency over the RX 7900 XT in Cyberpunk 2077, 20% in Borderlands 3, ~18% in Far Cry 6, and 13% in Forza Horizon 5 – and that is earlier than FSR. When enabled, we see a efficiency distinction of 13% in Cyberpunk 2077, 12.5% in Far Cry 6, and, once more, ~13% in Forza Horizon 5.

When we begin wanting on the numbers in comparison with the RTX 3090, in pure rasterization we see the RX 7900 XT leap forward of the 3090 by almost 21% in Borderlands, ~18% in Cyberpunk 2077, and 17.5% in Forza – with Metro Exodus useless even throughout all playing cards at 4K. That hole will get wider as soon as we begin introducing the RX 7900 XTX into the image. For our checks, we see a median efficiency improve of round 35% from the RTX 3090 to the RX 7900 XTX.

Not unhealthy, Team Red, however can it run Crysis… I imply, can it ray hint?

The reply is a certified sure.

In the titles we examined, the RX 7900 Series GPUs had been in a position to put up robust numbers in ray tracing purposes. However, at 4K, we noticed just a few instances the place they lagged behind the ray tracing capabilities of the RTX 3090. While Metro Exodus served because the equalizer in rasterization, Cyberpunk 2077 takes the title of “Most Punishing Ray Tracing Benchmark.”

Without any help from FSR, the 7900 XTX struggled to hit a median of 20 frames per second at Cyberpunk’s highest ray tracing settings. While it is just a 2-frame distinction, the uplift with FSR nonetheless has each GPUs averaging decrease than 60 frames per second. Now, to be honest, the RTX 3090 isn’t far forward; even with DLSS enabled, it solely led the 7900 XTX by 3 frames per second.

We did see the RX 7900 XT lag behind the RTX 3090 in Far Cry 6 by ~6% at 4K and Metro Exodus by ~5% at 1440p and ~11% at 4K, however in any other case the RX 7900 Series GPUs held their floor and posted spectacular body charges at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K with ray tracing options enabled. When FSR is enabled, nevertheless, that adjustments the story.

Productivity Performance:

When it involves productiveness checks, we bumped into some fascinating obstacles for direct comparability, particularly when utilizing rendering checks like Blender. With its 3.0 launch, Blender eliminated the OpenCL possibility for GPU rendering, leaving NVIDIA’s CUDA and Optix as the one GPU-bound choices for rendering. However, AMD has been serving to to rewrite CUDA code to HIP (or Heterogeneous Interface for Portability) to mesh with Radeon GPU know-how.

Here is what we discovered:

Within Blender, a picture of everybody’s favourite shiny purple BMW rendered at a breezy 14 seconds on the RX 7900 XT and 12 seconds on the RX 7900 XTX. It was spectacular, however NVIDIA did shave a second off of the RX 7900 XTX’s time by using CUDA, after which it halved the 7900 XT’s time with Optix. This isn’t essentially unhealthy information for Team Red – they’re all good numbers, however NVIDIA does have a slight leg up right here.

The story is much like OpenCL efficiency metrics in Geekbench 5. The RX 7900 Series falls barely in need of the RTX 3090, however takes a powerful lead in Vulkan efficiency measurements. In different phrases, the RX 7900 Series excels at gaming and does nicely sufficient for itself in computational duties.

Energy Efficiency and Thermal Performance

With the entire discuss pace and energy, we now have to look again at AMD’s purpose with RDNA 3: unbelievable efficiency at an inexpensive energy and value. We have seen some unbelievable efficiency knowledge from each RX 7900 GPUs, however what about energy consumption and warmth?

While we had been working our benchmarks, we stored an in depth eye on the RX 7900 Series to maintain AMD sincere in its claims. After all, we noticed Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs hit some fairly excessive numbers, so we needed to make it possible for the “high performance-per-watt” claims didn’t simply imply that RDNA 3 was going to eat a considerable amount of wattage.

So, we measured the ability consumption and warmth throughout our 4K checks. This would be sure that the duties had been using as a lot of the GPU’s energy as potential. What we discovered was stunning.

In each common energy supply and at their peak, the ability consumption of each RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX stayed significantly decrease than the RTX 3090. When you begin to have a look at the quantity of energy consumed versus body charge output, you can begin to see that AMD isn’t taking part in round with smoke and mirrors; its playing cards are offering spectacular ends in gaming environments whereas trailing the competitors by a few 50W margin throughout energy supply averages. Trailing is an efficient factor on this circumstance.

When it involves thermal efficiency, the comparisons get rather less clear. We are coping with two very totally different cooler varieties between the RTX 3090 Founders Edition and AMD’s retail editions of RX 7900 Series.

That’s to not say that the numbers are unhealthy; the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX maintained peak temperatures underneath 70 levels Celsius in the course of the heaviest hundreds, with averages on the GPU itself hovering within the mid- to higher 60s. Now, there may be one catch to those numbers that isn’t mirrored within the charts:

While recording thermal knowledge, we seen that the temperature readings on the GPU itself stayed comparatively cool, however the reminiscence thermal junction was a distinct story altogether. Right now, with minimal efficiency load on the GPU, the reminiscence thermal junction temperature is hovering round 85 levels Celsius.

We noticed one thing comparable with the newest Ryzen CPUs, and that is by design. According to AMD, these junctions can deal with temperatures as much as 110 levels Celsius. Hot junctions for that scorching and sweaty efficiency!

This could also be a results of the chiplet design. Afterall, the GCD is surrounded by the MCDs; warmth from the GCD (the place we had been recording our knowledge from) could possibly be bleeding over into these junctions. That is only my hypothesis.

The Big Question: Is RDNA 3 Right For You?

While AMD particularly acknowledged that it isn’t punching at RTX 4090 territory, the pricing, efficiency, and energy draw of the RX 7900 Series definitely takes some heavy swings in that path, particularly on pure gaming efficiency. Those punches, nevertheless, will probably be far simpler if these RDNA 3 GPUs can maintain to the final a part of AMD’s pursuit: “a reasonable price.”

Now, GPU costs round $1,000 are already tough to abdomen, however AMD has clearly aimed on the fanatic market with this launch. For me, the RX 7900 Series represents a proof-of-concept. That idea? That AMD can ship killer excessive finish GPUs that may hold on the excessive floor at a fraction of the worth… with a concession or two.

Generation over era, AMD has made some distinctive strides relating to ray tracing, however NVIDIA nonetheless has a leg up on the home of Su. FidelityFX Super Resolution is a promising know-how and the adoption charge is rising. While efficiency uplift general matches DLSS, DLSS produces a prettier image and smoother expertise. Then, there may be entry to issues like CUDA and Optix.

The actual query is that this: in case you are available in the market for a brand new GPU, do you want these issues? If you don’t and also you simply need excessive body charges on a (barely) decrease price range, then the RX 7900 Series is likely to be best for you. Both GPUs present distinctive entry to gaming efficiency with some added quick futureproofing options like AV1 {hardware} acceleration and DisplayPort 2.1. RDNA 3 additionally makes a powerful case to construct a Team Red system with AMD Smart Technology.

If that sounds such as you and you must construct now, pair the Radeon RX 7900 XT with the Ryzen 7 7700X. This mixture offers entry to trendy applied sciences whereas offering a promising improve platform for years to return. Remember although, that is nonetheless an estimated $899 USD for the GPU alone.

That’s not for anybody however energy hounds, however given the RTX 4090’s $1,599 value, even probably the most discerning of avid gamers might do worse. I can let you know this: pairing the Radeon RX 7900 XTX with the Ryzen 9 7950X is an beautiful expertise. At 4K and beneath, the body charges are very good.

However, if you happen to’re nonetheless on the fence and all of that is too wealthy for you, the excellent news is that that is solely the start of RDNA 3. With this robust of a exhibiting on the high stage, will probably be actually thrilling to see competitors within the mid-tier warmth up!