AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Team Radeon roars back into the game. $1,789 | www.amd.com
The Radeon RX 7900 XTX naming hearkens back to the ATI days, where refreshes and die shrinks sometimes came twice a year. Technology has changed a lot over the last 20 years. Prices have gone up a lot, but so has the performance – by orders of magnitude.
The $1,789 XTX is well positioned in the market. It’s significantly cheaper than the competing RTX 4080, though it’s a little too close to the XT, which hurts that cards’ position in the market. Even if it offers relatively good value, the
XTX is still very much a high-end card, and out of reach of most gamers. Nevertheless, it incorporates that cutting edge chiplet technology and is squarely aimed at 4K gamers or users of very high refresh rate monitors.
The RX 7900 XTX features the fully enabled Navi 31 chip, meaning all 96 GCD compute units are enabled, and all six MCDs. This gives it 6,144 shader processors, 96 Ray Accelerators and 192 AI processors. It packs in 24GB of 20Gbps GDDR6 memory over a 384-bit interface, providing a total of 960 GB/s of memory bandwidth.
The XTX is a little longer and a little taller than the XT. Its fans are larger too at 84mm versus the 78mm of the XT. It’s a
2.5 slot card, meaning it’s effectively three slots. The look is similar too, with a tasteful black finish with a few touches or red. The XTX includes a little bit of RGB lighting too. Interestingly, the XTX includes a fan intake temperature sensor. Though of limited use right now, this could be useful for synchronising with adjacent fans for example.
The PCB is slightly taller than that of the XT. It includes a 17+3 phase VRM with 70A stages. The TDP is 355W, meaning the card stays within the capabilities of its dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Video outputs consist of dual DP 2.1, HDMI 2.1 and USB-C outputs.
A peak temperature of 67 degrees for a compact 355W card is excellent. The cooler is clearly a good one. Power consumption was a little lower than expected. Given the big power consumption increase of the Sapphire Nitro+, the reference card appears power constrained.
As a flagship card, the 7900 XTX needs to perform, and it does, though there’s always the asterisk next to ray tracing
performance, where AMD is still a generation behind. In games like Warhammer III and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, the XTX easily pulls ahead of the RTX 4080, even closing in on the mighty RTX 4090. Its RT performance is improved, matching the last gen, but the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 with all the eye candy remain an Nvidia strength. It remains to be seen whether AMD can match the ever improving DLSS with its FSR 3.0 technology, coming in 2023.
The RX 7900 XTX is an excellent RDNA 3 debut for AMD. It offers better than RTX 4080 raster performance at a lower price, with superior display connectivity on top. It offers reasonable power efficiency and it’s a better buy than the XT. Keep an eye out for the partner cards, which look to really unleash the Navi 31 GPU, albeit with higher power consumption.
"As a flagship card, the 7900 XTX needs to perform, and it does."
The RX 7900 XTX delivers fast and efficient performance, but it feels a little power constrained compared to the Sapphire.
Chris Szewczyk
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★★★★☆