Radeon 7900 XTX/XT review: AMD’s “reasonable” attempt at 4K gaming

I was excited to see how these new GPUs compare to NVIDIAs. However, I had several rounds of driver and motherboard BIOS upgrades on the Ryzen 9 7900X before the cards were stable enough for me to use. This is something that I encounter when testing high end hardware (NVIDIA cards also require BIOS updates), but there are still issues on AMD cards even after these updates. infinite auraFor example, refusing to start matches using either card is not a good idea. Sometimes, my computer would completely shut down during testing Cyberpunk 2077 movieThis meant that I had to disconnect the desktop from the computer and reset the BIOS before Windows would start again.

This PC has had no stability issues since I installed NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards over the past several month. It is also equipped with a Corsair 1,000-watt power supply. It was quite shocking to see the extent of the damage these GPUs can cause. I haven’t seen any reviews complaining about similar issues so I’m going to give mine another shot. AMD Just launched a new driverIt solves the problem with high power draw during video encoders, so I hope that the company will also address the bugs I am seeing.

They were quite competitive with the RTX 4080 when the cards ran smoothly. The 7900 XTXX was comparable to the 4080 in 3DMark’s TimeSpy Extreme benchmark as well as Geekbench 5,’s Compute tests. The 7900 XT scored a 1,000 point drop in TimeSpy Extreme. This was 3,000 more than the RTX 3080 Ti last year, but was beaten by NVIDIA when it comes to Geekbench. Hitman 3It ran at 4K at a blistering speed on both cards, reaching 165fps and 180fps respectively when I flipped FSR. The advanced upscaling technology is just as important as NVIDIA cards.

When I began playing with ray tracing, the performance gap between AMD (and NVIDIA) became apparent. The 7900 XTXX and XT scored below the RTX4080 in the 3DMark Port Royal benchmark, but they did beat the 3080 Ti. I also saw only 57fps Cyberpunk 2077 movie Radeon 7900XTX gaming in 4K, full ray trace on a Radeon 7900XTX And the AMD’s FidelityFX super resolution technology. FSR would have reduced that frame rate to an inexplicable 25fps. FSR and Ray Tracing enabled on the slower 7900XT, it managed 50fps in 4K.

If you are looking for a card that can reach 60fps in 4K, then this is the card for you. WithRay tracing is not an option. You have to look elsewhere. If you can live at 1440p you will find more to love: The 7900XTX reached 130fps Cyberpunk Ray tracing was at its maximum at the FSR, graphics settings, and the 7900 XT reached 114 fps. This is enough for a maximum 120Hz gaming monitor. Personally, I still find 4K gaming overrated — 1440p still looks great, and you may never notice the benefits of paying more pixels. NVIDIA’s DLSS3 technology was a blessing, which allowed me 74fps. Cyberpunk You can also play in 4K using ray tracing. This is the closest I’ve ever come to gaming heaven.

There’s one thing that AMD GPUs will have that NVIDIA won’t: affordable street prices. Even after their release you can still purchase the 7900XTX and XTX at retailers. Many RTX 4080 models can be purchased online for around $1,500, assuming they are in stock. Although it’s difficult to justify spending close to $1,000 on video cards, it is still more sensible than spending $1,500.

The Radeon RX7900 XTXX and XTX Radeon RX7900 XTX are a significant step forward for AMD, especially in 4K gaming. I do hope that the company will improve ray trace performance and driver placement. NVIDIA and AMD will soon launch next-generation midrange cards. Gamers are better off waiting. You can finally get the high-end upgrade AMD fans have been waiting for.