The next-gen GPU war is in full swing, and it looks like AMD RDNA 3 graphics cards are taking the fight to Nvidia with a low price point. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX costs $999 USD, closely followed by the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT at $899. This puts both pixel pushers under the $1,000 mark, with the flagship undercutting the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 by a full $600.
AMD takes a cue from team green, only announcing its top two GPUs in the AMD Radeon RX 7000 range, but more might follow in 2023. Either could become the best graphics card in terms of value, and both will be available from December 13.
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX leads the pack with 24GB of GDDR6 memory and 12,288 Stream Processors, but the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT closely follows with 20GB VRAM and 10,752 cores of its own. They share Navi 31 foundations, which borrows elements from the company’s best gaming CPU, becoming the first consumer GPUs to use a 5nm chiplet design. AMD says the modularity of the chiplet approach means it can optimise performance, boasting 165% more transistors compared to previous generations.
They’re also the first graphics cards to support DisplayPort 2.1, the next-gen connector that supports up to 8K resolutions at 165Hz or 4K at a staggering 480Hz refresh rate. Currently, the best gaming monitor doesn’t even have the input, but AMD teases that plenty are on their way for CES 2023, including the 8K Samsung Odyssey Neo G9.
Getting into performance, AMD says the RX 7900 XTX is between 1.5 and 1.7 times faster than the RX 6950 XT at 4K resolution in 2022 games like Resident Evil Village and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It even hits 96fps in Assasin’s Creed Valhalla at 8K with the help of FSR. Of course, it’s always worth taking internal numbers with a pinch of salt until we have an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX review of our own or can compare using an Nvidia RTX 4090 with DLSS, but it seems promising – especially for the price.
Fortunately, AMD doesn’t risk the RTX 4090 melting cable issue, as you won’t need to change your wires to use the new graphics cards. It should be as simple as plugging and playing, so long as you can fit the thing in your case.
Looking ahead to 2023, AMD is introducing FSR 3 to rival Nvidia DLSS 3.0.