AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT review: our full review – Graphics cards

The Radeon RX 7900 XT is the second card launched by AMD using the RDNA 3 architecture. It is slightly cheaper than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and must compete with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.

AMD Radeon RX 7900XTTechnical characteristics

Given the closeness between the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and the Radeon RX 7900 XT, we offer a shorter than usual test here. To read our detailed review of RDNA 3, we invite you to read our review of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

This test was carried out with a copy lent by AMD.

AMD Radeon RX 7900XTDesign: a more classic format

The design of the Radeon RX 7900 XT is very close to the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Apart from a few details in terms of the shape of the cooling or the location of a logo, the two cards are difficult to distinguish. In both cases, we have a rather bulky high-end graphics card, but less imposing than the GeForce RTX 4000.

The Radeon RX 7900 XT requires two 8-pin PCI-E connectors for power. AMD has chosen not to integrate the new 12VHPWR connector.

AMD Radeon RX 7900XTConfiguration used for the test

Here is the platform used for this test.

• Motherboard : ROG Strix Z790-E GAMING Wi-Fi
• Processor : Intel Core i9-13900KF (5.8 GHz, 24 cores, 32 threads)
• Cooling : NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB (360mm)
• Memory : 32GB DDR5 5200MHz RAM (Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB)
• SSD: Seagate FireCuda 520 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0
• Feed : Corsair HX1500i
• Case: NZXT H7 Flow
• Software : Windows 11 2022 (with AMD Adrenalin 23.3.1 drivers)

Our test of the Radeon RX 7900 XT is done after the release of the product. This allows us to test the card with the latest drivers, those from March 2023. We can therefore see differences between our results and those of other press tests.

AMD Radeon RX 7900XTSynthetic benchmarks

3DMark Time Spy Extreme

The 3DMark Time Spy Extreme test generally passes AMD graphics cards since it does not incorporate any work in ray tracing.

The Radeon RX 7900 XT does better in this test than its competitor, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. It even manages to come close to the result of a GeForce RTX 4080. The progress from one generation to the next compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT is very noticeable.

3DMark Ray Tracing

It’s on the ray tracing that AMD shows its weaknesses. The 3DMark test dedicated to this technology illustrates this perfectly.

Where the Radeon RX 7900 XT stood up to the GeForce RTX 4080 on Time Spy Extreme, here it is collapsing to the level of a GeForce RTX 3080. AMD is quite simply a generation behind on this precise point. Problem: more and more games offer rendering with ray tracing which favors Nvidia quite naturally.

AMD Radeon RX 7900XTPerformance in video games

The Radeon RX 7900 XT must offer a high level of performance even in 4K. We will test these conditions in video games.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is the benchmark par excellence in 2023. The game offers both a very resource-intensive urban open world and ray tracing well integrated and sumptuous.

In 4K and with the presets in ultra, with the ray tracing activated, the game displays only 18 frames per second in its benchmark. It’s worse than a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti under the same conditions (22 frames per second).

Fortunately, the FSR 2 can enhance the fluidity of the game by sacrificing a little image quality. With the FSR in Auto mode, the benchmark displays 51 frames per second. We are approaching something completely honest. If we leave the direct comparison with the competition, we have there a graphics card approaching 60 frames per second in 4K

A Plague Tale Requiem

A Plague Tale Requiem is one of the first games to be released only on next-gen consoles. It sets the technical bar higher than its already very impressive predecessor.

On the first zone of the game with the settings at maximum and in 4K 3840 x 2160 pixels, the Radeon RX 7900 XT displays 33 frames per second on average with notable drops around 20 frames per second. With this graphics card, it will therefore be necessary to review its requirements for this game.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar Games’ latest title is still one of the most beautiful video games on the market, many years after its release. He is also relatively greedy, even if he does not use the ray tracing.

In 4K with maximum presets, Red Dead Redemption 2 averages 81 frames per second. For comparison, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX offers 103 IPS with the same settings. The AMD card is therefore doing well and excels in this kind of task. Here it beats the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti hands down as long as DLSS does not come into play.

Forza Horizon 5

Microsoft’s high-speed racing game is the kind of title where performance needs to be maxed out. A few jerks and it’s the decisive turning point you could miss.

Xbox Game Studios games are often very well suited to AMD graphics cards, as they are based on the same technical architecture as the Xbox Series S and X.

With the settings at maximum and a native display in 4K, the benchmark displays 101 frames per second. By playing with the settings, you can easily achieve a very appreciable fluidity with 120 frames per second.

The other games

We have run the graphics card with other popular games, but of which further analysis is not necessary compared to what we have already seen above.

• Doom Eternal (4K, RT): 123fps;
• Overwatch 2 (4K): 199 frames per second;
• Watch Dogs Legion (4K, Ultra, RT Ultra): 33 frames per second.

AMD Radeon RX 7900XTVideo montage

Like the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, the Radeon RX 7900 XT incorporates a very comprehensive video decoding and encoding engine with AV1 support. In addition, AMD is starting to offer tools such as automatic suppression of background noise on the sound of your microphone.

The firm is not yet at the level of Nvidia’s offer in this area, but the Radeon ecosystem is becoming more interesting from month to month.

AMD Radeon RX 7900XTConsumption

We measured the maximum consumption of the graphics card using the HWinfo software.

The Radeon RX 7900 XT reaches a consumption of 310 W, which is at the same level as the GeForce RTX 4080, which is often much more powerful. AMD’s graphics chip uses an older TSMC manufacturing process than Nvidia’s, which involves this difference in power consumption.

AMD Radeon RX 7900XTPrice and availability

You can find the Radeon RX 7900 XT just under the 1000 euro mark. At this price, it is placed between the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and 4080.

This is a fairly high price for a graphics card, especially for AMD which is in challenger in the GPU market. The role of the brand is therefore to be aggressive in order to conquer market share.