AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Desktop graphics card in our test: Nvidia's midrange competitor costs $499
Those who have been patiently waiting for AMD's midrange graphics cards will be rewarded with a suitable performance at an acceptable price. But the benefit of a direct upgrade from the predecessor model is limited. If on the other hand, there is still an RDNA 1 GPU of the 5000 generation running in your system, you will notice a very significant performance increase. In addition, AMD has also been supporting raytracing since the 6000 generation, also allowing you to use the new technologies here. What else we can expect from the FSR3 that has been announced for a few months now is still pure speculation at this point. However, we advise against a purchase just based on the announcement.
But now to the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT that we examined in detail in the reference design from AMD. We have no complaints purely from a visual point of view. The graphics card remains true to the 7000 generation in terms of its appearance, even if there are only two fans that ensure sufficient cooling, just as in the AMD Radeon RX 7600. But considering the power consumption of up to 263 watts, we would have preferred a triple-fan design as in the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE. In our test, the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT was able to convince us with a good gaming performance, often leaving the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 behind. In terms of the price, this competition is very interesting, since an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 currently still costs slightly more than AMD's Radeon RX 7800 XT.
However, when we look at raytracing, AMD continues to be unable to keep up with the performance of current Ada Lovelace models. Those who can live without raytracing can choose the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT without any concerns. A look at the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE is also worthwhile, in our opinion. But that might turn into a larger investment, since (in Germany) that model is only available in ready-made PCs. The modern connection equipment is a purchase argument for an AMD graphics card of the 7000 generation, since at this point only AMD offers a DisplayPort connection in version 2.1.
