Apple M1 Max 32-Core GPU vs AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT

Apple M1 Max 32-Core GPU

The Apple M1 Max 32-Core-GPU is an integrated graphics card by Apple offering all 32 cores in the M1 Max Chip. The 4,096 ALUs offer a theoretical performance of up to 10.4 Teraflops. 

The graphics card has no dedicated graphics memory but can use the fast LPDDR5-6400 unified memory with a 512 bit bus (up to 400 GBit/s).

The GPU clocks between 389 and 1296 MHz and offers no short term boost (389, 486, 648, 778, 972, 1296 MHz steps according to Powermetrics). The GPU is intended to use Apple Metal 2 API and could still be based on the older PowerVR architectures (last used in the Apple A10).

The Apple M1 Max is manufactured in the modern 5nm process at TSMC and offers an excellent energy efficiency.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is a high end desktop graphics card based on the RDNA 3 architecture. It uses the Navi 31 Chip with consists out of a Graphics Compute Die (GCD) manufactured in 5nm and all six Memory Cache Dies (MCD chiplets) in 6nm. The 7900 XT offers 6.144 cores clocked at up to 2.5 GHz (max., 2.3 GHz average game clock), 98 MB Infinity Cache (L3 cache) and 24 GB GDDR6 graphics memory with a 384 Bit memory bus and 20 Gbps effective speed.

The average gaming performance is between a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 and therefore well suited for 4K gaming of 2022 games (see benchmarks below). Raytracing performance is still a bit lower than with Nvidia cards, but a big step up from the previous generation.

The integrated video en- and decoders support AV1, H.264, and HEVC videos wit up to 8K resolution. The display ports are a big advantage of the new chip supporting DisplayPort 2.1 with UHBR13.5 for up to 54 Gbps bandwidth (up to 8K 165 Hz with DSC possible).

The power consumption is rated 355 Watt and in our tests was similar to a RTX 4090 (but on different platforms).

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is a mid-range desktop GPU and is primarily designed for gaming in 1,440p. This makes the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT the smallest offshoot in the 1,440p gaming segment, placing it directly behind the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE. The graphics chip is manufactured using the 5 nm process at TSMC. The chiplet design is also used in the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, although only three MCDs are active here. With 12 GB of VRAM, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT has just as much as the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, which is its direct predecessor.

Features

RDNA 3 continues to serve as the basis for the graphics chip called Navi 32. The already established features such as SAM (Smart Access Memory) and the Infinity Cache are also available in the new mid-range model aka Radeon RX 7700 XT. Compared to the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT the ray tracing part has been revised and AI support has been implemented on the hardware side. The media engine has been updated and videos can be decoded/encoded with a resolution of up to 8K. The modern DisplayPort 2.1 connection is also available on the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT. AMD's answer to DLSS is FSR 2.0 and offers a significant increase in performance in games with the upscaling option. With FSR 3, there will be another feature in the near future which, like DLSS 3.0, promises even better frame rates thanks to frame generation.

Performance

The performance of the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT in games without ray tracing is well ahead of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 is out of reach for the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT. In the in-house duel, the performance of the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT can be compared with an AMD Radeon RX 6800 can be compared.

Power consumption

The power consumption of the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is estimated by the manufacturer at 245 watts (TBP) and is therefore only marginally more economical than an AMD Radeon RX 6800 (250 watts). Compared to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 the AMD Radeon RX 7500 XT requires 45 watts more.