AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super vs AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT

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 utilizes the Navi 31 Chip, which comprises a Graphics Compute Die (GCD) manufactured in 5nm and all six Memory Cache Die (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.

Architecture

The integrated video decoders support AV1, H.264, and HEVC videos with 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 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.

Power consumption

The power consumption is rated at 355 watts, which is similar to an RTX 4090 (but on different platforms).

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super is a high-end desktop graphics card based on the Ada Lovelace architecture. It uses the AD103 chip in full configuration with 10,240 cores and 16 GB GDDR6X graphics memory (256-bit bus with 23 Gbits).

Performance

The ray tracing performance is outstanding, thanks to 80 dedicated cores, and the 320 Tensor cores can be used for DLSS 3.

The gaming performance without DLSS is ideal for 4k with around 60fps and 2k with higher frame rates in demanding games without ray tracing effects (e.g. F1 22 or Cyberpunk 2077). With ray tracing, the use of DLSS is recommended. Compared to the competition, the performance without DLSS and ray tracing is slightly better than the significantly cheaper AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT.

The currently available RTX 4080 cards are very large (2.5 or 3 slots) and use the new 12VHPWR connector (which has caused some problems with adapters).

Power consumption

The AD103 chip is produced at TSMC in 5nm (4N with EUV) and is specified with a TGP (Total Graphics Power) of 320 watts (Nvidia recommends at least a 750-watt power supply).

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT 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 five (out of six) Memory Cache Dies (MCD chiplets) in 6nm. The 7900 XT offers 5.376 cores clocked at up to 2.4 GHz (max, 2 GHz game average), 80 MB Infinity Cache (L3 cache) and 20 GB GDDR6 graphics memory with a 320 Bit memory bus and 20 Gbps effective speed.

The average gaming performance is slightly below the GeForce RTX 4080 in games (without raytracing). Therefore, the RX 7900 XT is best suited for QHD (for higher frame rates) up to 4K resolution and maximum detail settings of 2022 games. 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 315 Watt and in our tests similar to the RTX 4080.