"Simulated" RX 7800 XT outperforms RTX 4070 by up to 14% at 4K in gaming tests of the Radeon Pro W7800

While we are yet to see an RDNA 3 card using the Navi 32 chip, AMD inadvertently confirmed the existence of the GPU in a recent interview. Rumors have it that the chip will be featured in the RX 7800 series including the mobile RX 7800M XT and the desktop RX 7800/XT. According to leaked performance figures, the RX 7800 XT competes with the RTX 4070. Igor’s Lab has benchmarked the Navi 31-based AMD Radeon Pro W7800 under specific conditions to simulate an RX 7800 XT giving us a good idea of what to expect from the card when it officially launches.

For starters, the Radeon Pro W7800 is an RDNA 3 board meant for workstations. As such, it focuses on power efficiency. The card features a much lower clock frequency of 1,855 MHz, 32 GB of 18 Gbps RAM, and a power limit of 260 W. For comparison, the RX 7900 XT has a boost clock of 2,394 MHz, 20 GB of 20 Gbps memory, and a power limit of 300 W.

Moving on, igor’s Lab suggested that the Radeon Pro W7800 featuring 4,480 shader units (70 Compute Units), 280 texture mapping units, and 128 ROPs matches the purported RX 7800 XT. Per a recent leak from RedGamingTech, the RX 7800 non-XT could pack 60 CU which could mean that the RX 7800 XT could feature 70 CUs as mentioned by igor’s Lab.

1080p gaming performance

When it comes to the actual gaming performance, the simulated RX 7800 XT (Radeon Pro W7800 with 16 GB of VRAM) with an average FPS of 148.9 came out 3% ahead of the RTX 4070 and 2% slower than the RX 6900 XT at 1080p.

Since the actual RX 7800 XT could have a higher TDP, igor’s Lab also extrapolated the results of the Radeon Pro W7800 based on the performance/watt figures of the RX 7900 XT. The extrapolated RX 7800 XT, mentioned as “calc” in the charts, matched the RX 6900 XT and widened its lead over the RTX 4070 to 5%. Compared to the RX 6800 XT, the extrapolated RX 7800 XT proved to be 4.1% faster.

1440p and 4K gaming performance

The simulated 1440p performance of the RX 7800 XT was 5% better than the RTX 4070, 3% ahead of the RX 6800 XT, and 3% slower than the RX 6900 XT. The extrapolated RX 7800 XT overtook the RX 6900 XT, the RX 6800 XT, and the RTX 4070 by 2%, 8%, and 11% respectively.

Finally, the 4K gaming performance is where we see the most significant gap between the simulated RX 7800 XT, the RX 6800 XT, and the RTX 4070. Here, the RX 7800 XT was, on average, 4% ahead of the RX 6800 XT and 6% faster than the RTX 4070 while practically matching the RX 6900 XT. 

The extrapolated results were better, as the RX 7800 XT showed an average lead of 14% vs the RTX 4070, 12.5% vs the RX 6800 XT, and 6% vs the RX 6900 XT.

Before we wrap this up, it is pertinent to mention that the Radeon Pro W7800 is meant for productivity workloads. As such, the board has a different set of drivers alongside gimped clock frequencies and a lower TDP. So, a retail RX 7800 XT with the same hardware specs but gaming drivers, better clocks, and a higher TDP could be even faster than the extrapolated results.

All in all, if AMD decides to release the RX 7800 XT with 70 CUs and clock speeds matching other RDNA 3 GPUs, the card could overtake the RTX 4070 by a healthy margin, especially at 1440p and 4K.

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