AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX: 5 crucial RDNA 3 details gamers need to know | Biden News

After a so-called “lost generation” for graphics cards plagued by shortages and scalpers, things are finally looking up for PC gamers – and the battle for next-generation GPU supremacy has finally arrived. Nvidia launched its ferocious GeForce RTX 4090 just weeks ago, but its monitor-melting lead won’t be unchallenged for long. This week, AMD revealed its new-gen RDNA 3 architecture and two GPUs that act as its model: the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT.

This isn’t your mom’s GPU removal, though. AMD is doing some radically different things with RDNA 3 and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and we’ve never seen a graphics card quite like this before We’ve already covered the Radeon RX 7900 XTX’s technical specs in depth in our announcement coverage, but if you don’t feel like wading through a discussion of dual-issue wave 32 instructions and memory-controller quirks, here are the five keys. facts about RDNA 3 and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX that PC gamers absolutely need to know before the launch on December 13th.

1. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT are a a lot cheaper than Nvidia’s offerings

Adam Patrick Murray/IDG

First, the price: It’s hard to name graphics cards that set you back four figures, per se, but it seems that AMD has heard the outrage generated by Nvidia’s prices of $1,600 for the GeForce RTX 4090 and $1,200 for the RTX 4080 On the contrary. , RDNA 3’s flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX will set you back “only” $999, and the single-X Radeon RX 7900 XT costs $899.

That’s the same price as the Radeon RX 6900 XT before it. Nvidia, on the other hand, has increased the price of the RTX 4090 by $100 over the RTX 3090, while the RTX 4080 costs a whopping $400—50 percent– more than the RTX 3080.

2. RDNA 3 chiplets FTW

Adam Patrick Murray/IDG

Part of those savings undoubtedly comes from the radical new technical design of the RDNA 3 GPUs. Traditionally, GPUs were built using huge “monolithic” die blocks that crammed all the necessary bits inside. But with RDNA 3, AMD is taking a page from its ultra-successful Ryzen playbook. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT use multiple chiplets working together on the same package instead: a core GPU die surrounded by up to six memory cache dies that hold the card’s Infinity Cache and memory controllers.

We go into more technical detail in our RDNA 3 announcement coverage, but the bottom line is AMD can use TSMC’s cutting-edge 5nm manufacturing process to spit out a slew of smaller 300mm GPU dies, then use its cheaper and more mature 6nm process to the memory dies That helps AMD keep costs down on both nodes, and no doubt helps the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT achieve their more palatable prices. The central RDNA 3 GPU die measures just 300mm square. Nvidia’s RTX 4090 die is more than twice as big, and all of it is made with TSMC’s expensive cutting-edge node.

3. Powerful but not overpowered

Nvidia swung for the fences with its GeForce RTX 4090, pushing a monstrous 450 watts through that massive GPU die and cutting-edge GDDR6X memory for truly face-melting performance, power use (and melting 12VHPWR adapters) be damned.

Adam Patrick Murray/IDG

But in a world crippled by an energy crisis, power efficiency matters. AMD thankfully stayed true to its performance focus with RDNA 3, delivering a claimed 54 percent improvement in performance-per-watt over the already impressive RDNA 2 graphics cards. That, in turn, let AMD adhere to more sensible power requirements – both the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT only require a pair of standard 8-pin power connectors. They draw 355 watts and 300 watts, respectively. The more modest power requirements mean that AMD’s reference cards stick to slightly annoying but fine 2.5-slot designs, compared to the 3- and even 4-slot monsters common to RTX 4090 models.

Bottom line? Upgrading from a recent Radeon or Nvidia graphics card to a new Radeon RX 7900 XTX won’t require reconfiguring your rig or being a beta tester for an annoying new power connector. Yes!

4. RDNA 3 AV1, DisplayPort 2.1, and more

Adam Patrick Murray/IDG

AMD is also bringing out RDNA 3 with some compelling extras. Unlike Nvidia’s RTX 40 series GPUs, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT have DisplayPort 2.1, which unlocks monitor refresh rates up to 4K/480 (yes, 480 Hz) and 8K/165. Gotta go fast! AMD’s new dual-media engine also supports simultaneous encoding/decoding of HEVC/AVC streams, as well as bleed AV1 encoding, joining ranks with recent GPU offerings from Nvidia and Intel.

These updates might not mean much to you if you’re not a content creator, but they’re very welcome.

5. Will it beat the RTX 4090? Who knows!

Finally, the elephant in the room: Will AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT topple Nvidia’s vaunted GeForce RTX 4090? That remains to be seen—always wait for independent reviews!—but the initial presentation leaves the prospect looking dubious.

AMD

AMD

AMD

Don’t take this the wrong way: The Radeon RX 7900 XTX will be a brutally fast performer if the charts provided by AMD prove accurate. The Radeon RX 6950 XT has already beaten the RTX 3090, and AMD says the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is 1.5x to 1.7x faster than the 6950 XT at 4K gaming (for $250 less). Likewise, AMD added AI cores to RDNA 3, meeting a key Nvidia feature, and modified Radeon’s ray-tracing cores for up to 50 percent higher performance. But I’m not sure even that huge increase will be enough to beat Nvidia’s RTX 4090 and 4080 in ray tracing after GeForce’s similarly huge increase this generation. And importantly, AMD’s benchmarks didn’t compare to the RTX 4090 at all, even though the 4090 has been available for weeks.

Between those departments and the much lower prices of $999 / $899, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT could end up competing with the RTX 4080 instead – but with so many new technologies at play in RDNA 3 it’s hard to predict too much. We’ll have to wait for independent reviews to roll in to know for sure.

In the meantime, if you want even more exquisite RDNA details, be sure to check out our much more in-depth coverage of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT.