Introduction
We’ve reviewed the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and now it is time to move down a step, and review the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, the cut-down, younger brother of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT will retail for $899 MSRP, and this is our AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT review. In today’s review, we will look at 4K as well as 1440p gaming performance, with Ray Tracing at both resolutions, as well as AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution FSR performance at 4K. This will give us an overall good view of the gameplay experience that the Radeon RX 7900 XT offers for different types of gamers, aiming for different resolutions of gaming, and either focusing on raster or Ray Tracing performance and also takes into account the advantages of FSR upscaling.
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is part of AMD’s new Radeon RX 7900 Series GPUs, based on the new RDNA 3 architecture and chiplet technology design. The Radeon RX 7900 Series video cards are AMD’s next-gen graphics cards aimed to shake things up, with this new Chiplet design bringing powerful cards in a smaller form factor, at more reasonable power requirements. The Radeon RX 7900 XT is based on the same NAVI 31 GPU as the Radeon RX 7900 XTX but cut down in specifications to facilitate the lower $899 price point. That price point is an interesting one because at $899 it is competing in an interesting place compared to last-generation GPUs. We will talk about this more in the conclusion.
Note that the winner, in our opinion, comes down to price and performance. The performance each video card offers at their respective price points is what matters most. The price tag is always the benchmark by which value should be judged. The performance you get at that price rules all. We will be heavily thinking about the price of each video card, the performance they deliver at that price, and the features and value each one provides in this review. It is for these reasons we are including a GeForce RTX 3080 FE video card in our comparisons.
If you think about it, at $899, the Radeon RX 7900 XT is closer in price to the launch MSRP of the GeForce RTX 3080 FE from NVIDIA’s last generation ($699), as well as the $999 Radeon RX 6900 XT from AMD’s last-generation than it is with the more expensive $1200 GeForce RTX 4080 FE and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FE. The Radeon RX 7900 XT sits in between the GeForce RTX 3080 FE and Radeon RX 6900 XT from the last generation GPUs. We want to include these GPUs then so we can see what the uplift in performance is over last-generation to this new generation, in a similar price point. Also, do not miss our AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX review.
Don’t miss our unboxing of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT video cards.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT Specs
In our AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX review we have a whole page of Radeon RX 7900 Series video card product information, and the entire RDNA 3 architecture product information press slides posted. Please read that page for your complete run-down for detailed information on the new RDNA 3 architecture and Radeon RX 7900 Series GPUs.
| Radeon RX 7900 XTX | Radeon RX 7900 XT | Radeon RX 6950 XT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | RDNA 3 | RDNA 3 | RDNA 2 |
| Process | 5nm GCD+6nm MCD | 5nm GCD+6nm MCD | 7nm |
| Transistors | 57.7 billion | 57.7 billion | 26.8 billion |
| Die Size | 300 mm2 GCD 220 mm2 MCD | 300 mm2 GCD 220 mm2 MCD | 520 mm2 |
| Compute Units | 96 | 84 | 80 |
| Ray Accelerators | 96 | 84 | 80 |
| AI Accelerators | 192 | 168 | N/A |
| Stream Processors | 6144 | 5376 | 5120 |
| ROPs | 192 | 192 | 128 |
| Game GPU Clock | 2300 MHz | 2000 MHz | 2100 MHz |
| Boost GPU Clock | 2500 MHz | 2400 MHz | 2310 MHz |
| AMD Infinity Cache | 96MB | 80MB | 128MB |
| Memory | 24GB GDDR6 | 20GB GDDR6 | 16GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 960GB/s | 800GB/s | 576GB/s |
| Board Power | 355W | 315W | 335W |
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT will retail for $899 MSRP. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is based on the new AMD RDNA 3 architecture and the NAVI 31 GPU package utilizes AMD Chiplet technology. There is a single 5nm GCD (Graphics Compute Die) and surrounding that are six 6nm MCDs (Memory Cache Die). In the Radeon RX 7900 XT, there are 6 physical MCDs, however only 5 of those are functional, the 6th one is there as a stand-in to allow even mounting pressure and heat dissipation across the GPU package. The transistor count is 57.7 billion, the die size for the GCD is 300 mm2 and the MCDs are 220 mm2 each.
The Radeon RX 7900 XT has 84 Compute Units (CUs) and 84 Ray Accelerators as well as 168 AI Accelerators and 192 ROPs and 5,376 Stream Processors with 80MB of AMD Infinity Cache. The Game GPU Clock is 2000MHz and the Boost GPU Clock is up to 2400MHz. It has 20GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit memory bus at 20GHz providing 800GB/s of memory bandwidth. The Board Power for all of this is only 315W. The Board Power has been raised from the first announcement of the Radeon RX 7900 XT, it is no longer 300W, it is now 315W for added performance. AMD Smart Access Memory is still supported.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT direct from AMD is in an all-black matte shaded shroud, front and back in a triple axial fan design. The shroud curves around the edges and encapsulates the video card, and the back end is capped off. The I/O portion also has no exhaust vents, all the air will get distributed fully inside the case from the top and bottom. The material feels very strong and sturdy, the build feels very robust. The back heatsink aids in cooling and dissipating heat. The video card measures 10.9 inches in length, 5.3 inches in width, and 2 inches in height.
The body shape is curved, and the front shroud has two accents, but there are no LED features on this video card.
The backplate covers the entire back, including the back of the GPU. It does provide passive cooling to the video card.
For I/O it has an HDMI 2.1a port, two DisplayPort 2.1 ports as well as one USB Type-C port. It utilizes two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors.
The Radeon RX 7900 XT opts for a darkened approach, no LEDs or RGB, and has a nice matte black shrouded look in your case.