Introduction
The AMD Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs (based on RDNA 3) were launched in December 2022 with the introduction of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT occupy AMD’s high-end enthusiast line-up, offering the fastest performance in the RDNA 3 series. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX has an MSRP of $999, and the Radeon RX 7900 XT has an MSRP of $899.
Five months later, AMD continued to fill out the series, by going all the way down the stack to the value, budget consumer with the introduction of the Radeon RX 7600 with an MSRP of $269. It has now been four months after that, and a full nine months since the Radeon RX 7000 series officially kicked off, and we are now finally seeing AMD’s offerings in the mainstream segment of this lineup.
At Gamescom 2023, AMD announced the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT video cards, based on the RDNA 3 architecture, to fulfill the Radeon RX 7000 lineup. The Radeon RX 7800 XT has an MSRP of $499, and the Radeon RX 7700 XT has an MSRP of $449. We published the specs announcement on August 25th, so read that for the full press presentation and information about these new video cards.
The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT has a made-by-AMD (MBA) edition, and that is what we are reviewing in this review today. The Radeon RX 7700 XT does not have a made-by-AMD edition, and therefore we will have reviews of add-in-board partner (AIB) cards for it that we also have published. Check out our XFX MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT review, our XFX QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT review, our SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 7800 XT review, and SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7700 XT reviews.
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Specifications
The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is aimed squarely at 1440p gaming, where AMD sees growth for gamers. The Radeon RX 7800 XT is based on the RDNA 3 architecture and is a chiplet design consisting of a 5nm GCD + 6nm MCDs and 28.1 billion transistors. It has 60 Compute Units, 3840 Shader Units, 60 RT Accelerators (2nd Gen), 120 AI Accelerators, and 96 ROPs. It uses 64MB of 2nd Gen AMD Infinity Cache. It has a Game Clock of 2124MHz and a Boost Clock of 2430MHz. It has 16GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus at 19.5Gbps which gives it 624GB/s of memory bandwidth, and it uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface with a TDP of 263W. Since this is the new RDNA 3 generation, it has DisplayPort 2.1 and AV1 encoding support.
| AMD Radeon RX 7600 | AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT | AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compute Units | 32 | 54 | 60 | 84 | 96 |
| Shading Units | 2048 | 3456 | 3840 | 5376 | 6144 |
| RT Accelerators | 32 | 54 | 60 | 84 | 96 |
| AI Accelerators | 64 | 108 | 120 | 168 | 192 |
| Game Clock | 2250MHz | 2171MHz | 2124MHz | 2000MHz | 2300MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2655MHz | 2544MHz | 2430MHz | 2400MHz | 2500MHz |
| GDDR6 | 8GB | 12GB | 16GB | 20GB | 24GB |
| Bus Width | 128-bit | 192-bit | 256-bit | 320-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory Speed | 18Gbps | 18Gbps | 19.5Gbps | 20Gbps | 20Gbps |
| Infinity Cache | 32MB | 48MB | 64MB | 80MB | 96MB |
| TBP | 165W | 245W | 263W | 315W | 355W |
| PCIe | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| MSRP | $269 | $449 | $499 | $899 | $999 |
The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is $499, and now AMD has a complete lineup of Radeon RX 7000 GPUs up and down the product stack for this RDNA 3 generation. AMD offers video cards with large 24GB and 20GB of VRAM at the enthusiast high-end, and then offers 16GB of VRAM now in the mainstream at $499, with 12GB falling under that at $449 with the Radeon RX 7700 XT.
When comparing video cards, make sure to realize how this compares to the previous generation Radeon RX 6000 series MSRP pricing. The Radeon RX 6800 XT launched with an MSRP of $649 and the Radeon RX 6800 launched with an MSRP of $579. Therefore, the new Radeon RX 7800 XT is launching at a lower MSRP than the Radeon RX 6800 now at $499.
We are going to compare the video cards by launch MSRP compared to the previous generation, and the current generation, to see the performance improvement at similar price segments generation-to-generation. Street pricing changes over the lifetime of a video card, naturally, so to keep it fair, we want to see if the Radeon RX 7800 XT works as an upgrade from the previous generation at the same price point.
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Pictures
The made-by-AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT video card can be considered the “reference” design and is sold on AMD.com. This video card sports a very solid unibody heatsink and fan assembly, covering the entire front and back of the video card with the end cap completely covered. The Radeon RX 7800 XT uses a dual-axial fan design. The top and bottom remain vented but are still well-built with a solid construction. The design language follows the rest of the Radeon RX 7000 series lineup and forms a complete thematic picture.
The Radeon RX 7800 XT measures 10.5″ in length, 2″ in height, and 3.75″ in width. By comparison, the Radeon RX 6800 XT also measures 10.5″ in length and 2″ in height, but a wider 4.25″. Therefore, the Radeon RX 7800 XT is narrower than the Radeon RX 6800 XT but still has the same length and card slot height. However, one major difference is that the Radeon RX 6800 XT is much heavier. The Radeon RX 7800 XT is noticeably lighter, by a good degree.
The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT uses two standard 8-pin PCIe power connectors for power. The Total Board Power is up to 263W, and a 700W power supply is the minimum recommended with 12V output > 54A. For display outputs, the Radeon RX 7800 XT has HDMI 2.1a and DisplayPort 2.1 UHBR13.5 at a max DP bandwidth of 54Gbps. With the improved media engine, you also get AV1 decode and encode support decode: 4K240, 8K60 (4:2:0 8/10/12b) and Encode: 4K240, 8K60 (4:2:0 8/10b).