Gameplay Performance
We are going to focus on 1440p gameplay performance with the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition Video Card. We will include DLSS and FSR performance on the same graph in the games that are supported. We will use DLSS on NVIDIA GPUs and FSR on AMD GPUs. Ray Tracing performance will be shown on a separate page.
When comparing video cards in this review, we are using an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition. Keep in mind launch prices by MSRP for comparison, the GeForce RTX 4070 FE launched at $599. The Radeon RX 7800 XT has a launch MSRP of $499. The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition has an MSRP of $529.
Returnal
Returnal was launched on the PC in February of 2023 and is based on Unreal Engine 4. The game supports real-time ray tracing effects, particle systems, and volumetric rendering. We utilize the graphics preset to set EPIC graphics settings with unlocked framerate, and everything is enabled except ray tracing, we have screen-space reflections on. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Returnal, we are playing at 1440p with EPIC settings, and the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is able to play well at 109 FPS with very playable and smooth gameplay. It provides a great gameplay experience. The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is 18% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 FE. FSR also adds about 37% more performance. When we overclock the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition performance increases by just 3% to 112 FPS. When overclocked the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is 22% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 FE.
Forspoken
Forspoken was released on January 24th, 2023, on the PC and uses the Luminous Engine. The game supports all upscaling methods and Ray Tracing. We are going to customize the settings and enable the highest graphics settings, including Ultra High Texture Memory. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Forspoken, we are running at the highest possible settings at 1440p and the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition produces a very playable and smooth gameplay experience at 94 FPS. The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is 8% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 FE. When we overclocked the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition performance increased by 5% to 99 FPS, almost hitting 100 FPS average. FSR also added 31% more performance. When overclocked, the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is 14% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 FE.
The Callisto Protocol
The Callisto Protocol was released in December of 2022 on the PC and is based on Unreal Engine 4. We run the game in DX12 mode with unlimited framerate, and all graphics settings enabled and at the highest graphics settings. This game supports ray tracing, and FSR upscaling only, we use FSR2 for testing. We use the built-in benchmark.
In The Callisto Protocol, the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is very playable at 92.4 FPS with a smooth gameplay experience. It performs about the same as the GeForce RTX 4070 at only 1% faster. When we overclock the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition performance increases by 3% to 95.4 FPS. When overclocked the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is 5% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare II
Call of Duty Modern Warfare II was released on October 27, 2022, on the PC and uses the IW 9.0 gaming engine. The game supports all upscaling methods, and we use the highest quality option of each. We customize every graphics setting to the maximum value for the best image quality and enable everything. We use the built-in benchmark.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare II is extremely fast on the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition and plays well at 139 FPS with smooth gameplay. The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is 29% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070. When overclocked the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition increases performance by 5% to 146 FPS. When overclocked the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is 35% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070, which is pretty big.
Chernobylite Enhanced Edition
Chernobylite, based on Unreal Engine 4, was released on the PC in 2021, but the Enhanced Edition update for the game was released in April 2022. The Enhanced Edition provides a visual overhaul of the game with better textures, plus introduces tessellation and ray tracing features. It features raytraced reflections, raytraced translucency, raytraced caustics, and raytraced dynamic diffuse global illumination. It supports upscaling, and we use the highest quality. We use the built-in benchmark.
Chernobylite Enhanced Edition is very playable on the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition at 119.3 FPS. However, in this game the GeForce RTX 4070 does beat it in performance by 11%. When we overclock the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition performance increases by 5% to 125.5 FPS. When overclocked, it’s closer to the GeForce RTX 4070 but the RTX 4070 is still faster by 5%. FSR brings performance up to 160 FPS when overclocked.
Dying Light 2
Dying Light 2 was released in February 2022 on the PC and uses Techland’s C-Engine. The game supports Ray Tracing, DLSS, and FSR2. We use the built-in preset to set “HIGH QUALITY” which sets the highest game graphics, without Ray Tracing. We manually enable DX12 and ASYNC Compute. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Dying Light 2 the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is very playable at 128.2 FPS and does beat the GeForce RTX 4070 by 8%. When we overclock the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition performance increases by 5% to 134.7 FPS. When overclocked the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is 13% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 FE.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 2.0 and utilize the built-in benchmark. We test using the Graphics Preset option to set graphics settings to “Ultra”. We utilize the highest quality upscaling.
In Cyberpunk 2077 we are now running the update 2.0 patch version of the game. The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is very playable at 99.2 FPS at “Ultra” settings with smooth and enjoyable gameplay. The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition ends up being 19% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070. When we overclock the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition performance increases by 4% to 103.4 FPS. When overclocked the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7800 XT OC Edition is 24% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 at “Ultra” settings. With FSR enabled, it blows the GeForce RTX 4070 out of the water on performance at 32% using FSR at its highest quality compared to the GeForce RTX 4070 with DLSS at its highest quality.
Discussion (7 replies)
Join Discussion →I get comparing to it's closest competitor. But I feel like I must be remembering reviews with rose colored glasses. Didn't reviews compare new cards to one step up and one step down as well to see how they fit in the stack and if they were worth while?
I mean if you're constantly reading/watching reviews and ingesting data I suppose having just an review against the other teams price parity (or closest) makes sense. But as a consumer I would love to see if the 78000 XT card stacks well against another brands work with an same model, a 7900xt, and a 7600xt, as well as a 4080, and 4070ti/non ti.
Nice review, Brent.
Man I just about had my mind set on a 4070... this is $30 cheaper (than the $550 4070 Gigabyte I was looking at) and seems to be better in most cases. HMMMMMM.
You can look at what we've already reviewed and get a good idea of just that. We have already reviewed the XFX, Sapphire Nitro and reference AMD 7800XT cards. Thats real apples to apples. If you throw in a lesser or higher tier card, then you really don't get fair comparisons. What we try to do is show what is out there in the same price bracket or aimed at the same or similar gaming experience. TBH, right now the prices are all over the place, so that can be hard to do. That said, these reviews have always been pretty much about comparing cards that are closest in price and performance. We do throw in prior generation cards when a new gen is released. Also you have to consider the time it takes to run the data, graph it all out, compile the stats and then publish it. It takes about 4 or 5 days to knock out a polished review using an overclocked card, the out of box card and then the comparison card. If we did any more this stuff would be ancient history by the time you read it.
So why not include those in the chart? Or are we dealing with a like for like hardware issue between reviews. Since recreating the data doesn't make sense. Oh.. I get it with how intrisic driver versions are to performance improvements that wouldn't make sense.
Either you bench everything with an older driver, or you bench everything again with a newer one - and if you're doing it correctly and not over-automating reviews such that you miss things like artifacting and such, or using built-in benchmarks that do not represent gameplay (and perhaps favor one vendor over another, and that is different than gameplay) so that you wind up with results that are correct. At a minimum, really.
Benchmarking well is really a throughput problem that isn't easy to solve, unfortunately.
That has alot to do with it. Everything is tested on that day, using the latest most up to date everything.
Game updates can also make a difference - some games like Cyberpunk on GOG are easy enough to time machine into a specific version, but the more connected ones can force upgrade you.
There's a lot of variables to control for that we have a stack of internal documentation on to get things set up the same way every time. When looking at a single card, it's focused on 1-2 comparison options at that point in time. For a GPU level review, you'll see we run a much larger comparison dataset (usually limited by time before launch and who has what to ship to whom).