Conclusion
In our review today, we had the opportunity to evaluate the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC Edition video card. We ran the card through our gaming suite and benchmarks. Then we overclocked the video card as well. The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC Edition was compared to the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming X TRIO and the XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT Black Edition based on pricing and performance targets. So how did our “Golden Rabbit Edition” do anyway?
Performance
In the plain raster category, once again the Radeon RX video cards proved to be very fast. The results showed them to be faster cards than the NVIDIA branded card in every game, albeit in Chernobylite the overclock was needed to gain the edge. This is nothing new, as we have seen this over and over again in our reviews comparing RX 7000 and RTX 4000 cards.
Needless to say, all three video cards performed well in native form. The gameplay was fast and smooth. Upscaling generally was not needed but was very fast nonetheless. All in all, the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC Edition has on average a 5% edge over the XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT Black Edition and an 8% advantage over the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming X TRIO.
Ray Tracing results are actually quite interesting. All three cards were playable in 5 of 6 games either natively or using upscaling. The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC Edition was the fastest in 3 of 6 games, the margins were slim though. Still, playability was quite good for the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC Edition. In the three most graphically demanding games the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming X TRIO was the card to beat. Again this is not new territory. On average, the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC Edition falls behind the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming X TRIO by 9% and has a 14% advantage over the XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT Black Edition.
At 1440p raster, one can see that the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC Edition is very playable and generates fast FPS. Most of the time upscaling is not required. In Ray Tracing, the performance is surprisingly good. Upscaling was required more often than not, but playable in 5 of 6 games is quite nice. This demonstrates that the performance gap is narrowing.
Overclocking
To overclock the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC Edition we found ASUS GPU Tweak III to be the better software. This did take quite a bit of trial and error. It may be just this card or maybe the operator or both. Finally, undervolting the GPU made the difference. In the benchmark run-through, we gained 8% and in gaming, we gained 6% overall. The ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC Edition overclocked video card topped the chart in 5 of 6 raster games and 3 of 6 Ray Traced games. It does overclock well with the proper adjustments and proves beneficial.
The cooling solution on this video card is excellent. The GPU stayed cool and well under thermal limits. All the while you could not hear any fan noise at all. The fans ran on automatic during testing and were never past 32%.
Final Points
Today we reviewed the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC Edition. The video card is well constructed; fit, finish, and materials are top shelf. The cooling is silent and does a superb job. The gaming performance at 1440p is stout in raster and surprisingly good in Ray Tracing. The performance is better than the XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT Black Edition by 8 to 10% and a much better Ray Tracing video card. The card is also capable of 4K gaming with customized settings and greater availability of FSR 3 and Frame Generation. If you game at 1440p and are looking for a top-shelf video card, this should be on the shortlist.