RX 9070 XT vs RX 7900 XTX spec comparability – how do they evaluate?

With the RX 9070 XT lastly introduced and dropping on sixth March, the period of all AMD gaming PCs with next-gen Radeon GPUs and Ryzen 9000 processors is on the horizon. That being stated, when you’re like us, you would possibly surprise how highly effective the RDNA 4 structure is. 

AMD is specializing in mid-range choices, that means the RX 7900 XTX is basically the final high-end GPU they produced, and what we’re excited about discovering out is whether or not the RX 9070 XT with RDNA 4 can compete towards the RX 7900 XTX or will the Radeon 7000 flagship reign supreme. 

We have reviewed the RX 7900 XTX, and it is a superb card for 4K gaming and offers an amazing various to the RTX 4090. Nonetheless, since we’ve not examined the RX 9070 XT, we’ll use its specs to attract a comparability and replace it once we’ve acquired its gaming and artificial benchmarks.

RX 9070 XT vs RX 7900 XTX specs comparability

Right here’s a fast take a look at how these two playing cards stack up side-by-side.

Efficiency

At first look, the RX 7900 XTX appears to be the higher card based mostly on specs, and we have additionally acquired in-house benchmarks to again that up. Nonetheless, till we have had hands-on expertise with the RX 9070 XT, we cannot know the enhancements the RDNA 4 structure brings.

Reminiscence

The primary and most evident distinction between these GPUs is that they’re in several positions within the efficiency hierarchy, which is clear when you take a look at the reminiscence capability. The RX 9070 XT has 16GB VRAM, whereas the RX 7900 XTX has 24GB GDDR6. 

Whereas we aren’t positive which reminiscence kind the RX 9070 XT options, if it additionally has GDDR6, then the probabilities of it being outperformed by the RX 7900 XTX are nice. GDDR6 has a 16GB/s per pin velocity, and if that’s the identical as these GPUs, it means the capability would be the deciding issue by which GPUs come out on high. 

Extra VRAM means with the ability to maintain and course of extra knowledge, so the RX 7900 XTX ought to have a a lot better output in 4K gaming and different workloads. 

Compute models 

Compute models are the essential constructing blocks of the GPU, and every CU consists of particular person components often known as Stream Processors. So, the extra compute models there are, the extra Stream Processors there can be, leading to higher efficiency. 

That being stated, the RX 7900 XTX has 96 CU and 6,144 Stream Processors. Comparatively, the RX 9070 XT solely has 64 CU, that means that it most likely additionally has fewer Stream Processors.

Nonetheless, with every unit based mostly on the brand new RDNA 4 structure, we would see it with the ability to commerce blows with the 7900 XTX, as every core could possibly be extra environment friendly and able to processing extra knowledge, leading to higher efficiency. 

Connectivity

Just like the RTX 50-series GPUs, the Radeon 9000 playing cards additionally function PCIe 5.0 connectivity. The utmost bandwidth per lane for a PCIe 5.0 connection is 4 GB/s, that means it could whole to 64GB/s when you had been to put in the cardboard on the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, which is a given. 

Then again, the RX 7900 XTX has a PCIe 4.0 connection, which has a 2 GB/s per lane bandwidth, that means a complete of 32 GB/s on an x16 connection. That being stated, the PCIe connection allows quick communication between the CPU and GPU; a better bandwidth means extra knowledge can circulation with out points. 

Nonetheless, it’s going to nonetheless face a “bottleneck” if the reminiscence bus is restricted. The RX 7900 XTX has a 384-bit reminiscence interface width, and we do not have the quantity for the RX 9070 XT, however something beneath 256-bit could be unfair. Because of this the RX 7900 XTX can processor 384 bits of knowledge for every clock cycle, which happens tens of millions of instances per second, leading to higher efficiency.  

Pricing

The RX 7900 XTX launched at $999 MSRP, and relatively, the RX 9070 XT is priced a lot decrease at $599 MSRP. Nonetheless, these GPUs are on completely different ranges of the efficiency hierarchy; one is a flagship, whereas the opposite is a mid-range GPU. That being stated, third-party variants usually value extra, however we discovered this XFX Speedster MERC310 AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX for $999.99 on Amazon.

So, between the 2, if yow will discover the RX 7900 XTX at MSRP, it’s the GPU to go for, because it ought to ship higher 4K efficiency than the RX 9070 XT. Nonetheless, when you’re concentrating on 1440p, the RX 9070 XT needs to be the higher choice, and also you shouldn’t run into inventory points as AMD claims glorious availability throughout all markets.

Verdict

The RX 9070 XT is a superb card in its personal proper, however in comparison with the RX 7900 XTX, it lacks the {hardware} to outperform it. Whereas FSR 4 may also help bridge the hole in gaming, the artificial efficiency is not affected by AI upscaling, and for that, uncooked efficiency is required, which, once more, the 9070 XT pales compared to the RX 7900 XTX. 

That being stated, when you had been trying to improve to a brand new mid-range GPU with nice worth for cash, the RX 9070 XT is a superb graphics card to contemplate.