AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX review: can RDNA 3 bring the value?

Top-tier ray tracing experiences put through their paces.

Review by Richard Leadbetter Technology Editor, Digital Foundry

Published on Dec. 12, 2022

We've completely revised our test bench to better reflect the future of gaming technology - that means we're zeroing in on titles using key engines and low-level gaming APIs, while we've beefed up representation for ray tracing and image reconstruction. Some of our line-up may need tweaks as the results come in, but right now, we're mostly happy with this more forward-looking approach.

Ray tracing is no longer a second class citizen and with the new wave of GPUs, we're seeing some of the most intensive GPU workloads you can get delivered at really decent frame-rates - even before we factor in image reconstruction technologies like DLSS and FSR2. Don't expect an easy ride for the new AMD GPUs here - they're still lacking much of the hardware acceleration found in Nvidia and AMD cards, but even so, I was still happy about the gen-on-gen improvements - and AMD has matched last-gen top-tier Nvidia cards.

Our benchmarking system below offers a number of ways to get to the data you want, the presentation varying according to the device you're looking at right now. You'll get a basic overview of our findings on mobile, with metadata from the video capture of each GPU being translated into simple bar charts with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements for easy comparisons.

On a desktop-class browser, you'll get the full-fat DF experience with embedded YouTube videos of each test scene and live performance metrics. Play the video, and you'll see exactly how each card handled the scene as it progresses. Below the real-time metrics is a bar chart, which you can mouse over to see different measurements and click to switch between actual frame-rates and percentage differences. All the data here is derived from video captured directly from each GPU, ensuring an accurate replay of real performance.

Cyberpunk 2077

This is Cyberpunk 2077 in its ultra-high RT mode - the full monty, short of the 'psycho' ray tracing setting but still a hefty workout that brings RTX 3080 and all legacy RDNA 2 AMD cards to their knees in 4K mode. The issue here with the RTX 3080 trending under the 3080 Ti is seemingly down to lack of VRAM. This shouldn't be happening by the way, but testing and re-testing confirmed here that RTX 3080 Ti is marginally ahead of RTX 3090.

How do the new Radeon cards fare? RT is the ultimate litmus test for whether AMD addressed its key weakness in the graphics space, and you can look at the results from a glass half-full or half-empty perspective. Based on 4K results, RTX 4080 is 41 percent ahead of the RX 7900 XTX so from this perspective, performance for the money is actually superior on Nvidia's notoriously expensive card. That's the bad news. The good news is that RTX 3090-level RT performance is hardly bad.

The RX 7900 XT costs 90 percent as much as the XTX but only has 85 percent of the performance. This is not great - and it'll actually get worse as we look at other results.

CYBERPUNK 2077, ULTRA RT, DX12, TAA

Dying Light 2

Dying Light 2 is another highly demanding RT workout and it's notoriously punishing on the RDNA 2 cards, so the question is, just how far has AMD come with its new offerings? The gen-on-gen uptick is impressive - the RX 7900 XTX is twice as fast as the RX 6900 XT, with the RX 7900 XT delivering a boost of around 72 percent overall. We're still looking at last-gen performance compared to Nvidia, but once again, it's not as if those were slouches - the XTX is is knocking on the door of RTX 3090 Ti in this benchmark. RTX 4080 is 21 percent ahead of the XTX - a tighter gap than Cyberpunk 2077, for sure.

The Radeon RX 7900 XT once again fails to deliver value in terms of performance per pound/dollar here as 90 percent of the price gets you around 86 percent of the frame-rate. That may sound like quibbling, but remember that the idea of the lower tier cards is that value is supposed to ramp up the lower down the stack you go. The idea of less expensive GPUs offering less value was a poor precedent set by the RTX 4080 and AMD - while cheaper - is going down the same dark road.

DYING LIGHT 2 ULTRA RT, TAA, DX12

F1 22

When you look at performance differentials between different vendors, it's often the case that patterns emerge in how, say, an AMD card compares to its Nvidia equivalent. Ray tracing upends that somewhat as the underlying technologies between both are so, so different. Sometimes we'll get a yawning chasm between them, sometimes the numbers tighten up - it all depends on how the developer deploys its RT feature set.

Looking at F1 22, the RX 7900 XTX pulls ahead of the RTX 3090 Ti by around seven percentage points - a remarkable achievement bearing in mind the lack of bespoke ray tracing hardware built into RDNA 3. In turn, this cuts the RTX 4080's lead down to around 10 percent. Interesting stuff. The value proposition of the RX 7900 XT is not so great though - here, we measured just 82 percent of the performance of the XTX. You're just not getting a good deal here in terms of how much you're paying - unless you just look at gen on gen gains vs RDNA 2, which remain impressive.

F1 22, ULTRA RT, DX12, TAA+FSR SHARPENING

Control

The only benchmarking run we've retained from our old benchmarking suite is Remedy's Control, maxed out this time at 4K resolution. Perhaps it's some kind of driver issue, but this is another title where despite testing and re-testing, the RTX 3080 Ti delivered essentially identical results to the RTX 3090. RTX 4090 rules supreme on this one, making the RTX 4080 look especially poor - but what about RDNA 3?

Control definitely seems to have scaling issues on all cards bar the RTX 4090, but the RX 7900 XTX still delivers frame-rates broadly in the region of RTX 3090 performance, so it's not as if it's not capable - it's just a bit of a shame that there are no upscaling options for this one bar DLSS 2, giving Nvidia a big advantage. We're breaking out the sad trombone once more for the RX 7900 XT. AMD seriously expects you to pay 90 percent of the cost of an XTX for just 84 percent of the performance. This gap actually gets worse with RT disabled, as you'll see later on.