Radeon RX 7900 XTX

Red Leader, standing by

- JARRED WALTON

LIKE THE PLUCKY Rebel Alliance preparing to attack the Death Star, AMD has been gearing up to try to take down Nvidia once again. The RDNA 3 architecture (see January issue) sounds promising and comes with some innovative new ideas. The hype has been building for months, and it’s time to see whether the Force can be with AMD for a change. Rather than a spectacular explosion, unfortunately for AMD, it feels like the torpedoes have once again impacted on the surface.

The performance takes a healthy step forward, which is good news. The 7900 XTX beats AMD’s previous generation RX 6950 XT by 40 percent in overall performance at 4K, and in a few instances, it can even deliver 70 percent more. But at 1440p, the advantage shrinks to 26 percent. Just as bad is the news that the RX 7900 XTX mostly ends up matching the RTX 4080 in overall performance.

However, that requires a bit more explanation. There are games such as Borderlands 3, Far Cry 6, and Watch Dogs Legion where AMD’s new Red Team leader does great. There are also plenty of situations where it comes up short, like anything that significantly uses ray tracing. That wouldn’t be so bad, but Nvidia still holds the DLSS ace in its hand.