SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪
PRICE £833 (£999 inc VAT) from scan.co.uk
For years, AMD's graphics cards have lagged behind Nvidia's. Competitive on value, yes, but never a genuine hit at premium prices. With the RX 7900 XTX, AMD has finally dropped a graphics card that isn't just the equal of Nvidia's rival GPU but delivers a technical knockout that no one was expecting.
Taken together, the RX 7900 XTX and Nvidia RTX 4090 (see issue 339, p56) have cut off any reason to buy the Nvidia RTX 4080 (see issue 340, p62). Frustrated gamers who have been unable to upgrade their rigs thanks to scalpers and cryptohogs are finally ready to say goodbye to their old GTX 1060s and splurge on a high-end GPU.
Price is right
AMD's reference card costs £999, and it's likely that overclocked cards from partners such as Gigabyte and XFX will cost more. But they will still be cheaper (by around £200) than the Nvidia RTX HAL 4080 it competes against.
I should also mention the RX 7900 XT, which loses an X, £100 off the price and a chunk of its specs. The 7900 XT has 5.376 stream processors to the 6,144 of the 7900 XTX, and its base frequency of 2GHz is 300MHz slower than its sibling. Until it drops in price, it isn't worth considering.
Both run on AMD's 5nm Navi 31 GPU, but rather than one chip we need to talk about chipsets: there isn't one die in the graphics card but several. This compartmentalized architecture is one way that AMD controls costs: the expensive 5nm node is reserved for the compute units that will take advantage.
Similarly, AMD uses GDDR6 RAM rather than the GDDR6X video memory found in the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080, but by utilising faster interconnects on the die and interfaces with the memory chiplets, along with roughly 22MB more cache than the RTX 4080, it offers a higher memory bandwidth than its rival.
Esta historia es de la edición March 2023 de PC Pro.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición March 2023 de PC Pro.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
How to earn Cyber Essentials certification
The UK's government-backed security standard provides reassurance for you and your customers. Nik Rawlinson explores what's involved - and how to get it
HP Omen Transcend 14
If you're sticking with Asus or Razer gaming laptops out of habit, the HP Omen Transcend 14 may just change your mind
AI TRİSM
New computing paradigms come with new challenges. Steve Cassidy explores how to use AI safely and securely
13 warnings about using AI at work
AI experts from industry and academia were gathered by the Turing Institute to consider the future of the technology. Nicole Kobie reveals the lessons they offered
Brilliant business comms at zero cost
Whether you choose 3CX Free or 3CX SMB V20, it's time to say goodbye to per-user pricing and bundle rip-offs
TURN YOUR DUMB TV INTO A SMART ONE WITH A RASPBERRY PI
Enjoy video on demand and more Nik Rawlinson finds out how the humble Pi can transform your TV
GIGABIT INTERNET Get the speeds you're paying for
Is your premium internet service not racing along like it should? Darien Graham-Smith goes in search of faster downloads on every device
7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE IT PROS
The PC Pro team combine their collective wisdom to create seven tips for keeping on top of your IT game
BRILLIANT MONITORS from £149
Whether you’re looking for screens to roll out ina business, an entertainment centrepiece ora pro-quality monitor, one of our 15 displays holds the answer
PORTABLESSDs FROM £69
We review 12 portable SSDs that cover a wide range of standards, form factors and target users