AMD Reveals First RDNA 3 GPUs With The Radeon RX 7900 XTX And XT

AMD has taken the wraps off its Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT GPUs, a duo that is set to take on NVIDIA starting in mid-December with prices that undercut the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090. Key to these new models is their foundation built upon AMD's RDNA 3 architecture, making them the first of their kind to sport this particular chiplet design from the company. When compared to the previous RDNA 2, AMD claims the new architecture brings up to 54% greater performance (on a per-watt basis). The models also offer up to 24GB of GDDR6 memory, second-generation Infinity Cache, and what AMD says is "the world's fastest interconnect linking the graphics and memory system chiplets at up to 5.3 TB/s."

The company is boasting a number of big performance improvements, including AI performance gains up to 2.7 times higher compared to the closest RDNA 2-based offerings, as well as up to a 1.8x raytracing performance jump. Perhaps most exciting for those with the funds to upgrade is the 4K performance enhancement: AMD claims up to 1.7 times greater performance when playing in 4K. That figure, however, applies to "select titles," according to the company.

Buyers will be able to use 4K displays at up to 480Hz and 8K displays at up to 165Hz thanks to the DisplayPort 2.1 support, among other things. Other features include a wider 384-bit memory bus, the inclusion of AMD's latest Radiance Display Engine, and a dual media engine that can handle encoding/decoding streams up to 8K at 60 fps. The best news? The new AMD GPUs are only a few weeks away from release.

The new Radeon offerings may be what you're looking for, assuming you want NVIDIA's RTX 4080 or 4090 but don't have the budget for either of them. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which is the higher-end model of the two at 2.3 GHz and 96 compute units, is priced at $999. You can save a hundred bucks if you don't mind a small sacrifice in performance, however.

The Radeon RX 7900 XT, which features a 2.0 GHz clock speed and 84 compute units, is priced at $899. The XTX offering has a total board power (TBP) rating of 355 watts, while the XT model comes in with a TBP rating of 300 watts, so keep that in mind when making your choice. As for availability, you'll be able to get both Radeon RX 7900 GPUs starting on December 13. AMD says the models will be available from its website and "leading board partners." In comparison to AMD's latest models, NVIDIA's high-end GeForce RTX 4090 is priced at $1,599, and the RTX 4080 at $1,199.

The RX 7900 XTX slots above the RX 6950 XT, which is based on RDNA 2, sports 80 compute units, and has a TBP of 335 watts. The RX 7900 XT, meanwhile, slots in below the RX 6950 XT model, but comes in ahead of the RX 6800 XT, which is likewise based on RDNA 2, packs 72 compute units, 16GB of 256-bit GDDR6 memory, and a TBP of 300 watts. In terms of performance, the RX 7900 XTX is what you're looking for, but if budget is also a concern, the RX 6800 XT is priced at a much lower $649. Of course, it's probably best to wait for performance comparisons to start rolling in before you break out your credit card.