AMD just recently launched its latest Radeon RX 7000-series graphics cards against Nvidia’s RTX 40-series GPUs. For those of Nvidia, the RTX 4090 is a decidedly expensive but very powerful GPU and is currently considered the leader of the present pack.
The RX 7900 XT and the RX 7900 XTX are two of the strongest graphic cards AMD has in its arsenal, being very close to the market’s top. How does AMD’s latest and best stack against the best that Nvidia has to offer?
You’re in the right place if you’ve been pondering which GPU will be the eventual undisputed champion. We know the right answer because we put both cards through a thorough examination.
AMD RX 7900 XTX versus Nvidia RTX 4090: Performance
Here at PC Perspective, the RTX 4090 and the RX 7900 XTX both have been put through the mill in a grueling battery of tests, ranging from gaming to more synthetic performance benchmarks.
Well, the judgment is here, and while both the GPUs have their merits, the RTX 4090 is an extremely powerful card, which no doubt is the finest that can be bought in the market currently. But on the other side, it is expensive, and not too many games are there that are actually capable of utilizing its full extreme powers.
The flagship graphics card from Nvidia is able to run AAA games at their maximum settings and in 4K resolution without any hiccups. Even more convincing was the fact that it was able to complete Genshin Impact at 13K, a task that, despite being impractical, is still an impressive achievement.
On the other hand, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is a powerful graphics card that is ideal for playing games in 4K resolution; however, it has no chance of competing with the RTX 4090 when it comes to the latter’s unmatched level of pure performance.
The RTX 4090 managed an astounding 113 frames per second (fps) on average when we put it through our 4K gaming tests. The RTX 4090 looks like an absolute monster in comparison to the RX 7900 XTX, which was only able to deliver a frame rate of 76.4 fps. There is no way around it — the price of the 4090 is going to go up by approximately 47 percent. However, when compared to the RTX 4080, the RX 7900 XTX fares much better; however, Nvidia is still victorious despite the relatively narrow margin of victory.
The RTX 4090 offers a performance boost of 48% in comparison to the RTX 3090 Ti and a boost of 68% in comparison to the AMD RX 6950 XT. However, no one should buy this GPU just to play at 1440p because there are other excellent graphics cards that can produce 1440p resolution that won’t cost you $1,600.
Then there is the Nvidia RTX 4090, which opens the door to the very best ray tracing, and the latest form of DLSS 3, capable of generating complete frames rather than just single pixels. Put it all together, and truly fantastic gaming performance courtesy of the Nvidia RTX 4090 is achievable, but at a good deal of additional cost.
Historically, AMD hasn’t had the same kind of ray tracing performance as Nvidia, and this generation is no different. For these tests, both of the GPUs have been put through their paces playing Cyberpunk 2077 in 4K with all of the settings turned up to their utmost and with ray tracing turned on.
At 42.9, the RTX 4090 made it extremely playable, while the RX 7900 XTX could only manage 21.5 frames per second. The difference isn’t just because the RTX 4090 is simply a higher-grade card-the RTX 4080 performs miles better at 29 frames per second. That means AMD may have sorted out its ray tracing technology in this generation, but nothing to be afraid of from Nvidia concerning that technology, either way.
This time, though, AMD appears to peg a lot of hopes on proportional power-performance and cost-performance. It’s, therefore, a pretty well-rounded GPU, and if it can be had for a price that’s roughly in line with its recommendation, it constitutes an excellent value for gaming at 4K. The RX 7900 XTF has the most basic per-frame pricing once you factor its MSRP in, as should be pretty clear from this chart that’s just been shown to you.
AMD RX 7900 XTX vs. Nvidia RTX 4090: Specs
Inside both the RTX 4090 and the RX 7900 XTX, there’s new technology and architectural designs from the makers of both. In the case of Nvidia, the main product will be the RTX 4090, manufactured by TSMC on its N4 manufacturing process, with the basis of this being the brand-new Ada Lovelace Architecture. At the moment, the most powerful video card from AMD is the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and at second place comes the RX 7900 XT.
The newly released AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is part of AMD’s RDNA 3 product family, was manufactured using a 5nm process and incorporates a Navi 31 XT GPU die in its architecture. AMD went with an interesting new approach, which was similar to that which was used in the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and used a 5nm graphics compute die (GCD) in addition to a 6nm memory cache die (MCD) in the same GPU, stacking them on top of each other.
This was similar to the approach which was used in the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Because of this, the GPU is able to pack more of a punch, helped along by the enormous 96 MB of Infinity Cache.
Even though the RDNA 3 powers do provide the 7900 XTX a considerable jump over its predecessor (the 6900 XT), it’s still no match for the behemoth of a GPU that Nvidia has created. Instead of competing with Nvidia’s RTX 4080, the AMD flagship is going up against it.
The following table compares the two flagships with regard to their individual specs.
| AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 | |
| Cores | 6,144 | 16,384 CUDA cores |
| Maximum clock | 2,3GHz | 2,5GHz |
| Memory size | 24GB GDDR6 | 24GB GDDR6X |
| Memory bus | 384-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory speed | 20Gbps | 21Gbps |
| TBP | 355W | 450W |
Price and Availability
The flagship products of Nvidia are known for many things, but being inexpensive is not one of those things. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 was made available for purchase on October 12, 2022, and it has a starting price of $1,599 for the Founders Edition model. The cost of the customized versions produced by Nvidia’s partners, such as MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus, is significantly higher and can approach the mark of $2,000 in certain circumstances.
Despite the eye-popping price tag, the GPU was extremely popular and quickly sold out at most retailers. Since scalpers are currently attempting to resell it at a reasonably high markup, it is possible that you will not be able to acquire an RTX 4090 for the price that is currently recommended. It is hoped that the price will eventually return to its normal level.
When it comes to the pricing of their products, AMD is usually somewhat more reasonable than Nvidia, and that holds true for the new line-up of products. The price of the RX 7900 XTX is most definitely more to the liking of the consumer. The GPU first saw its day in the light on November 3 and became available on December 13 for $1,000. For comparison, it’s useful to put it up against the not-quite-flagship RX 7900 XT that retails for $900, launched on the same day.
The new flagship product from AMD is now far less expensive as a result of this development; nevertheless, there are still other aspects to take into account, such as the technical specs and overall performance of both the Nvidia and AMD graphics cards.
It depends on your demands
Which of the GPUs that we’ve tested is going to have the best performance? Is AMD’s RX 7900 XTX superior to Nvidia’s RTX 4090, or does Nvidia’s RTX 4090 come out on top?
It should not come as a surprise that the answer is that Nvidia will maintain its position at the top of the list of the best graphics cards that are currently available. This is likely to remain the case until Nvidia releases a successor to it, such as an RTX 4090 Ti, which is unlikely to occur anytime soon.
The RTX 4090 is an extraordinarily powerful graphics processing unit (GPU) that can handle almost anything you can think of. On the other side, it’s pricey, and during its (very brief) life, it hasn’t managed to stay out of any controversy. Because it is such a large card and the cable that comes with it is unable to withstand being bent, there have been reports of the power connector and cable melting when they were subjected to extreme amounts of strain.
Even though this issue only appears to affect a small fraction of RTX 4090 owners, it is still a problem that AMD has completely sidestepped because it does not make use of the 12VHPWR connector that appears to be the root cause of the issue with Nvidia’s products.
The RX 7900 XTX from AMD was never intended to be a rival to the RTX 4090 in terms of performance. In spite of this, it is still a superb graphics card, and even at its current price of close to one thousand dollars, it offers an outstanding value. if your interest in ray tracing is not particularly high. if you want to game at 4K resolution but don’t want to spend as much money as you would on an RTX 4090 or 4080, the AMD card is an excellent choice.
If you’re wondering which graphics processing unit (GPU) to get, the response will rely on how much money you have available to spend as well as how badly you require the kind of top-tier performance that the RTX 4090 can deliver. Get the RX 7900 XTX if you are looking for something that offers better value.
If all you care about is performance, then the RTX 4090 is an excellent choice for a graphics processing unit (GPU).
Would you like to read more about AMD RX 7900 XTX vs. Nvidia RTX 4090-related articles? If so, we invite you to take a look at our other tech topics before you leave!
