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Editor’s Observe
• Unique assessment date: February 2024
• Launch worth: MSRP at $549 / £549 / AU$849
• Lowest worth now: $729.99 / £519.98 / AU$1,125.85
Replace – April 2025: The AMD RX 7900 GRE sat on the high of our best graphics card shopping for information for practically a yr, due to its sturdy gaming efficiency and distinctive pricing, and if you could find it on the cabinets immediately, it is nonetheless a incredible graphics card to have in your PC for the following few years.
The issue, sadly, is that it is not really easy to seek out anymore, and with the brand new AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 largely supplanting it when it comes to efficiency at a barely increased worth, both a type of playing cards shall be a greater choice for almost anybody searching for the best 1440p graphics card or finest low cost 4K graphics card out there immediately.
Unique unedited assessment follows…
John Loeffler
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE: Two-minute assessment
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE was initially launched in China again in July 2023, and from what everybody was instructed, that card was going to be unique to that area.
Effectively, following the launch of the RTX Super series of GPUs last month, AMD’s determined to shock everybody and launch the RX 7900 GRE globally, beginning this week, and it appears to be like primed to upend the midrange GPU market in a reasonably large method.
That is as a result of the RX 7900 GRE (Golden Rabbit Version) is occurring sale beginning at $549, which places it immediately in competitors with the Nvidia RTX 4070 on worth, and undercuts the Nvidia RTX 4070 Tremendous by providing aggressive efficiency for simply over 90% of the price.
To be clear, the cardboard that’s being launched globally is identical card that has already been out there for Chinese language shoppers, and so it has been extensively benchmarked for months, with a lot of that knowledge freely out there on-line for everybody to see.
This has little doubt pushed a lot of the worldwide curiosity within the RX 7900 GRE because it initially launched again in July, and I absolutely anticipate this card to fly off the cabinets since it’s with out query one of many best graphics cards for the midrange you are going to discover.
By way of uncooked artificial efficiency, the RX 7900 GRE follows the acquainted AMD-Nvidia sample the place the Radeon card is healthier at pure rasterization whereas the GeForce card is the higher ray-tracer, however the distinction between the RX 7900 GRE and the RTX 4070 Tremendous in ray-tracing efficiency is not as vast because it might need been final technology.
What’s extra, in terms of gaming, Nvidia’s benefit in native ray tracing is overcome by the RX 7900 GRE as quickly as you convey upscaling into the combo, which you invariably should do at any time when ray tracing above 1080p is concerned.
The RX 7900 GRE is even a way more succesful artistic card than I used to be anticipating, as long as you are not working with CUDA, however for graphic designers, photographers, and video editors, it is a surprisingly highly effective GPU for lots much less cash than it is rivals.
Total, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE is not so highly effective that it fully knocks out Nvidia’s RTX 4070 Tremendous, however it’s hitting Nvidia’s latest GPU loads more durable than I believe Nvidia was anticipating so quickly after launch. Sadly, this does put the only-slightly-cheaper-but-not-as-good AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT in a little bit of an ungainly place, however for players seeking to get the very best efficiency for his or her cash, extra choices are higher on this case.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE: Value & availability
- How a lot does it value? $549 (about £440/AU$770)
- When is it out there? Out there now
- The place are you able to get it? Out there within the US, UK, and Australia
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE is accessible beginning February 27, 2024, with a US MSRP of $549 (about £440/AU$770). This is identical worth because the Nvidia RTX 4070, $50 lower than the RTX 4070 Tremendous, and $50 greater than the RX 7800 XT.
This launch would not embrace an AMD reference card, so you’ll need to purchase the RX 7900 GRE from third-party companions like ASRock, Gigabyte, Sapphire, and others. The pattern I used to be despatched for assessment is the PowerColor Hellhound RX 7900 GRE, a mannequin line that sometimes sells for AMD’s MSRP or beneath (when on sale).
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE: Options & specs
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT |
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE |
|---|---|---|
|
Value |
$749 (about £600 / AU$1,050) |
$549 (about £440/AU$770) |
|
GPU |
Navi 31 |
Navi 31 |
|
Compute Items |
84 |
80 |
|
Shaders |
5,376 |
5,120 |
|
Ray processors |
84 |
80 |
|
AI/Tensor processors |
336 |
320 |
|
Base clock |
1,500 MHz |
1,287 MHz |
|
Enhance clock |
2,394 MHz |
2,245 MHz |
|
Reminiscence Clock |
2,500 MHz |
2,250 MHz |
|
Reminiscence kind |
GDDR6 |
GDDR6 |
|
Reminiscence pool |
20 GB |
16 GB |
|
Reminiscence pace (efficient) |
20 Gbps |
18 Gbps |
|
Reminiscence bandwidth |
800.0 GB/s |
576.0 GB/s |
|
Bus interface |
320-bit |
256-bit |
|
TGP |
300W |
260W |
|
Required energy provide |
700W |
700W |
|
Energy connector |
2 x 8-pin |
2 x 8-pin |
|
Outputs |
3 x DisplayPort 1.4b, 1 x HDMI 2.1 |
3 x DisplayPort 1.4b, 1 x HDMI 2.1 |
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE is a modified Navi 31 GPU with 4 fewer compute items than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, in addition to slower clock speeds. It is energy necessities are additionally formally decrease at a beginning TGP of 260W, however it will differ by which card you go for.
The Radeon RX 7900 GRE additionally has 16GB GDDR6 VRAM to the RX 7900 XT’s 20GB, and whereas the RX 7900 XT has a 320-bit reminiscence bus, the RX 7900 GRE has a slimmer — however nonetheless sizeable — 256-bit bus. With a reminiscence clock of two,250 MHz (in comparison with the RX 7900 XT’s 2,500 MHz), the RX 7900 GRE is available in with an efficient reminiscence pace of 18 Gbps and a reminiscence bandwidth of 576 GB/s, which is a notable decline from the RX 7900 XT’s 800 Gbps and 800 GB/s, respectively.
Additionally notable are the 2 8-pin energy connectors, which will not require you to fuss round with a 16-pin connector like Nvidia’s newest graphics playing cards require you to do, whether or not that is by means of an adapter or an ATX 3.0 energy provide.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE: Design
Whereas there’s an AMD reference card for the RX 7900 GRE, AMD has stated that world availability will solely come by means of AIB companions, so the design you get together with your card will differ by producer.
The cardboard I examined, the PowerColor Hellhound RX 7900 GRE, sports activities a triple-fan cooler with RGB lighting within the fan. It is a lengthy card to make certain, and despite the fact that it is technically a dual-slot card, the shroud makes for a good match.
The backplate of the Hellhound RX 7900 GRE has some notable options, just like the Hellhound brand, the uncovered GPU bracket, and a gap within the backplate reverse the third fan to go away an open path for air to move over the GPU cooler’s heatsink fins to enhance cooling effectivity.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE: Efficiency
Now we come to the center of the matter. I am unable to inform if AMD was impressed by the discharge of the Nvidia RTX 4070 Tremendous or not, however no matter satisfied Workforce Purple to convey the RX 7900 GRE out of China to the remainder of the world, midrange players in all places must be grateful as a result of that is simply the very best midrange graphics card in the marketplace proper now.
Picture 1 of 15
Beginning with artificial benchmarks, the everyday rasterization-ray tracing divide between AMD and Nvidia stays, however like we have seen with different playing cards this technology, the hole is narrowing. The Nvidia 4070 and RTX 4070 Tremendous undoubtedly pull forward when it comes to uncooked compute efficiency, however total, the RX 7900 GRE is the champ of the under-$600s.
Picture 1 of 6
For artistic use, the RX 7900 GRE is the strongest rasterizer, however lags Nvidia with video modifying, and critical stumbles in terms of 3D rendering as seen in Blender Benchmark 4.0.0.
Picture 1 of 39
In relation to gaming, although, the RX 7900 GRE is the clear winner amongst midrange playing cards, with spectacular 1080p and 1440p gaming efficiency, with solely barely worse ray tracing efficiency than the RTX 4070 Tremendous.
As a 4K graphics card, nonetheless, the RX 7900 GRE is not that far behind the RTX 4070 Ti, with the previous getting a mean 55 fps (30 fps minimal) and the latter getting a mean of 63 fps (minimal 42 fps). The RTX 4070 Tremendous, in the meantime, solely averages 41 fps at 4K, with a minimal of 28 fps.
In the end, the RTX 4070 Tremendous cannot actually be thought-about among the many best 4K graphics cards, however the RX 7900 GRE undoubtedly can, due to its wider reminiscence pool and bigger reminiscence bus.
Picture 1 of 2
In fact, this efficiency comes at the price of energy draw. You may throw the official 260W TGP proper out the window right here, with the RX 7900 GRE knocking down 302W, however the sturdy cooling efficiency on the PowerColor Hellhound card did handle to maintain the RX 7900 GRE beneath 53 levels Celsius.
Picture 1 of 8
Total, then, there’s simply no getting round the truth that the RX 7900 GRE successfully outperforms every other card within the midrange. And regardless of the RX 7900 GRE falling properly wanting the RTX 4070-series GPUs total, it is value retaining in thoughts that with Photoshop and comparable rasterization-dependent applications, the RX 7900 GRE performs the very best, and it would not fall too far behind the RTX playing cards in terms of video modifying.
The weak spot of the RX 7900 GRE is that almost all, if not all, 3D modeling software program depends so closely on Nvidia’s CUDA that it closely skews the artistic efficiency averages, that it may be considerably misleading—except you NEED this graphics card for 3D modeling. If that is the case, nothing else issues, and it’s essential to go together with an RTX 4070-class graphics card regardless of the RX 7900 GRE’s superior efficiency in all places else.
How many individuals will that stipulation apply to in the end? Not sufficient to carry the RX 7900 GRE from claiming the crown as the very best graphics card within the midrange, and since its last worth rating is simply shy of the RX 7800 XT’s, there actually is not any motive to go for every other card proper now. The RX 7900 GRE is actually simply that good.
Must you purchase the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE?
Purchase the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE if…
Do not buy it if…
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE: Additionally take into account
If my AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE assessment has you searching for different choices, listed here are two extra graphics playing cards to think about…
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE |
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Tremendous |
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Value |
$549 (about £440/AU$770) |
$599 (about £480/AU$840) |
$499 (about £400/AU$700) |
|
GPU |
Navi 31 |
AD104 |
Navi 32 |
|
Compute Items |
80 |
56 |
60 |
|
Shaders |
5,120 |
7,168 |
3,840 |
|
Ray processors |
80 |
56 |
60 |
|
AI/Tensor processors |
320 |
224 |
240 |
|
Base clock |
1,287 MHz |
1,980 MHz |
1,295 MHz |
|
Enhance clock |
2,245 MHz |
2,475 MHz |
2,430 MHz |
|
Reminiscence Clock |
2,250 MHz |
1,313 MHz |
2,438 MHz |
|
Reminiscence kind |
GDDR6 |
GDDR6X |
GDDR6 |
|
Reminiscence pool |
16 GB |
12 GB |
16 GB |
|
Reminiscence pace (efficient) |
18 Gbps |
21 Gbps |
19.5 Gbps |
|
Reminiscence bandwidth |
576.0 GB/s |
504.2 GB/s |
624.1 GB/s |
|
Bus interface |
256-bit |
192-bit |
256-bit |
|
TGP |
260W |
220W |
263W |
|
Required energy provide |
700W |
550W |
600W |
|
Energy connector |
2 x 8-pin |
1 x 16-pin |
2 x 8-pin |
How I examined the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE
- I spent a few week with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE
- I examined its artificial, artistic, and gaming efficiency
- I used our customary suite of benchmarks
Check system specs
That is the system I used to check the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE
CPU: Intel Core i9-14900K
CPU Cooler: MSI MAG Coreliquid E360 AIO Cooler
RAM: 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5-6000
Motherboard: MSI MPG Z790 Tomahawk WiFi
SSD: Samsung 990 Professional 4TB NVMe M.2 SSD
Energy Provide: Thermaltake PF3 1050W ATX 3.0
Case: Praxis Wetbench
I spent a few week testing the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE, together with intensive benchmarking in addition to normal use of the cardboard in my major work PC.
I additionally made certain to benchmark different competing graphics playing cards in the identical class with up to date drivers to make sure appropriate comparable knowledge, the place crucial.
I have been reviewing pc {hardware} for years, and I’ve examined and retested all the finest graphics playing cards of the previous two generations, so I do know very properly how a graphics card in a given class should carry out.
We pleasure ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing course of, providing up long-term consideration to the merchandise we assessment and ensuring our critiques are up to date and maintained – no matter when a tool was launched, when you can nonetheless purchase it, it is on our radar.
First reviewed February 2024