AMD Announces Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT Graphics Cards

Source: AMD AMD Announces Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT Graphics Cards

News from the AMD together we advance_gaming Event

AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su took the stage in Las Vegas (no, this isn’t CES – yet) to lead the highly-anticipated launch of RDNA 3 graphics, and your favorite PCPer EiC was on-site for the event. As you can tell from the title of this post, the hardware announced includes a pair of Radeon RX 7000 Series GPUs, which bring back the “XTX” branding at the high end (we approve of this).

The initial Radeon RX 7000 launch consists of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and Radeon RX 7900 XT. Hopefully there are enough Xs in there to prevent confusion with the recently-launched Ryzen 7900X processor, but this editor would have liked a different numbering scheme for clarity. At least we have “XTX” back from the ATI days.

AMD Radeon RX 7000 Graphics Cards Slide

These new graphics cards are based on the world’s first chiplet GPU, and offer some impressive specifications including 24 GB of 384-bit GDDR6 (not GDDR6X) on the flagship XTX model – with 20 GB of 320-bit GDDR6 on the XT model (one fewer memory chiplet enabled).

The flagship XTX part has 96 CUs, a 2.3 GHz Game Clock, 24 GB 384-bit GDDR6, and a rated 355W TBP (total board power). The XT part has 84 CUs, a 2.0 GHz Game Clock, 20 GB 320-bit GDDR6, and a lower 300W TBP. AMD is also, as previously stated by Scott Herkelman, using standard 8-pin PCIe connectors for these cards. Oh, and speaking of PCIe, these are PCI Express 4.0 devices.

AMD Radeon RX 7000 RDNA 3 Die Slide 1

The new GPU features a 5nm GCD (graphics) die, surrounded by six 6 nm MCD (memory) dies – again, one disabled on the XT model. Each of the MCD chiplets provide a 64-bit memory controller, thus 384-bit on the XTX part (6 x 64-bit). These are connected via the “world’s fastest chiplet interconnect” with peak bandwidth of 5.3 TB/s. The 5 nm GCD measures 300 mm^2, with the 6 nm MCDs each measuring 37 mm^2. In total we are looking at 58 billion transistors.

Performance numbers against the competition will have to wait, as AMD is not showing any comparisons to NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090, and this launch happens before the GeForce RTX 4080 release. Instead, AMD focused on performance relative to their previous generation, with AMD stating that pure rendering performance of the RX 7900 XTX is 1.5x greater than the RX 6950 XT.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs 6950 XT 4K Perf Slide

AMD provides a limited glimpse of performance uplift compared to the RX 6950 XT at 4K resolution in the above slide, with gains of up to 1.7x vs. the RDNA 2 flagship in these titles. Part of this performance uplift comes from the 2nd Gen Infinity Cache, which provides a 2.7x increase in peak bandwidth compared to RDNA 2’s Infinity Cache.

AMD has implemented DisplayPort 2.1 with these GPUs, giving them a distinct advantage this generation over NVIDIA’s 40 Series, which is of course limited to DisplayPort 1.4. Another feature of the new RDNA 3 graphics cards is full AV1 encode/decode support, as now all three graphics card vendors offer this in hardware.

AMD Radeon RX 7000 RDNA 3 Dual Media Engine Slide

AMD also announced that RDNA 3 offers AMD’s next generation ray tracing tech, with 1.5x more rays in flight, new dedication instructions, and new ray box sorting and traversal. What this adds up to is stated performance gains of up to 50% per CU compared to RDNA 2.

Beyond performance, at the forefront of AMD’s goals for RDNA 3 is to accelerate performance-per watt leadership. AMD states that RDNA 3 provides 54% gen-over-gen perf-per-watt, which matches the gains we saw going from RDNA to RDNA 2.

Pricing and Availability

We begin with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which will launch at $999 on December 13, 2022.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Graphics Card Slide

The XTX has 96 CUs, a 2.3 GHz Game Clock, 24 GB 384-bit GDDR6, and a 355W TBP

And now the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, which also launches December 13, 2022, at a price of $899. Maybe.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT Graphics Card Slide

The XT has 84 CUs, a 2.0 GHz Game Clock, 20 GB 320-bit GDDR6, and a 300W TBP

I suspect that the $899 price of the Radeon RX 7900 XT is just a placeholder until we see how NVIDIA decides to position the graphics card formerly known as the RTX 4080 12GB. This is pure speculation, but the $100 proximity between these new Radeon GPUs feels slightly off. But I could be totally off base here. Personally, I would always pay the extra $100 for the flagship, and if nothing changes I’m guessing the RX 7900 XT will be a essentially a consolation for those unable to purchase an RX 7900 XTX.

Let me know what you think in the comments. Would you save $100 to purchase the $899 XT with the XTX at $999? Will the XT really launch at $799? Are you tired of GPUs over $500 in general?

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About The Author

Sebastian Peak

Editor-in-Chief at PC Perspective. Writer of computer stuff, vintage PC nerd, and full-time dad. Still in search of the perfect smartphone. In his nonexistent spare time Sebastian's hobbies include hi-fi audio, guitars, and road bikes. Currently investigating time travel.

7 Comments

  1. BigTed

    I’m not sure what I was expecting but I was kinda hoping the chiplets would be packages of CUs rather than just a cost reduction exercise for the cache.

    Reply
    • Sebastian Peak

      I suspect we will learn more about this decision later 🙂

      Reply
  2. collie man

    It’s cool, and I’m WAY WAY WAY past needing a massive total system upgrade (still on the fx 8350 Sam gave me with a rx580) and I will almost deff get a 7xxx something and a 5xxx something or other….. there just isn’t any excitement in new announcements anymore. Back in the long long ago, when we were young and foolish the change from core2 to Ix was INSAINE!!! GTX 480 to 580, all the way up to the 1080TI, from the origional 7000 series to the R9 gen, these were the days of wild wild west. Today, it just feels like….. I duno, but if feels bla.

    Reply
    • Jeffrey Goldman

      Absolutely agree. And where is the entry level GPU (below $299 and preferably below $249). We need something to pair for an entry level PC with either the 7600x (or even a last generation 5600x although a B550 should give you 3-4 generations of AM5 CPUs) or core i5-12400/13400 to get you a budget build under $700????? CPUs/GPUs of all generations are starting to be in stock and with PCI-e gen 4 NVME SSDs at ridiculously low prices (less than $100/TB).

      Reply
      • collie man

        I feel ya man. I’m still waiting for the promise that was supposed to be Llano, an APU that can actually run a brand new game at 1080 low 60fps. We all know it’s possible (every console proves it) and it’s probable that there have been plenty of working prototypes but it’s just not gonna happen

        Reply
  3. meisterburger

    The price for the XTX is lower than expected which is good. How good remains to be seen when we get the benchmark results and relative performance to a 4080 or 4090.
    I run a ultrawide monitor with a 5120×1140 resolution and need the most power I can get. What Nvidia has been charging over the last couple of years, however, is def beyond my limits. At a thousand dollars for a 7900XTX, I’m down. But I will wait for the performance numbers before making a decision what to buy.

    Reply
  4. Graphic Cards

    Informative post! This is a great share thank you

    Reply

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