Radeon RX 7900 XT vs. GeForce RTX 4070 Ti

It is time for a brand new GPU mega benchmark, evaluating the brand new Radeon RX 7900 XT face to face with the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti in 50+ video games, although some titles have been examined utilizing a number of configurations, with and with out ray tracing for instance, so there’s rather a lot to go over.

For this shootout we have our arms on the huge PowerColor Hellhound Radeon 7900 XT which may presently be had for $830, which is definitely $70 beneath the MSRP, in order that’s good. In reality, fairly a couple of 7900 XT’s at the moment are promoting beneath MSRP with some as little as $800, which makes you surprise why AMD did not simply begin at this extra affordable worth level to start with.

For comparability we’ve got the Asus TUF Gaming RTX 4070 Ti which is among the extra reasonably priced 4070 Ti fashions, although it is priced above MSRP at $850, a $50 premium there.

Due to this fact, because it issues stand available in the market right this moment, there are a number of Radeon 7900 XT fashions obtainable for $800, whereas the most cost effective 4070 Ti is $830, with most priced at $850 or extra. That is not a large distinction, however the Radeon GPU is now cheaper, which is the alternative of launch pricing.

Now, our day-one Radeon RX 7900 XT evaluation wasn’t all that favorable and we discovered it to supply exceptionally poor worth at $900. With out query, we felt you might as a substitute spend $100 extra on the 7900 XTX which wasn’t nice worth both however was sooner and total higher.

The GeForce competitors was actually no higher although. The RTX 4080 set a low bar at $1,200 and you’d suppose AMD would have jumped on the probability to make Nvidia look silly, however that was not the case. Nvidia then replied to the weak Radeon 7900 XT with an virtually equally weak providing, the RTX 4070 Ti at $800.

Though the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was underwhelming, its cheaper price tag positioned it in a barely higher place when it comes to worth in comparison with the Radeon.

Three months later, it might appear the tables have turned… and now it is the Radeon GPU that is the extra reasonably priced possibility, so it may be attention-grabbing to see how they stack up when it comes to efficiency utilizing the most recent drivers throughout a large vary of video games.

For testing we used a system powered by the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, however with the second CCD disabled to make sure most gaming efficiency — primarily we’re testing with the but to be launched 7800X3D. We used a Gigabyte X670E Aorus Grasp motherboard utilizing 32GB of DDR5-6000 CL30 reminiscence and the most recent AMD and Nvidia show drivers.

As typical, we’ll go over the info for round a dozen video games earlier than leaping into the large breakdown graphs. The resolutions of curiosity listed here are 1440p and 4K, so let’s get into it.

Benchmarks

Beginning with Fortnite utilizing the Epic high quality preset within the DirectX 11 mode, we discover that the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the sooner GPU on this fashionable title, although body time consistency is not practically pretty much as good as what we see with the Radeon 7900 XT with a a lot bigger variance between the common body price and 1% lows.

In consequence, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was 8% sooner on common at 1440p, however 17% slower when evaluating 1% lows.

The efficiency developments at 4K change although, and now the RTX 4070 Ti is the clear winner, delivering 9% larger common body charges with 13% larger 1% lows.

Utilizing the identical visible high quality settings however shifting to DX12, we see a large decline in efficiency, particularly at 1440p the place the RTX 4070 Ti is just a little over 30% slower (in comparison with itself working on DX11).

Some readers have commented up to now that the sport runs higher utilizing DX12 against DX11, however that is actually not the case with the Epic high quality settings and a strong CPU. It is also potential these of you with a slower CPU will discover DX12 to be sooner, however sometimes we count on you will discover extra frames when utilizing DX11.

Now with {hardware} ray tracing enabled (together with Lumen and Nanite), we discover that efficiency could be very comparable utilizing both GPU.

Which means for probably the most spectacular examples of ray tracing we’ve got thus far, RDNA 3 is ready to match Ada Lovelace. Due to this fact it may be very attention-grabbing to see how these two architectures examine in future Unreal Engine 5 titles when utilizing ray tracing.

Transferring on to Name of Obligation: Trendy Warfare II, we have dropped the ‘Primary’ high quality preset testing from this comparability as some individuals felt testing this title twice with two very totally different high quality presets was solely giving AMD a bonus, and this was regardless of the second end result accounting for lower than 1% of the general end result (there have been 62 information factors). However anyway, scaling is identical, so we’d as nicely simply deal with the Extremely information.

Right here the Radeon 7900 XT blasted the RTX 4070 Ti by a 31% margin at 1440p, pumping out 174 fps on common. Then at 4K, the Radeon GPU was sooner, this time by 23%, going from 82 fps to 101 fps.

Subsequent up we’ve got The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt utilizing the extremely high quality preset, however with the brand new ray tracing results disabled. Each GPUs pumped out simply shy of 200 fps at 1440p after which over 100 fps at 4K, although right here the 7900 XT was 11% sooner.

Good efficiency total as each GPUs ship a extremely gratifying gaming expertise.

The Witcher 3 once more, however with ray tracing enabled, we have additionally gone forward and enabled upscaling, utilizing FSR 2 high quality, as this enables for an apples to apples comparability.

Even with the assistance of upscaling, neither GPU may handle even 60 fps at 1440p, which means efficiency was round 4x larger with RT disabled, that is a surprising distinction and personally I could not justify enabling RT on this title.

Should you do wish to use ray tracing the RTX 4070 Ti is the higher alternative, delivering 24% extra efficiency at 1440p. I believe it is protected to disregard 4K outcomes, except you are pleased with a tragic console-like 30 fps, in your premium and really costly GPU.

Transferring on to F1 22, we examined this recreation solely with ray tracing enabled as that is the default when utilizing the Extremely Excessive preset. For these of you after extra frames, your first cease ought to be to disable RT results because it does massively enhance body charges for under a minor downgrade in visuals.

In any case, body charges have been first rate with over 100 fps at 1440p and 60 fps at 4K, and each GPUs enabled the identical stage of efficiency.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide was additionally benchmarked with ray tracing enabled and this offered the 4070 Ti with a 14% efficiency benefit at 1440p, however did appear to interrupt efficiency at 4K, seen when wanting on the 1% lows as we’re exceeding the VRAM buffer right here.

Nonetheless, the Radeon 7900 XT solely managed 31 fps, and that is not precisely a win in my e-book.

A Plague Story: Requiem was examined utilizing the extremely high quality preset and right here the Radeon 7900 XT was a lot sooner, delivering 22% extra frames at 1440p and 25% extra at 4K. A snug win for AMD on this new recreation.

The Callisto Protocol is one other new title and this one permits FSR 2 high quality by default when utilizing the extremely high quality preset. We did not change the setting and consequently each GPUs have been good for over 170 fps at 1440p and over 100 fps at 4K.

The Radeon 7900 XT was a smidgen sooner however total efficiency was the identical throughout each GPUs.

Atomic Coronary heart is essentially the most just lately launched recreation we’re testing with and it is yet one more title constructed utilizing Unreal Engine 4.

At 1440p each GPUs delivered 103 fps utilizing the utmost visible settings after which simply over 60 fps at 4K the place the Radeon 7900 XT was 10% sooner.

Cyberpunk 2077 was examined utilizing the prime quality preset with upscaling manually disabled, although we even have some RT outcomes which we’ll have a look at in a second.

At 1440p, the Radeon 7900 XT was 18% sooner than the 4070 Ti, rendering 117 fps. We then see that margin blow out to 34% at 4K because the GeForce GPU was good for simply 44 fps against 59 fps for the 7900 XT.

Now with ray tracing enabled together with FSR 2 high quality for some upscaling, we discover dramatically totally different outcomes. At 1440p body charges for the Radeon 7900 XT drop by a staggering 48% and that is with upscaling enabled.

The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti noticed a way more modest 14% lower in efficiency and consequently was able to delivering nicely over 60 fps at 1440p.

The 4K efficiency outcomes are much more attention-grabbing. The Radeon 7900 XT noticed a 44% lower in body charges, whereas the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti delivered the identical stage of efficiency because it did with ray tracing disabled, and that is potential due to upscaling.

So the Radeon went from 34% sooner at 4K with ray tracing and upscaling disabled, to 25% slower with each turned on.

Lastly, we’ve got everybody’s favourite online game, Hogwarts Legacy.

The Radeon 7900 XT rips the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti a brand new one right here, delivering 28% extra frames at 1440p with a staggering 56% improve for the 1% lows. The margins shut up at 4K and now the Radeon 7900 XT is simply 16% sooner, which admittedly remains to be a big margin, however nothing like what was seen at 1440p.

Enabling ray tracing adjustments the image fairly a bit — not a lot within the recreation’s graphics although, relying on the place you’re — but it surely actually adjustments how our graphs look.

The Radeon 7900 XT not dominates the RTX 4070 Ti and actually at 1440p is now 9% slower with simply 59 fps on common. That is a large 54% discount in FPS for the 7900 XT when enabling ray tracing and a 36% lower for the 4070 Ti.

The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti does run into VRAM associated efficiency points at 4K, and whereas the Radeon 7900 XT is ready to keep away from such points, with simply 27 fps on common it was hardly a fascinating end result.

Efficiency Abstract

After taking an in depth have a look at a small pattern of the 50 video games we examined in complete, let’s now examine the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and Radeon RX 7900 XT throughout all titles we spent the previous week benchmarking. Beginning with the 1440p information…

Effectively, that is fairly unexciting is not it? After a large spherical of benchmarking, we have discovered that the 7900 XT and 4070 Ti are neck and neck at 1440p on common. Although that should not come as a shock because the Radeon 7900 XT was simply 4% sooner on common in our day-one evaluation the place we separated the rasterization and ray tracing outcomes.

With many extra ray tracing outcomes included on this comparability, the margins do not change dramatically, so it is honest to say the 7900 XT and 4070 Ti are very comparable total.

After all, we nonetheless see efficiency swings of round 30% in both course: Trendy Warfare II, Hogwarts Legacy with RT disabled, and A Plague Story Requiem are all nice titles for the Radeon. Whereas Cyberpunk 2077 with RT, Metro Exodus Enhanced Version, which in fact makes use of RT, Dying Mild 2 with RT, and The Witcher 3 with RT enabled are all performing higher on the GeForce GPU.

Whereas it is clear that the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti sometimes does higher with RT enabled, that is not all the time the case. A very good instance is Fortnite the place efficiency was mainly a match. Due to this fact, shifting ahead ray tracing efficiency between these two GPUs may very well be much more aggressive, particularly for video games utilizing Unreal Engine 5.

Taking a look at 4K outcomes now, in our day-one evaluation the Radeon 7900 XT was 8% sooner than the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti on common, however right here with many extra video games and much more ray tracing outcomes, it is simply 3% sooner. A technical win for the Radeon, however something inside 5% may be thought of a attract our opinion.

What We Realized: A Onerous Option to Make

There you’ve gotten it, that is the Radeon RX 7900 XT vs. the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti in a large pattern of video games. Total they’re very shut when it comes to efficiency, the 7900 XT usually does higher with ray tracing disabled — Hogwarts Legacy, The Witcher 3, Dying Mild 2, and Cyberpunk 2077 all good examples of that — however there are indicators that ray tracing efficiency in future titles utilizing Unreal Engine 5 may very well be much more aggressive, as seen in Fortnite.

Nonetheless, when you’re eager on ray tracing efficiency then the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the extra engaging product. You’ll have to abdomen the efficiency hit, which we all know not all of you’re prepared to do, however in any case, within the overwhelming majority of ray tracing-enabled titles we’ve got right this moment, the RTX 4070 Ti places on a greater present.

There’s additionally the matter of upscaling… DLSS stays king in that space and whereas it isn’t all the time head and shoulders higher than FSR, it is a bonus of the GeForce sequence.

Additionally learn: Improve and Upscale: FSR 2.2 vs DLSS 2.4 Evaluation

On that word, we’re positive there will probably be some Nvidia followers upset that we did not take a look at with DLSS enabled, however there is a good purpose for that: if we had used DLSS, we might have had to make use of upscaling for the Radeon GPU as nicely, however then we run into an apples to oranges comparability, each when it comes to picture high quality and efficiency.

It was merely simpler and extra correct (for the aim of a comparability) to check each GPUs with the identical upscaling expertise. I am positive that is smart to most of you.

Energy consumption can also be very comparable between the 2. Usually the Radeon makes use of extra energy, but it surely’s additionally sooner in most of these examples, so efficiency per watt is far the identical and there is not a sufficiently big distinction to matter.

A probably vital distinction is that the Radeon 7900 XT packs 20 GB of VRAM in comparison with simply 12 GB within the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. At this time we would take into account 12GB at the least reminiscence spec for gaming, and a capability that is extra at residence on a mid-range and even entry-level graphics card. For $800 you’d count on 16 GB to be the minimal, so the Radeon 7900 XT and its virtually 70% improve in VRAM, ought to be much better outfitted for future titles.

However as we noticed in our testing, 12GB stays sufficient for the overwhelming majority of video games right this moment, all of them below playable situations. We have seen how poorly high-end 8GB fashions such because the RTX 3070 Ti have aged, and we do not count on the 4070 Ti to be significantly better in that regard.

As for show drivers, we all know individuals prefer to rag on AMD and perhaps rightfully so in some cases. However recently Nvidia has had simply as many driver associated points and their GeForce Expertise is sort of garbage, not least of all since you want an account to login. The interface is now very previous, it is in determined want of an overhaul and options for stuff like ShadowPlay are severely missing when in comparison with Radeon ReLive.

Finally, at round $800 to $850 we’re none too impressed with both GPU and the distinction in worth isn’t enormous to make or break the comparability both. On that word, we’ll shortly revisit price per body and what this information actually highlights is how a lot AMD screwed up with the ridiculous $900 asking worth of the 7900 XT at launch.

Had they began at $800 our evaluation would have appeared very totally different, and though we nonetheless consider this ought to be a $700 product, $800 is rather a lot simpler to abdomen. Not solely that, however at $800 the Radeon 7900 XT is healthier worth than each the Radeon RX 6800 and 6800 XT at their MSRP, which is all the time good to see.

The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti was meant to price $800, however proper now $850 or extra, which locations it roughly on par with the RTX 3080 10GB at its MSRP, which is not precisely shifting the needle ahead.

When in comparison with earlier era GPUs, the Radeon 7900 XT is mildly engaging at $800, whereas the RTX 4070 Ti is a nothingburger at $850. These GPUs are probably going to occupy the identical worth level over the subsequent yr or so, and with comparable efficiency and options, we do not suppose you possibly can go too mistaken with both — there is definitely no various at this efficiency tier.

However with $100 knocked off the value, we would in all probability go along with the Radeon 7900 XT, as we count on that further VRAM to turn out to be useful down the observe. We cannot passionately argue for or in opposition to both although, they’re each stable choices in right this moment’s market, so evaluation the info and choose the one which makes essentially the most sense for you.