RX 7900 XT vs RTX 4080: Which Is Better?

AMD and NVIDIA’s respective launch of their newest graphics playing cards has shaken up the PC gaming market, with the identical query being requested: NVIDIA or AMD? Today, we’re evaluating two high-end playing cards from the 2 groups and deciding the decision of Radeon RX 7900 XT vs GeForce RTX 4080.
Key Takeaways

The AMD RX 7900 XT encompasses a multi-die design, whereas the GeForce RTX 4080 is predicated on a monolithic design.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 has much less, however quicker, reminiscence than the Radeon RX 7900 XT.
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4080 prices at the least $300 (33%) greater than the Radeon RX 7900 XT.
The GeForce RTX 4080 is about 11.5% quicker than AMD’s RX 7900 XT in 4K gaming.
The GeForce RTX 4080 runs cooler than the RX 7900 XT in gaming however attracts barely extra energy.

Specifications Comparison

GPU
GeForce RTX 4080
Radeon RX 7900 XT

Die
AD 103
Navi 31

Architecture
Ada Lovelace
RDNA 3

Processing Node
TSMC 5nm (4N)
TSMC 5nm (GCD)
TSMC 6nm (GCD)

Die Size
379 mm²
520 mm²

Memory Size (Type)
16 GB (GDDR6X)
20 GB (GDDR6)

Bus Width
256 bit
320 bit

Base Clock
2205 MHz
1500 MHz

Boost Clock
2505 MHz
2394 MHz

Shaders
9728
5376

Ray Tracing Cores
76
84

TDP
320 Watts
300 Watts

MSRP
$1199
$899

Launch Date
Nov sixteenth, 2022
Dec thirteenth, 2022

Best Variants
Best RTX 4080 Cards

Architectural Differences
There are some important variations between the playing cards, which shall be mentioned under.
Also Read: RTX 4080 Vs RTX 3080
Chip Design
The first important distinction is that the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT makes use of a dual-die design, with a separate Graphics Compute Die and a Memory Cache Die. NVIDIA’s Lovelace-based RTX 4080 nonetheless makes use of the identical monolithic design with some enhancements.
Processing Node
The Radeon RX 7900 XT makes use of a 5nm node for the Graphics Compute Die and a 6nm node for the Memory Cache. The GeForce RTX 4080 makes use of a specialised 5nm node referred to as 4N from TSMC.
Stream Multiprocessors
AMD’s RX 7900 XT makes use of dual-issue stream multiprocessors. One SIMD lane can now execute two directions per cycle, or they are often executed in parallel. The GeForce RTX 4080 doesn’t have this dual-issue functionality and might solely execute a single instruction in a single cycle.
Connectivity
AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XT homes the brand new DisplayPort 2.1, which permits bandwidth of as much as 54Gbps and resolutions of as much as 4K at 480 Hz. NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4080 homes DisplayPort 1.4a, which limits the bandwidth to 32.4Gbps.
NVIDIA DLSS 3.0 Vs AMD FSR 3.0
AMD and NVIDIA’s upscaling applied sciences have been very comparable since AMD moved to temporal upscaling in FSR 2.0. Both corporations introduced the third main iteration of their respective upscaling applied sciences together with the launch of their playing cards.
NVIDIA’s DLSS 3.0 will use new optical stream accelerators to generate totally new frames as a substitute of simply pixels. AMD goes down the same path, using its fluid movement body know-how to generate new frames for easy gameplay. AMD, nevertheless, has not revealed some other element about this new iteration of FSR.
DLSS 3.0 will depend on NVIDIA’s fourth-generation Tensor Cores and their improved optical stream accelerators, which implies that DLSS 3.0 assist shall be restricted to the RTX 4000 collection playing cards. On the opposite hand, AMD FSR 3.0 assist will possible be added to older AMD in addition to NVIDIA playing cards.
Read More: NVIDIA DLSS Vs AMD FSR
AMD Radeon RX 7000 Series
AMD’s RX 7000 collection launched nearly two months after NVIDIA launched their flagship playing cards, the GeForce RTX 4090 and the RTX 4080. The arrival of those RDNA 3-based playing cards is in due time to compete with their NVIDIA counterparts.
AMD has, to date, launched two graphics playing cards from this lineup: The Radeon RX 7900 XT and the 7900 XTX. Both of those function the identical core structure however a distinction in specs.
First, let’s focus on this new structure.
Also Read: RX 7900 XTX Vs Radeon RX 6950 XT
RDNA 3
As talked about, these new playing cards are based mostly on AMD’s much-awaited RDNA 3 structure. These playing cards function a chiplet design much like AMD’s Ryzen 3000 CPUs. This makes these playing cards the primary to function a chiplet design.
AMD Radeon RX 7000 Series Chiplet Design (Courtesy: AMD)
Here, AMD has separated the Graphics Compute Die (which incorporates the shaders) and the Memory Cache Die (which has AMD’s second-generation infinity cache and the 64-bit GDDR6 reminiscence controllers).
Graphics Compute Die
The GCD is predicated on TSMC’s 5nm node, whereas the MCD has a 6nm node, additionally from TSMC. This enabled AMD to attain 61 TFLOPs of compute efficiency and a chiplet interconnect velocity of 5.3 TB/s. AMD has marketed a 54% enchancment in efficiency/watt due to the brand new design.
AMD’s New Graphics Compute Die (Courtesy: AMD)
The Graphics Compute Die incorporates Graphics Compute Units which include the principle element: the shaders, in addition to “ray tracing accelerators” and “AI accelerators.” The graphics compute unit has an marketed 165% larger transistor density than RDNA 2.
AMD Radeon RX 7000 Dedicated AI Accelerators (Courtesy: AMD)
The new stream processors are “dual-issue,” that means they every have two directions by which completely different integers or floating level operations can transfer based on the workloads. This results in rather more shader effectivity and, consequently, higher efficiency.
On the opposite hand, the brand new, devoted AI accelerators have new directions which can be “unified” with the compute items (2 per compute unit). These ship 2.7 occasions higher AI efficiency.
The ray tracing accelerators have 1.5 occasions extra rays in flight than the earlier era and likewise maintain new directions. These supply an marketed 50% higher efficiency per compute unit.
DisplayPort 2.1
Unlike NVIDIA, AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XT and Radeon RX 7900 XTX include DisplayPort 2.1 assist. With a bandwidth of as much as 54Gbps, these assist as much as 8K at 165 Hz or a whopping 4K at 480 Hz. They additionally allow 12-bit colour depth for as much as 68 billion colours.
Monitors with DisplayPort 2.1 will begin arriving in early 2023 from main producers reminiscent of Samsung, Asus, and Dell.
New Dual-Media Engine
AMD’s New Dual-Media Engine (Courtesy: AMD)
Also current within the GCD is the brand new dual-media engine with 8K60FPS AV1 encode/decode and simultaneous encode/decode for AVC/HEVC. AI enhances the video encoding capabilities, and there’s additionally a 1.8 occasions improve within the engine’s frequency. Overall, this allows as much as 7 occasions quicker transcoding with AV1 encoding. These large enhancements in streaming capabilities are colossal information for streamers and AMD followers alike. Also, ensure to take a look at our comparability of RTX 4080 vs 6950 XT.
Decoupled Clocks
One time period that has been going round since AMD’s RX 7000 collection launch is “decoupled clocks,” which is the separation of front-end frequency from the shader frequency. Engineers at AMD discovered that the front-end frequency was proving to be a limiting think about efficiency in lots of workloads, thus resulting in this alteration.
AMD Raden RX 7000’s Decoupled Clocks (Courtesy: AMD)
The front-end frequency is elevated to 2.5 GHz (a 15% enchancment and the shader frequency is now at 2.3 GHz (which led to 25% higher energy effectivity).
Improvement in Compute Performance
All these adjustments enabled compute efficiency of as much as 61 TFLOPs, a large enchancment over RDNA 2’s determine of 23 TFLOPs.
FSR 3.0
AMD launched us to FidelityFX Super Resolution 3.0 throughout their advance_gaming occasion in November 2022. While we didn’t get a lot element to work with, we realized that AMD would make use of a brand new “fluid movement body” know-how to be mixed with the Super Resolution Technology. AMD claims a two-times improve in 4K gaming efficiency over FSR 2.0.
FSR 3.0 shall be formally launched and prepared to be used in January 2023.
NVIDIA RTX 4000 Series
On to the RTX 4000 collection, the place NVIDIA has launched two graphics playing cards: GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB, and the GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB. NVIDIA has not given an entire lot of element about these playing cards, however we’ll focus on the small print we do have. You may additionally have an interest to find out about our comparability of the GeForce RTX 4090 with the RTX 3080 Ti.
Ada Lovelace
These playing cards are based mostly on the brand new “Ada Lovelace” structure. NVIDIA is utilizing a specialised “4N” node from TSMC for these chips, which is a modified 5nm node and never a 4nm one. This permits NVIDIA to pack in 76 billion transistors that are 70% greater than the 8 nm-based RTX 3000 playing cards. Furthermore, NVIDIA is utilizing the identical monolithic die as earlier than. These are the 2 important components distinguishing NVIDIA and AMD’s newest playing cards.
NVIDIA’s Ada Lovelace Design (Courtesy: NVIDIA)
NVIDIA claims to have improved all three core processors on this chip: Shaders, Ray Tracing Cores, and Tensor Cores.
Shaders
First up, the Shaders or Streaming Multiprocessors with a compute efficiency of 90 TFLOPs, greater than twice as a lot because the earlier era’s Ampere. At the identical time, they’re providing the identical efficiency because the earlier era at half the ability.
The huge enchancment in these new SMs is Shader Execution Reordering, which reschedules GPU threads “on the fly” to comparable duties, decreasing execution divergence. SER additionally permits the decoupling of ray intersection and shading. This fixes the central drawback of information divergence and execution divergence in ray tracing attributable to poor shader execution.
Also Read: RTX 4080 Vs RTX 3090
Third Generation Ray Tracing Cores
The third era of Ray Tracing cores clock as much as 200 TFLOPs in ray tracing and carry out twice quicker in calculating ray triangle intersection. These cores additionally include two new parts to enhance efficiency: an Opacity Micromap (OMM) Engine and a Displayed Micro-mesh (DMM) Engine. The OMM Engine quickens alpha-test geometry, which helps render advanced geometry, by two occasions. In real-time, the DMM Engine enhances the geometric element of things like rocks, timber, and creatures at a lot quicker speeds.
Tensor Cores
Finally, NVIDIA launched new fourth-generation Tensor Cores to speed up deep studying processes, using a brand new FP8 Transformer Engine. The Tensor Cores improve AI inference efficiency by 5 occasions over Ampere.
DLSS 3.0
Nvidia additionally introduced DLSS 3.0 throughout their GTC September 2022 Keynote occasion. Powered by their new Tensor Cores, DLSS 3.0 produces utterly new frames. NVIDIA launched a brand new “Optical Flow Accelerator,” which feeds data from the present body and the body earlier than that to the neural community. The neural community then generates a completely new, high-quality body. This course of doesn’t depend on the sport, and NVIDIA claims a efficiency enhance of over 4 occasions over the earlier iteration of DLSS.
RX 7900 XT Vs RTX 4080 Gaming Benchmarks
Now, let’s examine the gaming efficiency of the 2 graphics playing cards, due to knowledge supplied by Testing Games. A take a look at the take a look at bench:

CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming
Memory: G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB 32GB (2×16) DDR5 6000MHz CL38
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO M.2 2280 1TB
Power Supply: Corsair RM850i 850W
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro

The two graphics playing cards shall be in contrast throughout two video games, in common FPS and the %1 low. All the video games are examined at 4K decision at extremely or equal settings. So with none additional due, let’s dive into Radeon RX 7900 XT vs GeForce RTX 4080 gaming benchmarks.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077

The GeForce RTX 4080 comes out on prime, averaging 61 FPS, whereas the Radeon RX 7900 XT trails with 54 FPS.
In phrases of %1 lows, the GeForce RTX 4080 stands at 54 frames, and the Radeon 7900 XT falls behind with 47 frames.

Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 5

The GeForce RTX 4080 takes an enormous lead of 21% on this title, with 147 FPS on common. The Radeon RX 7900 XT scores 121 FPS in reply.
Both the graphics playing cards have the identical hole between common FPS and %1 lows, so the Radeon 7900 XT additionally falls behind on this regard.

God of War
God of War

The GeForce RTX 4080 manages 96 FPS on common, and the Radeon RX 7900 XT trails by almost 13% at 85 FPS.
In phrases of %1 lows, the Radeon RX 7900 XT has 72 FPS, whereas the RTX 4080 has 82 FPS.

Hitman 3
Hitman 3

The Radeon 7900 XT takes its first victory in Hitman 3, beating the GeForce RTX 4080 by a measly 1 FPS.
AMD Radeon 7900 XT takes a barely larger win in %1 low with 121 FPS, in comparison with GeForce RTX 4080’s 115.

Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn

The GeForce RTX 4080 grabs one other huge win with 118 FPS on common. The Radeon 7900 XT solely manages 99 FPS, shedding by 19%.
The Geforce RTX 4080 recorded 89 FPS by way of the %1 low, and the Radeon RX 7900 XT just isn’t far behind, at 80 FPS. The GeForce RTX 4080 exhibits a a lot wider hole between the common FPS and %1 low in comparison with the Radeon RX 7900 XT.

Similar Comparisons: NVIDIA RTX 4080 Vs RTX 3080 Ti
Need For Speed Unbound
Need for Speed: Unbound

The GeForce RTX 4080 is, once more, victorious on this Radeon RX 7900 XT vs GeForce RTX 4080 battle, with 125 common FPS on this title. The Radeon RX 7900 XT trails at 113 FPS, an 11% distinction.
Radeon RX 7900 XT trails the GeForce RTX 4080 in %1 lows, too, managing 82 FPS. The RTX 4080 scores 91 FPS.
Both graphics playing cards present an enormous hole between common FPS and %1 low, indicating poor recreation optimization.

Red Dead Redemption 2

In Red Dead Redemption 2, NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4080 averages precisely 100 FPS, and the Radeon RX 7900 XT follows at 91 FPS.
The GeForce RTX 4080 manages 80 FPS so far as the %1 low is worried. The Radeon RX 7900 XT is at 69 FPS. This is a distinction of almost 16%.
The GeForce RTX 4080, once more, exhibits a wider hole between the common FPS and %1 low.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales

In our last title, the GeForce RTX 4080 emerges because the winner with a mean FPS of 93. The Radeon RX 7900 XT falls behind with 85 FPS, a distinction of 9.4%.
The RX 7900 XT scores 73 FPS within the %1 low, and the GeForce RTX 4080 scores 80 FPS.

Average FPS Across Tested Games
To summarize the common FPS distinction between the 2 GPUs, we derived a imply of the common FPS throughout the 8 examined video games.
Average FPS Across 8 Tested Games

The GeForce RTX 4080 stands tall with 111.3 FPS on common throughout the 8 examined video games. On the opposite hand, AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XT averages slightly below 100 FPS throughout the 8 titles.
Overall, the GeForce RTX 4080 is 11.5% quicker than the Radeon RX 7900 XT in gaming efficiency.

Also Read: Radeon RX 7900 XT vs GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
Power Draw
Let’s take a look at the common energy drawn by Radeon RX 7900 XT vs GeForce RTX 4080 in the course of the 8 benchmarks. Remember that the GeForce RTX 4080’s TDP score is 320 watts, whereas that of AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XT is 300 watts.
Average Power Draw in Watts While Gaming
The Radeon RX 7900 XT attracts extra energy than the GeForce RTX 4080 in 4 video games. On the opposite hand, the GeForce RTX 4080 attracts extra energy within the remaining 4 titles. The graphics playing cards present comparable energy consumption in Cyberpunk 2077 and Need for Speed Unbound. The remaining titles present important distinction within the common energy drawn.
Related learn: Do You Need a New Power Supply For RTX 4080?
The most vital variations in energy draw have been seen in Hitman 3 (7.02%) and Spider-Man: Miles Morales (5.8%).
On common, the GeForce RTX 4080 drew 286.73 watts of energy, whereas AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT drew 282.63 watts. So, the common energy consumption distinction between the 2 is a mere 1.7%.
Thermal Performance
Having noticed the common energy attracts, we will transfer on to the thermals. Let’s take a look at the common temperature of the 2 graphics playing cards in the course of the 8 benchmarking assessments.
Average Temperatures While Gaming
While each the graphics playing cards remained beneath affordable temperatures throughout 4K gaming, the Radeon RX 7900 XT gave us a shocker, working considerably hotter than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 throughout each take a look at besides Forza Horizon 5.
Some of the largest temperature variations will be seen in God of War (8 levels), Hitman 3 (7 levels), and Need for Speed Unbound (7 levels).
The GeForce RTX 4080 saved its temperature beneath 60 levels Celsius in each take a look at, a really spectacular thermal efficiency! AMD’s RX 7900 XT ran considerably hotter, hitting 66 levels Celsius at most whereas working Hitman 3.
On common, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ran at 57.6°C, whereas the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT ran hotter, at 62.5°C. You can examine secure idle graphics playing cards temperature right here.
Pricing And Availability
Having regarded on the efficiency of Radeon RX 7900 XT vs GeForce RTX 4080, let’s focus on their costs and price-to-performance ratios.
The GeForce RTX 4080 launched with an MSRP of $1199 on Nov sixteenth, 2022. On the opposite hand, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT launched with a price ticket of $899. That’s $300 cheaper than the RTX 4080. To make issues worse for NVIDIA, hardly any variants of the cardboard can be found for the bottom MSRP.
We noticed within the gaming efficiency assessments that the GeForce RTX performs higher in nearly each recreation, with an general lead of 11.5% in gaming. At the identical time, it prices 33.3% greater than the AMD RX 7900 XT. Also, it attracts barely extra energy than its AMD competitor. Thus, the RX 7900 XT is definitely the higher graphics card so far as the price-to-performance ratio is worried.
Regarding availability, we all know that each these playing cards have been launched only a few months in the past. Despite that, NVIDIA is going through problems with shortages. Most GeForce RTX 4080 variants, together with the Founder’s Edition, are out of inventory as of fifteenth January 2023. A whole lot of the playing cards are being scalped and bought at larger costs. So, it’s possible you’ll wrestle to search out the cardboard at its base MSRP.
On the opposite hand, the Radeon RX 7900 XT is available within the markets, together with Amazon and Newegg, and might simply be bought for its authentic $899 price ticket.
Which One Should You Get?
Finally, we will conclude this subject since we’ve mentioned all of the components you need to have in mind. So which card do you have to get?
The GeForce RTX 4080 offers higher efficiency in 4K gaming than the Radeon RX 7900 XT, however as we mentioned, the GeForce RTX 4080 prices $300, or extra, additional than its AMD counterpart. The Radeon RX 7900 XT has a big price-to-performance benefit, and it delivers excellent efficiency for a way more economical price ticket than NVIDIA.
In phrases of thermals, the RTX 4080 runs cooler than its AMD competitor, however the 7900 XT doesn’t run alarmingly scorching by any means. The 7900 XT additionally attracts barely much less energy than the RTX 4080, however the distinction right here can also be insignificant. In any case, we hope that our Radeon RX 7900 XT vs GeForce RTX 4080 information will enable you make the proper choice.
Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat are the numerous variations between GeForce RTX 4080 and Radeon RX 7900 XT?The important distinction between the 2 playing cards is of their core design. The GeForce RTX 4080 has a monolithic die, whereas the Radeon RX 7900 XT options two dies: A Graphics Compute Die and a Memory Cache Die. Is GeForce RTX 4080 higher than Radeon RX 7900 XT in gaming?Yes, so far as sheer gaming is worried, the RTX 4080 is unquestionably superior to the RX 7900 XT, with a mean FPS lead of about 11.5%.