The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT may have been a little pricier than it should have been at launch, but now in 2024, it can easily be considered among the top brass of the best GPUs on the market. It may be playing second best to the excellent AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX in terms of flagship performance and broad appeal, but you shouldn’t discredit the second in command. Our RX 7900 XT review goes over this card’s price, specs, design, features, and performance to help you make an informed purchasing decision.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT price
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT originally launched at $899 in the US being a full $100 cheaper than the company’s flagship AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX at $999. For reference, that’s in line with the pricing of certain RTX 4070 Ti Super partner cards, placed somewhere between Nvidia’s 70-class and 80-class; filling a middle ground. That’s only one side of the story, however, as the high-end RDNA 3 GPU is now available discounted as low as $700 through retailers such as Amazon, Newegg, and Best Buy.
That all depends on whether you strive for the Reference model or through an AIB unit, though. Factoring the price drop into the equation the RX 7900 XT effectively becomes in line with the RTX 4070 Ti / Super variant in 2024, making it a far stronger value play than it was at launch well over a year ago. It’s certainly more palatable and further adds to the strength of Team Red in terms of value play, with its second most powerful video card undercutting the RTX 4080 Super and now in line with its mid-range.
Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT
- Strong pricing
- Excellent gaming performance
- Tons of VRAM
- Slower GDDR6 memory
- Power users will want the XTX
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT key specs
In terms of specs, the Radeon RX 7900 XT comes out of the gate swinging confidently. It’s rocking a total of 5,376 Stream Processors and a 20GB GDDR6 memory pool built on a 320-bit memory bus. It’s the second RDNA 3 architecture GPU to be built on the Navi 31 die and benefits from 20 Gbps effective memory, with a base clock speed of 1,378 and a boost clock speed up to 2,394 MHz.
What’s more, the RX 7900 XT utilizes 336 TMUs, 192 ROPs, and 84 Compute Units alongside its 84 RT cores, the latter of which make FSR (AI upscaling) and real-time ray tracing a possibility. AMD was smart to ensure you only needed to utilize 2x PCIe 8-pin power connectors without the need for a 16-pin adapter, as Nvidia’s RTX 40 series has. That means it’s about as plug-and-play as you can get, simply swap your old GPU out with the cables you’ve got out.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT key design
Where I can praise the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT the most is with its physical design; for a dual-slot card, it’s incredibly powerful and proves that being bigger isn’t always better. Our AMD-made Reference model measures 10.9 x 4.3 x 2 inches (LxWxH) and while not the smallest GPU available, it is dwarfed by the likes of the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 by comparison.
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT largely excels across the board in 1440p and 4K
Then we get on to how the card actually looks and it’s easily one of the most well-built video cards I have ever seen, with its sleek construction, triple-fan cooling setup, and thick black metal heatsink. Team Red has always had a good eye for designing its cards but the RX 7000 series takes things to another level. Keep in mind that if you’re eyeing a partner card, the physical size and power requirements may change, so be sure to double-check the specifications.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT gaming performance
In the testing conducted by BGFG’s Sebastian Kozlowski, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT largely excels across the board in 1440p and 4K, achieving 60fps or higher natively in the majority of tests run. While it’s not quite in 2160p as its larger sibling, the RX 7900 XTX, there’s no faulting the performance on offer here. For the full differences between the two top-end cards, check out RX 7900 XT vs RX 7900 XTX. Cliff notes are as follows: the 7900 XT delivers.
| Game | 4K | 1440p |
|---|---|---|
| CS:GO | 313 | 555 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 62 | 119 |
| Doom Eternal | 195 | 349 |
| Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | 90 | 145 |
| Fortnite | 42 | 79 |
| Rainbow Six Siege | 153 | 318 |
| Far Cry 6 | 101 | 156 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 123 | 227 |
| Overwatch 2 | 160 | 291 |
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT synthetic performance
The synthetic benchmarks with the RX 7900 XT are equally promising with leading figures in 3DMark’s various programs such as Fire Strike and Time Spy. Where it starts to lag behind the likes of Nvidia’s top-end GPUs, however, is with the ray tracing performance, as the second-gen RT cores just aren’t as well-versed as Team Green’s offerings.
| Software | Graphics | Overall |
|---|---|---|
| Fire Strike (DX 11) | 61,417 | 49,397 |
| Fire Strike Extreme (1440p) | 33,545 | 31,569 |
| Fire Strike Ultra (4K) | 17,137 | 17,131 |
| Time Spy (DX 12) | 24,754 | 22,940 |
| Time Spy Extreme (4K) | 12,275 | 12,385 |
| Port Royal (RT) | 13,237 | 13,237 |
Conclusion
The RX 7900 XT is a high-end GPU now well below its original MSRP that’s more than just a viable alternative to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series. It can rival the best graphics cards and will be best paired with a top-end Ryzen or Intel Core CPU and compatible AM5 motherboard. Whether you are planning on hooking up via HDMI port or DisplayPort ensure you’ve got one of the best gaming monitors for the best visual fidelity.
It showcases exactly what the new graphics die, the Navi 31 GPU, can do as AMD’s new RDNA 3 architecture excels across the board versus its predecessor. That’s due in part to the 320-bit memory interface allowing for such a large memory bandwidth, meaning more data for high average frame rates. Our verdict is that it stands as not only one of the best XT cards on the market but one of the best AMD graphics cards ever made.
Is the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT worth it?
Simply put – yes. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT was always a powerful graphics card from day one, but now it’s made all the more aggressive by far cheaper pricing. If you’re in the market for a futureproofed GPU for tomorrow’s games then this one delivers with its 20GB GDDR6 VRAM in 1440p and 4K with ease. It’s better value than the RX 6950 XT for your PC, too, meaning now’s the right time to upgrade to the current generation.
Copy by Aleksha McLoughlin; Testing by Sebastian Kozolowski
