The GeForce RTX 4090 is an absolute monster of a graphics card, however the battle for the following generation of GPUs is handiest getting started. On Thursday, AMD revealed its have 4K gaming champion, and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT aim to tumble Nvidia’s goliath with take pleasure in a stash of smart techniques that may make David himself blush.

In addition to improved ray tracing capabilities, the addition of AI cores, and memory galore, these first RDNA 3-architecture GPUs are also the first graphics cards featuring a multi-die “chiplet” manufacture, swiping inspiration from AMD’s story Ryzen success.

AMD Navi Launch in Las Vegas, Nevada, Thursday, November 3, 2022.


(Photograph by PaulSakuma.com Photography)

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

Better but? Fair cherish when Ryzen disrupted Intel’s stranglehold on CPUs, transferring to chiplets helps AMD drastically undercut Nvidia’s pricing. Whereas the RTX 4090 costs a chest-clutching $1,599, and the upcoming GeForce RTX 4080 costs $1,199, the unusual 24GB Radeon RX 7900 XTX costs $999 and the 20GB RX 7900 will ticket $899 when they launch on December 13.

Even supposing AMD’s flagship doesn’t manage to head fairly toe-to-toe with Nvidia’s beast when the benchmark mud finally settles, it is going to mild mild be insanely fast—and sport a worthy extra palatable ticket tag.

Let’s dig in.

Meet AMD’s RDNA 3 chiplets

Comparing AMD and Nvidia’s strategies to David and Goliath seems to be especially salient right here. Nvidia slammed the pedal to the metal with its unusual “Ada Lovelace” architecture within the RTX 4090. The 4090 packs a gigantic 608mm2 GPU, crammed with 76.3 billion transistors. Those envelop every part you’d normally request in a GPU die, from media and display engines to the memory controls. It actually is a goliath of a GPU.

AMD

AMD Navi Launch in Las Vegas, Nevada, Thursday, November 3, 2022.


(Photograph by PaulSakuma.com Photography)

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

With RDNA 3 and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, AMD chose a diversified path. It mild contains a central GPU die, pointless to say—you want one—however it unquestionably measures a comparably paltry 300mm2, built utilizing a 5nm TSMC manufacturing node similar to Nvidia’s. That’s because AMD break up its GDDR6 memory interface and 2nd-generation Infinity Cache into separate dies—six in total—made utilizing the extra mature and ticket-efficient 6nm node. It’s a radical change for GPU manufacture, and one that helps AMD maintain costs down. All knowledgeable, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX wields 58 billion transistors.

AMD

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT each near equipped with 96MB of that Infinity Cache (which is basically on-die L3 cache for faster memory transfers and gaming speeds), with each of the six dies also wearing 64-bit memory controllers. That’s much less than what the RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6900 XT and 6800-sequence packed—those had 128MB—however AMD product expertise architect Sam Naffziger explained that this model of Infinity Cache has been configured to enact extra with much less, especially paired to the 24GB of GDDR6 memory over a broad 384-bit bus (or 20GB/320-bit bus within the 7900 XT’s case).

“We’ve tuned this Infinity Cache to enable better data reuse with much less capacity to accomplish several issues for us,” Naffziger said. “With the high hit rates, it at once sources many of the memory requests. This delivers data to the engine in much less time and makes exercise of much less energy than going out to DRAM.” In sum, he said, RDNA 3’s Infinity Cache provides 2.7x the peak bandwidth offered by its successor, handing over up to 5.3 terabytes per 2nd for instructions that stay interior the GPU and Infinity Cache.

Base line: The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT gained’t leave you wanting for memory.

Radeon RX 7900 XTX: Inside of RDNA 3’s GPU upgrades

However don’t let the introduction of discrete memory dies fool you: The core RDNA 3 GPU also obtained some critical upgrades.

AMD

Architecture tweaks, the migration to TSMC’s advanced 5nm node, and splitting out the memory to its have trailing-node chiplet helped AMD exceed its efficiency goals, with CEO Lisa Su claiming that RDNA 3 provides 54 p.c larger performance-per-watt than RDNA 2. That let AMD follow a traditional 2x 8-pin energy connector manufacture, neatly facet-stepping the melting 12VHPWR adapter controversy Nvidia finds itself embroiled in with the RTX 4090.

With RDNA 3, AMD managed to squeeze in 54 p.c extra transistors than with RDNA 2, in a smaller area, for an overall density enchancment of 165 p.c.

The modest energy requirements advantage the Radeon RX 7900 XTX match into traditional mid-tower PC cases worthy extra easily than rival RTX 4090 GPUs.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

That’s all smartly and perfect, however gamers are extra attracted to what those fancy unusual RDNA 3 dies enact. A deeper dive will limited query near sooner than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX’s December 13 launch date, however AMD offered some tantalizing morsels of information today.

RDNA 3 switches to a unusual “unified” compute unit that makes exercise of dual-issue wave 32 devices, so AMD can issue either integer or floating level instructions as wished reckoning on the workload, which Naffziger says can speed up gaming frame rates and AI tasks alike. An enhanced general reason register file with 50 p.c extra capacity than the RDNA 2 manufacture likewise helps maintain all tasks fed.

AMD

Optimistic, I said AI tasks. Two generations after Nvidia launched tensor AI cores for DLSS and extra in its RTX 20-sequence GeForce GPUs, AMD is finally following swimsuit. Each RDNA 3 Compute Unit (CU) packs a pair of AI cores, as smartly as an enhanced ray tracing core that supports unusual dedicated instructions, 1.5x extra rays in flight, and recent ray field sorting and transversal capabilities.

AMD

AMD says RDNA 3 provides up to 50 p.c extra performance per CU than RDNA 2 did, which feels no longer going to catch up to Nvidia’s blistering RTX 40-sequence performance given the deficit AMD started in, however may make ray-traced games actually playable on RX 7000-sequence graphics cards. And you have to assume those AI cores shall be keep to work upsampling games sooner than you realize it—especially since Radeon chief Scott Herkelman teased FSR 3 for a 2023 release at some level of this match, with a twofold increase in frame rates versus the already-impressive FSR 2.

Speaking of compute devices, RDNA 3 may perhaps have a worthy smaller die, however it unquestionably packs in many extra CUs than sooner than. The Radeon RX 6900 XT topped out at 80 CUs. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX has 96 operating at 2.3GHz, while the 7900 XT provides 84 operating at 2GHz.

AMD

AMD

From traditional games to ray tracing to AI tasks, AMD’s unusual flagship must mild provide substantially extra performance than sooner than, as the AMD-equipped slides beneath illustrate. (That said, as always it is best to mild wait for impartial benchmarks sooner than judging a unusual graphics card—especially since these lack any RTX 4090 comparisons that may give us disclose perception on how the Radeon RX 7900 XTX compares against Nvidia’s latest and greatest.)

AMD

AMD

AMD

AMD also teased a unusual one-click on “Hypr-RX” feature that can greatly enhance frame rates by activating FSR, Radeon Increase, and other priceless Radeon applied sciences. Like FSR 3, it’s coming in 2023—specifically the first half.

Raw performance is handiest part of the package though. AMD also upgraded the media and display engines in RDNA 3.

AMD

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT enhance DisplayPort 2.1, unlike the GeForce RTX 4090. That means it can enhance 4K displays at up to a blistering 480Hz, or 8K displays at 165Hz. And 12 color bits per channel unlocks up to 68 billion colors, which is welcome, however seems to be extra cherish stat porn than something anyone other than teach material creators wish to anguish about.

AMD

Nvidia and Intel maintain essentially the most sway with teach material creators, however AMD significantly upgraded its media engine with RDNA 3. No longer handiest does it enhance AV1 encode and decode, joining Intel’s Arc and Nvidia’s RTX 40-sequence, however the GPU can also race simultaneous encode and decode for HEVC or AVC video. Accelerating the media engine’s frequency also helps it deliver up to 1.8x the performance of RDNA 2, Naffziger said, decreasing export instances. AMD’s unusual AI cores also near to bear right here, with Naffziger promising improved video encoding and convention call quality thanks to their advantage.

A brewing battle

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

After several disheartening years of shortages and sky-high prices, PC gamers finally have something to see forward to. The GeForce RTX 4090 rocked our socks, however its $1,600 ticket tag makes it a luxury toy for the 0.1 p.c. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT positively aren’t cheap, at $999 and $899 respectively, however they’re a complete lot much less than Nvidia’s initial offerings—and they appear primed to deliver an enthralling 4K+ gaming experience of their very have on the back of several thrilling innovations and beefed-up ray tracing capabilities.

AMD’s otherwise thrilling presentation left us with lots of questions, on the other hand. How will the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT stack up against the GeForce RTX 4090 and 4080, if no longer their very have RDNA 2 predecessors? Does switching to extra than one dies create any performance oddities? Will RDNA 3 finally deliver a compelling ray tracing experience? We’ll wish to wait for impartial benchmarks when these unusual-breed graphics cards hit the streets on December 13 to discover the answers.