Gaming Discussions

[GreatnessRD]

I didn't see a topic made. (Forgive me if there is one) What's everyone's thoughts on the two cards post review? I think the reviews showed the cards are solid. For me, I just wish it was classed as the x800 series of card. Especially since it was, on record said to be competing with the 80 series of Nvidia. Just was a little weird since the 6950 XT did compete with the 3090/ti and now that class of card is battling a tier below. Bu with that said, again, neither card is a slouch and I'm happy to see the improved raytracing performance. Hopefully, continued driver optimization will make the cards continue with that moniker of "AMD's fine wine". Congratulations are in order for AMD and all those who worked to help launch RDNA3.

What are your thoughts and who will be grabbing one tomorrow? If the XTX were in my price bracket, would definitely look to grab that, haha.

[Benago1]

Well, AMD still has not done much for ray tracing. but the cards are not a slouch.  I will be waiting for the rx 7990 xtx. See how it performs. Said to pass the rtx 4090.

[GreatnessRD]

Raytracing can for sure be improved, but its a lot better than RDNA2. It's at least Ampere level now, for what its worth. Hopefully, the refresh as you stated will be a lot better.

[Yellow-AP1]

Agree, but AMD really, really needs to conquer ray tracing, which will then blow the doors off team green once and for all, with no looking back.  On the otherhand, we are quickly approaching the point where the very best is no longer needed to play the most demanding games satisfactorily in 4K at a more than acceptable FPS.  That is to say, more capable cards may be nice to have, but may no longer really be necessary or significant game changers for many users. 

[fcannici]

I believe as far as the while ray tracing issue goes it all depends on how well its implemented into the game. My rig a 7700x cpu with a radeon reference 6950 xt and 32gb memory. Collisto protocol runs like ass post the patches regardless of what settings I use. And there is little noticeable difference with ray tracing on or off. But.. I downloaded a game from steam called bright infinite memory. This game hands down makes the best use of ray tracing that I've seen so far in any game. Not to mention just the overall graphics. Better than collisto. Minus the protagonist face. Don't know what's up with that crap. But you can see a clear difference with rt on. And the game runs blazing fast with not a hiccup or stutter. Plus the game was done by one guy. On a side note the game is a helluva lot of fun. Dialog and script are laughable though. Bottom line here is its all about optimization. 

[Key-J]

In Canada (at least West Coast best coast) we love to listen to LTT! So here is his review, and I gotta say the 7900 cards fare REALLY well. Even if they don't destroy the competition in pure % points. The price/power/no-destroy-your-computer-with-fireness of the cards do really well.

[johnnyenglish]

I'll discuss price first, because it seems like a main theme. Price to Performance.

This is the first one to hit Spain & Portugal, a big bit over what I expected but nvidia is not doing any better.....

And with the price finally out... I got to say Kudos to 7900XTX, it will be on par with 4080 for less regarding some productivity applications. 
Freelancers and small time PRO's will see Davinci Resolve, Premiere and Photoshop right on par for a couple hundred less money. 1200-1300 versus 1500-1600 (Europe)


I will agree with you about it should be a x800 class cards, but I already expected that this gen they would have a hard time, because of this new chip design. and x900 is more appealing.

The "age like fine wine"
I did enjoyed how Polaris went thru its lifetime and how RDNA2 is currently going. Lets wait and see.

Now, BONUS TOPIC!

By the looks of it, the 7800XTX should land (when released) at sub 1000€ which is not that bad considering that a 6800XT costed back in 2021 around... (see picture bellow, I took a snap back then)        

[GreatnessRD]

I'm not gonna lie to you, @johnnyenglish I'm starting to suspect that the 7800 XT/XTX might not exist this gen. I'm thinking they'll skip that segment since they have the 7900 XT and just go straight for Mid-range and Mainstream with the 7700 XT and 7600 XT respectively. If my maths are correct, the 7900 XT is already 26% better than the 6800 XT. Making a 7800 XT that'll be like, what? 10% better than the 6800 XT would be kinda wild to me, I dunno, haha.

Also, @Sam_AMD  Don't know if you missed my question or couldn't answer prior to release, but I'll ask again. Does AMD plan on continuing the stock of the reference designs as they did with the 6000 series? Or will it go back to the normal ways of the reference models being a limited design and then all AIB after a month or two? 

[johnnyenglish]

You may be right!
When I look at the CPU range.. they went from 7900X to 7700X, don 't know if it means something.. but...

[___likepancakes]

Gone in seconds, never stood a chance against the scalpers

[GreatnessRD]

Anyone who pays the price premium from the scalper deserves to be scalped. I wish people would learn patience. Look at those folks who bought 4080's to scalp... in straight panic mode since they can't return them to Newegg or Microcenter and nobody buying them at $1500-$1800, lol.

[Moist]

I missed out yesterday when trying to buy the 7900 XTX and was big sad since I woke up super early to try and be a day 1 buyer. Had to be up early today though and decided to roll those check for the lol's dice and lucked into one. Great way to wake up.

[ajlueke]

But that is a boon to some, since the scalpers can return them to Best Buy.  That has caused a few 4080s to show up as Open-box for around $950.  At that price, they are certainly a better deal than AMD's offerings.

[Vynski]

Good for what?  A doorstop! 😩

Why would you want to pay $900+ for a card that melts the connectors?

[Vynski]

As the old adage goes "patience is virtue".  Most times it is true.

[Justifier]

I'm seriously impressed with what I've seen so far. Especially from Sapphire

I honestly cannot believe that the AIB cards are only +$100 over the base card, I was expecting 1,300 US

Hoping to get one whenever they're available

[GreatnessRD]

@Justifier I'm so relieved they aren't charging in that price point. Even though I'm not their target audience, I'm glad so far the peak price for AIB's are $1100. That's real solid. But if the AIB's squeak out more performance, per the rumors, I can see Asus and MSI trying their hand at $1300-$1400, haha.

[Justifier]

As am I, but given how the market has trended so far I fully expected it.

I prefer to be pessimistic and pleasantly surprised than optimistic and angry when my expectations are not met

I still think they're a bit higher than would be desirable, but very happy that they didn't land in the ballpark I was expecting

[johnnyenglish]

I'm mad at RoG right now! 😡

They don't have plans for 7900XTX, last time that happened nvidia wanted exclusivity and so they made an alternate model called AREZ

I'm a bit tired of nvidia's pushy and abusive practices with AIB's, totally understand EVGA now!

[GreatnessRD]

I'm starting to think Asus and MSI want to keep their top premium cards with Nvidia. Kinda weak if you ask me, but we didn't get a Suprim AMD card and now you're saying Asus aren't making any 7900 XTX. That's pretty whack. And man, don't bring up EVGA. Still sad that they're down with GPUs. My very first discrete GPU was from EVGA. I know they would have some slick designs for AMD cards.

[johnnyenglish]

Only a TUF model no plans for RoG.

This doesn't make any sense especially when they do midrange RoG like 3060 and lower end like 3050.
If they decided to focus only on high end from both brands..

OK. It would be understandable.

But skipping 7900XTX and then later on a wild 4060 appears. That's Bonkers.

[ajlueke]

It doesn't seem like there is a whole lot of headroom on these cards even with the third 8-pin power port, the 7900 XTX seems pretty maxed out even with the reference model.  Probably not much room to differentiate different models if the performance is basically the same.

[johnnyenglish]

Check the images from techpowerup bellow. It tells another story.

[ajlueke]

XFX Speedster Merc 310 7900 XTX review: Silent, frigid, and powerful | PCWorld

The Speedster 310 Merc has a pretty substantial clockspeed boost over the reference, and it seems to make no difference what so ever.

[johnnyenglish]

They are running the AIB card stock with its regular uplifted clocks, very few increment. Just like the TUF with 2extra fps.

Again, like I said, check this image.

Here you can see the AIB card getting overclocked to go faster by 9fps. That's substantial.

From the chart from your link, temperature differences are huge! So pump up those clocks and let it fly.

[ajlueke]

Substantial in a single game.  

Here is the 25 game average from the Sapphire Nitro OC review from the same review site your CyberPunk results are coming from.

The Nitro has about a 180MHz overclock factory and a power limit of 420W as opposed to 350W on reference.

As you can see, you gain about 3% on average across 25 titles.  What is more telling, are the power consumption numbers.

The RX 7900 XTX is using more power than a RTX 4090.  A 22% increase in power draw nets an average 3% performance gain.  The architecture is likely at the upper end of its efficiency curve with the reference design.  And that is just with the stock speed.  To generate the 9 fps in Cyberpunk, they had to overclock it further.  I shudder to think what those power consumption numbers are, and they aren't reported on the site. 

So no, I would not "let it fly", unless burning through electricity for minimal gains is the objective.

[ajlueke]

That's what Powercolor and XFX are for.  I'm sure there will be a Liquid Devil and Speedster Zero along eventually.

[eebiii]

EVGA, IMO has flat out made some of the best cards over the last 10-15 years. It was a kick in the teeth to Nvidia when EVGA told them to "Go Pound Sand". What I don't understand is why they did not immediately go to AMD. It makes no sense. EVGA would be a powerhouse for AMD and someone should be making that deal. 

[johnnyenglish]

Sorry to hijack your thread

But I remember when Jayz2cents did a video about RoG Strix 4090 not being faster than reference because nvidia has some sort of restrictions or guidelines that cannot be circumvented. Or even chip binning. IDK..

But now when I look at this from tech power up, c'mon... ASUS do a RoG Strix or even better, a Liquid Cooled one and we got ourselves a winner. 

The massive cooler, the higher power limits allowed my Polaris to live long and prosper at amazing OC levels.

[ajlueke]

ASRock already did it.  The 7900 XTX Aqua.

[Vynski]

I watch a lot of his videos.  Really seems to understand programming, coding, etc.  

The one thing I see that these "super cards" are doing is now 24 GB of VRAM.  

Jayz2cents did a video on the stuttering and blackscreens that everyone needs to watch.  Don't know if you have seen it.  I think it is titled "How Much Memory does your card need" or something along that line.

[Justifier]

I'm putting this anywhere I see discussion on the 7900xtx overheating issues:

This person did have this post under the "RMA Refused by AMD 7900xtx junction temps" reddit post, but it appears he either retracted or removed it, or someone else did (you know how reddit mods can be)

https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerColor/comments/zrzcfc/7900xt_7900xtx_junction_temperatures/?utm_source...

I will caveat, I have no idea of the legitimacy of this person or their relation to the company(s) they claim relation to, but multiple of the people I have known to be usually correct have recommended me to pursue this information

[Justifier]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26Lxydc-3K8

[GreatnessRD]

I see this is a blazing topic on reddit. With AMD telling customers to contact support for their cards, I'm assuming they fixed the problem and just didn't call for a mass recall? @Justifier 

[Justifier]

idk

I've sent mine back -- they offered me a refund or RMA depending on what was more convenient for me, that was resolved for me 3 days ago now. Well before that video.

I opted to just refund it and grab the first AIB 3-pin that popped up, though I've yet to actually get one of those.

They've yet to recall anything from what I can see, but it might be in the near future, or they might try to play it by the ear and see if they can get away with letting this ride out, offering people the same deal they offered me if people notice it

[GreatnessRD]

@Justifier Oh wow! Guess its a good thing you hung onto that 6900 XT, eh? I think we'll see a lot better stock of the AIB cards after CES. Or at least I'm hoping since a lot of people want the XTX.

[Justifier]

Yeah I didn't expect I'd be needing it to game again, that's for sure.

Even though it was extremely short, the 7900xtx spoilt me with its encoders/decoders. I was shocked with just how poor the 6900xt's are in comparison. Huge leap from Radeon. Couldn't go back after experiencing that much better so I made a few purchases to address it with available hardware until I can get something else -- which with how this market is, could be a while

[ajlueke]

The Gigabyte Gaming OC was just up on Newegg.  That is essentially the reference card with the cooling solution swapped out with their windforce solution.

[Weber462]

maybe that explains why we haven't seen any supply drops in last week.  I want to put a waterblock on anyway, so ive been trying to get my hands on a XTX, With no luck....  I refuse to pay scalpers.  I signed up for a discord supply update, but again, No drops at all.

[ajlueke]

It seems likely that this issue has caused the dearth of reference XTX drops.  Perhaps someone who is looking to RMA on here will sell you theirs at cost.