RTX 5090 Vs RX 7900 XTX: We Took A Closer Look

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Shehryar Khan

Senior Editor and Content Writer:

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Pros And Cons 

Comparison Table

Architectural Differences

1. Clock Speed: The RTX 5090 has a clock speed from 2017MHz to 2407MHz, whereas the RX 7900 XTX has a wider range from 1929MHz to 2498MHz.
2. VRAM: The RTX 5090 has a whopping 32 gigabytes of GDDR7 memory connected with a 512-bit bus, which is better in all regards than the 24-gigabyte GDDR6 VRAM of the 7900 XTX connected with a 384-bit bus.
3. TDP: The TDP of the RTX 5090 is an eyewatering 575 watts, which makes the 355 watts of the 7900 XTX seem like child’s play.
4. Process Node: Nvidia’s RTX 5090 is made with a 4nm manufacturing process, which is a bit more modern than the 5nm manufacturing process of the 7900 XTX.
5. Other Technologies: AMD tried their best to match the features of the RTX 4090 with the RX 7900 XTX with features like FSR, Fluid Motion Frames, and Anti-Lag, but the 5090 has introduced new features like Reflex 2 and DLSS 4 multi-frame generation.

During its tenure, there was nothing in the GPU market quite like the RTX 4090, but a card has risen to take its place, none other than Nvidia’s own RTX 5090. How does it compare to AMD’s best offering? Keep reading the RTX 5090 Vs RX 7900 XTX comparison to find out!

Gaming Benchmarks – 4K

Having gone over the specs of these cards now is the time to get our eyes blown away by the performance of these cards in modern games. The following tests were done with a state-of-the-art test bench, the specs of which you can have a look at below:

Test Bench

• Operating System – Windows 11
• CPU – AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• Mobo – MSI MPG X670E CARBON
• RAM – G. Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6400 CL30
• CPU Cooler – Arctic Freezer 34 Esports Duo
• Storage – XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 2TB NVMe SSD
• Power Supply – Corsair RM850e Gold 850W (Fully Modular, 80+ Gold)

Note: All games but the last two have no RT or AI upscaling/frame generation.

Marvel Rivals

• With Lumen on and everything turned up to the maximum, the RTX 5090 was a whopping 74% faster than the 7900 XTX, getting a framerate of 101 FPS, while the 7900 XTX got around 58 FPS.
• The 5090 dipped to around 61 FPS in the 1% lows, which was still about 39% higher than the 44 FPS of the RX 7900 XTX.

Stalker 2

• The highest settings on Stalker 2 yielded an average framerate of 71 FPS on the RTX 5090, which was about 54% higher than the 46 FPS of the RX 7900 XTX.
• Minimum framerates were about 33% apart, with the RTX 5090 getting a framerate of around 52 FPS, which is much higher than the 39 FPS of the Radeon card.

God Of War Ragnarok

• This PS port ran excellently on both cards at 4K, with all settings maxed out. The Nvidia card managed a framerate of 195 FPS, which was about 82% higher than the 107 FPS of the 7900 XTX.
• The 1% lows of the 5090 were around 166 FPS, which was about 75% higher than the 95 FPS of the AMD card.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2

• Testing this game with all the settings turned up at 4K, we got around 125 FPS on the RTX 5090, which was noticeably smoother than the 89 FPS of the RX 7900 XTX, a difference of around 40%.
• The minimum framerates were about 25% apart, with the RTX 5090 getting a framerate of 99 FPS, while the RX 7900 XTX hovered closer to about 79 FPS.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

• When we tested this game, there was a 70% difference in performance on average. The RTX 5090 hovered around 102 FPS , while the RX 7900 XTX kept a framerate of around 60 FPS.
• The RTX 5090 had over double the framerate in the 1% lows at around 88 FPS, while the RX 7900 XTX was a bit choppy with a framerate of 40 FPS.

A Plague Tale: Requiem

• Without any software trickery, the RTX 5090 had a framerate of 128 FPS in A Plague Tale: Requiem, which was about 83% higher than the 70 FPS that the RX 7900 XTX got with the same settings.
• The minimum framerate was about 92 FPS with the 5090, which was 56% higher than the 59 FPS of the RX 7900 XTX.

Black Myth Wukong (RT + Upscaling/Frame-Gen)

• We maxed out settings, including RT, in Black Myth Wukong and tested both GPUs with upscaling at quality, no frame-gen. The RTX 5090 averaged 110 FPS, while the 7900 XTX managed just 10 FPS—a 1000% difference.
• The 1% lows followed the same trend, with the RTX 5090 getting a framerate of 94 FPS, while the 7900 XTX has 9 FPS, making the Nvidia card over 944% better.

Marvel Rivals (DLSS 4/FSR)

• With DLSS4 and upscaling, the RTX 5090 averaged 418 FPS in Marvel Rivals, while the 7900 XTX hit 148 FPS with FSR, which adds up to an 182% higher framerate on the 5090.
• The minimum framerates were around 177 FPS on the RTX 5090, whereas the RX 7900 XTX had a framerate of 66 FPS for its 1% lows, making the RTX 5090 168% faster.

Productivity Benchmarks

Having gone over the gaming benchmarks of these cards, we will now look at how these cards perform in productivity tests. The following benchmarks have been performed with the same test bench as the gaming benchmarks.

Blender

• The RTX 5090 finished rendering the Barbershop scene in about 30% of the time it took the RX 7900 XTX to complete rendering.
• The RTX 5090 finished rendering the Barbershop scene in 26 seconds, whereas the 7900 XTX took its sweet time with a render time of around 87 seconds.

Davinci Resolve

• In the Davinci resolve part of the Pudget systems benchmark, we saw that the RTX 5090 had a score of 20% higher than that of the RX 7900 XTX.
• The 5090 garnered 12532 points in our testing, whereas the RX 7900 XTX scored closer to around 10322 points.

Premiere Pro

• Finally, Premiere Pro ran about 20% better on the RTX 5090, which was expected considering all the results we saw beforehand.
• The RTX 5090 had a score of around 14888 points in Premiere Pro, which was a bit higher than the 12512 points of the RX 7900 XTX.

Overall Performance

Average Framerate

In our gaming tests, on average, the RTX 5090 is 112% faster than the RX 7900 XTX. This was mostly without the RTX 5090’s trump cards, that being Ray Tracing and upscaling. The RTX 5090 runs circles around the RX 7900 XTX, with and without its software trickery.

1% Lows

The performance of the RTX 5090 was 92% higher than the RX 7900 XTX in terms of 1% lows, which made a huge difference in some games. Modern games are hard to run with all the settings jacked up, even with the highest-end cards on the market. The boost to the 1% lows with the 5090 helps with smoothening this out.

Productivity

The RTX 5090 killed it in terms of productivity. It performed dramatically better than the RX 7900 XTX, and it has some features to accelerate further. Optix rendering is amazing on these cards, and this new card has also introduced 4:2:2 encoding, which is much more efficient than the traditional approach.

Power

Though the RTX 5090 took a lot of power, even compared to the RX 7900 XTX, the Radeon card was no slouch in this department. The RX 7900 XTX took 30% power, and it seems like it spits out half the performance, making the power-to-performance ratio of the RTX 5090 look amazing in comparison.

Price

After all this discussion, we have finally reached the thorn in the side of the RTX 5090. With arguably double the performance, the RTX 5090 also had double the price. The RX 7900 XTX comes at half the price of the Nvidia card, and you can make a whole computer with the 7900 XTX as the centrepiece for the price of the RTX 5090.

What We Recommend

RTX 5090: As was with the RTX 4090 and the RTX 3090 before, there is nothing on the market quite like the RTX 5090. The feature set of this card is great to have around if you think of it as an extra and not like the whole point as Nvidia markets it, and the price matches the extravagance of this card.

RX 7900 XTX: The 7900 XTX delivers impressive raw performance but falls short on value due to its high price, though it still holds its ground in terms of price-to-performance ratio against the 5090. While its ray tracing lags behind Nvidia, it offers the raw, no-frills power gamers want in the AI era.

In our opinion, the people in the market to buy an RTX 5090 will buy one, and those looking at the 7900 XTX might find it better to go for an older 90-class card from Nvidia. However, if you only compare these two, the decision comes down to your price bracket.

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Shehryar Khan

[Comparisons Expert]

Shehryar Khan, a seasoned PC hardware expert, brings over three years of extensive experience and a deep passion for the world of technology. With a love for building PCs and a genuine enthusiasm for exploring the latest advancements in components, his expertise shines through his work and dedication towards this field. Currently, Shehryar is rocking a custom loop setup for his built.

Get In Touch: shehryar@tech4gamers.com