RX 7800 XT Vs RX 7900 XT: Worth Upgrading In 2023?

The latest generation of graphics cards has been giving mediocre performance while being highly-priced. This is why we’ve set up RX 7800 XT vs RX 7900 XT against each other to evaluate if the latest effort from AMD has broken this sub-standard track record or if it blends in with the rest of the competition.

Key Takeaways

• The RX 7900 XT showed us that it is 33% faster at 4K than the RX 7800 XT.
• In our power test, the RX 7900 XT consumed around 70 watts more than its little brother.
• We’ve evaluated that the RX 7800 XT is around 60% cheaper than the 7900 XT, making it a much more cost-effective card.

Comparison Table

Architectural Differences

1. Process Node: Both cards feature AMD’s RDNA 3 core architecture, employing a hybrid design using both 5nm and 6nm transistors. This enables advanced processing in critical areas like logic while utilizing cost-effective nodes in memory and I/O sections for savings.
2. Clock Speed: The 7900 XT boasts higher clock speeds with a base of 1500MHz compared to the RX 7800XT’s 1295MHz. However, the lower-tier card surpasses in boost clock at 2430MHz versus the 7900 XT’s 2394MHz.
3. TDP: The power draws of these cards are not very far apart despite being in two different performance tiers. The RX 7900 XT has a TDP of 300 watts, whereas the RX 7800 XT pushes the TDP down to around 263 watts.
4. VRAM: Both cards have an adequate amount of video memory, with the RX 7900 XT using 20GB, whereas the RX 7800XT uses 16GB of VRAM. Both VRAM buffers use GDDR6 memory, though the bandwidth on the higher-tier card is also proportionally higher.
5. Bus Width: The fewer memory modules on the RX 7800 XT allow it to have a 256-bit bus, whereas the RX 7900 XT makes use of a wider 320-bit memory bus.
6. Other Features: The feature set of both cards is more or less the same. Both cards support ray tracing with a performance level roughly equivalent to Nvidia’s RTX 30 series of cards. These cards also boast FSR chops, which AMD has made available on a driver level to allow compatibility with any game running on your system.

RX 7800 XT Vs RX 7900 XT: Gaming Benchmarks

The best way to evaluate the performance is to hold them against each other in real-world benchmarks, which is why we decided to put them to the test. The following components are used in the test rig:

• CPU: Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• RAM: 16GB DDR5 4600MHz 
• PSU: Seasonic PRIME 1000 Titanium SSR-1000TR
• OS: Windows 11

The tests in this section were performed at the 4K resolution to drive these cards as hard as possible.

A Plague Tale: Requiem

• The first game we decided to test the cards was on A Plague Tale: Requiem and the RX 7800 XT missed the mark, giving a performance of 53 FPS on average, whereas its elder brother flew past it with an average performance of 67 FPS.
• The 1% lows also left a bad taste in our mouths, with the RX 7800 XT maintaining a minimum framerate of 45 FPS, whereas the RX 7900 XT had a much more bearable performance of around 61 FPS in its 1% lows.

Resident Evil 4

• Playing at 4K with the highest graphics preset on the RX 7800 XT resulted in the card showing us an average framerate of around 74 FPS, whereas the RX 7900 XT had an average framerate of around 92 FPS, outshining its little brother by quite a large margin.
• 1% lows were adequate on the cheaper card, maintaining 66 FPS, whereas the RX 7900 XT had a much smoother gameplay experience, with minimums of 83 FPS.

Cyberpunk 2077

• In our observation, the notorious Cyberpunk 2077 had a playable experience on the RX 7800 XT, managing 45 FPS using the high-quality preset, whereas the RX 7900 XT was noticeably smoother with an average framerate of around 58 FPS.
• Cyberpunk 2077 made up some steam by giving lows that, I wouldn’t say, were horribly lower than its averages. The 7800 XT maintained a minimum framerate of around 40 FPS in the more demanding scenes. In contrast, the 7900 XT had a minimum framerate of around 53 FPS, higher than even the average of the lower-tier card.

Hogwarts Legacy

• Unlike Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy is still in a rather unpolished phase in its life cycle, resulting in a relatively low performance with unimpressive visuals. The RX 7800 XT handled this game with an average framerate of 51 FPS, whereas the RX 7900 XT had an average framerate of around 69 FPS.
• The stutters in this game were very noticeable, with the 7800 XT dropping its framerate to 42 FPS when the scenes got more graphically challenging, whereas the 7900 XT dropped its framerate to around 53 FPS. This shows us a difference of about 10 FPS.

Forza Horizon 5

• Unlike the previous two games, Forza Horizon 5 has always been a game that has run great with the hardware it’s given, and we get to see this in action. The RX 7900 XT had an average framerate of 113 FPS, whereas the 7800 XT still managed a rather fluid 101 FPS average.
• Though the 1% lows dropped quite a bit from the averages in hard-to-render scenes, the gameplay experience was still smooth nonetheless. The RX 7800 XT showed us 1% lows of around 83 FPS, whereas the RX 7900 XT dropped its framerate to 94 FPS occasionally.

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered

• Spider-Man’s test left us shocked given the difference gap wasn’t much in previous games. Here, the RX 7800 XT ran at a framerate of around 88 FPS on average, whereas the RX 7900 XT was much smoother with an astonishing 118 FPS average.
• The 1% lows were also smooth on these cards despite all the high-paced action in this game. The 7800 XT showed us lows of around 74 FPS, whereas the RX 7900 XT remained above a hundred frames at all times with lows of around 107 FPS.

The Last Of Us

• In the past year or so, The Last Of Us has been the benchmark to gauge the brute force of your graphics card because of its graphically taxing nature. This game had the RX 7800 XT running at an average framerate of around 44 FPS, whereas the RX 7900 XT was more playable, showing us around 57 FPS.
• 1% lows dipped quite far below the averages of these cards, with the RX 7800 XT reaching 33 FPS, whereas the 7900 XT faired better at lows of 49 FPS. Such large dips in the performance of the RX 7800 XT make this game very hard to enjoy.

Fortnite

• Using the DX11 API, Fortnite ran on the bare minimum framerate for a competitive game using the Epic settings, barely reaching 60 FPS. In contrast, the RX 7900 XT was much smoother at an average framerate of 84 FPS.
• Though well-optimized, Fortnite has always had a stuttering problem, as evident from the 1% lows of both cards. The 7900 XT dropped its performance to 46 FPS in large build fights, whereas the 7800 XT went down to 32 FPS.

RX 7800 XT vs RX 7900 XT: Overall Gaming Performance

It might be challenging to pin both cards’ exact performance because of the variance in performance we see from game to game, which is why we have aggregated the numbers from a variety of games to define the performance delta between these two cards clearly in this section of the comparison.

Framerate

• According to our calculations at 4K, the RX 7800 XT gave us an average framerate of 62 FPS, whereas its 1% lows dipped to around 52 FPS. This result is just at the cusp of a comfortable gaming experience, meaning you cannot use this card to crank up the settings at 4K and not worry about it.
• The 7900 XT, however, showed us a much smoother side than its little brother, indicating it to be a true 4K capable card. It averaged a framerate of around 83 FPS, whereas its lows were around 68 FPS.
• The rasterization performance of the RX 7900 XT was around 33% higher than its little brother, which can make a massive difference in the playability of more demanding games.
• We recommend enabling FSR  as you can get more performance out of both cards either in-game or at the driver level using the Radeon software, guaranteeing a substantial boost in framerate whenever your card needs it, with minimal loss in visual fidelity.

Power Consumption

• In our system power consumption tests, we saw the 7900 XT take 457 watts under load, whereas it was cruising at around 93 watts when idle.
• The 7800 XT came in around 70 watts less than its big brother, with a load power consumption of around 385 watts, while the idle power consumption stood unchanged at 93 watts.
• The power consumption of both cards can heavily rely on the cooler on either card or the over-clocking the OEM applies, so these numbers might be higher or lower in the card you end up with.

Price And Availability 

The RX 7900 XT comes in at a current price of around $800, whereas the 7800 XT massively undercuts it at a price of around $500.

The RX 7900 XT is a 60% more expensive card than the 7800 XT, whereas it provides only 33% more performance, making the latter a much better deal.

Both of these cards are widely available around the world and can be had at any computer parts retailer.

RX 7900 XT Vs RX 7800 XT: Which One Do I Recommend?

After evaluating both cards thoroughly, this segment of our comparison will summarize the results we obtained from testing both cards.

The RX 7900 XT is one of the most powerful graphics cards from AMD, but it has a price tag to show for it. On the other hand, the RX 7800 XT is a card focused on giving you as much performance as possible for an affordable price.

The RX 7900 XT has the performance of the biggest threat to AMD’s last generation, that is, the RTX 3090 Ti. This makes the RX 7800 XT look bad as it does not even beat its own processor, the RX 6800 XT. This card is more of a successor to the RX 6800 non-XT.

The value proposition, low wattage, and adequate performance of the RX 7800 XT make it the better card, which is why we recommend you get this card if you fall on the budget-conscious side.

On the other hand, the performance of the RX 7900 XT makes it one of the best cards money can buy for high-end gaming, though buying this card might bring a disproportionally large dent in your wallet. If you’re free from financial constraints, we suggest you get this card as soon as you can.

AMD has a track record of their cards aging like fine wine (which is partially the reason why the RX 6800 XT is equivalent to its successor in terms of performance), so you can expect the pair of these cards to enjoy feature and driver updates that will help extent the life of these cards and improve their performance.

Pros And Cons

More From RX 7800 XT

• RX 7800 XT Vs RX 6800 XT
• RX 7800 XT Vs RX 7900 GRE

More From RX 7900 XT

• RX 7900 XT Vs RTX 3080
• RX 7900 XT Vs RTX 3080 Ti
• RX 7900 XT vs RTX 4080
• RX 7900 GRE Vs RX 7900 XT
• RTX 3090 Ti Vs RX 7900 XT
• RX 7900 XTX Vs RX 7900 XT
• RX 7900 XT Vs RX 6800 XT
• RTX 4070 Ti Vs RX 7900 XT
• RTX 4070 Vs RX 7900 XT

Uzair Qureshi

[Comparisons Specialist]

I’m a passionate computer hardware expert specializing in CPUs and GPUs. With a lifelong curiosity for hardware and extensive hands-on experience, I provide valuable insights, practical advice, and in-depth analysis on these components. Engaging with the hardware community, I exchange knowledge and stay at the forefront of technological advancements.

Get In Touch: [email protected]