AMD’s new RX 7900 XTX is here, and it dramatically undercuts Nvidia

AMD isn’t jumping on the bandwagon of rising GPU prices. The company announced the RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT at its RDNA 3 launch event, and contrary to speculation on the heels of the RTX 4090, AMD isn’t raising prices. The RX 7900 XTX launches at $1,000 and the RX 7900 XT at $900, and they’ll be available on December 13. Although AMD was light on hard performance numbers, instead opting for relative performance graphs and frame rates with FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), AMD executives went deep on the new architecture and the improvements it could bring to gamers. For starters, the new compute unit (CU) includes a second-generation ray tracing accelerator, which AMD says brings up to a 50% improvement in ray tracing performance over the previous generation. Ray tracing was a major shortcoming for AMD’s previous-gen RX 6000 cards. Similarly, the lack of dedicated AI acceleration hardware like Nvidia uses was a common criticism. The new design includes two AI accelerators per CU, which AMD says provides up to 2.7x better AI performance. The company focused heavily on the inclusion of DisplayPort 2.1, too, which is an area where AMD now has an advantage over Nvidia. Both the RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT support DisplayPort 2.1, allowing for 1440p at up to 900Hz, 4K at up to 480Hz, and 8K at up to 165Hz. The RTX 4090 still uses DisplayPort 1.4, despite surpassing the capabilities of the standard in some instances. Although it’ll be many years before we see the full benefit of DisplayPort 2.1, AMD’s latest cards are set up to take advantage of the standard once it’s more common. Of course, support for higher refresh rates at higher resolutions doesn’t matter if the new AMD cards can’t deliver the performance goods. Overall, AMD says the RX 7900 XTX is up to 1.7 times faster than the RX 6950 XT at 4K. In performance per watt, which is a metric that focuses on efficiency over raw performance, AMD says the new architecture delivers a 54% improvement over RDNA 2. AMD was light on raw performance numbers, but it still shared that the RX 7900 XTX can deliver 295 frames per second (fps) in Apex Legends and 355 fps in Overwatch 2 at 4K. The company also shared 8K performance numbers, with the RX 7900 XTX delivering 96 fps in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and 73 fps in Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection, though with some major assistance from FSR. Ray tracing performance is seeing a large uplift over the previous generation as well. In Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K Ultra ray tracing settings, the RX 7900 XTX delivers 62 fps with FSR, which compares to 42 fps on the RX 6950 XT. Similarly, Hitman 3 jumps from 57 fps to 89 fps with FSR. We’ll have to wait until the cards are in hand to verify these numbers though, and to see how the cards perform with FSR turned off. Finally, AMD called out Nvidia’s recent troubles with melting 12-pin power connectors. The reference designs for the RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT feature dual 8-pin power connectors, though the company strongly suggested board partner cards may use more connectors for higher overclocking headroom. The cards aren’t too large, either. The reference design is almost identical to the previous generation, taking up two-and-a-half slots in our case. Although power demands have been rising for GPUs in general, AMD didn’t go as far as Nvidia with its new GPUs. The RX 7900 XTX tops out at 355 watts, while the RX 7900 XT is slightly lower at 300W. Other spec improvements include 24GB of GDDR6 memory on the RX 7900 XTX and 20GB of GDDR6 on the RX 7900 XT. You can see a full breakdown of the specs for these two new cards below. It’s not clear how AMD’s new chips will stack up to the RTX 4090, but it seems Nvidia will still have the lead in overall performance. AMD seems to be targeting value shoppers more, offering its flagship GPU for $600 less than Nvidia. As for how the card will hold up in terms of performance and value, we’ll just have to wait until they’re here on December 13. AMD’s RX 9070 XT hit the shelves last week, and the response has been largely positive. The GPU was expected to perform on around the same level as Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti, making it capable of beating some of the best graphics cards. However, a known overclocker just managed to push the GPU to new heights, helping it beat Nvidia’s $1,000+ RTX 5080. Der8auer took the RX 9070 XT out for an extensive spin and achieved interesting results. Prior to launch, many thought the RX 9070 XT would rival the RTX 5070 at best, but now, we’ve seen it beating not just the RTX 5070 Ti but also the RTX 5080 in today’s test. The catch? Not only did Der8auer use a premium card, but the GPU was also overclocked and undervolted. If you’re waiting for a chance to upgrade your gaming rig, you don’t have to wait much longer. AMD announced that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the Ryzen 9 9900X3D will hit store shelves on March 12 for $699 and $599, respectively. First unveiled at CES 2025, these two processors promise huge gains in performance for gamers wanting the best frame rates and visuals they can possibly get. AMD describes the Ryzen 9 9950X3D as the “ultimate 16-core desktop CPU,” and while there might be a bit of hyperbole involved, this is an undeniably powerful piece of hardware. Its 16 cores give it 32 Threads, and it comes with a base clock speed of 4.3GHz that can boost up to 5.7GHz. It also sports a 144MB cache and uses an admittedly high 170W TDP. After the way Nvidia’s RTX 50-series ended up being called a “paper launch,” many breathed a sigh of relief when AMD’s RX 9000 series appeared on the shelves in much larger quantities. However, once this initial shipment is sold, AMD could face the same problem as the rest of the best graphics cards: Price hikes, price hikes everywhere. The cards officially hit the shelves yesterday, and many were spotted far above the recommended list price (MSRP), with some overclocked models priced at up to $250 more than the $600 starting price. However, AMD spoke several times about working with its partners to ensure wide availability at MSRP, and indeed, many retailers had some models up for sale. Those MSRP cards were only around for a short time, though, and they might never come back, according to retailers.