With AMD and NVIDIA launching their new generations of GPUs, people are curious to see which will come out on top. While NVIDIA is still ahead in some aspects, AMD is slowly inching closer to offering the same performance. And they’re doing it at a lower price point. So let’s see how the RX 7900 XTX compares to the RTX 4080.
Specifications
| RX 7900 XTX | RTX 4080 | |
| Architecture | RDNA 3 | Ada Lovelace |
| Process | TSMC 5nm + 6nm | TSMC N4 |
| AI accelerators | 192 | N/A |
| Ray tracing accelerators | 96 | N/A |
| Ray tracing cores | N/A | 76 3rd-gen |
| Tensor cores | N/A | 304 4th-gen |
| Memory | 24GB GDDR6 | 16GB GDDR6X |
| Memory speed | 20Gbps | 21Gbps |
| Memory bus size | 384-bit | 256-bit |
| Boost clock speed | 2.3GHz | 2.5GHz |
| Connection support | DisplayPort 2.1 | DisplayPort 1.4a |
| Total board power | 355W | 320W |
| List price | $1,000 | $1,200 |
While the 4080 has less memory, with just 16 GB, even though it uses the newer and faster DDR6X. The 7900 XTX will generally come out on top when running VRAM-intensive applications. You should also note that the 7900 XTX needs more power, with AMD suggesting you use an 800W PSU.
AMD comes out on top again for people using a high refresh rate monitor by offering DisplayPort 2.1 connectors. This means that the 7900 XTX is future-proof since we might see monitors that only run on DP 2.1 in the coming years.
Benchmarks
When comparing the two at 4K resolutions without any Ray Tracing, the 4080 comes out on top by just a few frames. Most games will run better on the 4080, with a few exceptions. For example, you will get a few more frames with the 7900 XTX when running Cyberpunk 2077 or Red Dead Redemption 2.
At 1440p, the situation is pretty much the same. The 4080 consistently outperforms the 7900 XTX. Games that performed better in 4K on the 7900 XTX will generally run better on the 4080, even though it’s only by a small margin. The situation is mostly the same when it comes to 1080p, even though both of these GPUs are an expensive option for someone still running a 1080p monitor.
The 7900 XTX and the RTX 4080 are mostly evenly matched regarding raw performance. The 7900 XTX could be an ideal option if pricing is essential to you since it is $200 cheaper. But this might change in time since there are rumors that NVIDIA might try to lower the price of the 4080.
Ray tracing and DLSS make the difference
NVIDIA is the clear winner if you’re looking at ray tracing. AMD has struggled to keep up with them in this regard. And even though this generation offers better Ray-Tracing performance, they still have a long road ahead. Overall, the 4080 offers far better ray-tracing performance at any resolution.
DLSS is the NVIDIA upscaling tech, while AMD has its FSR. However, the 4080 also offers support for DLSS Frame Generation. This can immensely boost your performance in games like Portal RTX and other supported games. AMD is hard at work on FSR 3, but it’s still months from launch, so we have no idea how it will perform.
Overall, if the price is of no issue to you and you want the best performance that money can buy, the 4080 is the clear winner. For people who don’t care about resolutions higher than 1080p and prefer a cheaper option, the 7900 XTX could be an ideal solution. NVIDIA is still the way to go if you care about running your games with ray-tracing active. Only time will tell if AMD can catch up to them in this regard.
