AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

One of the most important components of any gaming PC is the graphics card. This is what will handle all the processing to provide video output to an external monitor. The more powerful the GPU, the higher the possible frame rates, the higher the supported resolution, and the more you can expect to pay. Striking a balance between affordability and performance will help you get the best graphics card for your system.

Here we are going to look at AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 to help you decide between the two.

Source: AMD

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

AMD attacks NVIDIA’s RTX 40 series with the impressive AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. This new flagship might not be the most powerful GPU around, but it can handle 4K gaming with ease.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a mid-range graphics card designed for 1440p and 4K gaming. Rocking all the latest NVIDIA tech, it’s a capable GPU.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 can be a bit too powerful and expensive, which is where the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 comes into play. It may cost quite a bit more than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX but in-game performance is largely comparable between the two with the AMD not coming out on top.

Both GPUs are capable of driving 2K (1440p) and 4K (2160p) monitors with excellent gaming experiences. If you’re not too worried about price per dollar and performance, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 might be a better choice for you, especially if you prefer the company’s drivers. AMD is our recommendation, however, thanks to price, performance, and the potential for substantial gains through platform and driver maturity.

	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080
architecture	rDNA 3	Lovelace is
the process	5nm, 6nm	4 nm
Transistor	57.7 billion	45.9 billion
Compute units	96	76
Ray Accelerator	96	76
AI Accelerator	192	–
Stream processors	6,144	9,728
Base clock speed	2,300 MHz	2,205 MHz
Increasing the clock speed	2,500 MHz	2,505 MHz
Memory capacity	24 GB DDR6	16 GB GDDR6X
Memory bus	384 bit	256 bit
AMD Infinity Cache	96 MB	–
Memory Bandwidth (w/ Infinity Cache)	960 GB/s (3,500 GB/s)	716.8 GB/s
Power draw	355W	320W
Price	$999	$1,199

RX 7900 XTX vs RTX 4080: Price and Availability

The two graphics cards were launched in 2022 and AMD came to market shortly after with the RX 7900 XTX. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has an MSRP of $999. That undercuts the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 by $200, a considerable amount considering the two graphics cards are very comparable on paper and in-game.

The AMD GPU comes out on top in the tests, though it quickly flips when ray tracing is enabled. NVIDIA’s technologies are more mature than AMD’s, allowing the company to increase performance in heavy areas. We expect AMD to improve the overall AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX experience through driver updates as this generation ages.

architecture

AMD RDNA 3 is the latest generation of architecture used as the basis for the Radeon 7900 series of GPUs. The same is true of Ada Lovelace with NVIDIA’s RTX 40 series. Both of these platforms are perfect for gaming and are the result of decades of research and development on both sides. Like AMD vs. Intel for processors, the two GPU brands have their own solutions.

NVIDIA has stuck with traditional configurations built on a 4nm process while AMD has brought its own chiplet design from its CPU families. This allowed the company to effectively outsource its GPU cores to a graphics die on a 5nm process and smaller memory dies to a more mature and less expensive 6nm process. This results in a cheaper design that allows AMD to increase its processing power.

This is all new for AMD and the company continues to struggle to keep up with the performance of NVIDIA GPUs with ray tracing. Team Green uses AI-assisted calculations and when paired with its supersampling tech DLSS, the results are stunning. AMD has made significant improvements with RDNA 3 and the RX 7900 XTX, but it still falls short of the RTX 4080’s capabilities.

performance

Whether you choose the Radeon RX 7900 XTX or the GeForce RTX 4080, you’ll have a very powerful graphics card. Connecting to a 2K or 4K monitor will result in an incredible experience. We’ve compiled a list of game benchmark test results below to show how close these GPUs are (aside from when ray tracing is enabled).

the game	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080
Cyberpunk 2077	2K, Ultra: 123 FPS 2K, Ultra, RT Ultra: 37 FPS 4K, Ultra: 64 FPS 4K, Ultra, RT Ultra: 21 FPS	2K, Ultra: 121 FPS 2K, Ultra, RT Ultra: 73 FPS 4K, Ultra: 65 FPS 4K, Ultra, RT Ultra: 31 FPS
Eternal punishment	2K, Ultra Nightmare: 301 FPS 4K, Ultra Nightmare: 201 FPS 4K, Ultra, RT: 119 FPS	2K, Ultra Nightmare: 265 FPS 4K, Ultra Nightmare: 202 FPS 4K, Ultra, RT: 159 FPS
Faye Curry 6	2K, Ultra: 165 FPS 4K, Ultra: 119 FPS 4K, Ultra, RT: 88 FPS	2K, Ultra: 156 FPS 4K, Ultra: 105 FPS 4K, Ultra, RT: 95 FPS
Metro exit	2K, Extreme: 149 FPS 2K, Extreme, RT Ultra: 111 FPS 4K, Extreme: 89 FPS 4K, Extreme, RT Ultra: 57 FPS	2K, Extreme: 179 FPS 2K, Extreme, RT Ultra: 143 FPS 4K, Extreme: 98 FPS 4K, Extreme, RT Ultra: 80 FPS
Red Dead Redemption 2	2K, Ultra: 155 FPS 4K, Ultra: 98 FPS	2K, Ultra: 142 FPS 4K, Ultra: 96 FPS

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 has the edge in almost all games when ray tracing is enabled at 2K and 4K resolutions.

Which GPU is best?

This is a difficult question to answer because not everyone’s needs are the same. If you want the best possible performance with ray tracing at 4K, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 will be the graphics card to buy. If you want better value with a card that’s still capable of playing video on the same panel with good results, the AMD Radeon RX 9700 XTX is a better buy.

AMD has undercut NVIDIA with its new flagship GPUs. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX may still be considered overpriced, but compared to NVIDIA’s pricing structure, it’s a much better bang for your buck. RDNA 3 is new and we’ve come to expect a rougher early adoption experience with AMD cards, but they generally improve quite a bit as the generation matures.