1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,240 AMD has responded to NVIDIA's uber-expensive RTX 4000 series GPUs with their Radeon RX 7900 series. 2 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:14,560 Don't get us wrong, you'll still pay a pretty penny for them as the 7900XT will cost 900 bucks 3 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:21,440 while you'll pay a cool thousand for the top-end 7900XTX. I guess a hundred dollars for the extra X 4 00:00:21,440 --> 00:00:26,000 is a fair deal, especially when you consider NVIDIA's top two cards start at 1200. 5 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:31,200 But are these cards of better value or is it another case of you get what you pay for? 6 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:36,320 Well, AMD's strategy has always been to compete on value against the likes of NVIDIA, 7 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:40,880 but this time one of the reasons Team Red's offerings are cheaper clearly doesn't have to 8 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:47,440 do with lower performance. The RX 7000 series utilizes GPUs made up of chiplets, so instead of 9 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:53,600 having a monolithic chip that's one solid piece like NVIDIA does, AMD instead is putting several 10 00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:59,680 smaller chiplets together to form one cohesive GPU. Now this saves AMD money because the chiplet 11 00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:05,040 approach improves yields, that is if one chiplet is defective they can throw out just that chiplet 12 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:09,680 instead of the entire GPU, which makes manufacturing cheaper. Additionally, the chiplets that are 13 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:16,080 dedicated to memory control and cache are made on a 6nm process, allowing AMD to cut costs where they 14 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:21,760 can while still giving gamers a high performance rendering chiplet on the 5nm process. As much 15 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:27,360 as AMD has done a really good job with RX 7000 and its RDNA 3 architecture, there are a couple 16 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:32,320 aspects where the lower price point does track with what the cards offer. The big elephant in 17 00:01:32,320 --> 00:01:36,480 the room is ray tracing, which you might have predicted considering that we're now on the 18 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:41,360 third generation of cards where NVIDIA has really emphasized ray tracing as a strength of their 19 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:45,760 products, which you can even see from their inclusion of dedicated ray tracing cores and even 20 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:51,280 in how they've named some of their GPUs. AMD on the other hand has cards that support ray tracing, 21 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:56,640 but don't quite have the same chops for it as NVIDIA. But here's the thing, plenty of games 22 00:01:56,640 --> 00:02:02,080 still do not support ray tracing, and even if your favorite titles do, you may not find yourself 23 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:07,920 caring all that much at all. For many gamers, more conventional visual enhancements such as higher 24 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:12,560 texture quality and more aggressive anti-aliasing makes a more noticeable difference than ray 25 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:18,800 traced light, and that doesn't even mean that the RX 7000 series is bad at ray tracing, it just 26 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:24,000 means that the team green options are better at it, at least for now. Now the other way in which 27 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:31,120 RX 7000 looks to lag a bit behind RTX 4000 is power consumption, possibly due to those six 28 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:36,240 nanometer chiplets, which is a bit disappointing, as chiplets are traditionally thought of as being 29 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:43,040 more power efficient than monolithic designs. The 7900 XTX, which competes with the RTX 4080, 30 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:48,160 tends to draw more power across titles and in synthetic benchmarks, so this could be a 31 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:52,720 consideration if you're running up against limits with your power supply. However, the difference 32 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:58,880 isn't obscene, and the 7900 XTX's superior performance in certain titles may be more than 33 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:04,000 worth it for many of you. Which card wins in which game depends quite a bit on whether that 34 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:09,840 particular title is optimized for NVIDIA or AMD, and if you're considering the slightly cheaper 35 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:17,040 7900 XT, know that while it doesn't quite hit the heights of the RTX 4080, it's not terribly far 36 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:22,160 off and will save you an additional hundo. But be warned, that also means it's not nearly as good 37 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:27,280 of a value, which is actually kind of crazy to say. We also cannot ignore how well these cards 38 00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:33,120 could end up maturing over time, not just with driver updates as we saw with the RX 6000 series, 39 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:38,800 but also with FSR 3, the next generation of AMD's upscaling technology that competes with NVIDIA's 40 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:45,600 DLSS. FSR 3 isn't out yet, but it should be sometime in 2023, and Team Red is promising 41 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:51,120 significant framerate gains once it drops. However, it's an open technology that even 42 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:56,320 works on NVIDIA cards, so it's really unclear at this point as to whether RX 7000 will give you 43 00:03:56,320 --> 00:04:02,960 an advantage if you use FSR 3. And it also generally stinks to pay good money today on the promise 44 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:08,160 that the product might be worth the cost tomorrow. So what's the bottom line here? Right now, 45 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:12,400 if you don't care about ray tracing, and can afford putting a few more watts of load on your 46 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:19,200 power supply, AMD's RX 7000 is probably a better buy. If ray tracing is a big deal to you, though, 47 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:24,320 you might want a spring for an NVIDIA RTX 4000 card. Whatever you do, be sure to read benchmark 48 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:29,520 results to find out how the cards perform in the games you want to play before buying. 49 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:33,520 Let us know down in the comments which card you're going with, but please don't turn the 50 00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:39,360 discussion into a classic red versus green flame war. They're both doing us dirty these days. 51 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:45,360 Dislike both of them. But don't dislike this video unless you disliked it, then you can hit 52 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:49,120 the dislike button. If you like it, hit the like button, check out our other videos, 53 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:53,520 comment below with video suggestions, and don't forget to subscribe and follow TechWiki, 54 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:59,360 and our rival channel that we have flame wars with, TechLinked.