CONCLUSION

   There are 3 things i think i need to point out before i close this review with my opinion on the brand new Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics card by AMD. First and foremost, this is the 2nd reference card i have in my charts, every other card is factory overclocked (and with improved cooling) which means that this isn't the fairest comparison (also do take into account that the drivers I used with most cards were mature ones and not launch drivers). I will be getting partner cards soon however which i expect to be slightly faster than this one. Second even though the maximum recorded power consumption during my tests (stress tests included) was at 350W while gaming the card never surpassed 341W. I know it's not that different of a number but i value accuracy above everything else. Finally, even though my Intel Core i9 7980XE system still holds up well (4GHz on all cores and 3.1GHz mesh) and during my tests the card never dropped beneath 99.23% utilization (and that was in 1080p tests) I’ll probably be using my new Intel Core i9 13900K system to perform future GPU tests. With these out of the way it's quite clear from all my charts that the Radeon RX 7900 XT is a very good card, at least overall. Yes, it may not blow its predecessor the Radeon RX 6950 XT out of the water (again, keep in mind that the Toxic model i have in my charts is factory overclocked and probably the fastest of that generation) but it does offer a 5-15% improvement in most games (raytracing performance included). Again, not having the reference Radeon RX 6950 XT here means i can't do a direct comparison but overall, the card could do a lot worse in both power consumption and temperatures (could be better however, as could noise levels). Technologies like FSR 2.2 and FreeSync work well as usual and so if you want more out of this card you can certainly get it. Using two 8pin power connectors with their new Radeon RX 7000 series is also certainly a plus since consumers aren't being forced basically to either get one of the new power supply units or one or more 12VHPWR adapters. Finally, size is always something I look for in a card. For example, the Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Toxic has been one of my favourite graphics cards to date exactly because it’s so small and so I couldn’t skip appreciating just how compact the Radeon RX 7900 XT is (my guess is Sapphire will make something smaller again soon). Some driver related issues were expected so for example some games would crash to desktop and some tests wouldn’t finish sometimes but overall I can’t say I encountered something I haven’t in the past. Finally, it would be great if I could compare the Radeon RX 7900 XT and the XTX (review soon) with the GeForce RTX 4080 and 4090 cards (I imagine many of you are looking mostly for that today) but partner samples have yet to arrive (a couple should be here soon however).

   The Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics card by AMD should be up for grabs tomorrow with an MSRP set at USD899 which is quite balanced although at USD999 the Radeon RX 7900 XTX will probably tempt gamers more (so AMD may end up working on their prices soon). Overall, the performance of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT may not be particularly impressive and I’m certain many people were expecting slightly more (partner cards may always deliver that) but it’s still a valid upgrade compared even to the previous generation flagship (and the Toxic version at that) and for that it definitely gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Build Quality (Materials / Backplate)
- Top Of The Charts Performance
- Size (2.5 Slot / 276mm Long)
- Good Overclocking Headroom
- Supported Technologies
- Classic 8pin Power Connectors

CONS

- Price (Compared To The Radeon RX 7900 XTX Model)
- Noise Levels
- Overall RT Performance