AMD’s RDNA 3 Radeon RX 7900 is fast, radical, and cheaper than Nvidia

The GeForce RTX 4090 is an absolute monster of a graphics card, however the battle for the subsequent technology of GPUs is simply getting began. On Thursday, AMD revealed its personal 4K gaming champion, and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT purpose to topple Nvidia’s goliath with assist from a stash of good methods that would make David himself blush.

Along with improved ray tracing capabilities, the addition of AI cores, and reminiscence galore, these first RDNA 3-architecture GPUs are additionally the primary graphics playing cards that includes a multi-die “chiplet” design, swiping inspiration from AMD’s epic Ryzen success.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

Higher but? Similar to when Ryzen disrupted Intel’s stranglehold on CPUs, shifting to chiplets helps AMD drastically undercut Nvidia’s pricing. Whereas the RTX 4090 prices a chest-clutching $1,599, and the approaching GeForce RTX 4080 prices $1,199, the brand new 24GB Radeon RX 7900 XTX prices $999 and the 20GB RX 7900 will price $899 once they launch on December 13.

Even when AMD’s flagship doesn’t handle to go fairly toe-to-toe with Nvidia’s beast when the benchmark mud lastly settles, it ought to nonetheless be insanely quick—and sport a way more palatable price ticket.

Let’s dig in.

Meet AMD’s RDNA 3 chiplets

Evaluating AMD and Nvidia’s methods to David and Goliath appears particularly salient right here. Nvidia slammed the pedal to the metallic with its new “Ada Lovelace” structure within the RTX 4090. The 4090 packs a huge 608mm² GPU, full of 76.3 billion transistors. These envelop all the things you’d usually anticipate in a GPU die, from media and show engines to the reminiscence controls. It really is a goliath of a GPU.

AMD

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With RDNA 3 and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, AMD selected a distinct path. It nonetheless accommodates a central GPU die, after all—you want one—but it surely measures a comparably paltry 300mm², constructed utilizing a 5nm TSMC manufacturing node just like Nvidia’s. That’s as a result of AMD break up its GDDR6 reminiscence interface and second-generation Infinity Cache into separate dies—six in whole—made utilizing the extra mature and cost-efficient 6nm node. It’s a radical change for GPU design, and one which helps AMD hold prices down. All instructed, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX wields 58 billion transistors.

AMD

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT every come geared up with 96MB of that Infinity Cache (which is principally on-die L3 cache for quicker reminiscence transfers and gaming speeds), with every of the six dies additionally sporting 64-bit reminiscence controllers. That’s lower than what the RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6900 XT and 6800-series packed—these had 128MB—however AMD product know-how architect Sam Naffziger defined that this model of Infinity Cache has been configured to do extra with much less, particularly paired to the 24GB of GDDR6 reminiscence over a broad 384-bit bus (or 20GB/320-bit bus within the 7900 XT’s case).

“We’ve tuned this Infinity Cache to allow higher information reuse with much less capability to perform a number of issues for us,” Naffziger stated. “With the excessive hit charges, it immediately sources many of the reminiscence requests. This delivers information to the engine in much less time and makes use of much less energy than going out to DRAM.” In sum, he stated, RDNA 3’s Infinity Cache affords 2.7x the height bandwidth supplied by its successor, delivering as much as 5.3 terabytes per second for directions that keep throughout the GPU and Infinity Cache.

Backside line: The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT received’t depart you wanting for reminiscence.

Radeon RX 7900 XTX: Inside RDNA 3’s GPU upgrades

However don’t let the introduction of discrete reminiscence dies idiot you: The core RDNA 3 GPU additionally acquired some critical upgrades.

AMD

Structure tweaks, the migration to TSMC’s superior 5nm node, and splitting out the reminiscence to its personal trailing-node chiplet helped AMD exceed its effectivity targets, with CEO Lisa Su claiming that RDNA 3 affords 54 p.c larger performance-per-watt than RDNA 2. That permit AMD persist with a standard 2x 8-pin energy connector design, neatly side-stepping the melting 12VHPWR adapter controversy Nvidia finds itself embroiled in with the RTX 4090.

With RDNA 3, AMD managed to squeeze in 54 p.c extra transistors than with RDNA 2, in a smaller space, for an general density enchancment of 165 p.c.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

That’s all nicely and good, however avid gamers are extra concerned about what these fancy new RDNA 3 dies do. A deeper dive will little doubt come earlier than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX’s December 13 launch date, however AMD supplied some tantalizing morsels of knowledge in the present day.

RDNA 3 switches to a brand new “unified” compute unit that makes use of dual-issue wave 32 items, so AMD can problem both integer or floating level directions as wanted relying on the workload, which Naffziger says can pace up gaming body charges and AI duties alike. An enhanced common function register file with 50 p.c extra capability than the RDNA 2 design likewise helps hold all duties fed.

AMD

Sure, I stated AI duties. Two generations after Nvidia launched tensor AI cores for DLSS and extra in its RTX 20-series GeForce GPUs, AMD is lastly following swimsuit. Every RDNA 3 Compute Unit (CU) packs a pair of AI cores, in addition to an enhanced ray tracing core that helps new devoted directions, 1.5x extra rays in flight, and contemporary ray field sorting and transversal capabilities.

AMD

AMD says RDNA 3 affords as much as 50 p.c extra efficiency per CU than RDNA 2 did, which feels unlikely to catch as much as Nvidia’s blistering RTX 40-series efficiency given the deficit AMD began in, however might make ray-traced video games really playable on RX 7000-series graphics playing cards. And it’s a must to assume these AI cores can be put to work upsampling video games earlier than it—particularly since Radeon chief Scott Herkelman teased FSR 3 for a 2023 launch throughout this occasion, with a twofold enhance in body charges versus the already-impressive FSR 2.

Talking of compute items, RDNA 3 might need a a lot smaller die, but it surely packs in lots of extra CUs than earlier than. The Radeon RX 6900 XT topped out at 80 CUs. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX has 96 operating at 2.3GHz, whereas the 7900 XT affords 84 operating at 2GHz.

AMD

AMD

From conventional video games to ray tracing to AI duties, AMD’s new flagship ought to provide considerably extra efficiency than earlier than, because the AMD-supplied slides under illustrate. (That stated, as all the time you must look ahead to unbiased benchmarks earlier than judging a brand new graphics card—particularly since these lack any RTX 4090 comparisons that would give us direct perception on how the Radeon RX 7900 XTX compares towards Nvidia’s newest and best.)

AMD

AMD

AMD

AMD additionally teased a brand new one-click “Hypr-RX” characteristic that may vastly improve body charges by activating FSR, Radeon Increase, and different useful Radeon applied sciences. Like FSR 3, it’s coming in 2023—particularly the primary half.

Uncooked efficiency is simply a part of the package deal although. AMD additionally upgraded the media and show engines in RDNA 3.

AMD

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT assist DisplayPort 2.1, not like the GeForce RTX 4090. Which means it could possibly assist 4K shows at as much as a blistering 480Hz, or 8K shows at 165Hz. And 12 colour bits per channel unlocks as much as 68 billion colours, which is welcome, however appears extra like stat porn than one thing anybody aside from content material creators want to fret about.

AMD

Nvidia and Intel maintain essentially the most sway with content material creators, however AMD critically upgraded its media engine with RDNA 3. Not solely does it assist AV1 encode and decode, becoming a member of Intel’s Arc and Nvidia’s RTX 40-series, however the GPU may also run simultaneous encode and decode for HEVC or AVC video. Accelerating the media engine’s frequency additionally helps it ship as much as 1.8x the efficiency of RDNA 2, Naffziger stated, decreasing export instances. AMD’s new AI cores additionally come to bear right here, with Naffziger promising improved video encoding and convention name high quality because of their assist.

A brewing battle

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

After a number of disheartening years of shortages and sky-high costs, PC avid gamers lastly have one thing to stay up for. The GeForce RTX 4090 rocked our socks, however its $1,600 price ticket makes it a luxurious toy for the 0.1 p.c. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT undoubtedly aren’t low-cost, at $999 and $899 respectively, however they’re a complete lot much less than Nvidia’s preliminary choices—they usually seem primed to ship an enthralling 4K+ gaming expertise of their very own on the again of a number of thrilling improvements and beefed-up ray tracing capabilities.

AMD’s in any other case thrilling presentation left us with loads of questions, nevertheless. How will the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT stack up towards the GeForce RTX 4090 and 4080, if not their very own RDNA 2 predecessors? Does switching to a number of dies create any efficiency oddities? Will RDNA 3 lastly ship a compelling ray tracing expertise? We’ll want to attend for unbiased benchmarks when these new-breed graphics playing cards hit the streets on December 13 to seek out out the solutions.