The RX 7900 GRE as of 20/03/2024 - Not such a flawed product?

[g67575]

The RX 7700 XT really needs about a £100 price cut, it has never compared that well to the RX 6700 XT in terms of value.

 

[KompuKare]

These days they're not gonna want to let a card have the potential to perform much higher than intended. Had they left it 'unlocked' so to speak it could potentially close the gap to the 7900xt and make that card far less appealing, as well as making the 7800xt pointless. After all who would want a 7800xt If for a few quid more you could clock a GRE to run much faster.

Back in the day we had pencil mods to unlock performance on some cards, 8500-LE for example. Those days are long gone.

We've almost gone round in a circle in terms of model numbers, but one of the best overclocking card might have been the Tahiti HD 7950 which shipped at 800MHz but could do 1200MHz at a push. Although back then coolers were weaker and it did get noisy.
At some stage that was a £240 card and able to keep up with £400 parts.

Memory clocks seem to be the limiting thing with this 7900 GRE. And unfortunately AIBs all seem to tow the line these days, so no chance of someone selling this with faster memory.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I made a review thread here:

OcUK evening RX7900GRE review thread

ASRock https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asrock-radeon-rx-7900-gre-steel-legend/ https://hothardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-7900-gre-asrock-steel-legend Gigabyte Powercolor https://www.computerbase.de/2024-02/amd-radeon-rx-7900-gre-custom-test/...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

DF seems to like the RX7900GRE:

AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Review: The Most Exciting RDNA 3 Card Yet

What if AMD delivered a graphics card that delivered broadly equivalent RT performance to the Nvidia product at the same price - and comprehensively beat it ...

www.youtube.com

 

[Gerard]

We've almost gone round in a circle in terms of model numbers, but one of the best overclocking card might have been the Tahiti HD 7950 which shipped at 800MHz but could do 1200MHz at a push. Although back then coolers were weaker and it did get noisy.
At some stage that was a £240 card and able to keep up with £400 parts.

Memory clocks seem to be the limiting thing with this 7900 GRE. And unfortunately AIBs all seem to tow the line these days, so no chance of someone selling this with faster memory.

Wonder if someone could mod a bios to remove some of the limitations? Probably would have already if it were possible as its been kicking about since last July.

 

[humbug]

The RX 7700 XT really needs about a £100 price cut, it has never compared that well to the RX 6700 XT in terms of value.

In principle i agree the RX 7700 XT could use a price cut, but lets be realistic, a £100 price cut would make it £320, the same price as the RX 6700 XT, its a much better GPU than that, for one its 27% faster, its faster than the RX 6800.

The RX 6700 XT was $480, the RX 6800 was $580, its better than both at $450, i think it should be $420, you can't compare new to EOL pricing, if AMD actually did that they would end up at 0 $ with in a few generations.

Its a much better card than the 6700 XT, i wouldn't buy one for £320 at this point, i wouldn't buy a 7700 XT for £420, but £390? Yes.
As it happens i bought an RX 7800 XT for £480, the best value card there is from both sides IMO.

We want good value GPU's, but we also want AMD, or Nvidia and Intel for that matter to be rewarded for their efforts, so lets be reasonable.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

We've almost gone round in a circle in terms of model numbers, but one of the best overclocking card might have been the Tahiti HD 7950 which shipped at 800MHz but could do 1200MHz at a push. Although back then coolers were weaker and it did get noisy.
At some stage that was a £240 card and able to keep up with £400 parts.

Memory clocks seem to be the limiting thing with this 7900 GRE. And unfortunately AIBs all seem to tow the line these days, so no chance of someone selling this with faster memory.

DF testing seems to show the 7900GRE significantly ahead in a number of instances.

 

[humbug]

DF testing seems to show the 7900GRE significantly ahead in a number of instances.

Something interesting in the HUB data, mostly the 7900 GRE is just 2 to 3% faster than the 7800 XT, BUT there are a couple of rasterised games where its more than 10% faster, same with RT games, its 10 faster overall with some games more than that.

So i have a theory, memory bandwidth, the 7900 GRE has 80 shader clusters vs 60 on the 7800 XT, there is a 200 Mhz clock speed difference too in favour of the 7800 XT, not much, i can overclock mine by 400 to 600 Mhz.
The memory bandwidth, 576 GB/s for the 7900 GRE and 624 GB/s for the 7800XT, the 33% core count increase should put it more than 3% ahead of the 7800XT, in a couple of games it does, CoDMW 3 for example, that also just happens to be one of a few games where AMD does exceptionally well vs Nvidia.
So is it that the whole architecture is memory bandwidth constrained? except in a couple of games that perhaps aren't so dependant on memory bandwidth?

 

[Joxeon]

t depends on the architecture entirely, and how much of an improvement there is.

With RDNA3, the number of CUs only increased by 16, from the RX 6900 XT to the RX 7900 XTX. So, that limits what can be offered, and how GPUs are segmented into a range of products.

The issue I have is they have effectively switched names around while the CU increases have been consistent 6900XT > 7900XTX 16 CU increase, 6800XT > 7900XT 12 CU increase, 6800 > 7900GRE 12 CU increase.

The increases on the second tier die are even larger probably due to power not being an issue. 6700XT > 7800XT 20 CUs, 6600XT > 7700XT 22CU increase, so AMD have been very consistent when increasing CUs this generation vs last but the issue has been naming and pricing which has let RDNA3 down as had they stuck with the tier naming and pricing + inflation from last gen for equivalent skus then Nvidia would have had a real problem.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Sad to see AMD locking down overclocking with artificial limits.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1762182033583788192

 

[g67575]

DF seems to like the RX7900GRE:

AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Review: The Most Exciting RDNA 3 Card Yet

What if AMD delivered a graphics card that delivered broadly equivalent RT performance to the Nvidia product at the same price - and comprehensively beat it ...

www.youtube.com

It's very interesting to see cards like the GRE and 4070 Super directly compared to the PS5.

I'm not really seeing a solid reason for people not to buy the 4070 S rather than the RX 7900 GRE (unless you want the extra VRAM).

 

[g67575]

Sad to see AMD locking down overclocking with artificial limits.

Maybe they want to sell a GRE version with an unlocked BIOS? With better cooling?

Basically though, they want ensure the RX 7900 XT retains it's value for a while longer.

 

[GhostDog1981]

DF testing seems to show the 7900GRE significantly ahead in a number of instances.

The lead writer in DF seems to have fallen in love with the GRE even though HUB have said there’s just 5% difference between GRE and 7800XT at 1440p.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The lead writer in DF seems to have fallen in love with the GRE even though HUB have said there’s just 5% difference between GRE and 7800XT at 1440p.

Their review shows a much bigger difference.

It's very interesting to see cards like the GRE and 4070 Super directly compared to the PS5.

I'm not really seeing a solid reason for people not to buy the 4070 S rather than the RX 7900 GRE (unless you want the extra VRAM).

I wouldn't buy either at over £500.

 

[GhostDog1981]

Their review shows a much bigger difference.



I wouldn't buy either at over £500.

Overclock the 7800 XT (12-15% gains) and you match the GRE and pocket the $50 saving.

 

[humbug]

Sad to see AMD locking down overclocking with artificial limits.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1762182033583788192

mmm... hyperbole much?

This is a click bait nothing burger.

These GPU's don't run stable much past 2800 Mhz anyway, not for hours of gaming, yes i can set mine to 4000 Mhz but it will actually only run at a celling of about 3000 and even then that's peak, 95% of the time its running at around 2800Mhz, i have it set at 2800Mhz and it still run's at around 2800Mhz, some times a bit above that, just the same if i set it to 3200 Mhz. this up from about 2.4Ghz actual clocks in game.

Allowing a 4000Mhz clock ceiling, like on my 7800 XT, is idiotic as it will never get much past 3000Mhz even when benchmark clocking it with all the fans blasting it.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Overclock the 7800 XT and you match the GRE

Not necessarily. In some games the difference can be upto 20% especially those less affected by memory bandwidth. One of those areas is RT performance,and that is because AMD RT performance scales with more shader units. If you look at the RT games they test the RX7900GRE matches or exceeds an RTX4070 in a number of them(not in Cyberpunk OFC),whereas the RX7800XT can never do that. Since DF has a bias towards RT performance that is why they look at it favourable,especially since the RRPs of both the RX7900GRE and RTX4070 are the same. Plus he mentions the extra 4GB of VRAM too.

 

[humbug]

Not necessarily. In some games the difference can be upto 20% especially those less affected by memory bandwidth. One of those areas is RT performance,and that is because AMD RT performance scales with more shader units. If you look at the RT games they test the RX7900GRE matches or exceeds an RTX4070 in a number of them(not in Cyberpunk OFC),whereas the RX7800XT can never do that. Since DF has a bias towards RT performance that is why they look at it favourable,especially since the RRPs of both the RX7900GRE and RTX4070 are the same. Plus he mentions the extra 4GB of VRAM too.

They do run better RT, you're right.

I would say i don't understand why they should only be 2% faster in 90% of rasterization games vs the 7800 XT, or at least that's what i though after watching the HUB review, then i watch the GN review and his results put HUB's results in stark contrast, in every game Steve Burke tested the GRE was around 10% faster than the 7800 XT, putting it right in the middle between the 7800 XT and 7900 XT.

Yet again i find my self questioning HUB's results when it comes to AMD GPU's.

 

[g67575]

Couldn't AMD in theory allow the memory to be overclocked further? so it can match the 7800 XT's memory speed of 19.5 Gbps?

It sounds like the clockspeed limits aren't really the issue with the card, except on models with poor cooling.

This GPU could probably consistently beat the RTX 4070 Super, it just needs some tuning /refinement.

I've heard some reviewers say that the GRE is a competitive product, maybe so on price, but I think the Super cards like the RTX 4070 S can sometimes beat it on performance.

The nice thing about the GRE, is that at least you are getting the top die (Navi31), even if it is the most cut down version.

The reference model is kind of trash and should be avoided in my opinion, the hotspot temp is 88 Celsius.

Maybe it's better for most people to wait for a price drop on the RX 7900 XT, or try to get a 2nd hand one with a warranty for a good price.

 

[GhostDog1981]

Couldn't AMD in theory allow the memory to be overclocked further? so it can match the 7800 XT's memory speed of 19.5 Gbps?

It sounds like the clockspeed limits aren't really the issue with the card, except on models with poor cooling.

This GPU could probably consistently beat the RTX 4070 Super, it just needs some tuning /refinement.

I've heard some reviewers say that the GRE is a competitive product, maybe so on price, but I think the Super cards like the RTX 4070 S can sometimes beat it on performance.

The nice thing about the GRE, is that at least you are getting the top die (Navi31), even if it is the most cut down version.

The reference model is kind of trash and should be avoided in my opinion, the hotspot temp is 88 Celsius.

Maybe it's better for most people to wait for a price drop on the RX 7900 XT, or try to get a 2nd hand one with a warranty for a good price.

Is there likely to be a price drop now GRE has been introduced? AMD probably wanted to stop the downward rot of the 7900XT which is around £700 now, the GRE shores up this price I think.

It might affect the 7800XT more and we might see that hit £450 consistently.

 

[Concrete]

I might be out of touch, but if the power delivery is the limiting factor could under volting not potentially be more beneficial?