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4090 vs 7900xtx re-test, who has aged like fine wine?

Grim5

Grim5

Grim5

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PCGH has re-tested their original 4090 vs 7900xt review from December 2022 to see how the two GPUs now compare in March 2024

www.pcgameshardware.de

Geforce RTX 4090 vs. Radeon RX 7900 XTX: Duell der Topmodelle - Nachtest 2024 [Update]

Nvidia Geforce RTX 4090 gegen AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX: Nachtest mit aktuellen Treibern - wie sehen die Machtverhältnisse 2024 aus?
www.pcgameshardware.de www.pcgameshardware.de

It's being quite some time and the general expectation would be that the 7900xtx has closed the gap due to driver updates, but has it actually happened?

30 games were tested, 20 with Raster and 10 with RT, results below

4090 vs 7900 XTXDec 2022March 2024
Raster 1440p (20 games)+19%+23%
Raster 4k (20 games)+28%+33%
RT performance (10 games)+53%+69%
Cyberpunk 4k Raster+5%+16%
Cyberpunk 4k RT with FSR+110%+118%
 
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Which graphics card is the fastest for gaming and how big are the gaps? What about energy efficiency and value for money? You have learned all this in this article. Admittedly, we did not report groundbreaking findings, after all, the tested products are old acquaintances. However, the snow-matured drivers press more power from Geforce RTX 4090 and Radeon RX 7900 XTX performance, which is welcome in the typical field of application around Ultra HD as well as maximum details. This article aims to map the actual, current performance ratios of gaming graphics cards. For this, PCGH is puts into an enormous effort in terms of the test infrastructure and deliberately GPU-heavy benchmark sequences.

Both GPU forges deserve praise, because both 7900 XTX and RTX 4090 have increased over time - not clearly and overall at a comparable level, but measurable. The bottom line is not changed in the power relations, Nvidia still occupies by far the place in the sun. The Geforce RTX 4090 is 33 percent faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX in gridizing in Ultra HD, and even 89 percent in ray tracing - at an 88 percent higher price (at test time). The Radeon makers are thus significantly subject to the top models in the duel, but win the "Fps per Euro" category. In addition, AMD successfully defends its second place against the Geforce RTX 4080 Super - at least during gridizing.
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If you do not ensure the shown frame rates, modern PC games offer various options for better performance. In addition to a higher upsampling mode, Frame Generation is becoming a real added value. Although the creation of artificial intermediate images is still in its infancy and is viewed as suspicious, it can significantly improve its feeling. Users of a Geforce RTX 4000 have the best procedure at its disposal with DLSS (3) frame generation, but this can still be found in relatively few games. The alternative, FSR (3) frame generation, on the other hand, works on all GPUs, but does not quite achieve the quality of DLSS-FG. For this purpose, users of a Radeon graphics card have a second ace up their sleeve: Fluid Motion Frames, also known as AFMF. This driver-side switchable intermediate image calculation works in thousands of games and thus delivers utility value. This also increases the (optically perceived) Fps rates of a Radeon RX 7900 XTX by factor 2. Looking at the lens, the Geforce RTX 4090 is nevertheless the faster graphics card and AMD has a lot of work ahead with future architectures if they want to play back at the top.
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Always been a myth. AMD just do a better job at marketing their driver gains by giving some of their releases special names.

Both AMD and nvidia have games where they perform abnormally poorly, which they fix over time.
 
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So if Nvidia are "out fine wine'ing" AMD, does this imply that the 4090 was released before it was ready?!

Anyway, the real problem is that the suite has change do much that benchmarks are not comparable.
www.pcgameshardware.de

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX und RX 7900 XT im Test: "Doppel-Wumms" gegen RTX 4080 [Update]

AMDs Radeon RX 7900 XTX und Radeon RX 7900 XT im Spieletest mit zahlreichen Raytracing-Benchmarks in vier Auflösungen.
www.pcgameshardware.de www.pcgameshardware.de
www.pcgameshardware.de

Geforce RTX 4090 vs. Radeon RX 7900 XTX: Duell der Topmodelle - Nachtest 2024 [Update]

Raytracing-Benchmarks & Leistungsindex
www.pcgameshardware.de www.pcgameshardware.de
For raster, only A Plague Tale: Requiem, Cyberpunk 2077, and Forza Horizon 5 were in both, and the scene for Cyberpunk 2077 is not the same (going from PCGH's Red Light Alley in 2023 to PCGH's Dog Days in 2024.

So directly comparable for raster we only have those two and at 4K min FPS we got (2023 first, 2024 last)
APT: Requiem, for the 4090: 64.0 to 71.0 so nearly 11% better.
APT: Requiem, for the 7900 XTX: 49.0 to 51 so about 4%.
FH5 for the 4090: 117.0 to 118.0 so about 1% better.
FH5 for the 7900 XTX: 83.0 to 95 so about 14%.

For RT scenes: Well I gave up after comparing the only common games (CB2077, DL2, and Metro Exodus) since not only did CB2077 have a different scene, Dying Light 2 uses the same 'scene' but different settings, and Metro Exodus using the same scene but again changing the settings.

CPUs? Stated is 12900K vs 13900KS (implying P cores only for both).

And the CPU was changed too, so not really a scientific comparison.

What we can sort of say is that for new games the 4090 is going really well as most of the suite difference is newer games.
 
TheRealDeal said:
It's most likely nothing to do with drivers and more to do with more powerful cpu's around which can get more from the 4090 as it does tend to be bottlenecked more than any other card. A better test would have been the 4080 v 7900xtx as they are similar in raster.
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This would be my guess as well. I already knew back at the 4090's launch it was getting somewhat bottlenecked by CPUs at the time, so since we have faster CPUs now, the 4090 runs faster than it did at launch
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Going to be a problem going forward if it is indeed newer CPUs helping out too. Lots of people stick with older CPUs. Oh well at least I only buy cheaper cards so not a problem I will have too often hopefully!
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My main modus operandi is to buy mid range GPUs and use until they break before upgrading. Won’t be an issue for the majority.
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Going to be a problem going forward if it is indeed newer CPUs helping out too. Lots of people stick with older CPUs. Oh well at least I only buy cheaper cards so not a problem I will have too often hopefully!
Click to expand...

I planned on upgrading my cpu having stuck with the Z690 platform but the lacklustre performance leap meant im sticking with my 12700k until true next gen. I do sometimes wonder how much of a jump it would be if say i stuck a 14700k in there instead.
 
CPU improvements aside, was possibly less fine wine and more that AMD drivers were in a worse state a couple years back, but now that they've been fixed up a bit there are fewer opportunities for gains.
 
GhostDog1981 said:
My main modus operandi is to buy mid range GPUs and use until they break before upgrading. Won’t be an issue for the majority.
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Jay85 said:
I planned on upgrading my cpu having stuck with the Z690 platform but the lacklustre performance leap meant im sticking with my 12700k until true next gen. I do sometimes wonder how much of a jump it would be if say i stuck a 14700k in there instead.
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Maybe but there is also this too:
www.youtube.com

Nvidia Has a Driver Overhead Problem, GeForce vs Radeon on Low-End CPUs

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hardwareunboxedJoin us on Floatplane: https://www.floatplane.com/channel/HardwareUnboxedBuy relevant products ...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

AMD used to have a similar issue with DX11 games a long time ago,so not sure what is happening there?
Mesai said:
CPU improvements aside, was possibly less fine wine and more that AMD drivers were in a worse state a couple years back, but now that they've been fixed up a bit there are fewer opportunities for gains.
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Honestly outside being a test vehicle for chiplets,not really sure what RDNA3 bought to the table? It has better machine learning capabilities which appear to be barely used. Also the weird dual issue thing too. So not surprised if drivers are more mature.
 
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CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Going to be a problem going forward if it is indeed newer CPUs helping out too. Lots of people stick with older CPUs. Oh well at least I only buy cheaper cards so not a problem I will have too often hopefully!
Click to expand...
I went am4 with 2700x and upgraded to a 5800x. I still have the 5800x3d as another gaming upgrade path but think AM5 or 6 will be my next upgrade. Will see how long the 7900xt 5800x combo lasts.
 
Dicehunter said:
If AMD priced the 7900XTX at £699 as their most expensive GPU, Which I'd wager would still turn a profit, It would've sold a lot more. They need to stop competing with Nvidia in the price ranges and start massively undercutting.
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does not work as markets dont work as such
AMD sells plenty of cards in some markets they have a 50% share vs nvidia
You bought the myth of marketing from nvidia simply
vs Intel they sell 8 to intels 1 cpus.... lol

and people talk about these cards usually dont even have one.
The market has 90% with cards that cost $500 or so.
The rest the 10% are a blend with higher cost which isnt the majority of users and buyers

AMD simply put has a better gaming experience overall.
 
RBImGuy said:
does not work as markets dont work as such
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But... that is how markets work, If a product is good and well priced it will sell like hotcakes, The 7900XTX at the start had terrible pricing compared to the performance so it didn't sell well.

RBImGuy said:
You bought the myth of marketing from nvidia simply vs Intel they sell 8 to intels 1 cpus.... lol
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No.

RBImGuy said:
AMD simply put has a better gaming experience overall.
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Don't talk such bull, Keep the fanboyism to reddit. If someone put 2 x rigs infront of you in a blind test, 1 AMD and 1 Nvidia in the same game with the same settings, Lets say God of War, You wouldn't be able to tell the difference outside of looking at the FPS counter.
 
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