OcUK RX7900 series review thread

[JGF111]

Honestly I don't actually remember the numbers but the impression I got from reviews was that no card (even the 4090) are outputting grat numbers with RT turned on. Without using DLSS/FSR I don't remember great framerates from any of the cards.
I get the impression that at the minute the technology isn't quite there but we're just starting to get to the point where it's getting interesting.

I would disagree. The 4090 is the first card that is crushing 4K Full raytracing... but you still need to have DLSS enabled. Previous gen was 4K/60... more or less... with RT enabled WITH DLSS.

We are still *multiple* generations away from having high refresh 4K RT without any DLSS/FSR

 

[ICDP]

I would disagree. The 4090 is the first card that is crushing 4K Full raytracing... but you still need to have DLSS enabled. Previous gen was 4K/60... more or less... with RT enabled WITH DLSS.

We are still *multiple* generations away from having high refresh 4K RT without any DLSS/FSR

You’ve just contradicted yourself.

 

[gpuerrilla]

Was going to say the same. That's exactly what Googaly highlighted lol.

 

[Nexus18]

I think that's an odd thing to say.

This is what they said in that video when they spent a few moments mentioning AMD raytracing performance.



I've written it down so it's not vaguely claimed to be somewhere in a video that people aren't actually watching. But if you do want to confirm, this is said at 32:10.

Yup and also watch the first video on RDNA 3 by them, they made many positive comments on RDNA 3 but nope apparently "shilling for nvidia" is the best some can come up with all because they pointed out what amds claims of "up to" were referring to

The Digital Foundry hate from circles is pretty amusing. I find their content overall actually very good, and their takes generally quite reasonable.

But then some circles accuse the Hardware Unboxed guys of being nvidia shills too, sooooo in summary the internet is going to internet i guess...

It seems to all originate from their ampere video and people getting hung up over that and DF having some form of connection to nvidia i.e. early access to stuff even though they also have early access to amd and intel hardware too

No one comes close to their quality and knowledge especially Alex when it comes to PC game releases with stutter and being able to identify what kind of stutter issue it is, if it weren't for his videos, some developers wouldn't even be acknowledging let alone fixing the issues we see on PC.

Sad state of affairs when peoples brand loyalty blinds them so much from actual good content. Same for HUB too, some called them amd shills, then nvidia shills, essentially it all comes down to ones narrative.

 

[ICDP]

Yup and also watch the first video on RDNA 3 by them, they made many positive comments on RDNA 3 but nope apparently "shilling for nvidia" is the best some can come up with all because they pointed out what amds claims of "up to" were referring to



It seems to all originate from their ampere video and people getting hung up over that and DF having some form of connection to nvidia i.e. early access to stuff even though they also have early access to amd and intel hardware too

No one comes close to their quality and knowledge especially Alex when it comes to PC game releases with stutter and being able to identify what kind of stutter issue it is, if it weren't for his videos, some developers wouldn't even be acknowledging let alone fixing the issues we see on PC.

Sad state of affairs when peoples brand loyalty blinds them so much from actual good content. Same for HUB too, some called them amd shills, then nvidia shills, essentially it all comes down to ones narrative.

DF were not just getting free stuff, their article for the 3080 preview where it was compared against a 2080 was heavily skewed and essentially dictated by Nvidia. They were showing data that portrayed the RTX 3080 as ~80% faster than 2080 at 4K and many then used that to conclude it was ~50% faster than a 2080Ti. Yet when scrutinised it was under very limited scenarios where the RTX 2080 was runing into 8GB VRAM limits. Actual launch day reviews showed it being ~50% faster than a 2080 and 25% faster than a 2080Ti.

Another thing that I remember being odd is they did not actually give FPS vs FPS but percentage increase numbers. So a lot of people couldn't go and compare the FPS they reported on their 2080 for example.

So once DF started posting heavily skewed and cherry picked results they lost all credibility as an objective tech site.

Here is the disclaimer DF had to include. The reality is they just should have told Nvidia "no thanks, that article is clearly biased on cherry picked nonsensical data".

Full disclosure: I can bring you the results of key tests today, but there are caveats in place. Nvidia has selected the games covered, for starters, and specified 4K resolution to remove the CPU completely from the test results and in all cases, settings were maxed as much as they could be. The games in question are Doom Eternal, Control, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Battlefield 5, Borderlands 3 and Quake 2 RTX. Secondly, frame-time and frame-rate metrics are reserved for the reviews cycle, meaning our tests were limited to comparisons with RTX 2080 (its last-gen equivalent in both naming and price) and differences had to be expressed in percentage terms

 

[Nexus18]

DF were not just getting free stuff, their article for the 3080 preview where it was compared against a 2080 was heavily skewed and essentially dictated by Nvidia. Essentially they were implying the RTX 3080 was ~80% faster than 2080 at 4K and many then used that to conlude it was ~50% faster than a 2080Ti. Yet when scrutinised it was under very limited scenarios where the RTX 2080 was runing into 8GB VRAM limits. Actual launch day reviews showed it being ~50% faster than a 2080 and 25% faster than a 2080Ti.

Another thing that I remember being odd is they did not actually give FPS vs FPS but percentage increase numbers. So a lot of people couldn't go and compare the FPS they reported on their 2080 for example.

So once DF started posting heavily skewed and cherry picked results they lost all credibility as an objective tech site.

Here is the disclaimer DF had to include. The reality is they just should have told Nvidia "no thanks, that article is clearly biased on cherry picked nonsensical data".

Full disclosure: I can bring you the results of key tests today, but there are caveats in place. Nvidia has selected the games covered, for starters, and specified 4K resolution to remove the CPU completely from the test results and in all cases, settings were maxed as much as they could be. The games in question are Doom Eternal, Control, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Battlefield 5, Borderlands 3 and Quake 2 RTX. Secondly, frame-time and frame-rate metrics are reserved for the reviews cycle, meaning our tests were limited to comparisons with RTX 2080 (its last-gen equivalent in both naming and price) and differences had to be expressed in percentage terms

That may well be the case for that "specific" video but it doesn't invalidate any of their other testing/videos especially if they back up what they are showing/stating with evidence, which they do unlike many of the other tech. press sites.

 

[Aegis]

I like Digital Foundry for their technology coverage but I don't see them as 'independent' in the way that say, Gamers Nexus are. At times DF can feel very much like a marketing arm of Nvidia. I don't necessarily blame them, since access is essential for them to be able to do their job, but for GPU launches I feel their reviews/coverage are notably less objective than other channels.

 

[LtMatt]

I like Digital Foundry for their technology coverage but I don't see them as 'independent' in the way that say, Gamers Nexus are. At times DF can feel very much like a marketing arm of Nvidia. I don't necessarily blame them, since access is essential for them to be able to do their job, but for GPU launches I feel their reviews/coverage are notably less objective than other channels.

I think this is a 100% fair comment.

 

[Cooper]

Digital Shilleries have always been pro nvidia

Do you know why?

..because Nvidia make the best GPUs.

If AMD ever get their act together & produce the best GPUs, they'd be pro AMD.

 

[Poneros]

I like Digital Foundry for their technology coverage but I don't see them as 'independent' in the way that say, Gamers Nexus are. At times DF can feel very much like a marketing arm of Nvidia. I don't necessarily blame them, since access is essential for them to be able to do their job, but for GPU launches I feel their reviews/coverage are notably less objective than other channels.

Biased, absolutely, but also still somewhat competent. That's not something that can be said about the likes of GN when it comes to GPU/CPU testing for gaming. Unfortunately they seem to have given up on staying relevant in those areas years ago. Personally I can only recommend the german reviewers (computerbase/pcgh) for day 1 tests, and for more detailed per-game performance trusted users that post their footage on youtube like 'bang4buckgamer' et al, or on populated active enthusiast forums like this one; that ofc means info will take time to accrue so not so useful if you want to buy at launch.

 

[Joxeon]

Other than the 4090 I think AMD win at every price point now, even RT isn't much of a difference anymore due to the higher pricing of Nvidia cards going up against higher tier AMD cards.

 

[ICDP]

Do you know why?

..because Nvidia make the best sell the most GPUs.

If AMD ever get their act together & produce the best GPUs, they'd PC enthusiasts ever get their act together accept that AMD make very competitive GPUs, DF would not be so blatantly pro Nvidia..be pro AMD.

FTFY

Ironically I just bought a used 4080 from a colleague who replaced it with a 7900 XTX. Though at least I can sort of convince myself I never gave in to Nvidia's scalper prices.

 

[TheRealDeal]

IMO @LtMatt is a better source than most of the reviewers. He tweaks the crap out of both sides and provides the results. If he still works for AMD he's doing a great job of showing just how good the 4090 is as well as his 7900xtx results and settings. If you take in enough reviews and look somewhere in the middle you will mostly get a good idea of performance.

 

[Nexus18]

I like Digital Foundry for their technology coverage but I don't see them as 'independent' in the way that say, Gamers Nexus are. At times DF can feel very much like a marketing arm of Nvidia. I don't necessarily blame them, since access is essential for them to be able to do their job, but for GPU launches I feel their reviews/coverage are notably less objective than other channels.

Agree, no doubt their initial early videos on nvidia stuff is 100% dictated by nvidia or rather heavily pro nvidia/advantages, they do list the cons in them videos too but don't quite put the spotlight on them as much for obvious reasons, however, in their videos outside the initial launch nvidia/press window, they are very objective i.e. look at the frame generation/dlss 3 video, they listed a ton of the cons and backed this up then went on to how it would play out in actual user gameplay outside of the "testing/scrutinising" scenario but many ignored that bit and instead used HUBs video on dlss 3/FG (which funnily listed exactly the same cons as DF/Alex did ) where they only focussed on the negatives and not how it would actually impact in normal gameplay and going by end users comments on dlss 3/FG, it appears Alex's/DF view point was correct as opposed to HUB who thinks everyone was going to be pausing the game to focus on the fake frames or/and switching between camera angles in order to make sure FG falls apart and witness this for themselves as opposed to just playing the game

Also, another point where DF/Alex testing is far more thorough was with regards to vsync and frame generation in terms of the latency issues i.e. if you're hitting your monitors refresh rate when using g/free sync and have vsync turned on (as per the recommended settings), you're were going to be getting severe the latency issues, HUB failed to notice this but again, because of narrative, certain individuals choose to refer to HUBs results even though, this issue can be mitigated as proven by Alex/DF. HUB are great with their testing and thoughts but they come across as far more clickbait and come up with certain "opinions" in order to get more clicks and get the comments going where as GN and DF don't come across like that.

Again all about the narrative

Other than the 4090 I think AMD win at every price point now, even RT isn't much of a difference anymore due to the higher pricing of Nvidia cards going up against higher tier AMD cards.

I haven't followed pricing too much lately for either side, is it still a case of being about £100-150 difference between a 4080 and 7900xtx? If so, given you're spending 1+k, an extra £100-150 isn't really that much. I would pay the extra for the 4080, better all round and safer choice imo, regardless of RT even. I'm expecting that the 7900xtx will pull ahead with driver updates but question is how long will that take? Going by history, could be several months, of course if you're expecting this and know with 100% certainty that it will improve vastly and the issues get fixed then 7900xtx does make sense. Either way both are still far too much money for what they offer.

 

[LtMatt]

IMO @LtMatt is a better source than most of the reviewers. He tweaks the crap out of both sides and provides the results. If he still works for AMD he's doing a great job of showing just how good the 4090 is as well as his 7900xtx results and settings. If you take in enough reviews and look somewhere in the middle you will mostly get a good idea of performance.

Yep I tune both to their peak performance and test. Both are great GPUs. The 4090 is clearly faster overall, but cost almost twice the price.

 

[Locky]

Anyone on here got the 3x8 pin version yet and tweaked that with results?

 

[gpuerrilla]

FTFY

Ironically I just bought a used 4080 from a colleague who replaced it with a 7900 XTX. Though at least I can sort of convince myself I never gave in to Nvidia's scalper prices.

Can you post box and name for the RoH thread please?

 

[ICDP]

lol

 

[delta0]

Other than the 4090 I think AMD win at every price point now, even RT isn't much of a difference anymore due to the higher pricing of Nvidia cards going up against higher tier AMD cards.

Putting the 3090 level of RT aside the fact that the 7900xtx meets or beats the 4090 in many games it must be spooking Nvidia a bit. Once AMD get the drivers sorted for all games then it’s going to be very disruptive to Nvidia.

 

[LtMatt]

Other than the 4090 I think AMD win at every price point now, even RT isn't much of a difference anymore due to the higher pricing of Nvidia cards going up against higher tier AMD cards.

This is a good thing, we need competition. Even the folks who strongly dislike AMD must admit that.