Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT MBA vs Sapphire Radeon RX 6800 MBA

[maltrabob]

RX 7900 XT vs RX 6800

TEST SETUP

CPU, MOTHERBOARD, MEMORY

RX 6800 16GB

RX 7900 XT 20GB

Note: I ran all synthetic and gaming benchmarks twice and picked the best run for results.

SYNTHETIC BENCHMARKS

SUPERPOSITION
RX 7900 XT faster by 59.8%

UNIGINE HEAVEN
RX 7900 XT faster by 31.3%

UNIGINE VALLEY
RX 7900 XT faster by 25.4%

3DMARK

SPEED WAY
RX 7900 XT faster by 77.4%

PORT ROYAL
RX 7900 XT faster by 81.8%

TIME SPY EXTREME
RX 7900 XT faster by 52.2%

FIRE STRIKE ULTRA
RX 7900 XT faster by 56.3%

GEEKBENCH 5

OpenCL
RX 7900 XT faster by 15.7%

Vulkan
RX 7900 XT faster by 139.8%

GAMING BENCHMARKS

GHOST RECON BREAKPOINT (VULKAN)

Tested in built-in benchmark. 206 fps vs 148 fps, RX 7900 XT faster by 39.2%

SETTINGS
2560x1440, Fullscreen, Vsync off, Refresh Rate 120 Hz, Texture Quality Ultra, Resolution Scaling 100, HDR Off, Temporal Injection On, Anti-Aliasing On, Foreground Framelock Off, Background Framelock Off, Extended Fov 100, Sharpening Off, Ambient Occlusion Ultra, Level Of Detail Ultra, Anisotropic Filtering 16, Screen Space Shadows On, Terrain Quality Ultra, Grass Quality Ultra, Screen Space Reflections Very High, Sun Shadows Ultra, Cloth Simulation Quality High, Motion Blur On, Bloom On, Subsurface Scattering Very High, Long Range Shadows Ultimate, Volumetric Fog Ultra, Fog Background Blur On

CS:GO

Tested in FPS Benchmark by uLLetical. 549.78 fps vs 440.13 fps, RX 7900 XT faster by 24.9%

SETTINGS
2560x1440, Fullscreen, Global Shadow Quality High, Model/Texture Detail High, Texture Streaming Disabled, Effect Detail High, Shader Detail Very High, Boost Player Contrast Enabled, Multicore Rendering Enabled, MSAA 8x, FXAA Enabled, Texture Filtering Mode 16x, Vsync Disabled, Motion Blur Disabled, Use Uber Shadows Enabled

FAR CRY 6

Tested in built-in benchmark. 118 fps vs 86 fps, RX 7900 XT faster by 37.2%

SETTINGS
2560x1440, Fullscreen, Refresh rate 120 Hz, Vsync Off, Framerate Lock Off, Field Of View Scaling 120, Adaptive Resolution Off, Resolution Scale 1.0, FidelityFX Super Resolution Off, Graphics Quality Ultra, HD Textures On, Anti-Aliasing TAA, Motion Blur On, Camera Shakes Full, Poisoned And Drunk Effects On, DXR Reflections On, DXR Shadows On, FidelityFX CAS On, FidelityFX Variable Shading On

Quake II RTX

SETTINGS

1920x1080
100 fps vs 54 fps, RX 7900 XT faster by 85.2%

2560x1440
60 fps vs 32 fps, RX 7900 XT faster by 87.5%

SERIOUS SAM 3 BFE

Tested in "The Silent Riddler" animation. This used to bring a lot of previous cards to their knees. I used Fraps for 21 seconds to capture min/avg FPS.

SETTINGS
2560x1440, Fullscreen, Vsync Off, Field Of View 75.00, CPU Speed Ultra, GPU Speed Ultra (plus additional 9 features customised for maximum details), GPU Memory Ultra


WORLD OF TANKS ENCORE RT

Tested in stand-alone benchmark, 2560x1440, all Ultra setting as per image. 37896 vs 23247, RX 7900 XT faster by 63%

WAR THUNDER

Although this game has built-in benchmark, I tested a custom run using Fraps for 60 seconds to capture min/avg FPS.

SETTINGS
2560x1440, all maxed out


POWER CONSUMPTION

PC power consumption only (monitor power connected to separate socket).

Idle power measured in Windows desktop on single monitor.
Video power measured after 2 minutes watching 4K fullscreen video on YT - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXb3EKWsInQ
Stress test power measured in 3DMark after 5 minutes (5 passes).


SUMMARY

There are still some issues with DX12 games on RX 7900 XT. I couldn't run The Witcher 3 in DX12 Ultra, RT and RT Ultra presets, but it run on RX 6800. Same with Division 2, as soon as DX12 renderer was enabled, game crashed, PC black screened and fans blasted at 100%. Restart was needed. AMD needs to work on drivers

The fan noise at stock and coil whine as well aren't too bad, comparable with RX 6800 I would say. I would like to have that nice red Radeon logo that's on RX 6800 on RX 7900 XT. The card is boring without it, I can't even see the card through the glass on my PC case.

The RX 7900 XT is a bit heavier than RX 6800. It is also about 1cm longer and 1cm thicker than RX 6800, but it's width is actually shorter by 1cm. Both cards are very solid and the quality of build is superb for a reference design.


LINKS TO MY RESULTS


CPU test with RX 6800 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85466884
CPU test with RX 7900 XT - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86029262

GPU RX 6800
Speedway run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85467400
Speedway run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85467678

Port royal run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85467989
Port royal run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85468252

Timespy Extreme run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85468634
Timespy Extreme run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85469041

Firestrike Ultra run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85469981
Firestrike Ultra run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85470269

DX RT run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85470557
DX RT run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85470753

Mesh run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85470896
Mesh run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85471068

PCI run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85471215
PCI run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85471345

Sampler run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85471573
Sampler run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85471784

VRS Tier 2 run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85472109
VRS Tier 2 run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85472267

XeSS run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85472561
XeSS run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/85472795

Geekbench
OpenCl run 1 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/6131601
OpenCL run 2 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/6131611
Vulkan run 1 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/6131617
Vulkan run 2 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/6131621
CPU run 1 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/19519387
CPU run 2 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/19519420



GPU RX 7900 XT

Speedway run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86020918
Speedway run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86021296

Port royal run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86021641
Port royal run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86022096

Timespy Extreme run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86022823
Timespy Extreme run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86023222

Firestrike Ultra run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86023523
Firestrike Ultra run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86023788

DX RT run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86024010
DX RT run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86024176

Mesh run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86024766
Mesh run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86024921

PCI run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86025132
PCI run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86025282

Sampler run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86025677
Sampler run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86026109

VRS Tier 2 run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86026449
VRS Tier 2 run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86026612

XeSS run 1 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86027027
XeSS run 2 - https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/86027345

Geekbench
OpenCl run 1 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/6147433
OpenCL run 2 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/6147436
Vulkan run 1 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/6147445
Vulkan run 2 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/6147448
CPU run 1 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/19576631
CPU run 2 - https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/19576667

 

[LtMatt]

Excellent post, thanks for taking the time to put all that together.

I wish you had a faster CPU to drive that 7900 XT, you’d Get a bit more from it.

 

[dalyboy]

Echoing opinion but yes good post so thanks for the comparisons. I actually really like my 6800 MBA mainly due to the dual slot form factor and design. Works really well in my mini ITX build.

Hoping a true-er comparison will be when the dual slot cards come out for this generation . Annoying how chunky the 4080 FE is.

 

[Gibbo]

Excellent post, thanks for taking the time to put all that together.

I wish you had a faster CPU to drive that 7900 XT, you’d Get a bit more from it.

This all the new GPUs pull ahead more of latest CPUs and respond well to CPUs been overclocked.

 

[dave28]

Thanks for posting this and taking the time

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

This is quite helpful. I've been debating getting a 6800 XT, 6900 XT or 7900 XT and this does make the 7900 XT seem more worthwhile.
I know if you worked out the % performance increase and the % price increase the 6800 XT would probably work out to be better, but that's likely always going to be the case with new vs old products.

Of course my CPU is even worse than yours so that's not going to help...