The Radeon RX 7900 XT(X) Owners Thread.

CaptainRAVE · 28 Dec 2023 at 15:01

Alexrose1uk said:
Makes sense, the Intel chips are far more power hungry than the AMD, so I can see a rather efficient 5800X3D getting by, whilst a more power hungry 9700K would push it over the limit. 9700K can use around 120-150W from memory, whilst the 5800X3D typically uses 85W or less.

My 10700K could consumer over 200W, so I don't doubt the 9700K was similar, given how similar the 9700K, 9900K and 10700K were, whereas the 5800X3D sips power by comparison, and that difference could easily trip a PSU, especially as the Superflowers are overbuilt typically, whilst the Gigabytes not so much!

Hopefully, I think it makes sense and I’ve seen it before with a previous setup of mine. The Gigabyte I have was also a version 2, downgraded due to a previous design fault. 1000w should at least keep me covered for a while. If it doesn’t solve it then I’ll upgrade the CPU.

Alexrose1uk · 28 Dec 2023 at 15:11

Fingers crossed, providing this resolves the issue it'll still be a nice play experience, although the jump to AM5 or one of the newer Intel architectures would be noticeable now, especially for CPU bottlenecked stuff.

By way of comparison my wife's machine recently got upgraded from 10700k/3080 to a 7800X3D and 7900XT and she was shocked by how noticeable the upgrade was, given how ok both the old parts still were.

CaptainRAVE · 28 Dec 2023 at 15:18

Alexrose1uk said:
Fingers crossed, providing this resolves the issue it'll still be a nice play experience, although the jump to AM5 or one of the newer Intel architectures would be noticeable now, especially for CPU bottlenecked stuff.

Yes, I’ll definitely be losing performance. I think I just need to see how much I get back into pc gaming first and whether the current games I want to play run well enough for my liking. The first few include the Universim when it launches in full in January and BG3 (hopefully tomorrow), so I think I should be ok for now? 4K should ease the cpu usage a bit too?

I’m new to this new AMD gaming app that installed with the drivers. Looks ok so far, quite like it’s ease of use and info overlays.

Alexrose1uk · 28 Dec 2023 at 15:21

Yes the AMD stuff takes a little getting used to if you are used to the now archaic nvidia control panel and geforce experience, it does seem to work well though nowadays.

People give AMD **** but I actually think they've surpassed Nvidia in this regards now, NVs driver utilities are pretty bad all told, honestly they only get away with it because of mindshare.

Bill Turnip · 28 Dec 2023 at 16:30

Alexrose1uk said:
By way of comparison my wife's machine recently got upgraded from 10700k/3080 to a 7800X3D and 7900XT and she was shocked by how noticeable the upgrade was, given how ok both the old parts still were.

What sort of things does she play, and where was the upgrade most noticeable? Only reason I ask is that my setup is the 10700k/3080 you describe, and I didn't think the uplift would be huge, but it would be food for thought.

It may prove an expensive question for me!

Alexrose1uk · 28 Dec 2023 at 17:59

Bill Turnip said:
What sort of things does she play, and where was the upgrade most noticeable? Only reason I ask is that my setup is the 10700k/3080 you describe, and I didn't think the uplift would be huge, but it would be food for thought.

It may prove an expensive question for me!

A little bit of everything to be honest, she has a pretty huge library, but it's all over the place from Indie titles, to Indie-but-high-profile (like Phasmophobia, this has some severe performance bottlenecks due to bad code or Unity) and also bigger titles like Darktide, Hogwarts Legacy etc. I think part of it has been smoothness, and general snappiness, the x3D combined with high end graphics and a boat load of RAM (64GB C30 6000), and a lot of NVME storage, means that everything loads quick, and generally runs very smoothly with I suspect a decent uptick in minimum framerates due to the increased GPU headroom and that x3D cache. She has a 3840x1600 ultrawide monitor as well, so no doubt the extra rasterisation horsepower and VRAM is also helping more than it would if she was gaming at 1080/1440p.

The system is all around faster, more responsive, loads faster, and she is now under no reservations that her upgraded machine is a bit of a beast, plus very quiet. It's also covered in largely synced RGB as she likes the pretty lights haha. She HAS ended up with the 7900XT Nitro as well, which is one of the best 7900s, which can't hurt.

She is the sort of person who doesn't believe in upgrades unless they're really noticeable or titles aren't playing right, and is not as performance orientated as I am, but she has commented a few times to me since the rebuild around Black Friday regards just how fast the system feels, and that she has been quite surprised by it, which given her general stance to PC upgrades, means she really HAS felt it.

As it's her machine, I've not been able to do that much benchmarking or testing on it to give more specific data, but I know her 3DMark Timespy score went from roughly 16.8K to 24.5K, and her Firestrike score went from ~28K to literally 50.5K, so actually a fairly big uptick.

Gerard · 28 Dec 2023 at 18:23

Alexrose1uk said:
Yes the AMD stuff takes a little getting used to if you are used to the now archaic nvidia control panel and geforce experience, it does seem to work well though nowadays.

People give AMD **** but I actually think they've surpassed Nvidia in this regards now, NVs driver utilities are pretty bad all told, honestly they only get away with it because of mindshare.

Sssssshhhh stop talking sense! It's frowned on around here

Alexrose1uk · 28 Dec 2023 at 18:30

Gerard said:
Sssssshhhh stop talking sense! It's frowned on around here

Sorry! I'll remember to talk jibberish from now on...

NvidIA RULZ, N0 ISSU3S OK?!

flea.rider · 28 Dec 2023 at 18:42

PermaChanged said:
What 750w PSU were you using? I was planning to use a 750w with the 7900XTX I've just ordered

a 750w will never run a 7900xtx .. not with the volt spikes .. i've got an 850w with my 7900xt .. and when gaming the fans on the psu
run full tilt .. then again gpu/cpu oc to max ..

andy_mk3 · 28 Dec 2023 at 18:46

flea.rider said:
a 750w will never run a 7900xtx .. not with the volt spikes .. i've got an 850w with my 7900xt .. and when gaming the fans on the psu
run full tilt .. then again gpu/cpu oc to max ..

I think never is a strong word. A decent quality 750W is fine in my experience so far. I will upgrade it at some point, but purely because it's 10 years old.

Bill Turnip · 28 Dec 2023 at 18:49

@Alexrose1uk thank you very much for that. Though with the same setup, monitor and playing a bit of everything, I'm starting to wonder if I'M your wife! Impressive uplifts in the benchmarks, far higher than I was expecting.

Getting a couple of NVME drives first and reinstalling windows to see what that gains me, but the 7800x3d in particular is tempting, will probably do that before looking at a 7900xt. Just a shame that I'd need to change motherboard too, starts getting expensive.

I'm leaving the RGB lights off, mind!

ICDP · 28 Dec 2023 at 18:51

It will depend on the quality of the PSU. I have a 650W EVGA Gold PSU running a 7900 XT and a 5600X. It even handles an all out overclock on the GPU without issue. A decent gold or better standard 750W PSU will handle a 7900 XTX and current Ryzen 9 CPU perfectly fine.

PermaChanged · 28 Dec 2023 at 20:35

I intend to be using an SF750 which is a Platinum rated unit, so hopefully I'll be in good standing

Alexrose1uk · 28 Dec 2023 at 21:03

Bill Turnip said:
@Alexrose1uk thank you very much for that. Though with the same setup, monitor and playing a bit of everything, I'm starting to wonder if I'M your wife! Impressive uplifts in the benchmarks, far higher than I was expecting.

Getting a couple of NVME drives first and reinstalling windows to see what that gains me, but the 7800x3d in particular is tempting, will probably do that before looking at a 7900xt. Just a shame that I'd need to change motherboard too, starts getting expensive.

I'm leaving the RGB lights off, mind!

You're welcome, going less flashy and RGB will no doubt save you some cash too!

The ONLY tweaking the graphics card has got, is it's been allowed the full +15% power limit, but honestly, I'm pretty sure given how cool and quiet its running with that monstrous nitro cooler, that it'd potentially have overclock and undervolt headroom if one day she lets me tinker, but as its HER build not mine, stability and lack of hassle was king!

As I got the 7900XT second hand, the full build, including fancy RGB etc cost less than £2K, which given its in the top x% of gaming PCs right now and it's pretty impressive 3dmark scores, I was pretty happy with.

We ended up going with 64GB of RAM not because she needs it now, because
A) Dual Rank CAN improve performance slightly in some cases
B) The kit was well rated to run with no hassles on Ryzen, as it's only 2 DIMMs (32GB per DIMM) and Ryzen friendly Hynix DDR5 modules, whilst still being 6000 CL30
C) The idea with this upgrade was even if she throws a graphics card upgrade at it down the line, the system itself is still extremely potent and shouldn't really hold her back, and AM5 should get another line or two of processors anywhere if she DID want more.
D) More RAM capacity never hurt anybody, even if big chunks of it aren't being used by her active programmes, Windows has as much memory as it wants to play with, without having to offload, and should be good for a few more years, as memory usage always goes up over time.

Much as I've never been a fan of the term 'future proofing' the whole concept here was really putting the base specification of the system in such a place, she could happily stick a new card in few years, and the PC itself will still be more than capable enough, as the RAM, Processor etc are all high end, and even next generation will still be comfortably well above middle of the road; as they are WAY ahead of current consoles. There are already games pushing well above 20GB in some circumstances, so it's not exactly a stretch to suggest that SOMETHING will breach 32GB sooner or later, and this way we just don't have to worry, no matter how much she leaves open in the background - again, minimum hassle.

eeii · 28 Dec 2023 at 21:08

Hmmmm. My 7900xtx can pull up to 450 watts add a cpu, RAM and disks with transient power spikes and 750watts could run out very quickly.

andy_mk3 · 28 Dec 2023 at 21:19

eeii said:
Hmmmm. My 7900xtx can pull up to 450 watts add a cpu, RAM and disks with transient power spikes and 750watts could run out very quickly.

Definitely pushing the limits of it for sure. But again, with a decent PSU you can do that. Most trigger over-power protection at around 120%, so on a 750W PSU, you can pull towards 900W out of it before it gets too unhappy, which should help deal with any power spikes. Of course, a higher rated PSU is the answer. But if it works, then it's fine.

CaptainRAVE · 28 Dec 2023 at 21:39

andy_mk3 said:
Definitely pushing the limits of it for sure. But again, with a decent PSU you can do that. Most trigger over-power protection at around 120%, so on a 750W PSU, you can pull towards 900W out of it before it gets too unhappy, which should help deal with any power spikes. Of course, a higher rated PSU is the answer. But if it works, then it's fine.

Yup, I’m sure a good 750W would be fine, mine was downgraded for the second revision to about 105% over power to stop it exploding

.

At least I’m hoping the PSU is the issue. It did look like as the power draw peaked (it was about 400w reported on the overlay) it quickly dropped and then the PC restarted. Will report back tomorrow.

eeii · 28 Dec 2023 at 21:39

andy_mk3 said:
Definitely pushing the limits of it for sure. But again, with a decent PSU you can do that. Most trigger over-power protection at around 120%, so on a 750W PSU, you can pull towards 900W out of it before it gets too unhappy, which should help deal with any power spikes. Of course, a higher rated PSU is the answer. But if it works, then it's fine.

Rather you than me

TheOtherOption · 28 Dec 2023 at 21:47

eeii said:
Hmmmm. My 7900xtx can pull up to 450 watts add a cpu, RAM and disks with transient power spikes and 750watts could run out very quickly.

I've been running similar CPU / GPU on a 750w Gold Corsair PSU without any issues!

Was a bit worried but it has been just fine thus far ...

JediFragger · 28 Dec 2023 at 21:59

CaptainRAVE said:
At least I’m hoping the PSU is the issue. It did look like as the power draw peaked (it was about 400w reported on the overlay) it quickly dropped and then the PC restarted. Will report back tomorrow.

Go into the Performance section of the CP and adjust the Power Limit to -10 and see if it helps m8. I can run an oc 13700k/XTX or 4090 (all oc) just fine on my RM850x for info.