TheRX 7900 XTXis the most ridiculously high-pitched - destruction graphics bill AMD has ever made , and though it did n’t contend with Nvidia ’s absolute best in its generation , it ’s still a powerhouse GPU . But it now repose in the shadow of its younger sib , the RX 9070 XT . Although not designed to replace the last - gen king , this raw AMD powerhouse is very subject and far more low-cost .

But can the 7900 XTX hold its own even with all of the raw wit ’ progress ? Let ’s take a facial expression .

Pricing and availability

The RX 7900 XTX launched in December 2022 with a price tag of $ 1,000 . That made it the most expensive art card AMD had ever release . Its price came down over the ensuing years to around $ 800 at its lowest . However , after the recent GPU damage stiletto heel , it ’s now back at around the $ 1,000 mark .

The RX 9070 XT launched in March 2025 with a suggested retail price of $ 600 . However , due to extreme popularity and GPU shortages across the board , that cost has now risen to at least $ 700 , with some listings getting close to $ 1,000 . It goes for even more on second - hand auction sites .

This should normalise in the coming month and the price should come down , but the 7900 XTX is unlikely to see any major price drop before its Malcolm stock is exhausted .

Specifications

It ’s well-defined from the spec sheet that the 7900 XTX is design to be the more high - end graphics identity card . It has 50 % more compute unit and light beam particle accelerator , 50 % more memory , a wider memory in use , and many more shader cores . That come at a much high power draw , though , and despite all its strengths , the 7900 XTX ’s boost clock is far low than the newer 9070 XT .

It ’s also notable that the new card has a standardised routine of transistors , but in a much small dice size , showing the advances AMD made with its Modern RDNA 4 architecture , and new physical process , even if it ’s not a littler one .

Even though the 9070 XT is the newer carte du jour , the additional retention of the 7900 XTX is going to give it some extra futurity proofing for games and applications down the short letter , particularly take to the woods local AI .

Performance

We have n’t had a chance to pit these art cards head to steer yet , but others have , so we can look to their termination to see how equal to the new 9070 XT is and how well it takes on the last - generation king .

TechPowerup showsthe two bill trading blows in different biz . The 9070 XT holds a astonishingly strong atomic number 82 over the 7900 XTX inCyberpunk 2077 , for example , but lessen far behind inThe Last of Us Part One . The average across all screen game had the 7900 XTX as being a few per centum quicker than the 9070 XT overall — though the newer RDNA4 card dominates in ray trace game .

DigitalFoundry’sresults were similar , showing the the 7900 XTX holding a slight lead in most secret plan , though there are some where the 9070 XT pull ahead . When raytracing is brought into the pic , too , the 9070 XT is by far the faster option . It might have fewer RT essence , but AMD has made big leaps this contemporaries on ray of light trace functioning , making the newer poster the more capable choice .

It ’s also important to remember that the frame generation abilities it has with FSR4 can have a dramatic effect in supporting game . While the listing of them is minuscule , it ’s growing all the time and that will go along to give the 9070 XT a full-grown advantage in the years to come . On the flip side , the 7900 XTX ’s additional memory may lease it carry on to use novel visual and AI feature that involve extra VRAM , where the 16 GB on the 9070 XT falls unforesightful ( though that ’s not likely to find for several year ) .

We must n’t forget overclocking , either . As der8auer showed in his overclocking and undervolting effort with the RX 9070 XT , it ’s possible to make the card not only faster than the 7900 XTX , but faster even than the RTX 5080 — the 2d fastest GPU ever made . If you ’re able and willing to play with the options of your 9070 XT , you could make it far more capable than the 7900 XTX .

A new king is here

I love the 7900 XTX . I have one in my microcomputer paired up with a 7950 X3D and it ’s more than enough to playKerbal Space ProgramandTabletop Simulator . But if I were buying new today , I would n’t pause . The 9070 XT is by far the better menu . Its aboriginal performance might not quite mate that of the 7900 XTX — it ’s still the fastest GPU AMD has ever made . But it ’s close . And in many places it ’s far better than that .

The 9070 XT dominates in ray tracing , and in any biz with frame contemporaries support . It can be overclocked to be faster still , and it uses less power . Its AI accelerators are more capable and will be capable to support new AI feature in the years to come , and although it does n’t have as much VRAM , 16 GB is more than enough for the next few age .

The 7900 XTX is still the king , but its princeling is on the procession and will sit down on the throne in the geezerhood to come .