The Nvidia Geforce RTX 4090 is the company’s current-generation flagship product. The card is outfitted with Team Green’s cutting-edge technology. It is the best money can buy and is based on the most recent Ada Lovelace architecture.
AMD, on the other hand, is not taking it lightly: the Radeon RX 7900 XTX arrives with a far stronger value proposition and practical performance. Since last generation, the Santa Clara-based firm has been proclaimed the bargain king. This generation is not being held back by Team Red.
In terms of performance, the RTX 4080 is comparable to the RX 7900 XTX. As a result, many users may prefer one GPU over the other. In this essay, we will examine these options and determine which is the greatest alternative.
The RTX 4090, while a superb card, is not for everyone.
As we observed in our review, the RTX 4090 is the fastest card ever made. The GPU is based on a power-efficient architecture and screams quality in every way. What the card has to offer will excite gamers.
We achieved triple-digit framerates in a variety of demanding titles at resolutions up to 4K. Nonetheless, in many instances, the card feels excessive.
Specifications
A peek at the specifications table reveals the RTX 4090’s massive power. The lower-end 4080 appears to be a significant decrease, and it is. According to TechPowerUp’s GPU processing power statistics, the card is around 25% slower than the flagship since it has over 40% less CUDA cores and a smaller 16 GB of GDDR6 memory.
|
Metric |
Geforce RTX 4090 |
Radeon RX 7900 XTX | Geforce RTX 4080 |
| GPU Name | AD102 | Navi 31 | AD103 |
|
CUDA Core (Nvidia) / Streaming Processor (AMD) Count |
16,384 |
12,288 | 9,728 |
|
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) |
512 |
384 | 304 |
|
Render Output Units (ROPs) |
176 |
192 | 112 |
|
Ray Tracing (RT) Core Count |
128 |
84 | 76 |
|
Tensor Core Count |
512 |
N/A | 304 |
| Compute Units | N/A | 96 | N/A |
|
Video Memory Size |
24 GB |
24 GB | 16 GB |
|
Video Memory Type |
GDDR6X |
GDDR6 | GDDR6X |
|
Video Memory Bus Width |
384 bit |
384 bit | 256 bit |
|
Base Clock Speed |
2235 MHz |
1900 MHz | 2205 MHz |
|
Boost Clock Speed |
2520 MHz |
2505 MHz | 2505 MHz |
|
Memory Clock Speed |
1313 MHz |
2500 MHz | 1400 MHz |
|
MSRP |
US$ 1,599 |
US$ 999 | US$ 1,199 |
A straight comparison with the RX 7900 XTX, on the other hand, is impractical due to the AMD flagship’s radically different RDNA 3 architecture.
Differences in performance
All video cards should perform well in terms of performance. The RTX 4090, on the other hand, easily outperforms the competition in the 3DMark Time Spy and Fire Strike benchmarks. These tests evaluate rasterization performance using the DirectX 12 and 11 APIs.
Yet, in Port Royal, the RX 7900 XTX outperforms both Nvidia cards. This benchmark measures the ray tracing performance of the GPUs, which has long been a Team Green stronghold.
| RTX 4090 | RX 7900 XTX | RTX 4080 | |
| 3DMark Port Royal | 25,692 | 15,793 | 17,650 |
| 3DMark Time Spy | 36,037 | 29,619 | 28,102 |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra | 24,238 | 19,793 | 17,394 |
These benchmark results demonstrate that none of these video cards will be inadequate for gaming.
We have some detailed testing results of GPUs in some of the most recent and demanding titles on the market thanks to Benchmark Lab. Unless otherwise specified, all games run at 4K on the maximum settings.
| RTX 4090 | RX 7900 XTX | RTX 4080 | |
| Cyberpunk 2077 (RT on) | 74 | 51 | 55 |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 122 | 90 | 86 |
| Spider-Man Remastered (RT on) | 107 | 78 | 76 |
| Microsoft Flight Simulator (Native) | 115 | 91 | 88 |
| Microsoft Flight Simulator (DLSS 3.0/FSR 2.0 on) | 168 | 95 | 132 |
These GPUs can play even the most resource-intensive games at 4K 60 FPS without glitches. The RTX 4090, on the other hand, is in a class of its own. Even at 4K with the maximum settings, it frequently achieves triple-digit framerates.
Another important element while purchasing GPUs is DLSS 3.0 with frame generation technology. While AMD is expected to include some form of this technology in their next cards, no release date has been set. Meanwhile, Team Green has already wowed us with what AI is capable of.
A deeper examination of the performance boost reveals that even the RTX 4080 can attain 120 FPS or more at top settings in UHD in a demanding application like Microsoft Flight Simulator, where the upscaling technology works in combination with the CPU to offer bigger framerate spikes. Even AMD’s flagship can achieve close to a hundred frames per second with FSR.
As a result, while amazing, the RTX 4090 provides performance that most gamers do not require. In competitive titles like Warzone 2.0 and Fortnite, the 7900 XTX and 4080 can already provide up to 120 FPS.
As a result, the RTX 4090 appears to be a professional GPU designed for applications such as video editing, 3D modeling, and more. Unless someone has big funds to exploit, it isn’t worth the extra $400-600 above the other alternatives on the market.
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