XFX Radeon RX 7900 XTX

Wie schlagen sich die neuen CPUs Ryzen 5 9600X und Ryzen 7 9700X im Gaming auf einer Grafikkarte vom Typ Radeon RX 7900 XTX im Vergleich zur GeForce RTX 4090? Wie reagieren die CPUs auf schnelleren Speicher bis hinauf zu DDR5-8000 in Spielen? Der Test liefert die Antworten.

The XFX Magnetic Air Radeon graphics cards bring all the benefits of a fantastic cooler design, with the added benefits of being easy to keep dust free and replace when the day arrives that the bearing finally gives up the ghost. It’s a simple idea beautifully executed and wins our OC3D Innovation Award.

So there we have it. A set of new GPUs. Well new graphics cards that utilise the same GPUs that we’ve had now for quite some time though I’m not even mad about that. It’s a pretty dire time for gaming right now and having something to actually talk about is a bit like a breath of fresh air, especially as it’s not just a tweaked model or a refresh of a cooler that we’ve seen time and time again.

It's rare that a new GPU does something truly different with it's design, the most we would normally see is unique takes on RGB, or maybe a screen, but that's all aesthetic, we never see anything that can truly revolutionise the cooler on your GPU, that was until we received the Magnetic Air 7800 XT and 7900 XTX GPUs from XFX, so let's see what makes them so special.

The Magnetic Air model stands out due to its magnetic levitating fans, which operate reasonably quietly and are easy to clean. However, we didn't notice significant advantages compared to other models that use standard fans, which may perform better and more quietly. Despite this, the innovation is appreciated. The XTX card represents a significant improvement in performance and features. At ultra-high definition (UHD) resolutions, it competes with NVIDIA’s top model, the GeForce RTX 4090, but sometimes struggles. With the help of its infinity cache, the card occasionally surpasses the 4090 at lower resolutions and in less demanding scenarios. While its UHD performance could be better, it competes well with the RTX 4080 (Super) and is cheaper. The 7900 XTX series offers good value and energy efficiency for UHD gaming. Although its ray tracing is slightly inferior, games supporting FSR can boost its performance, similar to NVIDIA’s DLSS enhancement. In the end, the XFX card meets all our expectations with decent sound levels, it is priced at $980. This card overall is truly impressive and remains so even in 2024 (considering the age of the GPU).

The XFX Radeon RX 7900 XTX Magnetic Air comes with user-replaceable fans that pop out without any tools. It's a fantastic solution to clean your card and to simplify RMAs. The card achieved excellent performance results in our review, and the overclocking potential is highly impressive.

For the XFX Mercury RX 7900 XTX Magnetic Air 24 GB, the manufacturer opens up the really big cutlery box and plays with Lego technology, so to speak. Compared to the MBA card (made by AMD), the Vapor-Chamber works perfectly and does exactly what is expected of it. Even in the most peculiar living and installation situations. In combination with a higher power limit, the clock rate is also very high. Nibbling at the 2.7 GHz mark (or even higher) under full load is charming. Well, I don’t want to spoil too much, but this interpretation of a thick card with replaceable fans even makes you forget about efficiency from time to time. Because, as always, a bit of a crowbar is included, but what the heck…

Gestern hatten wir ja bereits den Launchartikel zu AMDs Referenzkarten der Radeon RX 7900XT und Radeon RX 7900XT. Da sich aktuell alles etwas zu sehr drängt und häuft, will ich den heutigen Launch der Boardpartnerkarten natürlich nicht unter den Tisch fallen lassen, muss aber auch terminlich echt Prioritäten setzen. Deshalb habe ich bereits parallel zu den Referenz-Tests einen Teil der XFX Radeon RX 7900 XTX mit getestet und will Euch heute natürlich schon mal etwas schlauer machen. Versprochen ist nun mal versprochen und so gibt es auch schon erste Informationen zur Performance, den Leistungsaufnahmewertem, den Temperaturen und natürlich auch zum Spulenfiepen. Das sollte als Richtungsweiser für Kaufwillige bereits reichen, den Rest gibt es dann wie gewohnt detailliert etwas später.

Welche Vor- oder Nachteile bieten Custom-Designs der AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX mit Navi-31-GPU im Vergleich zum Referenzdesign in Bezug auf Leistung, Lautstärke, Temperaturen und Verbrauch? ComputerBase hat mit Asus TUF Gaming OC, PowerColor Hellhound, Sapphire Nitro+ und XFX Merc 310 die Probe aufs Exempel gemacht.

So, the XFX 7900 XTX, it has definitely shown what’s capable with the new RDNA 3 architecture and harnessed the true potential of the GPU in a pretty slick package. I think it’s safe to say that I expected good things from the card from the offset due to its sheer size and weight of it and it definitely delivered on all fronts. Style-wise, the only gripe I have is the design on the fans, and the fact that the card is on the bigger end of the scale, but it shows that not all of that was a lost effort and actually does amount to remaining cool and quiet.

XFX has a great custom Radeon RX 7900 XTX on its hands, with a beautiful design and impressive thermals. If you're wanting Team Red, this should be on your list.

Other than the acoustic level of this graphics card, XFX did things right and properly here with the MERC. The factory tweak shows increased performance, and although that second BIOS mode is a bit unofficial and a gamble for tweaking, it's precisely that kind of stuff that makes the hearts of many aficionados beat a notch faster. The final result is a proper-looking, excellent-performing product.

If you've already read our review of the AMD Radeon RDNA 3 cards as part of today's launch then you'll be aware that AMD have leapt forwards in both regular performance and also performance in ray tracing applications. If you didn't read that review then you'll be aware now, particularly if you have looked through our graphs. We know that, for reasons we'll never understand, a lot of people don't look at the graphs and skip straight here.

AMD's new RNDA3 architecture brings with it the world's first GPU based on chiplet technology. Why is that a big deal you ask? Making large chips is expensive, more expensive than making several small chips. AMD realized that years ago and built their Ryzen CPUs using the chiplet approach, which is the foundation for the company's tremendous comeback in the CPU space. Team Red is betting that the same can happen in the GPU world, and today we're testing their first products built using that philosophy. Using chiplets gives another major advantage—you can combine multiple production processes. For the case of the Navi 31 GPU that powers the Radeon RX 7900 Series, the central compute die is fabricated on TSMC's leading 5 nanometer node, because efficiency greatly matters for its design. On the other hand, the memory-cache dies don't put out as much heat, and contain analog technology, which doesn't scale as well with process size. That's why AMD decided to build those with 6 nanometer tech, making them cheaper to produce.