In a surprising move, AMD has released the RX 7900 GRE as a complete retail product to compete with Nvidia’s successful RTX 4070 Super. While the RX 7900 GRE may not offer the same ray tracing performance as Nvidia’s closest competitor, it excels in other areas. Boasting 16GB of framebuffer memory and a 256-bit interface, the RX 7900 GRE provides great value for users who are not fully committed to ray tracing or Nvidia’s feature set. For those seeking a fast card with ample memory for future use, AMD offers something unique that Nvidia does not, and at a lower price point.
The AMD RX 7900 GRE is an intriguing product with its origins in the Chinese market, where “GRE” signifies Golden Rabbit Edition to celebrate the year 2023 in the Chinese zodiac. This product is essentially a smaller version of the RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT, featuring a chiplet design with strategic modifications to memory, bandwidth, compute units, and frequencies to deliver balanced performance. The Sapphire Pulse version of the RX 7900 GRE stands out with its reliable design, good cooling, and connectivity options, distinguishing it from Nvidia’s offerings.
Performance testing was conducted by comparing GPU performance in games to the output of the PlayStation 5, focusing on titles where the console falls short in performance. By replicating these conditions on a PC with unlocked frame rates, analysts were able to assess the performance multipliers achieved with the RX 7900 GRE.
When comparing products such as the RTX 4070, RX 7800 XT, RX 7900 GRE, and RTX 4070 Super, it becomes evident that investing between €500-€600 can result in a significant performance boost compared to consoles. In the best-case scenario, users can expect double the throughput in corresponding settings or even better. Games that run at 30fps on the PS5 achieve 60fps on PCs equipped with this class of hardware. This holistic view of game performance underscores the advantages of optimized setups and highlights the best cost-to-performance ratio, as established by game developers themselves.
Reflecting on performance comparisons in various games, the RX 7900 GRE consistently delivers impressive results when compared to the PS5 and the RTX 4070 Super. In games like Alan Wake 2, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Cyberpunk 2077, and A Plague Tale: Requiem, the RX 7900 GRE showcases superior performance, outperforming both the PS5 and the RTX 4070 Super in different scenarios.
All GPU tests were conducted on a system featuring 32GB of DDR5 Gskill 6000MT/s RAM, a Core i9 13900K processor, an Asus Maximus Hero Z690 motherboard, and a Corsair RM1000 power supply. The games were run from PCIe 3.0 storage, with the CPU cooled by a Noctua D15 air cooler.
Moving forward, further benchmark tests will be explored in the following sections, covering a range of games and performance metrics.
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