AMD RX 7900 XTX vs. RTX 4080: Flagship RDNA 3 GPU Performance

A retrospective look at the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and its performance relevance in the 2025 GPU landscape.

Hardware by Katmin on Oct 08, 2025

Released in late 2022, the long-anticipated AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX marked one of the most highly anticipated GPU launches of its time. AMD's bold claims of 50–70% performance gains over the RX 6950 XT and promises of near-RTX 4090-level rasterization performance set expectations sky high.

Now, three years later in 2025, it's the perfect time to re-examine how the RX 7900 XTX has aged — from real-world gaming benchmarks to its relevance in today's GPU market.

The question is no longer just whether it delivered on launch day, but whether it still holds up against newer generations.

AMD, RX 7900 XTX, RTX 4080, Flagship RDNA3, GPU Performance, NoobFeed

Specifications and Architecture Overview

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX has a suggested retail price of $1,000, and the 7900 XT variant costs $900. The XTX has 6144 cores, whereas the XT has 5376. The XTX has a boost clock speed of 2.5 GHz, while the XT has a boost clock speed of 2.4 GHz. The size of the Infinity Cache has gone down from 96MB to 80MB, which has caused the bandwidth to go down from 3.5 GB/s to 2.9 GB/s.

Both models utilize 20Gbps GDDR6 memory, but the XTX features a 384-bit memory bus, resulting in a bandwidth of 960GB/s. At the same time, the XT version is reduced to 320-bit, yielding 800GB/s.

The 7900 XTX has a total board power of 355W, slightly higher than the RTX 4080. It uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The highlight of RDNA 3 is its chiplet-based architecture. Instead of a monolithic die, AMD has split the GPU into a Graphics Compute Die (GCD) and six Memory Cache Dies (MCDs).

The GCD houses the main processing units and is built on TSMC's 5nm process, while the MCDs use the older and more cost-effective 6nm node.

This design greatly improves yields and reduces manufacturing costs, as smaller dies have better production success rates. The GCD measures around 300mm², roughly half the size of NVIDIA's AD102 die used in the RTX 4090.

Each MCD measures 37 mm² and contains a 64-bit memory controller and 16 MB of cache. This modular approach mirrors AMD's Ryzen CPU strategy and promises significant efficiency gains.

Test Setup

All GPUs were tested at official clock specifications without factory overclocking. The test system used a Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU, 32GB DDR4-3200CL14 memory, and an MSI MPG X570S Carbon Max Wi-Fi motherboard.

A total of 16 games were tested at 1440p and 4K resolutions to evaluate real-world performance.

AMD, RX 7900 XTX, RTX 4080, Flagship RDNA3, GPU Performance, NoobFeed

1440p Gaming Performance

In Watch Dogs Legion, the RX 7900 XTX impressed with a frame rate of 172fps, outperforming both the RTX 4090 and 4080. At 4K, it remained 9% faster than the RTX 4080, with a 36% uplift over the RX 6950 XT.

In The Callisto Protocol, performance was equally strong, reaching 166fps at 1440p, 8% faster than the RTX 4080 and 50% faster than the RX 6950 XT. At 4K, the XTX matched the RTX 4080 while maintaining a 44% lead over its predecessor.

Forza Horizon 5 showed weaker results, with only a 6% gain at 1440p and 16% at 4K over the RX 6950 XT, trailing the RTX 4080 by 5%.

In Rainbow Six Extraction, the RX 7900 XTX was on par with the RTX 4080 at 1440p and only 9% slower at 4K. Compared to the RX 6950 XT, it delivered 36–47% higher performance depending on resolution.

In Far Cry 6, the XTX nearly matched the RTX 4090 at 1440p and was 17% faster than the RTX 4080 at 4K. Against the 6950 XT, it offered a 25% uplift.

In Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the RX 7900 XTX performed exceptionally well, outpacing the RTX 4080 by 11% at 1440p and matching the RTX 4090 at 4K. Compared to the RX 6950 XT, the gains were 24–33%.

In Hunt: Showdown, the 7900 XTX matched the RTX 4080 at both resolutions, delivering a 25–30% advantage over the RX 6950 XT.

In The Outer Worlds, the Radeon GPU trailed the RTX 4080 by 10% at 1440p and 9% at 4K. The RX 7900 XTX was 26% faster than the RX 6950 XT.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II showcased AMD's strength, with the 7900 XTX hitting 311fps at 1440p—42% faster than the RTX 4080 and even 5% faster than the RTX 4090 at 4K. It was also 43% faster than the RX 6950 XT.

In Hitman 3, the RX 7900 XTX matched both RTX 4080 and 4090 at 1440p and was 15% faster than the RTX 4080 at 4K, only 10% behind the 4090.

In Horizon Zero Dawn, the XTX trailed the RTX 4080 by 5% at 1440p but was 26% faster than the 6950 XT at 4K.

In F1 22, with RT enabled, it was 11% slower than the RTX 4080 at 1440p but 55% faster than the RX 6950 XT. At 4K, it was 13% slower than the RTX 4080 but 65% faster than the RX 6950 XT.

In Cyberpunk 2077, the RX 7900 XTX was 5% faster than the RTX 4080 at 1440p and 9% faster at 4K, delivering a 43% uplift over the RX 6950 XT.

In Dying Light 2, it matched the RTX 4080 at 1440p but offered better lows at 4K, ending up 5% faster. Against the RX 6950 XT, the uplift was 17%.

In Halo Infinite, AMD struggled, trailing the RTX 4080 by 16% at 1440p, though improving slightly at 4K.

Finally, in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the 7900 XTX was 13% slower than the RTX 4080 at 1440p but only 6% slower at 4K. Against the 6950 XT, it achieved a 25% improvement.

Average Performance

Across 16 games, the RX 7900 XTX and RTX 4080 performed nearly identically at 1440p, averaging around 180fps. The XTX was 17% slower than the RTX 4090 but 25–35% faster than the RX 6950 XT.

At 4K, the RX 7900 XTX was 20% slower than the RTX 4090 but 4% faster than the RTX 4080. Compared to previous-generation GPUs, it was 26% faster than the RTX 3090 Ti and 35% faster than the RX 6950 XT.

At 1080p, results were largely CPU-bound, with the XTX being only 6% slower than the RTX 4090 and 21% faster than the RX 6950 XT.

Ray Tracing Performance

When testing F1 22 with RT disabled, the 7900 XTX achieved 260fps, 13% ahead of the RTX 4080. With RT and upscaling enabled, it remained 10% faster than the RTX 4080 using DLSS, though the comparison isn't perfectly equal.

In Watch Dogs Legion, the RX 7900 XTX was 9% faster than the RTX 4080 without RT, but with RT enabled, it dropped 19% behind, delivering 44fps on average. However, it still showed a 52% uplift over the RX 6950 XT.

In Guardians of the Galaxy, performance was on par with the RTX 4080 without RT, but enabling RT reduced its performance to match the RX 6950 XT, trailing the RTX 4080 by 27%.

In Dying Light 2, enabling DirectX 12 and RT heavily impacted performance. The RX 7900 XTX achieved 27fps on average, matching the RTX 3090 Ti and 50% faster than the RX 6950 XT, though it was still 31% slower than the RTX 4080.

In Cyberpunk 2077, without upscaling, the XTX was 20% slower than the RTX 3090 Ti and 35% slower than the RTX 4080, though still 54% faster than the RX 6950 XT. Using FSR 2.1 improved it to 39fps, but it remained 15% slower than the RTX 3090 Ti and 33% behind the RTX 4080.

Power Consumption

During Dying Light 2, total system power draw reached 468W with the RX 7900 XTX, putting it in a similar power range to the RTX 4080.

AMD, RX 7900 XTX, RTX 4080, Flagship RDNA3, GPU Performance, NoobFeed

Final Thoughts

From our extensive testing, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers impressive rasterization performance, often matching or slightly beating the RTX 4080.

However, Ray tracing performance still lags behind NVIDIA's offerings. AMD's move to chiplet design is a major step forward, improving efficiency and manufacturing viability, but the 50–70% gains over RDNA2 are not consistent across all titles.

For gamers prioritizing rasterization performance at a lower cost, the RX 7900 XTX remains a compelling flagship choice.

Check Our Other AMD articles: