AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT vs. NVIDIA RTX 4080: Gaming Performance and Ray Tracing

Areej Syed

December 18, 2022

AMD’s first RDNA 3 graphics cards are out. While the previous lineups offered solid raster performance, bleak ray-tracing capabilities and the lack of a proper DLSS alternative limited the Radeon market share. With RDNA 3, Team Red has tried to address these shortcomings. The Ray Accelerators do much more than intersection testing, with an AI accelerator per CU, and FSR 3 planned for an early 2023 launch.

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Test Bench

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
Motherboard: ASRock B650E Steel Legend
Heatsink: NZXT X73
Power Supply: NZXT C1000

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT vs. NVIDIA RTX 4080 4K Gaming Benchmarks

We tested ten recent titles with and without ray tracing. The ASRock B650E Steel Legend powered our test system, and the CPU was cooled by the NZXT X73 360mm AIO cooler, one of the best closed-loop coolers on the market. For raterization, the benchmarks were conducted at native resolution, while FSR 2 “Balanced” was used for ray-tracing.

The GeForce RTX 4080 is notably faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XT across all nine rasterized games. The deltas vary from just 2 FPS in Far Cry 6 to 40% in The Callisto Protocol. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we see the RTX 4080 lead by 25%, which drops to just 10% in Hitman 3. On average, it is 15-20% faster than the RDNA 3 part in rasterized gaming workloads.

Far Cry 6 is the only benchmark where the Radeon manages to level with the RTX 4080 with an average of 98 FPS.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT vs. NVIDIA RTX 4080 Ray Traced Gaming Benchmarks

Things do not get any better for the Radeon RX 7900 XT in ray-traced gaming.

The performance varies even more drastically with ray tracing enabled. The RTX 4080 is 20% faster than the RX 7900 XT in Ghostwire, 50% faster in Dying Light 2, and 60% faster in Cyberpunk 2077.

The GeForce RTX 4080 beats the Radeon RX 7900 XT across F1 2022, Metro Exodus, Hitman 3, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider by 40-50%.

The Callisto Protocol is the only game where the Radeon RX 7900 XT ekes out a win, ray-tracing or otherwise. It beats the RTX 4080 by a slim margin with roughly the same lows.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT vs. NVIDIA RTX 4080 1440p Benchmarks

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The Radeon RX 7900 XT has a better showing at 1440p. It nips at the heels of the RTX 4080 in Hitman 3, Far Cry 6, F1 2022, and Cyberpunk 2077. The Ada heavy-weight still leads by a fat margin in The Callisto Protocol, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and A Plague Tale: Requiem.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT vs. NVIDIA RTX 4080 1440p Ray Traced Benchmarks

With ray-tracing turned on, the RX 7900 XT gets butchered in eight of ten scenarios. The Callisto Protocol is the only game where the Radeon registers a win. Far Cry 6 and F1 2022 also treat the Navi 31 SKU fairly well.

Conclusion: Neither Here nor There

The Radeon RX 7900 XT costs $899 and falls short of the RTX 4080, a $1,199 GPU in every reasonable scenario. However, you can pay $100 more and get the RX 7900 XTX which is notably faster than the RTX 4080 in rasterization and marginally to moderately slower in ray-traced games. If you’re already stretching your budget, I’d recommend waiting for the RTX 4070 Ti, which is supposed to start at $849.