The Radeon RX 7900 GRE would be the optimal answer to the Geforce RTX 4070 Super: This statement will certainly sound familiar to loyal PCGH readers and viewers. The subjunctive is now a thing of the past, as the Radeon RX 7900 GRE will be officially available in retail stores from February 27th. That's a reason to be happy, because the Radeon special model is, then as now, an attractive gaming graphics card for demanding gamers. So let's get straight to the point: the (second) test of the Radeon RX 7900 GRE with rasterizing and ray tracing benchmarks in four resolutions, power consumption, energy efficiency, price-performance and custom designs.
Radeon RX 7900 GRE in the test: Overview
The Radeon RX 7900 GRE is an old friend with an interesting history. The unusual suffix stands for “Golden Rabbit Edition” because the latest Radeon graphics card was originally only supposed to be released in China. The year 2023 was written in the (zodiac) sign of the rabbit, which AMD celebrated with this special graphics card. It is now 2024 and the Year of the Dragon has begun, so the abbreviation GRE no longer makes sense. That's not so bad, because all that matters to Western customers is that the potent rodent is now available without any detours – previously the map was reserved for complete PCs and was only sporadically spotted in the wild. Our first test of the Radeon RX 7900 GRE provides all the information about this. Below we'll take a look (again) at the “Made by AMD” reference card – with updated benchmarks, of course – and also put two custom designs from the board partners to the test: the Asrock Radeon RX 7900 GRE Steel Legend and the Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 GRE Pulse.
Radeon RX 7900 GRE: Designs
Regardless of whether it is Radeon RX 7900 XTX, XT or GRE, all three are based on Navi 31. This is the largest and most powerful RDNA 3 graphics processor from AMD. One of its innovations is the chiplet concept: Instead of squeezing all elements into a single silicon chip, as has been the case for decades (and continues to be the case with Nvidia), Navi 31 is based on a computing core (GCD) and decoupled memory chiplets (MCD). The idea behind this is to increase the yield compared to a single, large chip and to reduce costs because each component is manufactured using the appropriate process. If you want to know exactly, we recommend our large technical treatise on RDNA 3.
Although the Radeon RX 7900 GRE can only use 5,120 of the 6,144 physically existing FP32 shader units, it achieves significantly higher computing power than the Radeon RX 7800 XT (PCGH test). This graphics card is not based on a trimmed Navi 31, but AMD's next smallest GPU Navi 32 with 3,840 FP32 units. The Radeon RX 7800 XT is faster than Nvidia's Geforce RTX 4070, but is subject to the new Geforce RTX 4070 Super (PCGH test). This is where the Radeon RX 7900 GRE comes into play, which has an official RRP of 609 euros and is competing against the Geforce RTX 4070S (currently from 630 euros). The specifications of the Radeon RX 7900 GRE alongside its siblings and comparable Geforce graphics cards; You can find further comparison models in our well-maintained GPU database:
Graphics cardRadeon RX 7900 GRERadeon RX 7800 XTGeforce RTX 4070 SuperGeforce RTX 4070Reference card available?Yes (OEM)YesYesYesMarket launch (retail)27.02.202406.09.202317.01.202412.04.2023ArchitectureAMD RDNA 3AMD RDNA 3Nvidia A da LovelaceNvidia Ada LovelaceCodename/ConfectionNavi 31 XLNavi 32 XTXAD104-350AD104-250Shader- Clusters (CUs/SMs)80605646FP32-ALUs/TMUs/ROPs5,120*/320/1603,840*/240/967,168/224/805,888/184/64Ray tracing units80 (2nd Gen.)60 (2nd Gen.)56 ( 3rd Gen)46 (3rd Gen)Matrix Units160 (1st Gen)120 (1st Gen)224 (4th Gen)184 (4th Gen)Level 2 Cache (MiB) 644836Level 3 cache (MiB)6464––GPU clock speed in games (MHz)2,2102,3302,7202,760FP32 performance ALUs (TFLOPS)45,335,839,032.5Fill rate (Mtex/Mpix per sec)707.2/353,6559.2 /223.7609.3/217.6507.8/176.6(DLSS 3) Frame GenerationNoNoYesYesDriver frame generationYesYesNoNoMemory connection (bit)256256192192Speed RAM (GTs/MHz)18.0/9.00019.5/9.75021.0/10.50221, 0/10,502 Memory type (DRAM)GDDR6GDDR6GDDR6XGDDR6 ol2× 8-Pol1× 16-/2 × 8-pin1× 16-/2× 8-pinPower consumption (board power)260 watts263 watts220 watts200 wattsDisplay connectivityDP 2.1, HDMI 2.1aDP 2.1, HDMI 2.1aDP 1.4a, HDMI 2.1aDP 1.4a, HDMI 2.1aApprox. price at Test time609 euros (RRP)530 euros630 euros560 euros
Performance information based on the graphics cards we tested extensively (average GPU boost across all benchmarks) – the manufacturer's information is sometimes significantly lower and therefore unrealistic. Depending on the model, deviations of up to 200 MHz are possible. *ALUs with “dual-issue” skills, which at best behave like twice the number. The best case is given.
Play smoother thanks to driver updates
Both AMD's RDNA 3 (Radeon RX 7000) and Nvidia's Ada Lovelace (Geforce RTX 4000) debuted at the end of 2022. Thanks to continuous driver work, both architectures now not only achieve higher performance, but also offer new features. Radeon users particularly benefit because since the AMD software Adrenalin 24.1.1, the intermediate image calculation called “AMD Fluid Motion Frames” (AFMF) is no longer only found in special beta drivers, but in the regular version. Compared to the first preview versions, AMD has significantly improved the compatibility and frame output, so that thousands of games can now be used with it. That's not all, the new drivers with internal version 23.40 (Branch) also introduce a feature that has long been missing from Radeon GPUs: “Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling”, better known as Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling (HAGS), Graphics Hardware Scheduling (GHS) or Hardware Scheduling (HWS):
Source: PCGH AMD Radeon RX 7000: “Hardware-accelerated GPU planning”, HAGS for short, is active for all RDNA 3 GPUs with the new drivers of the 23.40 lineage. With the help of this function, which Nvidia has been using in the Geforce driver for more than three years, Radeon GPUs can now also manage their graphics memory more efficiently and quickly, which leads to increased performance, especially in low resolutions. The function is currently only activated for RDNA 3/RX 7000; older AMD architectures are left empty-handed. That's enough of the preamble – on the following pages you will find out how the Radeon RX 7900 GRE performs against the Geforce RTX 4070 Super when it comes to rasterizing and ray tracing.