AMD RDNA 3 is on its way to face off against the Nvidia Lovelace leviathans, starting with the Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX. The good news is that they both have an impressive sub-$1,000 USD price point, undercutting Nvidia by up to $600.
Historically, AMD has struggled to take the best graphics cards crown from Nvidia, but instead of trying to go toe-to-toe with performance, team red has chosen to hit its rival where it hurts: value. We’ll need to wait for individual reviews to pop up before judging just how well the new Radeon cards stack up against GeForce alternatives, but this time it truly feels like a war.
To help you prepare for the next-gen GPU lineup, we’ve gathered everything we know about AMD RDNA 3, including its release date, price, specs, and benchmarks.
AMD RDNA 3 release date
The AMD RDNA 3 release date is close, as the Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX both land on shelves on December 13. You can see the full reveal below:
Much like Nvidia, AMD has chosen to run with its top two graphics cards and kept any other potential members of the Radeon RX 7000 family hidden for the time being. We might see more about its entry-level and mid-range GPUs at some point in 2023.
AMD RDNA 3 price
The best part about AMD RDNA 3 is the price. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT hits shelves at $899 USD, while the Radeon RX 7900 XTX comes in at $999. Both are cheaper than the RX 6900 XT, while the latter costs $600 less than the RTX 4090.
Keeping the price so slim does come with some sacrifices to specs, but internal benchmarks from AMD seem promising short of any first-hand testing we’ll do ourselves.
AMD RDNA 3 specs
AMD RDNA 3 specs are pretty jam-packed, with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX using 24GB of memory and the Radeon RX 7900 XT running with 20GB. The small catch here is that it is the slower GDDR6 version rather than the GDDR6X we see in the Nvidia RTX 4090, but this likely does help bring the price down significantly.
| RX 7900 XTX | RX 7900 XT | RX 6900 XT | |
| VRAM (GDDR6) | 24GB | 24GB | 16GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game frequency | 2.3GHz | 2.0GHz | 2.0GHz |
| Boost frequency | 2.5GHz | 2.4GHz | 2.25GHz |
| Compute units | 96 (RDNA 3) | 84 (RDNA 3) | 80 (RDNA 2) |
| TBP | 355W | 300W | 300W |
| Bus Width | 384-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit |
Both GPUs run on Navi 31, but rumours suggest there will be a Navi 32 and 33 for mid-range and entry-level models respectively.
These are the first graphics cards to include DisplayPort 2.1, despite the best gaming monitor not even having the connector. Its upper limits include 8K resolutions at 165Hz or 4K at a 480Hz refresh rate, but we’ve yet to see any display come remotely close. The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 will be one of the first DisplayPort 2.1 armed 8K screens launching at CES 2023.
AMD is also keeping the same two 8-pin power connectors to avoid the RTX 4090 melting cable issue.
As for power specifics, the 7900 XTX is 355W, while the 7900 XT requires 300W. However, AIB cards will likely push the GPUs harder, and some could use a similar cooler to the RTX 4090.
AMD RDNA 3 benchmarks speculation
Until we see reviews hit the web, we’re stuck with AMD’s internal tests, so take this with a pinch of salt. As expected, RDNA 3 graphics cards mainly target 4K gaming, but can go as high as 8K with a helping hand from AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution to boost fps.
The RX 7900 XTX is supposedly between 1.5 and 1.7 times faster than the RX 6950 XT at 4K resolutions, even in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. There are even 8K benchmarks with the help of AMD FSR, as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla hits up to 96fps.
Naturally, even the best gaming PC will struggle with resolutions beyond 4K without the help of upscaling software, so 8K will only be possible in games that have added FSR support.
