The 24GB VRAM GPU is the most budget-friendly option in the market but can it match Nvidia in production capabilities?
| Editonomy’s Review: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX offers an appealing package with its hefty 24GB VRAM and budget-friendly price tag. AMD’s track record with driver stability and compatibility has been a bit shaky, and while the RX 7900 XTX performs well in certain areas, it may not match up to Nvidia’s top-tier offerings across the board. If you want good performance a reasonable cost RX 7900 XTX is worth exploring You should Buy this if: – If you are looking for a 24 GB card -Your workflow aligns with this GPU’s strength You should Not Buy this if: -Your workflow doesn’t align with this GPU’s strength -If you only want the best and can also afford RTX 4090 |
The RX 7900 XTX is the current flagship from AMD. It is powerful, cost-effective and it has 24Gb of VRAM. And it’s a lot cheaper than any other 24GB card on the market.
If we look at the specs and price this offering from AMD seems like a dream. But AMD has always been controversial among the users. AMD is in a tough spot in more than one way, they fall a bit short of NVIDIA. GeForce has proven to perform better for most content creation apps.
Moreover, NVIDIA holds a distinct edge in certain scenarios, particularly in workflows that rely heavily on GPU rendering and leverage NVIDIA’s exclusive CUDA technology.
They’ve also come under scrutiny every now and then for influencing buyers, as in they have their reviewers, and social media accounts on Reddit, forums, and YouTube, which can’t stop telling people how good AMD is.
The other side is the benchmarks site where they are fulfilling a personal vendetta against AMD’s cards. Scoring them well below what they can actually do. But, despite all this drama, let’s look at how good AMD’s RX 7900 XTX is for video editing.
The more important question of should you ditch Nvidia and go for AMD, are they that good now? Is RX 7900XTX good for video editing?
What The RX 7900 XTX Has To Offer:
Built on the AMD RDNA™ 3 architecture basically, it is similar to Nvidia’s Tensor cores, its AI acceleration can be 2.7x more (claimed by AMD) and also benefits ray tracing. If you need the efficiency then RDNA3 is better than previous generations RDNA™ 2.
| VRAM | 24GB |
| Cores | 6,144 |
| Boost-Clock | 2.5 GHz |
| Power | 355W |
What People Are Saying
“I have the XFX version of this and as others have said here, there is nothing to really make better, this is the pinnacle, the flagship of AMD’s gamer cards until the 8000 series shows up.”
u/exkem
“Upgraded from 6900XT to 7900XT like 2 mo ago, it was a good upgrade. Wanted to go with 7900XTX but was like 200 Euro more than 7900XT (got it from a friend who got a 4090). I’m pleased with the performance and temps. I would like to upgrade my nephew’s 6800XT when the new 7800XT will come out.”
u/stefanels
Overall, there are a few workflows where the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is very strong, but there are even more areas where we either encountered what are most likely driver or application bugs, or where NVIDIA is simply the better choice. Because of this, we still give NVIDIA the “best GPUs for content creation” crown, but if your workflow lines up with AMD’s strengths, the Radeon 7900 XTX can give you better performance than NVIDIA – and at a lower price.
~Pugetsystems.com
Gaming Prowess
Now, if compared to Nvidia, they do have cards with better power efficiency and lots of features. But if we are talking about raw gaming price to performance ratio, AMD grabs the win.
The current AAA titles use a lot of VRAM and the previous gen AMD’s 6800XT is gaining an advantage over RTX 3070 in aspect, due to its higher VRAM. The same can be said for the RX 7900XTX and the RTX 4070TI soon.
Here are the, 7900 XTX Performance benchmarks with avg. FPS @ 4K Max Settings.
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | 121 FPS |
| The Callisto Protocol | 79 FPS |
| Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege | 394 FPS |
| F1 22 | 187 FPS |
| Grand Theft Auto V | 166 FPS |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 92 FPS |
| Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | 392 FPS |
| Overwatch 2 | 228 FPS |
| PUBG: Battlegrounds | 145 FPS |
| VALORANT | 519 FPS |
But What About Video Editing?
To see how the AMD Radeon 7900 XTX 24GB performs, we will be comparing its benchmarks to the previous generation Radeon 6900 XT, as well as a range of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30- and 40-series cards. The test system we will be using is one of the fastest platforms currently available for most of the applications we are testing and is built around the AMD Threadripper Pro 5975WX in order to minimize any potential CPU bottlenecks.
For these tests, we will be using many of our PugetBench series of benchmarks. Most of these benchmarks include the ability to upload the results to our online database, so if you want to know how your system compares, you can download and run the benchmark yourself. Our testing also includes several GPU rendering engines to show off the GPU rendering performance of these cards. However, many of the GPU rendering applications we often look at (OctaneBench, V-Ray, and Redshift) either have no, or very limited, support for AMD GPUs.
Davinci Resolve
There were multiple tests conducted by the Puget System you can read them here. But at a glance, here are the results that are the most important according to me.
In some areas, RX 7900 XTX performed terrific, and in some not so good. Its performance in all spectrums compared to the previous generation RX 6900 XTX has improved drastically.
Even matching the more expensive Nvidia’s RTX 3090 which is also a 24 GB card. This just shows how much distance AMD has covered with this card.
If we compare it to Nvidia’s flagship RTX 4090, it blows the RX 7900 XTX out of the water but that difference is more than acceptable when looking at the difference in their pricing as well.
Not to forget RX 7900 XTX performed even better than the RTX 4090, in some particular tests. Even if those tasks in the tests were more CPU-dependent, they still made RX 7900 XTX come on top not the RTX 4090.
Premiere Pro
Adobe is Nvidia’s territory, despite that AMD’s card gives a very respectable performance. One area in Premiere Pro, where a powerful GPU helps, is GPU-accelerated effects.
In the benchmarks, we can see that the RX 7900 XTX is a heavy hitter. Giving RTX 3090Ti, RTX 3090 & RTX 4080 a very close competition.
Premiere Pro favors Cuda Cores that Nvidia has because Nvidia and Adobe collaborate while making these GPUs. Nvidia’s performing better is to be expected but AMD is slowly gaining up on them.
The difference between RX 6900 XT & RX 7900 XTX is a 19.5 score, that’s a huge leap in a generation. This is a sort of difference that you can experience in real-world performance.
All in all, it’s safe to say, that it’s among the top GPUs in the market for video editing.
After Effects
RX 7900 XTX shines in After Effects, although it’s not the best out there but ties in with the RTX 4090. However, if you want to get smooth performance out of your PC in After Effects you should get a better CPU.
After Effects is a very CPU-intensive application. GPU benchmarks don’t matter much. So, AE is not good for testing GPUs. If you are a low to moderate user of AE and thinking about pairing this GPU with Ryzen 7/9 or i7/9, then rest assured the RX 79000 XTX won’t be a bottleneck.
It gets good scores but almost every GPU in the test has a similar score bandwidth, you see the difference in real-world performance won’t be noticeable.
Pros of the RX 7900 XTX for Video Editing
- The cheapest 24GB GPU in the market
- One of the most powerful GPUs
- Has one of the best price-to-performance ratios.
- AMD is constantly improving with new drivers, so there is a possibility its performance can increase
- A gaming powerhouse
Cons of the RX 7900 XTX for Video Editing
- It’s not Nvidia (can AMD compete with Nvidia)
- AMD GPUs from certain manufacturers tend to die
- AMD’s drivers update is never stable causing them to crash more often
- It’s well known to get the best performance out of AMD’s GPU you need to run a dual-channel RAM
- There are still many bugs AMD needs to fix.
- Its performance is not linear in all content creation applications.
What About Its Competition?
The Rx 7900XTX is a GPU meant to give strong competition to Nvidia’s flagship GPUs. And it does that job very well. In some cases, it even outperforms them, when conditions are in its favor.
The closest competition from AMD is previous generations RX 6900XT. And this GPU shows an improvement of 30-40 % over the RX 6900XT.
The other GPUs include the RTX 4080, 3090, 3090 Ti, or the 4090. It beats them all in either price, VRAM, or performance. But also it’s worth mentioning this margin of outdoing the competition is not much.
And Its competition, especially Nvidia also does a good job on stability, compatibility, and driver improvement.
For Whom Is the RX 7900 XTX Suited?
- For someone who is looking for a 24 GB card
- Your workflow aligns with this GPU’s strength
- You don’t want to overpay for a 24GB card
- You don’t hate AMD or hate Nvidia
- You want one of the best gaming performances at half the price.
RX 7900 XTX Is Not For You if:
- If you only want the best and can also afford RTX 4090
- AMD’s are not your thing
- Your workflow doesn’t align with this GPU’s strength
- You don’t want to compromise even a little and are ready to pay a premium for refinement.
RX 7900 XTX’s Limitations
Its main limitation might be that it’s very unstable, and cards from Asus are literally failing, so if you are going for an RX 7900XTX you want to choose a good manufacturer as well.
Plus, being an AMD user for a couple of years, one thing that bugs me about them, is that whenever a new driver comes it is almost certain that not going to do well, so like most people I used to update the driver as soon as they came but that’s a mistake, always stick to the driver that came in before the update.
Driver stability is also an issue. AMD has always been infamous for their drivers, they have gotten really better in the last few years but still, they have a long way to go.
Does it have future-proofing capabilities?
Its specs, performance, and benchmarks everything point out that you’ll be good for years to come if you go with this GPU. It’s flagship after all and unless a new generation comes this will going to be the best you can get from AMD.
So all in all, yes it does have future-proofing capabilities.
Final Verdict
So, here’s the bottom line on the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX: It’s a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, you’ve got this beastly 24GB VRAM card that’s surprisingly budget-friendly compared to other options on the market. It’s a tempting offer, no doubt about it. But,
And there’s always a “but,” isn’t there? AMD has a bit of a shaky reputation when it comes to driver stability and compatibility. Plus, while the RX 7900 XTX performs admirably in some areas, it might not quite stack up to Nvidia’s top-tier offerings across the board.
That said, if you’re looking for a solid performer that won’t break the bank, the RX 7900 XTX is worth considering. AMD’s constant driver updates and improving stability mean that you’re likely to get a decent experience overall.
Ultimately, whether or not the RX 7900 XTX is right for you depends on your specific needs and priorities. If you’re all about getting the most bang for your buck and you can live with a few potential hiccups along the way, it could be a great choice.
But if you demand nothing but the best performance and reliability, you might want to look elsewhere—perhaps to Nvidia’s lineup—for your GPU needs.