AMD unexpectedly launched the RX 7900 GRE as a complete retail product to meet the challenges posed by Nvidia’s successful RTX 4070 Super. Previously offered in China and selectively offered to the OEM market elsewhere, the idea is very simple. Similar to the critically acclaimed RX 7800 XT, AMD admits it lacks the same level of ray tracing performance as its closest Nvidia counterpart, but makes up for it elsewhere. The RX 7900 GRE has 16GB of frame buffer memory, while the 4070 Super only has 12GB, paired with a 256-bit interface, where the Nvidia card has a 192-bit bus. It also rasterizes significantly faster.
In fact, AMD is delivering excellent value to those who haven’t fully embraced the ray tracing dream or fallen in love with Nvidia’s ever-growing feature set. Obviously, we believe there’s a lot of value in these features, but the point is, if you disagree, and if you want a fast card with all the memory you’ll need for the foreseeable future, AMD is offering something that Nvidia doesn’t -And it costs less. It’s that simple.
First, let’s consider what the RX 7900 GRE actually is. The name itself is odd, as it originates from the Chinese market, with GRE standing for Golden Rabbit Edition to commemorate the year 2023 in the Chinese zodiac. For any other market this would be a confusing choice and doesn’t really fit convincingly into an existing brand, but then again some might say any three letters are just as good as any other good.
Even more interesting is the makeup of the card itself, which is essentially a further stripped-down version of the RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT. Similar to these cards, GRE is based on a chiplet design – a 5nm compute processor surrounded by a separate 6nm memory controller. XTX has 6 active MCDs while GRE only has 4. The 384-bit interface becomes 256-bit, and the VRAM 24GB is reduced to 16GB. The reduction of the computing chip GCD is quite limited. The 96 RDNA 3 compute units in the XTX drop to 84 in the XT, and are further reduced to 80 in the GRE. This also comes with lower clocks.
Essentially, AMD has strategically cut memory and bandwidth, disabled more compute units, and lowered frequencies to deliver a product that, as our benchmarks show, when we looked at the 7900 in the 7800 XT It’s pretty much in the middle of the pack in terms of performance when it comes to GRE. and 7900 XT. In fact, there’s a noticeable spec gap when you compare the GRE to the 7800 XT, which really makes you wonder what “secret sauce” the Navi 32 processor has versus the (relatively) more powerful Navi 31 No.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE review: The most exciting RDNA 3 card yet
| RDNA 3GPU | RX7700XT | RX7800XT | RX 7900 GRE | RX7900XT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| processor | Navigation 32 | Navigation 32 | Navigation 31 | Navigation 31 |
| computing unit | 54 | 60 | 80 | 84 |
| game clock | 2171 MHz | 2124 MHz | 1880 MHz | 2000 MHz |
| boost clock | 2544 MHz | 2430 MHz | 2245 MHz | 2400 MHz |
| GDDR6 video memory | 12GB | 16 GB | 16 GB | 20GB |
| memory interface | 192 bits | 256 bit | 256 bit | 320 bits |
| memory speed | 18Gbps | 19.5Gbps | 18Gbps | 20Gbps |
| Unlimited cache | 48MB | 64MB | 64MB | 80MB |
| TDP | 245W | 263 watts | 260W | 315W |
| Suggested retail price | $449/£429 | $499/£479 | $550/£519 | $899/£899 |
For review, we received the Sapphire Pulse version of the RX 7900 GRE. There is no reference design available for GRE as it is only produced by add-on board manufacturers (AIB). It’s a dual-slot, triple-fan design that’s quite bulky, with a plastic shroud and metal backplate that pales in comparison to the RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition. Power is provided via two eight-pin PCIe inputs, and its 260W TDP does mean that in terms of efficiency, it will lag behind Nvidia competition on the Ada Lovelace architecture.
In terms of the rest of its I/O, the Pulse deviates slightly from the standard, offering two HDMI 2.1 ports as well as two DisplayPort 2.1. Yes, more modern display processors do give Radeon cards an advantage over Nvidia, providing more video bandwidth for state-of-the-art monitors – without the need for video compression.
Sapphire is a trusted brand and close partner of AMD, and I had no complaints about the Pulse version of the card I sent for review – except perhaps its considerable length. There was no noticeable noise during testing and no bugs were found.
I’ll start with performance testing with something a little different. Recently, we tried to get a more complete picture of each game’s GPU performance by comparing performance to the output of the PlayStation 5, the developer’s primary target platform. We isolate games where we can get settings matching between console and PC, and then find areas where the PlayStation 5 fails to meet its performance targets (i.e. areas where we find GPU performance limitations). We then matched these environments on PC to unlocked frame rates to see what kind of performance multiplier we got.
When we start looking at the likes of the RTX 4070, RX 7800 XT, RX 7900 GRE, and RTX 4070 Super, you realize that compared to consoles, $500-$600 is buying you truly game-changing performance. In the best case, you’ll see double or better throughput in a matching setup. Games that run at 30 fps on PS5 hit 60 fps on this type of PC hardware. Likewise, Performance Mode on PS5, which targets 60fps, now takes you into VRR sweet spot on 1440p or even 4K displays. We could talk about comparisons between individual GPUs, but this overall look at gaming performance also shows you the benefits of optimizing settings – the best effect of GPU bucking – as game developers themselves have established.
Mimicking Alan Wake 2’s quality mode on PC, sub-30fps readings topped 60fps on the 7900 GRE and RTX 4070 Super. GRE’s performance multiple is 2.29 times that of the PS5, which drops to 2.15 times on the 4070 Super. Without RT, AMD’s product leads Nvidia by about 12 percentage points. Meanwhile, in Avatar: Pandora’s Frontier’s matched settings, GRE outperformed PS5 by 88%, with the RTX 4070 Super performing up to 2.33x faster thanks to its superior RT throughput. Nvidia leads AMD by 24 percentage points.
Sticking with performance hotspot RT in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Freedom, the PS5 failed to hit the 30 fps target. Here, GRE outperformed the console by 77%, with the RTX 4070 Super’s framerate improving to an even more impressive 2.21x at matched settings – 15% faster than GRE. Back to rasterization, the RX 7900 GRE held its own in A Plague Tale: Requiem, delivering a staggering 2.16x performance improvement over the PlayStation 5 in similar tests, with the 4070 Super delivering 92% more frames than the console (GRE is 12 points ahead of Super).
All of our GPU testing here was conducted using a system with 32GB Gskill 6000MT/s DDR5 paired with a Core i9 13900K running on an Asus Maximus Hero Z690 motherboard with a Corsair RM1000 power supply. All games run over PCIe 3.0 storage, and the CPU is cooled by a Noctua D15 air cooler. Next, it’s time to move on to more traditional benchmarks over the next few pages.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE analysis:
- introduce [This Page]
- RT Benchmark: Dying Light 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Control
- RT Benchmarks: Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, F1 22, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- RT/DLSS/FSR2/DLSS3 Benchmarks: Cyberpunk 2077, Dying Light 2, Forza Horizon 5, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Game Benchmarks: Control, Cyberpunk 2077, F1 22, Forza Horizon 5
- Game benchmarks: Hitman 3, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Homecoming, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Conclusions, Values and Recommendations
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