Andrew Cunningham
In July 2023, AMD launched a brand new GPU referred to as the “Radeon RX 7900 GRE” in China. GRE stands for “Golden Rabbit Edition,” a reference to the Chinese zodiac, and whereas the cardboard was accessible exterior of China in a handful of pre-built OEM techniques, AMD did not make it broadly accessible at retail.
That adjustments right this moment—AMD is launching the RX 7900 GRE at US retail for a prompt beginning worth of $549. This throws it proper into the center of the busy upper-mid-range graphics card market, the place it would compete with Nvidia’s $549 RTX 4070 and the $599 RTX 4070 Super, in addition to AMD’s personal $500 Radeon RX 7800 XT.
We’ve run our typical set of GPU assessments on the 7900 GRE to see the way it stacks as much as the playing cards AMD and Nvidia are already providing. Is it value shopping for a brand new card comparatively late on this GPU era, when rumors level to new next-gen GPUs from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel earlier than the tip of the yr? Can the “Golden Rabbit Edition” nonetheless provide an excellent worth, despite the fact that it is at the moment the yr of the dragon?
Meet the 7900 GRE
| RX 7900 XT | RX 7900 GRE | RX 7800 XT | RX 6800 XT | RX 6800 | RX 7700 XT | RX 6700 XT | RX 6750 XT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compute models (Stream processors) | 84 (5,376) | 80 (5,120) | 60 (3,840) | 72 (4,608) | 60 (3,840) | 54 (3,456) | 40 (2,560) | 40 (2,560) |
| Boost Clock | 2,400 MHz | 2,245 MHz | 2,430 MHz | 2,250 MHz | 2,105 MHz | 2,544 MHz | 2,581 MHz | 2,600 MHz |
| Memory Bus Width | 320-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit |
| Memory Clock | 2,500 MHz | 2,250 MHz | 2,438 MHz | 2,000 MHz | 2,000 MHz | 2,250 MHz | 2,000 MHz | 2,250 MHz |
| Memory measurement | 20GB GDDR6 | 16GB GDDR6 | 16GB GDDR6 | 16GB GDDR6 | 16GB GDDR6 | 12GB GDDR6 | 12GB GDDR6 | 12GB GDDR6 |
| Total board energy (TBP) | 315 W | 260 W | 263 W | 300 W | 250 W | 245 W | 230 W | 250 W |
The 7900 GRE slots into AMD’s current lineup above the RX 7800 XT (at the moment $500-ish) and under the RX 7900 (round $750). Technologically, we’re wanting on the similar Navi 31 GPU silicon because the 7900 XT and XTX, however with simply 80 of the compute models enabled, down from 84 and 96, respectively. The regular advantages of the RDNA3 graphics structure apply, together with hardware-accelerated AV1 video encoding and DisplayPort 2.1 help.
The 7900 GRE additionally contains 4 lively reminiscence controller die (MCD) chiplets, giving it a narrower 256-bit reminiscence bus and 16GB of reminiscence as a substitute of 20GB—nonetheless loads for contemporary video games, although probably not quite as future-proof because the 7900 XT. The card makes use of considerably much less energy than the 7900 XT and about the identical quantity because the 7800 XT. That feels a bit bizarre, intuitively, since slower playing cards virtually at all times devour much less energy than quicker ones. But it does make some sense; pushing the 7800 XT’s smaller Navi 32 GPU to get increased clock speeds out of it’s most likely making it run a bit much less effectively than a bigger Navi 31 GPU die that is not being pushed as onerous.
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Andrew Cunningham -
Andrew Cunningham -
Andrew Cunningham
When we reviewed the 7800 XT final yr, we famous that its {hardware} configuration and efficiency made it appear extra like a successor to the (non-XT) Radeon RX 6800, whereas it simply barely managed to match or beat the 6800 XT in our assessments. Same take care of the 7900 GRE, which is a extra logical successor to the 6800 XT. Bear that in thoughts when doing generation-over-generation comparisons.