Well, reviews for perhaps the first truly attractive card to the mass of gamers from the next generation of cards has dropped: AMD's RX 7800 XT. There's no reason that cards delivering high-end performance of premier AAA titles should cost more than $500 despite inflation even in 2023 (this would have been $357 in 2010 when the GeForce GTX 470 launched for a $349 MSRP). The RTX 4090, RTX 4080, RTX 4070 Ti, RX 7900 XTX, RX 7900 XT, and RX 7900 GRE are all too costly. Per affordable cards, the RTX 4060 and RX 7600 remain disappointing not only due to 8GB VRAM, but because they don't really improve the actual value performance over their predecessors real-market prices.
At an MSRP of $499, the 7800 XT is competing directly against the RX 6800 XT, which can be had for that exact price on the market right now (MSRP was $649 at release), and the RTX 3070 Ti, which can be bought for $50 less (MSRP $599 at release). The 3070's current pricing is thus identical to the MSRP of the abysmally priced 7700 XT. Meanwhile, the RTX 4070 is still overpriced to ever hope to be a leader on Steam hardware surveys at $599, but it is the current gen competition. So those are the three cards to look for in the benchmarks below.
AMD Radeon RX 7800XT & RX 7700XT Graphics Cards Review Roundup
Head-to-head focused
- Ars Technica: AMD’s Radeon RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT are almost great
- CustomPC: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT review – Sapphire Nitro+
- Dexerto: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT review: The value king
- Hot Hardware: Radeon RX 7800 XT And 7700 XT Review: Midrange AMD Gaming GPUs Put To The Test
- IGN: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Review
- PCMag: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Review
- PC World: AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT review: The 1440p GPUs you want
The verdict? While some of these websites that already have dubious reputations try to shill for the card, such as The Verge, calling it the "antidote to GPU inflation", the consensus from trusted, esteemed reviewers is succinctly summarized, "It's hard to get excited about yesterday's performance at yesterday's prices." Nevertheless, they also concede, it's "the best value yet", and there's no denying this is the first attractive release from the latest gen.
Because it at least beats compatable last gen units at their lowest current prices in terms of performance value, and it brings what will be a more enduring support for the latest iterations to come of the constantly evolving software features like FSR which are becoming increasingly significant to modern gaming.
So for those who were waiting for a good card to finally drop, here it is.
*Edit*
Oh, I almost forgot to add, for those who aren't Game Pass subscribers, the Starfield bundle was added for this card, so buyers will get the Premium Edition of that game complimentary of the purchase. Of note, the AMD cards have been equaling or outperforming NVIDIA counterparts a full performance class above them in the game. This advantage is further compounded when FSR is turned on for both brands as the AMD cards gain more from FSR than their NVIDIA counterparts.
Techspot: Starfield GPU Benchmark: 32 GPUs Tested, FSR On and Off
In the below video is the only benchmark of Starfield on the 7800 XT I could find, but their results are consistent with Techspot's above for 1080p Ultra without FSR for the older cards.
*Edit #2* (Sept-7 Update)
Tweaktown has now done a special feature on the new cards' performance on Starfield. With FSR turned on, the RX 7800 XT manages to average 52-60fps in 4K. Impressive.
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/9318...md-radeon-rx-7700-xt-and-7800-gpus/index.html
Agreed. If the extra bit of fps over the 6800 XT weren't enough, then I'm sure the native AV1 hardware decoding would stand out for someone concerned with content creation like Jay. It makes real-time high-level, finely compressed AV1 video streaming a reality. You'll get no better image quality, and no better bang-for-your-buck on the upload bandwidth required.
If not for the VRM, where the Steel Legend has a significant advantage (and better MOSFETs), then probably not.
The second m.2 slot can run either protocol for those motherboards. It will either run as PCIe 3.0 at x2 speeds, or at SATA III if one requires this for whatever reason. You can see this in the table on p.45 of the User Manual for the Steel Legend, for example, or in the specification sheet:
Using that 2nd m.2 slot will disable the 5th and 6th SATA ports, though.
Well, reviews for perhaps the first truly attractive card to the mass of gamers from the next generation of cards has dropped: AMD's RX 7800 XT. There's no reason that cards delivering high-end performance of premier AAA titles should cost more than $500 despite inflation even in 2023 (this would have been $357 in 2010 when the GeForce GTX 470 launched for a $349 MSRP). The RTX 4090, RTX 4080, RTX 4070 Ti, RX 7900 XTX, RX 7900 XT, and RX 7900 GRE are all too costly. Per affordable cards, the RTX 4060 and RX 7600 remain disappointing not only due to 8GB VRAM, but because they don't really improve the actual value performance over their predecessors real-market prices.
At an MSRP of $499, the 7800 XT is competing directly against the RX 6800 XT, which can be had for that exact price on the market right now (MSRP was $649 at release), and the RTX 3070 Ti, which can be bought for $50 less (MSRP $599 at release). The 3070 Ti's current pricing is thus identical to the MSRP of the abysmally priced 7700 XT. Meanwhile, the RTX 4070 is still overpriced to ever hope to be a leader on Steam hardware surveys at $599, but it is the current gen competition. So those are the three cards to look for to compare in the benchmarks below.
\
AMD Radeon RX 7800XT & RX 7700XT Graphics Cards Review Roundup
Head-to-head focused
- Ars Technica: AMD’s Radeon RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT are almost great
- CustomPC: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT review – Sapphire Nitro+
- Dexerto: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT review: The value king
- Hot Hardware: Radeon RX 7800 XT And 7700 XT Review: Midrange AMD Gaming GPUs Put To The Test
- IGN: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Review
- PCMag: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Review
- PC World: AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT review: The 1440p GPUs you want
- Techspot: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Review
The verdict? While some of these websites that already have dubious reputations try to shill for the card, such as The Verge, calling it the "antidote to GPU inflation", the consensus from trusted, esteemed reviewers is succinctly summarized, "It's hard to get excited about yesterday's performance at yesterday's prices." Nevertheless, they also concede, it's "the best value yet", and there's no denying this is the first attractive release from the latest gen.
Because it at least beats compatable last gen units at their lowest current prices in terms of performance value, and it brings what will be a more enduring support for the latest iterations to come of the constantly evolving software features like FSR which are becoming increasingly significant to modern gaming.
So for those who were waiting for a good card to finally drop, here it is.
*Edit*
Oh, I almost forgot to add, for those who aren't Game Pass subscribers, the Starfield bundle was added for this card, so buyers will get the Premium Edition of that game complimentary of the purchase. Of note, the AMD cards have been equaling or outperforming NVIDIA counterparts a full performance class above them in the game. This advantage is further compounded when FSR is turned on for both brands as the AMD cards gain more from FSR than their NVIDIA counterparts.
Techspot: Starfield GPU Benchmark: 32 GPUs Tested, FSR On and Off
In the below video is the only benchmark of Starfield on the 7800 XT I could find, but their results are consistent with Techspot's above for 1080p Ultra without FSR for the older cards.
*Edit #2* (Sept-7 Update)
Tweaktown has now done a special feature on the new cards' performance on Starfield. With FSR turned on, the RX 7800 XT manages to average 52-60fps in 4K. Impressive.
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/9318...md-radeon-rx-7700-xt-and-7800-gpus/index.html
As long as its got HDMI it should be just like a TV: plug it in and turn it on.
