The (unofficial) 7900 GRE Thread - All input welcome

[LabRat]

AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16GB GDDR6

"The X800 GTO of 2024"

Specifications:

 

Reviews:

  Quote

ASRock RX 7900 GRE Steel Legend - W1zzard @ TechPowerUp
Gigabyte RX 7900 GRE Gaming OC  - Thibaut G. @ Hardwareandco [French Language]
PowerColor RX 7900 GRE Hellhound - Hilbert Hagedoorn @ Guru3D

PowerColor RX 7900 GRE Hellhound - W1zzard @ TechPowerUp
Sapphire RX 7900 GRE Nitro+ - W1zzard @ TechPowerUp
Sapphire RX 7900 GRE Pulse - W1zzard @ TechPowerUp
Sapphire RX 7900 GRE Pure - W1zzard @ TechPowerUp

XFX RX 7900 GRE Speedster MERC 310 - toadovsky @ TweakTown

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'At A Glance' AIB Partner Comparison:

(Not all retail-available models represented)

  Quote

 

$549.99 MSRP - AMD Reference RX 7900 GRE (Note: Not Retail Available) 

-Core: 1880/2245MHz  VRAM: 2250MHz Special Feature(s): N/A.

 

$559-569.99 - ASRock RX 7900 GRE Steel Legend

-Core: 1972/2333MHz VRAM: 2250Mhz Special Feature(s): +White color motif +on/off switch for on-card illumination.

$549.99 - Gigabyte RX 7900 GRE Gaming OC

-Core:2052/2391Mhz  VRAM: 2250Mhz Special Feature(s): -May require out-of-box re-assembly* +Dual-BIOS switch.

$579.99 - PowerColor RX 7900 GRE Hellhound (Note: only 7900 GRE on Amazon, at time-of-writing)

-Core: 2013/2366Mhz VRAM: 2250Mhz Special Feature(s): +Prem. HSF. +Dual-BIOS switch. +Purple LEDs.

$599.99 - Sapphire RX 7900 GRE Nitro+

-Core: 2052/2391MHz VRAM: 2250MHz Special Feature(s): +Prem. HSF. +Dual-BIOS (w/ 3pos. switch). +ARGBsync Header. +Add. fan header. +True 3-slot. +Inclu. supp. brckt.

$549.99 - Sapphire RX 7900 GRE Pulse

-Core: 1927/2293MHz VRAM: 2250MHz Special Feature(s): N/A.

$559.99 - Sapphire RX 7900 GRE Pure

-Core: 1972/2333MHz VRAM: 2250MHz Special Feature(s): +White color motif +on/off switch for on-card illumination.

 

$569.99 - XFX RX 7900 GRE Speedster MERC 310

-Core: 2052/2245MHz VRAM: 2250Mhz Special Feature(s): +Dual-BIOS switch +Minimalist motif

 

*OP's personal experience

 

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LabRat's Personal Gallery:

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2nd purchase, Gigabyte model. Returned to Newegg:

3rd purchase, Sapphire Nitro+ model. Kept:
 

 

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Edited March 24, 2024 by LabRat
Updated. Added new review, corrected formatting.

[pio]

Really too bad about that Gigabyte model, but I DID warn you about that didn't I?   

TPU Link for anyone that would like to see what was going on with his Gigabyte card:
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/gigabyte-has-fallen.320080/

TLDR:  BUY A GIGABYTE CARD IN 2024 AT YOUR OWN RISK (Labrat here isn't the only one reporting MAJOR problems with Gigabyte cards).

 

------------------------------------------------------------

 

Glad you've got the Sapphire Nitro+ model now, I get the feeling you're in for a GOOD time with that card!

Now, let's see your benches.  You're probably the only person on EHW with one of these.

Edited March 12, 2024 by pio

[LabRat]

Driver Updates - Unlocked VRAM OCing

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/amd-24-3-1-drivers-unlock-rx-7900-gre-memory-oc-limits-additional-performance-boost-tested.320715/

AMD's latest 24.3.1s have lifted the VRAM OC limits for the GRE, and most-all cards will clock 2500-2600MHz+

https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/amd-radeon-rx-7000-series/amd-radeon-rx-7900-series/amd-radeon-rx-7900-gre

 

Radeon.ID / AmernimeZone 24.3.1 drivers just* released.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/radeon-id-distribution/files/Release Polaris-Vega-Navi/WHQL-R-ID-Software-Hybrid-24.3.1-Win10-Win11-PolarisVegaNavi-Nebula.exe/download

(*I opened the page to check if they'd been released, <1min after posting. Dunno how I did that)

Edited March 24, 2024 by LabRat

[pio]

I'd like to submit a petition to perhaps change this to a general 7900 club?

There's only two 7900GRE's on site I believe so far......   

Up to you of course, not my club. 

[Sir Beregond]

It's a solid enough card as a slot in between the 7900XT and the 7800XT. But looking at the performance vs the 4070 and 4070 Super I think the price is kind of a hard sell for what you give up in RT. It's not terrible, but it's definitely a worse card if RT matters for you and I think the 16GB vs 12GB argument at this price segment is less important. So asking for the same money as a 4070...I don't know. Its also considerably more power consumption than the 4070 and 4070 Super under load, so I don't see a win there either.

 

I guess if 12GB vs 16GB is make or break for your use case, otherwise I don't know, not excited about this card at $550.

Edited March 28, 2024 by Sir Beregond

[LabRat]

  On 28/03/2024 at 20:36, Sir Beregond said:

It's a solid enough card as a slot in between the 7900XT and the 7800XT. But looking at the performance vs the 4070 and 4070 Super I think the price is kind of a hard sell for what you give up in RT. It's not terrible, but it's definitely a worse card if RT matters for you and I think the 16GB vs 12GB argument at this price segment is less important. So asking for the same money as a 4070...I don't know. Its also considerably more power consumption than the 4070 and 4070 Super under load, so I don't see a win there either.

 

I guess if 12GB vs 16GB is make or break for your use case, otherwise I don't know, not excited about this card at $550.

 

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Thing is, the GRE is faster, generally (in rasterization) and does RT 'fine' w/ XeSS or FSR Scaling (or lower Native-res. 1080p 144hz, here)

 

[pio]

  On 03/04/2024 at 02:25, LabRat said:

Thing is, the GRE is faster, generally (in rasterization) and does RT 'fine' w/ XeSS or FSR Scaling (or lower Native-res. 1080p 144hz, here)

 

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The GRE should in theory, be capable of doing RT titles as well as any other 7900 series card I'd think.  They're all Navi 31 cards afterall.  It's a tad cut down in terms of shaders and all that jazz, sure.  But its still a full fat Navi 31.  I'm not sure which portion of the card is responsible for the RT performance on the 7900 series cards, but its not cut down THAT badly.

With that said, yes Nvidia cards are doing RT better.  We all know that.  At 5120x1440 / 120Hz, I have zero complaints about the RT performance on my 7900xtx though.  It could be better, yes.  But I knew RT was a bonus when buying this card, and it does the job well enough with FSR / frame scaling.  Last gen's AMD cards were an absolute joke with RT performance.  At least the 7900 series are capable of PLAYING the titles with RT enabled.  I want to say the 7900 xtx is approximately on par with a 3090 or so in RT performance?  Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the performance really isn't bad for RT titles.

[Fluxmaven]

IDK if we'll ever see actual feature parity between AMD and Nvidia. We're at the point where AMD does all the same stuff albeit a gen behind. 

 

And that's fine for most people. Sure it's fun to crank the settings in Cyberpunk and go stare at some neon sign reflections in a puddle of water, but at some point you just want to play through your backlog of games. I DO have mostly nvidia cards and I still don't bother with ray tracing. 

 

If it weren't for the lackluster Folding@home performance and higher power draw, I'd buy more AMD cards. The GRE will drop to $500 before Ngreedia ever drops the price of the 4070 Super. As it sits, I think it's an OK option for a lot of people. 

[Sir Beregond]

  On 03/04/2024 at 02:25, LabRat said:

Thing is, the GRE is faster, generally (in rasterization) and does RT 'fine' w/ XeSS or FSR Scaling (or lower Native-res. 1080p 144hz, here)

 

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Yes I agree its the faster raster card, but its definitely a worse card for RT w/ FSR.

 

 

  On 03/04/2024 at 03:09, pio said:

The GRE should in theory, be capable of doing RT titles as well as any other 7900 series card I'd think.  They're all Navi 31 cards afterall.  It's a tad cut down in terms of shaders and all that jazz, sure.  But its still a full fat Navi 31.  I'm not sure which portion of the card is responsible for the RT performance on the 7900 series cards, but its not cut down THAT badly.

With that said, yes Nvidia cards are doing RT better.  We all know that.  At 5120x1440 / 120Hz, I have zero complaints about the RT performance on my 7900xtx though.  It could be better, yes.  But I knew RT was a bonus when buying this card, and it does the job well enough with FSR / frame scaling.  Last gen's AMD cards were an absolute joke with RT performance.  At least the 7900 series are capable of PLAYING the titles with RT enabled.  I want to say the 7900 xtx is approximately on par with a 3090 or so in RT performance?  Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the performance really isn't bad for RT titles.

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It's Navi31 sure, but I wouldn't call it "full fat". That's the 7900XTX. Its 80 compute units for the GRE vs 96 on the XTX, not to mention a reduction in memory bandwidth from 384-bit to 256-bit.

 

The architecture is basically that each compute unit has a ray accelerator, so it is 80 vs 96. That's about a 17% cut-down on the GRE.

 

Sure we can all say "its not that bad" but its still for all intents and purposes a generation behind which is why I think trying to slot in price wise to Nvidia's current gen really isn't all that compelling to me.

 

  On 03/04/2024 at 19:00, Fluxmaven said:

IDK if we'll ever see actual feature parity between AMD and Nvidia. We're at the point where AMD does all the same stuff albeit a gen behind. 

 

And that's fine for most people. Sure it's fun to crank the settings in Cyberpunk and go stare at some neon sign reflections in a puddle of water, but at some point you just want to play through your backlog of games. I DO have mostly nvidia cards and I still don't bother with ray tracing. 

 

If it weren't for the lackluster Folding@home performance and higher power draw, I'd buy more AMD cards. The GRE will drop to $500 before Ngreedia ever drops the price of the 4070 Super. As it sits, I think it's an OK option for a lot of people. 

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Yeah I just feel like that "generation behind" on RT / FSR like features makes these launch MSRPs for AMD cards really lackluster - they are after all pricing within Nvidia's current generation.

 

I can at least say the price usually course corrects, unlike Nvidia.