Review AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Review: The Lateral Pass

[The Historical Fidelity]

What I meant was that anyone with even a little experience buying video cards would have a certain expectation. If someone has literally never bought a card before, then yes, they're screwed no matter what and no amount of logic in the part numbers will matter.

I used the home appliance analogy because most of us know the brand-names like Whirlpool, GE, Bosch, LG, Samsung, Miele, Electrolux, etc. but we don't know much else and so we can look at the home appliance market and understand how most people see the video card market. If we had a model that worked really well for us and was very long-lived, we would want to buy something similar to replace it. We don't know all of the specs between the different models and so we've vulnerable to the manufacturers doing shady things. The problem here is that it has the same high-end look and is 23% less expensive but it's not nearly what the previous model was because it's now three years later.

I'll use a variation on my own situation because this is what could go wrong...

My best friend bought an RTX 3080 (not because he likes RT but because he's an FS2020 nut) and just a little while later, I bought my RX 6800 XT. We would jokingly rib each other about it and we have a lot of fun with "being on different teams" (which means nothing to us but it gives us an excuse to give each other a hard time).

So, let's say another couple of friends are in the same situation but aren't knowledgeable enthusiasts, they just love their AAA titles. So, the friend with the RTX 3080 (I'll call him NG) upgrades to an RTX 4080 and shows it off to his friend (I'll call him AR). So, AR gets afflicted with "Keeping up with the Joneses" syndrome because he wants to be able to keep up the fun ribbing that can only occur if he and GN have rival cards.

He assumes that the RX 6800 XT was succeeded by the RX 7800 XT (and who could blame him for that?), is very pleased to see that it's only $500 and buys it. A week later, he shows it off to his RTX 4080 friend, who is obviously impressed because he also assumes that the RX 7800 XT is the successor of the RX 6800 XT and thus the rival of the RTX 4080. The two friends game as they did without any noticeable issues for a month or two but AR starts getting this weird feeling, like his new card isn't performing as well as it should because he sees GN's system running games at 4K with ease while his card struggles at 4K. Something's not right and AR begins to think that his card is defective because there's no way that this new card rival's GN's like it should. To him, it's clearly underperforming so he contacts the AIB who made it (ASRock/Sapphire/XFX) and tells them about his concerns.

The AIB tells him to fire up Hogwarts: Legacy and use the Adrenalin Performance Overlay to tell them what his frame rate is at 1440p Ultra. He tells them that it's showing him about 75FPS so the AIB assures him that his card is running exactly how it should. They ask him if he has had any other issues he says no. and they tell him not to worry but they'll help him out if there really is something wrong. AR can't shake the feeling that something's wrong so he puts his RX 6800 XT back in and runs the game again with the Adrenalin overlay and is shocked to see 73FPS. He calls the AIB again and tells them about the lack of difference between the two cards only to be told "Yes, that's right, there's very little difference between them." which now has him reeling.

So, AR asks NG how much the RTX 4080 cost him and NG told him that it cost $1200. AR looks for information about video card performance and finds out that the $1000 RX 7900 XTX is the rival of the RTX 4080. Now AR is pissed because he literally wasted $500 on a card that should have been the rival of the RTX 4080 but it has been well over a month so he can't return the card. He would've been willing to pay $200 less for the card that rivalled NG's RTX 4080 but now that he's blown $500, he's unable to do so. The RX 7800 XT may be the last Radeon card he ever buys because he obviously can't trust AMD to keep their $hit straight.

This is how most people buy things that they're not very knowledgeable about and a lot of people are going to get burned by this. If people are willing to turn a blind eye to underhanded things like this, then it will become the new normal and who wants that? If the RX 7900 XTX was called the RX 7800 XT, I still would've bought it because of the specs with the great deal that I got. Remember that RNDA1 only went up to level-7 with the RX 5700 XT and it was still very successful. Actions like this will be beneficial in the short-term (like the RX 7800 XT having great performance for the price in this generation) but it will also go a long way to shatter the trust that a lot of people have in the Radeon brand for situations like the one I described (or similar situations). The last thing that AMD can afford to do is destroy the trust of those who already do trust them because their slice of the market is tiny compared to nVidia's.

I hope that this clarifies what I said.

Yes, I completely understand your viewpoint and it is valid and eloquently laid out!

But!!! at the same time, (I'm guessing it was the way I was raised or something) a responsible consumer wouldn’t simply throw money at something without researching it. In today’s world, we have easy access to more consumer facing product reviewers than ever before, and at our fingertips anywhere we are, including while at the store looking at the wall of GPUs. All it takes is 5 seconds to google “RX7800XT performance” or “RX7800XT vs rtx4080” or “AMD gpu comparable to rtx4080”. To blindly purchase a $500 card without doing the bare minimum due diligence of googling it right before taking it off the shelf is mind boggling to me.

Although IDK, maybe I am out of touch with humanity, cause I will research even the cheapest things. 100% true, I will stand in the middle of the lightbulb section of Home Depot on my phone for a good 15-20 minutes and look up specs and reviews of different light bulbs to figure out which is best for my needs lol!

 

[Order 66]

What I meant was that anyone with even a little experience buying video cards would have a certain expectation. If someone has literally never bought a card before, then yes, they're screwed no matter what and no amount of logic in the part numbers will matter.

I used the home appliance analogy because most of us know the brand-names like Whirlpool, GE, Bosch, LG, Samsung, Miele, Electrolux, etc. but we don't know much else and so we can look at the home appliance market and understand how most people see the video card market. If we had a model that worked really well for us and was very long-lived, we would want to buy something similar to replace it. We don't know all of the specs between the different models and so we've vulnerable to the manufacturers doing shady things. The problem here is that it has the same high-end look and is 23% less expensive but it's not nearly what the previous model was because it's now three years later.

I'll use a variation on my own situation because this is what could go wrong...

My best friend bought an RTX 3080 (not because he likes RT but because he's an FS2020 nut) and just a little while later, I bought my RX 6800 XT. We would jokingly rib each other about it and we have a lot of fun with "being on different teams" (which means nothing to us but it gives us an excuse to give each other a hard time).

So, let's say another couple of friends are in the same situation but aren't knowledgeable enthusiasts, they just love their AAA titles. So, the friend with the RTX 3080 (I'll call him NG) upgrades to an RTX 4080 and shows it off to his friend (I'll call him AR). So, AR gets afflicted with "Keeping up with the Joneses" syndrome because he wants to be able to keep up the fun ribbing that can only occur if he and GN have rival cards.

He assumes that the RX 6800 XT was succeeded by the RX 7800 XT (and who could blame him for that?), is very pleased to see that it's only $500 and buys it. A week later, he shows it off to his RTX 4080 friend, who is obviously impressed because he also assumes that the RX 7800 XT is the successor of the RX 6800 XT and thus the rival of the RTX 4080. The two friends game as they did without any noticeable issues for a month or two but AR starts getting this weird feeling, like his new card isn't performing as well as it should because he sees GN's system running games at 4K with ease while his card struggles at 4K. Something's not right and AR begins to think that his card is defective because there's no way that this new card rival's GN's like it should. To him, it's clearly underperforming so he contacts the AIB who made it (ASRock/Sapphire/XFX) and tells them about his concerns.

The AIB tells him to fire up Hogwarts: Legacy and use the Adrenalin Performance Overlay to tell them what his frame rate is at 1440p Ultra. He tells them that it's showing him about 75FPS so the AIB assures him that his card is running exactly how it should. They ask him if he has had any other issues he says no. and they tell him not to worry but they'll help him out if there really is something wrong. AR can't shake the feeling that something's wrong so he puts his RX 6800 XT back in and runs the game again with the Adrenalin overlay and is shocked to see 73FPS. He calls the AIB again and tells them about the lack of difference between the two cards only to be told "Yes, that's right, there's very little difference between them." which now has him reeling.

So, AR asks NG how much the RTX 4080 cost him and NG told him that it cost $1200. AR looks for information about video card performance and finds out that the $1000 RX 7900 XTX is the rival of the RTX 4080. Now AR is pissed because he literally wasted $500 on a card that should have been the rival of the RTX 4080 but it has been well over a month so he can't return the card. He would've been willing to pay $200 less for the card that rivalled NG's RTX 4080 but now that he's blown $500, he's unable to do so. The RX 7800 XT may be the last Radeon card he ever buys because he obviously can't trust AMD to keep their $hit straight.

This is how most people buy things that they're not very knowledgeable about and a lot of people are going to get burned by this. If people are willing to turn a blind eye to underhanded things like this, then it will become the new normal and who wants that? If the RX 7900 XTX was called the RX 7800 XT, I still would've bought it because of the specs with the great deal that I got. Remember that RNDA1 only went up to level-7 with the RX 5700 XT and it was still very successful. Actions like this will be beneficial in the short-term (like the RX 7800 XT having great performance for the price in this generation) but it will also go a long way to shatter the trust that a lot of people have in the Radeon brand for situations like the one I described (or similar situations). The last thing that AMD can afford to do is destroy the trust of those who already do trust them because their slice of the market is tiny compared to nVidia's.

I hope that this clarifies what I said.

How long did it take you to type this post?! I wish I had that kind of patience and dedication.

 

[cryoburner]

I'm tired of seeing AMD be the value option, full of compromises but good prices. If they don't at least double their RT performance, they will soon be out of the game, because Intel is coming, and the blue guys don't fool around.

AMD's RT performance may currently be behind Nvidia's as far the performance hit compared to rasterized rendering goes, but the performance difference isn't necessarily bad when enough additional rasterized performance is provided at a given price point to make up for it. In the case of the 7800 XT, the card's RT performance is actually very competitive with the equally-priced RTX 4060 Ti 16GB...

AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Review

With the Radeon RX 7800 XT, AMD is going after the GeForce RTX 4070. Our review confirms that AMD has achieved performance parity in rasterization and is pretty close in ray tracing, at a much better price point, and they are giving you 16 GB VRAM, instead of just 12 GB.

www.techpowerup.com

In Techpowerup's benchmarks of RT performance across 10 games, they found the 7800 XT to see average frame rates within 5% of the 4060 Ti 16GB in the two most demanding RT titles they tested at 1440p (Cyberpunk and Hogwarts), and the 7800 XT was actually the faster card in the other eight RT titles they tested (though some of those make very little use of RT). Still, providing raytracing performance within 5% of Nvidia's closest-priced card in some of the most demanding RT games, while offering around 37% more performance in non-RT scenarios according to the 25 games they tested, puts the 7800 XT in a reasonably good place. Even if we compare it against the 8GB 4060 Ti for $100 less, that price difference is at least providing a massive boost to rasterized performance in addition to the extra VRAM. Now, the 4060 Ti itself arguably underdelivers, but with the lack of good competition in this price range, it makes some sense why AMD priced the 7800 XT as they did.

The last time AMD had a clear technology leading design was probably with the Radeon 9800 Pro, where it established its hardware as being clearly superior in every meaningful metric. It wasn't just the value alternative, it was the leader.

Technically, that was ATI. The 9800 Pro came out in 2003, and AMD didn't acquire ATI until a few years later. AMD was also arguably offering the superior product with their Athlon 64 processors around that time as well though, making things like 64 bit computing, advanced power saving features, and dual-core processors available to consumers at a time when Intel's Pentium 4 was largely underdelivering.

I realised that day just how tech-ignorant that the general public is and with that realisation came the knowledge about just how vulnerable the average consumer is to deceptive marketing tactics. It also validated my criticism of AMD back when they dropped the ATi branding because they were shooting themselves in the foot to stroke their own egos. People recognised the ATi name in video cards but nobody knew WTH an AMD video card was and, for the most part, they still don't.

It's like how Hisense bought Sharp's TV division. They didn't rebrand all the Sharp TVs as Hisense because replacing an established, well-recognised and respected brand with you own corporate logo is very well-known as being one of the worst courses of action possible. For most people, buying a PC is like buying a washing machine to us. Without the names on them, we wouldn't be able to tell a Whirlpool from a GE or a Bosch.

I kind of agree on that. ATI was a pretty strong brand name in the graphics space, even if they never overtook Nvidia in terms of overall market share. AMD was a strong brand as well around the time they acquired the company, but by the time they started to market their cards under AMD branding a few years later, they were already starting to fall behind Intel on the CPU side of things, and the whole Bulldozer era did nothing to rectify that. I suppose it could be argued that the graphics card division might have helped keep the AMD brand name more relevant during that time though. And it wasn't all that extreme of a name change when you consider that they at least kept the Radeon branding, and the AMD and ATI acronyms were relatively similar looking to begin with, so I don't think there was all that much confusion at the time.

I can see how there could be more confusion now though, and it doesn't help at all that AMD has now perplexingly started numbering their CPUs and GPUs in an extremely similar manner. How is the average consumer supposed to understand the difference between a 7700XT graphics card and a 7700X processor in a computer's spec sheet? That just seems nonsensical. Even just trying to check reviews, it's easy to click the wrong link and end up reading about an entirely different piece of hardware.

Consider the RX 7700 XT because before the silicon shortage, a level-7 XT card had an MSRP of $399 (RX 5700 XT). That ballooned up to $479 during the pandemic and is now at $449. So, they managed to increase the MSRP by 12.5% over the past 4 years. THIS is why the RX 7700 XT is overpriced. If it were set to $400 like it should be, it would be properly-positioned in the market. As for the RX 7800 XT, it offers great value for $500 in today's market but it's completely out-of-place performance-wise.

You should also consider the abnormally high rate of inflation over the last couple years as well though. At least when looking at US pricing, there's been around 12% inflation within the last two years alone (with some products and services affected more than others). If the buying power of the dollar is lower, then it's only natural for prices to end up higher.

The actual problem with the 7700 XT's pricing is that unlike the 7800 XT compared to the 4060 Ti 16GB, the 7700XT's gaming performance is a bit more mixed compared to the 4060 Ti 8GB. Its rasterized performance falls roughly in-between the 4060 Ti and the 7800 XT, but while the 7800 XT manages to brute-force its way to providing competitive RT performance to the competition in this price range, the 7700 XT falls behind even the 8GB model costing $50 less. A price matching the 4060 Ti 8GB would have felt a lot more sensible for the card, especially with the 4060 Ti cards not feeling like a great value to begin with. Perhaps prices may adjust down to that level though.

 

[Tofu Golem]

It's 3% faster than the last generation, and you gave it 3½ out of 5 stars? What have you been smoking?

This entire generation of graphics cards is simply trash. My condolences to anyone forced to buy any of these cards. Me, I'm just gaming a lot less than I used to.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

It's 3% faster than the last generation, and you gave it 3½ out of 5 stars? What have you been smoking?

This entire generation of graphics cards is simply trash. My condolences to anyone forced to buy any of these cards. Me, I'm just gaming a lot less than I used to.

It's also $150 less (at launch) than the prior generation and has better efficiency and some new features. 3.5 stars isn't "great." It's "okay." The 7800 XT isn't terrible, and a price cut would help. I agree with some others that the naming of this as a 7800 XT (instead of 7700 XT) is disingenuous. But when we got the 7900 GRE, I guess that's what we can expect from Navi 32.

 

[palladin9479]

This is a pretty good card for it's price, which is what nVidia's problem has been this generation. Due to nVidia using malicious segmentation to funnel buyers to it's halo product, AMD just needs to offer better price to performance and steal the mid range. Every market survey shows that most buyers are in the mid range not the top end, good opportunity for AMD to pickup market share.

 

[Geef]

It will be interesting if these figures transfer into real world gaming experiences. Keep us all updated?

Just got card earlier today. Here is a quick pic of the basic quick tests I ran.

I ran FF XV intro and played the first 10 minutes. Got to see Cindy at max graphics 120fps refresh rate.

I played Stellaris on a size 800 galaxy I had saved. With 5700XT it would start stuttering moving around galaxy but didn't notice that happen with 7800XT.

So far the card is looking good and actually running cool. I noticed on youtube videos reviewers were saying the Asrock Phantom Gaming card has a good cooling setup and I didn't notice it getting hot at all.
I haven't heard any coil wine yet either.

This is still just first few hours so hopefully its all good!

 

[AgentBirdnest]

Just got card earlier today. Here is a quick pic of the basic quick tests I ran.

Awesome! Thanks for these results, and I hope you get lots of gaming joy with your new card. : )

 

[The Historical Fidelity]

It's 3% faster than the last generation, and you gave it 3½ out of 5 stars? What have you been smoking?

This entire generation of graphics cards is simply trash. My condolences to anyone forced to buy any of these cards. Me, I'm just gaming a lot less than I used to.

Jarred uses the analytical rating system where each star is worth 20% so he gave the 7800xt a 70% or a C- rating. IDK about you but my parents would have spanked me if I got a C- on a test haha

 

[NeoMorpheus]

This is a pretty good card for it's price, which is what nVidia's problem has been this generation. Due to nVidia using malicious segmentation to funnel buyers to it's halo product, AMD just needs to offer better price to performance and steal the mid range. Every market survey shows that most buyers are in the mid range not the top end, good opportunity for AMD to pickup market share.

I am not as eloquent as others, but pretty much I said that one another post, AMD went for greed, instead for market share with this gen.

I dont know how low they could go, prices wise, but they should had released the 7900XTX at a way lower price and about the name, we humans will automatically (as many reviewers do) compare it with the 4090 because of that 9 in the model name.
So maybe changing the name (besides a way lower price) would had been a better approach.

Oh and keep doing that for as long as needed to gain that market share.

 

[CharlesOCT]

AMD is a $20B revenue company competing in two market spaces versus a $50B INTC and a $30B NVDA. AMD and INTC are breaking even, while NVDA has a 30% profit margin. Yet somehow AMD is still too "greedy". It isn't enough for AMD to produce competitive products at various price points, inevitably, they get compared to that 4090 tier. One reason this happens is that tech reviewers are paid with free review copies of $1600 4090 GPU's which becomes their default home PC GPU. So tired of these false comparisons, "yeah but my 4090 path ray tracing looks so pretty compared to this RX 7800, or whatever AMD GPU".

 

[NeoMorpheus]

One reason this happens is that tech reviewers are paid with free review copies of $1600 4090 GPU's which becomes their default home PC GPU.

Preach it.

So tired of these false comparisons, "yeah but my 4090 path ray tracing looks so pretty compared to this RX 7800, or whatever AMD GPU".

I have stopped following many influencers in YouTube exactly because of that.

I actually think that some are paid in money besides the free 4090 and they have to mention the the 4090 even in unrelated videos.

Example, I was watching a review of a car and from the get go, the video started with a ngreedia logo and around 3 or so minutes in, the dude said that he used a 4090 for editing the video in his edit machine.

Or in another video, was a cell phone review and the dude used the GPU number to mention a 4090.

So imagine someone bumping over and over on these scenarios, they will be heavily influenced in buying a 4090.

 

[Elusive Ruse]

Preach it.



I have stopped following many influencers in YouTube exactly because of that.

I actually think that some are paid in money besides the free 4090 and they have to mention the the 4090 even in unrelated videos.

Example, I was watching a review of a car and from the get go, the video started with a ngreedia logo and around 3 or so minutes in, the dude said that he used a 4090 for editing the video in his edit machine.

Or in another video, was a cell phone review and the dude used the GPU number toention a 4090.

So imagine someone bumping over and over on these scenarios, they will be heavily influenced in buying a 4090.

At least they get free 4090s or cash to say that. We have members here who can't wait to tell you how their 4090 trumps all the other GPUs and that's why no other video card should be purchased ever.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Yes, I completely understand your viewpoint and it is valid and eloquently laid out!

But!!! at the same time, (I'm guessing it was the way I was raised or something) a responsible consumer wouldn’t simply throw money at something without researching it. In today’s world, we have easy access to more consumer facing product reviewers than ever before, and at our fingertips anywhere we are, including while at the store looking at the wall of GPUs.

You're absolutely right and I couldn't agree more. What you just described is exactly how I handle most of my purchases. Unfortunately, that's not what usually happens because people are either lazy or just don't have the time to do things like that these days. The work longer hours, maybe they have kids to look after or a house to tend to and they just don't care enough about the PC hardware market to keep abreast of everything.

Consider the popularity of Alienware. It sure as hell isn't popular with enthusiasts and their build quality has always been... Well, I'll just let Steve Burke's video thumbnail speak louder than I can:

PC manufacturers like Dell, HP and Lenovo aren't wildly succesful because people are good at doing their due diligence when researching their PC purchases. Usually, they just want the thing to work and have no concept of performance levels.

The analogy of home appliances came to mind when I came across a really good YouTube channel called Bens Appliances and Junk. You can tell that Ben has a lot of expertise and a passion for what he does. Even though I knew next to nothing about washers, dryers, fridges and stoves, I found his channel really interesting because he shows you how to fix common problems with your appliances which can save you hundreds of dollars. He also tells you what and what not to buy. He's been out there for years but I had no idea that he even existed until recently.

All it takes is 5 seconds to google “RX7800XT performance” or “RX7800XT vs rtx4080” or “AMD gpu comparable to rtx4080”. To blindly purchase a $500 card without doing the bare minimum due diligence of googling it right before taking it off the shelf is mind boggling to me.

Sure, it's mind-boggling to me too but just look at how many people pay so much extra money for nVidia GPUs regardless of whether or not that's really what's best for them. The other thing is that, a lot of people would look at the performance charts and have very little idea of what they actually mean.

You'd be surprised at how many people had blank stares when I asked them about their monitor's resolution. For that matter, you'd be surprised at how many people don't know what engine is in their car. Now try to imagine these people making sense of Techspot's impeccably well-done Hogwarts: Legacy 53-GPU test.

I would actually feel pity for someone who isn't an enthusiast trying to make sense of these three graphs. We'll just assume that their display is 1080p because that's what most noobs have.

So, let's see what they have to look at, assuming that they know that they have a 1080p display:

So they see this and get an idea of where things stand, until they get this little curveball:

How many of them will have never heard of RT and how many of them know what it actually means? A lot of times, reviewers will use the term "Ray-Tracing Performance" which is a bit of a misnomer because it's really "Ray-Tarcing Resilience" that they're talking about.

Then they get breaking ball thrown at them with this:

To you and me, it's just a gaming performance chart taken from a differenct section of the game but to them, it's some alien language. That's of course assuming that the weren't completely lost by the RT charts and assuming that their eyes haven't glazed over but it's not over yet because then they get a knuckleball to really ensure that they're lost. So, we've seen the RX 7900 XTX in first place in the two general performance charts but is in fifth place in the first RT chart. So what comes next? An RT chart with the RX 7900 XTX on top again. Of course there's an explanation but for most people it's just a TLR in an alien language to them:

See what I mean? I'd be so lost if I wasn't already a tech expert.

Although IDK, maybe I am out of touch with humanity, cause I will research even the cheapest things. 100% true, I will stand in the middle of the lightbulb section of Home Depot on my phone for a good 15-20 minutes and look up specs and reviews of different light bulbs to figure out which is best for my needs lol!

That's just called being smart. I do the same thing (which is why I buy light bulbs at Dollarama instead of at Home Depot). I look at it this way, if I can save $5 by taking 10 minutes to make sure that I've made the best possible purchase, well, that's essentially paying myself $30/hr to perform due diligence and make sure I know what I'm spending my money on. It's true that most of humanity doesn't do this but it's those that don't do it who are out of touch, not you.

The current state of the market is because most people don't do what you and I do. Don't criticise yourself for doing things correctly just because so many others are doing it wrong.

 

[Avro Arrow]

At least they get free 4090s or cash to say that. We have members here who can't wait to tell you how their 4090 trumps all the other GPUs and that's why no other video card should be purchased ever.

Yeah, that always grinds my gears. I point out to them that paying 67% more money for a mere 24% more performance is lunacy and I ask them what they're trying to compensate for.

There may have been a time (or "two") that I was a little less eloquent in my act of pointing it out than is appropriate for this forum and got into trouble because of it.

It's just the frustration of seeing the same BS over and over and over again.

 

[Elusive Ruse]

Yeah, that always grinds my gears. I point out to them that paying 67% more money for a mere 24% more performance is lunacy and I ask them what they're trying to compensate for.

There may have been a time (or "two") that I was a little less eloquent in my act of pointing it out than is appropriate for this forum and got into trouble because of it.

It's just the frustration of seeing the same BS over and over and over again.

I have to add a disclaimer though. The 4090 is capable enough to be used by professionals. Anyone who makes money off their 4090 absolutely made the right choice, especially considering this generation's ARTX pricing.

 

[NeoMorpheus]

But given the facts of biased reviews, even smart buyers will have a hard time in finding real info since the only way that you can be sure is by buying and benchmarking the gpus yourself!

And yes, there are some people that genuinely have good valid reasons to buy the expensive gpus, but as stated, many are simply doing purchases based in flawed/influenced information .

 

[systemBuilder_49]

It seems like this is BY FAR the most negative AMD RX 7800 XT review on the Internet, the benchmarks are BY FAR the weakest of any independent news source. Often times, an outlier review suggests a biased news source - BEWARE of TOM'S hardware!

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

It seems like this is BY FAR the most negative AMD RX 7800 XT review on the Internet, the benchmarks are BY FAR the weakest of any independent news source. Often times, an outlier review suggests a biased news source - BEWARE of TOM'S hardware!

I'm sure there are a lot of places that gave this a stellar review. You know what? High scoring reviews generally get more views than lower scoring reviews! So when I see places giving this a 10/10 or 9/10, that's way more biased and uninformed than a detailed review that actually has a ton of data to back up the assertion that this is merely an okay card.

This is a review of the new GPU as well as the reference card. I might consider half a star higher on a better card that doesn't run as hot / loud, but that's splitting hairs. What's so amazing about RX 6800 XT performance plus 3% for the same price? That's the fundamental issue. Every review that's worth reading that I've seen notes the lack of generational performance improvements. How they get 8/10 or higher scores from that is beyond me.

 

[Order 66]

I'm sure there are a lot of places that gave this a stellar review. You know what? High scoring reviews generally get more views than lower scoring reviews! So when I see places giving this a 10/10 or 9/10, that's way more biased and uninformed than a detailed review that actually has a ton of data to back up the assertion that this is merely an okay card.

This is a review of the new GPU as well as the reference card. I might consider half a star higher on a better card that doesn't run as hot / loud, but that's splitting hairs. What's so amazing about RX 6800 XT performance plus 3% for the same price? That's the fundamental issue. Every review that's worth reading that I've seen notes the lack of generational performance improvements. How they get 8/10 or higher scores from that is beyond me.

In a vacuum, the 7800 xt is a good card but considering the 6800xt exists the 7800xt makes a lot less sense, however, drop the price of both the 7800 xt and 7700 xt by $50-100, and then it may be tempting.

 

[KyaraM]

It seems like this is BY FAR the most negative AMD RX 7800 XT review on the Internet, the benchmarks are BY FAR the weakest of any independent news source. Often times, an outlier review suggests a biased news source - BEWARE of TOM'S hardware!

Literally every review I have seen places the 7800XT maybe 5% ahead of the 6800XT if even that and on the same rasterizing level as the 4070, what kind of review did you see?

Radeon RX 7800XT und RX 7700XT im Test - AMD, XFX und Sapphire gegen NVIDIA mit Vernunft oder energetischer Brechstange | Seite 7 | igor´sLAB

Zwischen der Radeon RX 7900XT und der Radeon RX 7600 klaffte ein Loch so groß und tief wie der Pazifik, da war die RX 7900 GRE nicht mehr als eine selten aufzutreibende Alibi-Karte für Geizkragen.

www.igorslab.de

https://www.pcgameshardware.de/Radeon-RX-7800-XT-Grafikkarte-279841/Tests/Release-Preis-kaufen-Specs-Benchmarks-RTX-4070-1428245/2/

AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Review

With the Radeon RX 7800 XT, AMD is going after the GeForce RTX 4070. Our review confirms that AMD has achieved performance parity in rasterization and is pretty close in ray tracing, at a much better price point, and they are giving you 16 GB VRAM, instead of just 12 GB.

www.techpowerup.com

AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Review

Given that the Radeon 7800 XT mirrors the 6800 XT's performance, it's not particularly thrilling, especially after 3 years. But at just $500, the 7800 XT will...

www.techspot.com

None of those are particularly positive...

 

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I have to add a disclaimer though. The 4090 is capable enough to be used by professionals. Anyone who makes money off their 4090 absolutely made the right choice, especially considering this generation's ARTX pricing.

Absolutely, but the number of professionals who game compared to the number of gamers who don't do professional work is so small as to possibly statistically zero. The people who do professional work aren't what we generally talk about here because if your card is making you money, you're probably looking at buying whatever replaced the Quadro, not a GeForce card.

What you have to keep in mind though is that not all professional applications for content creation require CUDA. There are content creators on YouTube who do use Radeons for content creation. In fact, Graphically Challenged actually sold his RTX 4090 in favour of using his RX 7900 XTX and he uses it for professional work. He actually did two videos about it. Here's the video he did when he first made the decision:

And here's his follow-up video:

As you see in both videos, he flat-out states that he's more impressed with Radeon drivers than GeForce drivers. GeForce driver instability was one of the reasons that he switched to Radeon in the first place. He's a pretty prolific YouTuber with 111K subs and he's perfectly happy using a Radeon as his main card for gaming and content creation. This guy is a serious YouTuber whose whole channel is all about video cards and he chose to use Radeon over GeForce.

I think this tells us that the belief that one must use a GeForce card for content creation, while not necessarily a myth, has been very exaggerated. This also tells us that people who talk about "bad Radeon drivers" are in fact the ignorant fools that I always claimed them to be. This guy is a respected video card expert so it's not like I'm just picking some random video that I found. I've been subbed to him for years.

 

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In fact, Graphically Challenged actually sold his RTX 4090 in favour of using his RX 7900 XTX and he uses it for professional work.

I'm pretty sure I have watched both videos. I am pretty much obsessed with pcs and I pretty much watch any and all youtube videos on the subject.

 

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I'm sure there are a lot of places that gave this a stellar review. You know what? High scoring reviews generally get more views than lower scoring reviews! So when I see places giving this a 10/10 or 9/10, that's way more biased and uninformed than a detailed review that actually has a ton of data to back up the assertion that this is merely an okay card.

This is a review of the new GPU as well as the reference card. I might consider half a star higher on a better card that doesn't run as hot / loud, but that's splitting hairs. What's so amazing about RX 6800 XT performance plus 3% for the same price? That's the fundamental issue. Every review that's worth reading that I've seen notes the lack of generational performance improvements. How they get 8/10 or higher scores from that is beyond me.

I have no problem with honest reviews like yours, I actually applaud them. I only have problems with reviews that aren't objective and unbiased regardless of what is being reviewed or when the goalposts get moved for one brand and not the other. I personally don't think that AMD's actions in this case are honest at all. I think that they're just trying to get people to expect less from their level-8 cards by offering a good deal that will cause enough people to get these cards and help to shift the paradigm.

You have to remember though, even if not you specifically, Tom's Hardware has been quite guilty of shilling for nVidia in the past. I'm sure that a lot of people (you included for sure) remember a certain sorry excuse for tech journalism by Avram Piltch back in 2018, an "article" that was so pro-nVidia, that to this day, I believe he was paid-off by nVidia to push their false narrative. He took a serious risk with the TH brand-name when he did this and caused it irreparable damage. He sided with nVidia when it came to their predatory pricing tactics instead of siding with consumers. That betrayal of your core audience, consumers has still never been forgotten and will never truly be forgiven, especially since he has never retracted the article or apologised for it. That's the work of a narcissist and people know it.

To refresh everyone's memory, here is the "article" in question:

Just Buy It: Why Nvidia RTX GPUs Are Worth the Money​

The fact that an article so flawed and so biased saw the light of day (and I'm sure that this isn't the only one), means that you have to be willing to accept that people will never trust TH 100% ever again and will question everything. This is the fruit that grows from the seed sown by articles like that. This is the result of having people who don't take journalistic integrity seriously. It sucks and I don't implicate you in this because you didn't write that turd of an article but it unfortunately casts a negative light on the entire website.

Steve Burke clearly had concerns about your boss' lack of journalistic integrity and, objectively, he's right:

Then of course, Thomas Pabst, the founder and namesake of Tom's Hardware, said that Steve was A LOT nicer about it than he would be. Clearly, such an abomination would never have been accepted by the original Tom's Hardware:

The fact that not only was it accepted but that the editor-in-chief himself wrote it... I don't have to say more because you're a professional and you know the consequences of such a thing.

Try not to take it personally when someone questions you because I'm sure that it's more about the trust of the publication itself more than you as an author. After all, IIRC, the architect of that mess, Avram Piltch, is still the boss there to this day and his credibility was irrevocably shot to hell with that article. I personally have no issue with your reviews and I don't have any fear of taking serious shots when I do. I've engaged both Steve Burke and Steve Walton in debate without hesitation when I saw bias in something that they did but the worst that either of them has ever done combined doesn't even touch how bad Avram's "article" was.

Remember the adage, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!". Trust is one of those things that takes a lot of time and effort to earn but once broken, can never truly be repaired. I would say that it's never about you personally, it's about the who you take your orders from. I trust your reviews as much as I trust those of Steve Burke, Steve Walton and Gilbert Hagedoorn. You're one of the good ones, no doubt but people know that even the best ones can be compromised by those that they report to. There's no stronger motivator than being able to afford food and a home and if the boss "edits" your article... Well, you've seen what that can do.

 

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I have no problem with honest reviews like yours, I actually applaud them. I only have problems with reviews that aren't objective and unbiased regardless of what is being reviewed or when the goalposts get moved for one brand and not the other. I personally don't think that AMD's actions in this case are honest at all. I think that they're just trying to get people to expect less from their level-8 cards by offering a good deal that will cause enough people to get these cards and help to shift the paradigm.

You have to remember though, even if not you specifically, Tom's Hardware has been quite guilty of shilling for nVidia in the past. I'm sure that a lot of people (you included for sure) remember a certain sorry excuse for tech journalism from Avram Piltch from back in 2018:

Just Buy It: Why Nvidia RTX GPUs Are Worth the Money​

The fact that an article so flawed and so biased saw the light of day (and I'm sure that this isn't the only one), means that you have to be willing to accept that people will never trust TH 100% ever again and will question everything. This is the fruit that grows from the seed sown by articles like that. This is the result of having people who don't take journalistic integrity seriously. It sucks and I don't implicate you in this because you didn't write that turd of an article but it unfortunately casts a negative light on the entire website.

Steve Burke clearly had concerns about your boss' lack of journalistic integrity and, objectively, he's right:

Try not to take it personally when someone questions you because I'm sure that it's more about the trust of the publication itself more than you as an author. After all, IIRC, the architect of that mess, Avram Piltch, is still the boss there to this day and his credibility was irrevocably shot to hell with that article.

Remember the adage, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!". Trust is one of those things that takes a lot of time and effort to earn but once broken, can never truly be repaired. I would say that it's never about you personally, it's about the who you take your orders from.

I don't really understand why this article is so bad other than the fact that the article is telling people to buy vastly overpriced 20 series gpus when (especially at the time) RTX isn't really viable enough to get most people to care. would you please explain why the article is so bad? edit: I think the reason why some reviews give the 7800 xt a high score is because it looks downright reasonably priced compared to the overpriced crap Nvidia is selling.