RTX 4070 vs RX 7900 GRE faceoff: Which mainstream graphics card is better?

[Admin]

We look at the RTX 4070 and RX 7900 GRE for this GPU faceoff, comparing the newly discounted Nvidia card against AMD's formerly-for-China Golden Rabbit. It's a showdown between two cards that cost right around $550.

RTX 4070 vs RX 7900 GRE faceoff: Which mainstream graphics card is better? : Read more

 

[passivecool]

Unfortunate. But data is data.

 

[Amdlova]

Nvidia is clear winner...
These chiplets design will need more data chip degradation, interconnects, solder, pcb and other things. Only downside off nvidia right now it's the melting connector.

 

[Giroro]

It still feels gross to hear $500-$600 GPUs called "mainstream/midrange"

 

[kyzarvs]

It still feels gross to hear $500-$600 GPUs called "mainstream/midrange"

Exactly - I find it odd that nvidia's pricing encourages people to move to AMD via a console. Buy a whole GPU, or spend less and buy a whole console..? I'm not sure that when my 1080ti eventually dies I'll bother with PC gaming into the future - something cheap for my older games maybe, but nothing upper-end again

 

[MoxNix]

The clear winner for gaming is 7900 GRE. NVidia only wins for ray/path tracing slideshows.

 

[g-unit1111]

OK this was the definitive benchmark I've been looking for. 4070 Super it is!

 

[danielcoles1989]

What is that first chart? Its just a blur of greyish blue. Least clear chart I've ever seen in my life.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

What is that first chart? Its just a blur of greyish blue. Least clear chart I've ever seen in my life.

Are you viewing it on a phone? I went with neutral colors that aren't particularly offensive (as red and green would be), and they could be changed, but determining what is "best" is often a war of opinions. If you're not on a PC, or at least something with a higher resolution display, you'll probably get lower quality versions of the charts that are harder to read. I blame our CMS overlords. Here's the originals (not sure what the forum will do to these, though):

 

[ingtar33]

so lets get this straight. the GRE wins in every gaming benchmark by 10-20% and you give the win to the 4070 on "features"?

grotesque as always THG, never change. almost as if you forgot your readers are buying these cards for gaming, not for AI applications.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

I went with neutral colors that aren't particularly offensive (as red and green would be), and they could be changed, but determining what is "best" is often a war of opinions.

Uh, no, they're "team colors", red for Radeon, green for Geforce, how is that "offensive"? What's actually offensive are the prices both sides are charging because they collude to keep prices high instead of compete to keep prices low. Darker/lighter blue and grey/black is -horrible- for visual clarity, should be changed to a green bar for nVidia results with a black overlay for minimums, and red bar for AMD with a grey overlay for minimums as they are densely packed, or get rid of the slideshow and go full page results like Techpowerup does on theirs.

 

[LabRat 891]

so lets get this straight. the GRE wins in every gaming benchmark by 10-20% and you give the win to the 4070 on "features"?

grotesque as always THG, never change. almost as if you forgot your readers are buying these cards for gaming, not for AI applications.

Exactly what I was thinking.

The 7900 GRE is a full product tier above the 4070 (no super, no Ti) in rasterization; DXR RT performance is extremely competitive.
The 7900 GRE is only slightly disadvantaged in nV-optimized titles, and a head(+shoulders) above the 4070 in most others.

Atop the raw performance, the 7900 GRE does not use the an hero (12)16-pin power input, and is less money than its nearest competitor, the 4070 Super.

The 'top tier' AIB partner 7900 GREs are $559-600, and even the $549 MSRP models perform like a 3090(Ti) (in rasterization) out of box.

-And 3070Ti-3080-like RT performance:

IMHO, No "gamer" *actually* cares about 'efficiency'. It's become a nonsensical marketing 'wank'; a false virtue.

If people do/did *actually* care, they'd be buying the 'fattest' silicon, and undervolting+underclocking.
(Which, most-all F@Hers do w/ their cards)

I have hands-on experience w/ both Vega 10 and Navi 31; underclocked, they 'sip' power.
Ex: Underclocking the 7900 GRE (no undervolt) can make it a ~100W or less (under load) GPU, while still outputting 45-60+ FPS @ 1080p (UE4 MechWarrior 5 was the one test I did)

 

[tamalero]

Nvidia is clear winner...
These chiplets design will need more data chip degradation, interconnects, solder, pcb and other things. Only downside off nvidia right now it's the melting connector.

Anyone can translate this comment?

 

[LabRat 891]

Anyone can translate this comment?

I think he's saying that
the MCM-design AMD's gone with, is more 'complex and costly', with inherent latency penalties.
-and, that nVidia is 'more advanced' but made 'unattractive' by their high-failure rate+low-insertion life Power Input.

Basically:
nVidia's offering is 'superior' but in-built obsolescence makes them an unattractive option.


I'd agree that nV's insistence on that stupid power connector, is a big rub.
However, I do 'believe in' MCM designs. Mixed source mixed lithography can open options, and 'help' yields, and overall lower costs.
The innovations AMD's made with InfinityCache and InfinityFabric impress me.

 

[Makaveli]

I think he's saying that
the MCM-design AMD's gone with, is more 'complex and costly', with inherent latency penalties.
-and, that nVidia is 'more advanced' but made 'unattractive' by their high-failure rate+low-insertion life Power Input.

Basically:
nVidia's offering is 'superior' but in-built obsolescence makes them an unattractive option.


I'd agree that nV's insistence on that stupid power connector, is a big rub.
However, I do 'believe in' MCM designs. Mixed source mixed lithography can open options, and 'help' yields, and overall lower costs.
The innovations AMD's made with InfinityCache and InfinityFabric impress me.

I think the MCM design for AMD will really start to shine by RDNA 5

 

[thestryker]

This is one comparison where I'd love to see the performance with overclocked VRAM (since AMD fixed it). The 7900 GRE seems to benefit more from overclocking VRAM than any other card this generation likely due to the lower bandwidth when compared to its Navi 31 peers.

 

[redgarl]

WTH Tom... just WTH...

Recommending a 4070 (NON SUPER) over a 7900 GRE...

HELL, the GRE is even faster than the 4070 SUPER in raster...

(SLOW CLAPPING)

 

[redgarl]

This is one comparison where I'd love to see the performance with overclocked VRAM (since AMD fixed it). The 7900 GRE seems to benefit more from overclocking VRAM than any other card this generation likely due to the lower bandwidth when compared to its Navi 31 peers.

The GRE is faster than a 4070 SUPER in raster. All you need to know...

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Uh, no, they're "team colors", red for Radeon, green for Geforce, how is that "offensive"? What's actually offensive are the prices both sides are charging because they collude to keep prices high instead of compete to keep prices low. Darker/lighter blue and grey/black is -horrible- for visual clarity, should be changed to a green bar for nVidia results with a black overlay for minimums, and red bar for AMD with a grey overlay for minimums as they are densely packed, or get rid of the slideshow and go full page results like Techpowerup does on theirs.

"Offensive" as in "looks terrible because having every other line in red/green is awful." It looks garish, and while people do decorate in those colors for Christmas, it doesn't work for charts. Also: color blind people. This is the same reason why our regular GPU charts are in blue/red/grey (Nvidia/AMD/Intel). I do highlight the review card in green, but that's one bar, and there's no highlight card in a head to head comparison.

But go ahead, show me an altered image with the same data and lines with clearly better colors. One that doesn't hurt the eyes just to look at, but contains 22 sets of paired data. 🤷‍♂️

 

[Thunder64]

WTH Tom... just WTH...

Recommending a 4070 (NON SUPER) over a 7900 GRE...

HELL, the GRE is even faster than the 4070 SUPER in raster...

(SLOW CLAPPING)

Sounds about right for Tom's.

Nvidia GPUs tend to do better with less VRAM than their AMD counterparts, often to the point were a 10GB Nvidia card feels like a 12GB AMD card.

LOL! How can anyone say that with a straight face unless they are biased? I know the argument is that Nvidia may handle memory compression better but lets be real, 3060 12GB beating higer end Nvidia cards with less VRAM is happening.

 

[Udyr]

But go ahead, show me an altered image with the same data and lines with clearly better colors. One that doesn't hurt the eyes just to look at, but contains 22 sets of paired data. 🤷‍♂️

Was this necessary? Even if it wasn't the best way to do it, the person was providing feedback about the chart visuals in other screens, and even suggested an alternative if you, as the professional, couldn't find an appropriate color pallet.

Maybe try a darker background color with lighter bars instead?

 

[35below0]

I thought offensive had to do with color blindness.

But why test the 4070 anyway? Isn't 4070 a dead GPU since the 4070 Super came out?

The GRE is faster than a 4070 SUPER in raster. All you need to know...

so lets get this straight. the GRE wins in every gaming benchmark by 10-20% and you give the win to the 4070 on "features"?

grotesque as always THG, never change. almost as if you forgot your readers are buying these cards for gaming, not for AI applications.

Not so fast. The result was a tie on both performance and price. The features where nvidia got the nod may be unimportant or not, but AMD cannot match them so accept it. Finally, nvidia won on power consumption as well.

So it's not all you need to know. There are important details.
I will conceed that the 4070 got a spanking in most games, fps wise. So probably performance should not be a tie.


Between them, i'd pick the GRE, or move up to Super or Ti.

 

[CelicaGT]

Sounds about right for Tom's.



LOL! How can anyone say that with a straight face unless they are biased? I know the argument is that Nvidia may handle memory compression better but lets be real, 3060 12GB beating higer end Nvidia cards with less VRAM is happening.

The 3060 is aging very well with its fat stash of VRAM. It's a little funny now, considering the derision aimed at the card when it launched....and I don't mean the price.

 

[CelicaGT]

Calling in the software features is a lame duck argument. I've only found one game where Frame Gen doesn't make the game feel excessively laggy, or introduce UI or other artifacts during some sequences, It can introduce some ugly judder in fast pans as well. Like AMD's offerings it is faaaar from a polished feature. As for DLSS, like FSR it is only as good as the specific implementation. In some games I use it for AA as it's just so damned good. In others, it's a broken quivering mess of smudged shadows and bleeding UI. I've also found a small number of games where FSR is the better choice both in visual fidelity and performance. If Tom's insists on using these kinds of features as part of the overall score then I insist they be tested on a game by game basis for both visual fidelity and performance, just like the hardware. It's the only fair way to do it. If this is too much work, leave it out please.

 

[thestryker]

But why test the 4070 anyway? Isn't 4070 a dead GPU since the 4070 Super came out?

The 4070 was the one they kept in the stack and just lowered the price on. It was the 4070 Ti and 4080 which were discontinued.