So... who has a 7900XT?

[IEC]

Yeah it's me, the guy who "downloaded memory" to make my Sapphire RX 480 4GB cards into 8GB cards back in the golden age of budget GPUs for everyone. I miss those days

(sad, physically missing memory modules means no "download" possible)

While downloading memory doesn't look to be possible on the 7900 XT, at least I can try some OCing. Let's see how close I can get to its big brother when my card arrives

 

[Shmee]

Yeah it's me, the guy who "downloaded memory" to make my Sapphire RX 480 4GB cards into 8GB cards back in the golden age of budget GPUs for everyone. I miss those days

(sad, physically missing memory modules means no "download" possible)

While downloading memory doesn't look to be possible on the 7900 XT, at least I can try some OCing. Let's see how close I can get to its big brother when my card arrives

Congrats on the new card. Is that an XFX reference? Can you tell if the last MCD is present or if it is physically missing? Would be interesting/awesome if that could be unlocked.

I never unlocked the 4GB RX 480 cards, but I have unlocked shaders on 2 HD 6950s, as well as on an R9 290. The 290 wasn't stable as a 290X though :/

 

[IEC]

Bone stock, "Default" settings, out of the box (Guru3D got 22360 using a 5950X):


Auto-undervolt:


Manual 90% voltage, more aggressive fan curve starting at 50%, PL +15%:


Manual 90% voltage, more aggressive fan curve starting at 50%, PL +15%, memory to 2750MHz:


Sanity check with 90% max frequency, 100% voltage, default power limit, memory 2800MHz, sane fan curve tuned for acceptable noise:


Some preliminary findings:
Timespy seems relatively memory insensitive despite some games reportedly scaling well with memory clocks
There appears to be a CPU bottleneck even with a 7700X
Scaling with OC isn't working consistently like I expect it to.
High idle power usage with high-refresh rate multi-monitor configs appears to be caused by increased clocks at idle - I experienced this with 240Hz 1440p primary monitor on DP and any setting at or above 120Hz on my secondary monitor via HDMI. I will need to do additional testing. A quick search online seems to indicate some users found workarounds using CRU and changing blanking times for their monitors.
Idle draw in the problem configurations exceeded 95W. Changing secondary monitor to 60Hz resolved high idle draw returning to ~35-53W idle (depending on video playback, browser usage). For reference, my 6800XT did 41W. I'm okay with this workaround for now as the secondary monitor is not used for gaming.

I'm going to try tuning for noise, use 90% max frequency, 90% power limit and just game to see how it goes.

 

[Khanan]

It has more than enough bandwidth for 1440p, but not for 4K, it actually loses more performance to 4K than the XTX does, what I observed in benchmarks. So the memory OC should help more in TimeSpy Extreme but not the normal one.

 

[IEC]

90% max frequency, 90% power limit, fan curve tuned for quietness:

 

[biostud]

*crickets*

 

[Kaluan]

*crickets*

Wacha mean? There's replies as new as 2 hours before yours 😅

 

[biostud]

Wacha mean? There's replies as new as 2 hours before yours 😅

The authors own post you mean?

 

[IEC]

More feedback after a few days of using the card.

The bad:
Folding @ Home runs between 2750-2800MHz at stock settings requiring 960-970mV and uses 310-320W. These cards are power limit constrained and quickly become inefficient if you push beyond these clocks by increasing the power limit.

Setting the power limit slider to -10% changed nothing on 23.1.1 drivers. Negative offsets don't seem to work. Driver issue?

The good:
On the other hand capping the max frequency to 90% leads to clocks between 2440-2500MHz with 870-880mV and <250W power usage. Nice.

The ugly:
The price. 7900XT makes no sense if you have to pay $900(+). A top end 6950XT on sale is $699 right now with 2 free games and with OC can get pretty close in performance to stock 7900XT (granted, at 400W+ power usage with high transient spikes).

In fact, I'd wager AMD priced these that high intentionally to help clear the channel of 6000 series stock without killing prices. Since current market sale prices on 6000 series cards make them the go-to pick in most price brackets.

Verdict:
Wait for the inevitable price drop. If you must get a 7900 series card, get the XTX when retail/scalper premium disappears. Or wait for the refreshed 7950 XTX 3GHz edition I'd wager will show up within a year.

 

[Khanan]

Should be a driver bug, but it's better than at the beginning, FPS targets should work now, and decrease consumption if more isn't needed due to the limit.

Well at least 7900 XT has way better RT performance, a 6950XT can't have that.

In fact, I'd wager AMD priced these that high intentionally to help clear the channel of 6000 series stock without killing prices. Since current market sale prices on 6000 series cards make them the go-to pick in most price brackets.

There's also simply no competition. Why price it at 700 when there's no competition? Same what Nvidia is doing. Max pricing due to low competition at various price points. Capitalism 101.

Wait for the inevitable price drop.

Don't bet on it, could never come. Nvidia isn't pressing AMD, to the contrary, they priced a slightly slower card right beneath the 7900 XT - essentially no competition. Price decreases only come if someone forces you to.

Or wait for the refreshed 7950 XTX 3GHz edition I'd wager will show up within a year.

Could come late as well, 6950 XT etc. came pretty late. It depends strongly on Nvidia again. If Nvidia pushes Ti models early, AMD will push x50 models earlier too. Otherwise it will come late again.