Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti vs AMD RX 7900 XTX: Which is best in 2024?

The Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti and AMD RX 7900 XTX are the flagship GPUs of their generation. Nvidia graphics cards are often considered the best, but AMD has come a long way now, with the Radeon 7900 XTX being the company's most powerful GPU as of writing this article. Can it beat the RTX 3090 Ti? The AMD card certainly has the specs for it, but that alone isn't sufficient information.

That being said, this article provides an in-depth comparison of the two video cards to see which is the best in 2024.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the writer's opinions.

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Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti vs AMD RX 7900 XTX

The Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti is the flagship card from the RTX 3000 series and is based on the Ampere architecture. Similarly, the AMD RX 7900 XTX is the flagship GPU from the Radeon RX 7000 series, which is designed on the RDNA 3 architecture.

The choice between the two was clearer a year ago, but a lot has changed in 2024, and both cards have undergone multiple price cuts. So, we are taking a fresh look at their performance to determine the better graphics card in 2024.

Specs comparison

EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 (Image via EVGA/Amazon)

Before we begin comparing the two GPUs, we should look at their specs first. Here are the full specs of the Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti and AMD RX 7900 XTX:

Specifications	Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti	AMD RX 7900 XTX
Shader cores	10752	6144
RT cores	84	96
TMUs	336	384
ROPs	112	192
Base clock speeds	1560 MHz	1929 MHz
Boost clock speeds	1860 MHz	2498 MHz
VRAM size	24 GB	24 GB
VRAM bus width	384-bit	384-bit
VRAM bandwidth	1.01 TB/s	960 GB/s
Manufacturing process nodes	8nm	5nm, 6nm
Thermal design power (TDP)	450W	355W
Price	$1439	$869.99

The first thing you would notice is the shader core count, which is a lot more in the Nvidia GPU than the AMD one. However, since the two cards are based on two distinct architectures, they are not directly comparable. The rest of the specs are quite similar on each side.

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Performance comparison

Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti vs AMD RX 7900 XTX (Image via Testing Games/YouTube)

Let's compare the Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti and AMD RX 7900 XTX in actual games to see how they perform. We will check out both the rasterization and ray-tracing performance of the two cards.

Note: All the FPS numbers were sourced from the Testing Games channel on YouTube. The two video cards were tested at 4K with High/Ultra settings. The CPU used here is the Intel Core i9-13900K.

Here's how the two GPUs perform in rasterized games:

Games	Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti	AMD RX 7900 XTX
Cyberpunk 2077	52 FPS	66 FPS
The Last of Us: Part 1	51 FPS	57 FPS
Hogwarts Legacy	69 FPS	79 FPS
Hitman 3	115 FPS	161 FPS
Horizon Zero Dawn	91 FPS	102 FPS
Remnant 2	48 FPS	64 FPS
Spider-Man: Miles Morales	90 FPS	95 FPS
Forza Horizon 5	106 FPS	142 FPS
Microsoft Flight Simulator	60 FPS	59 FPS
Red Dead Redemption 2	84 FPS	101 FPS

As you can see, the AMD RX 7900 XTX is faster than the RTX 3090 Ti in almost every game. On average, the Radeon card scored 20.8% more than the Nvidia GPU. The difference between the two cards is bigger in Hitman 3, Remnant 2, and Forza Horizon 5. It is clear just how far AMD has come, but the one thing where AMD loses out to Nvidia is in ray tracing.

Here's how the two GPUs perform in ray-traced games:

Games	Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti	AMD RX 7900 XTX
Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Ultra)	44 FPS	38 FPS
Hogwarts Legacy (RT Ultra)	36 FPS	33 FPS
Spider-Man: Miles Morales (RT Very High)	47 FPS	46 FPS

As we expected, Nvidia is still in the lead when it comes to ray tracing. The RTX 3090 Ti is still 8.5% faster than the AMD RX 7900 XTX. It seems Team Red still has work to do in the ray tracing department.

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Pricing comparison

XFX Speedster MERC310 AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX (Image via XFX/Amazon)

The AMD RX 7900 XTX costs $869.99 currently, which is 39.5% cheaper than the RTX 3090 Ti ($1439). The price puts a whole new perspective on the two cards, especially since the former GPU is much faster in rasterization performance. The Nvidia card takes a single-digit lead in ray tracing only, but it does so at 65.5% more cost, which is not worth it.

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Final verdict of Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti vs AMD RX 7900 XTX

The AMD RX 7900 XTX is the best GPU to buy in 2024. It is 20.8% faster than the Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti while costing 39.5% less. It does lose to the Nvidia card in ray tracing, but neither graphics card produced a smoothly playable 60 framerate, so you shouldn't get hung up on that. The Radeon card is simply the better choice in terms of value and performance.