Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti vs AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX: GPU comparison in 2023

While the RTX 4070 Ti is Nvidia's latest GPU launch, Team Red launched the RX 7900 XTX and the 7900 XT as the company's flagship options in the RDNA 3 lineup. Interestingly, both of these graphics cards are premium options that compete for the performance crown.

Although Nvidia boasts several high-end cards currently available in the market, the 70-class GPU is the only offering under $1,000. Thus, the main question that comes up is how these two graphics cards compare against each other.

This article will analyze the pros and cons of the RTX 4070 Ti and the 7900 XTX, and determine which one is better than the other.

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The RTX 4070 Ti is powerful, but the AMD RX 7900 XTX is a solid competitor

Before analyzing the performance of the Nvidia and AMD GPUs, let's look at their on-paper specs and try to determine which card features better hardware.

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Specs

Although both the RTX 4070 Ti and the RX 7900 XTX are top-tier options, the Team Red card is a flagship offering. As a result, it's the pinnacle of AMD graphics computing until a mid-cycle refresh to the lineup's launches.

The Nvidia card is based on the cut-down AD104 GPU. Under the hood, it packs 7,680 CUDA cores, 240 Texture Mapping Units (TMUs), 80 Render Output Units (ROPs), 240 Tensor cores, and 60 RT cores. It packs 12 GB of 21 Gbps GDDR6X video memory that's based on a 192-bit bus, which accounts for a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s.

In comparison, the RX 7900 XTX is based on the full-size Navi 31 GPU. It's functionally and architecturally very different from the AD104 that's found in the 4070 Ti. The AMD card packs 6,144 CUDA cores, 384 TMUs, 192 ROPs, 96 Compute Units, and 96 RT cores.

Considering that the 7900 XTX arrives with 24 GB of 20 Gbps GDDR6 memory, this translates to a much higher bandwidth of 960 GB/s.

	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Graphics processor	AD104	Navi 31
Shading units	7,680	6,144
TMUs	240	384
ROPs	80	192
Compute Units (CUs)	N/A	96
Tensor cores	240	N/A
RT cores	60	96
Base clock	2310 MHz	1855 MHz
Boost clock	2610 MHz	2499 MHz
TDP	285 W	355 W
Launch MSRP	$799	$999

It's worth noting that a conclusive side-by-side specs comparison of the RTX 4070 Ti and the RX 7900 XTX cannot be made since the GPUs are based on vastly different architectures.

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Performance differences

Since the RTX 4070 Ti is a mid-range offering and the RX 7900 XTX belongs to the highest tier of AMD cards, it's no wonder that the latter pulls ahead of the Nvidia card in virtually every workload.

According to TechPowerUp's GPU computing power aggregates, the 7900 XTX is about 23% faster than the RTX 4070 Ti across a wide range of video games, synthetic, and production workloads.

Based on benchmarks conducted by YouTuber Jansn Benchmarks, we can see that the difference between these two cards is quite variable. In certain titles, the 7900 XTX is as much as 50% faster than the Nvidia offering, while in others, it admits defeat by about 9%.

This difference is primarily created by drivers and how well the developers have optimized the title to utilize the underlying architecture of the GPUs.

	Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti	AMD RX 7900 XTX
The Witcher 3 next-gen (RT on)	48	51 (+6.8%)
The Witcher 3 next-gen (RT off)	129	159 (+23%)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2	151	238 (+57.6%)
Red Dead Redemption 2	78	105 (+34.6%)
Far Cry 6	106	121 (+14.1%)
Hitman 3	103	94 (-8.7%)
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	120	142 (+18.3%)
Horizon Zero Dawn	166	210 (+26.5%)
Doom Eternal	278	262 (-5.7%)
Forza Horizon 5	111	120 (+8.1%)

Another noteworthy trend is how the RX 7900 XTX falls behind in terms of ray tracing performance. In almost every title featuring heavy RT implementation, the flagship AMD GPU is only slightly faster than the mid-range Nvidia offering, with Team Green retaining its title as the undisputed champion of ray tracing implementation.

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Conclusion

In essence, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is a solid card for high-end gaming, but suffers from a few fundamental problems, such as poor ray tracing implementation. Conversely, Nvidia GPUs have gained a foothold in vital areas like upscaling technology, driver stability, and ray tracing performance.

As a result, the RTX 4070 Ti is likely to surprise gamers with its computing power. Additionally, it's $200 cheaper than the AMD flagship, which makes it far more lucrative for gamers who are on a budget.

Neverless, with superior performance in multiple areas, the 7900 XTX is the faster GPU. Thus, those looking for pure power should opt for the AMD flagship without hesitation.