Nvidia RTX 4090 vs AMD RX 7900 XTX: Which is best flagship GPU in 2023?

Nvidia RTX 4090 and AMD RX 7900 XTX are flagship GPUs from Team Green and Team Red, respectively, designed to handle 4K gaming and perform exceptionally. There are, however, marked differences in their price points and the extent to which you can push each card.

If you are in the market for a flagship graphics card, you will likely consider many factors before deciding which product to pick.

The RTX 4090 is the better GPU in terms of performance, but it also costs $600 more. This article summarizes the differences between the two, so you can decide which is a better choice in 2023.

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How does Nvidia's flagship RTX 4090 GPU compare against AMD RX 7900 XTX?

At the outset, the RTX 4090 outperforms the RX 7900 XTX on all fronts. Anything that the RX 7900 XTX can do, the 4090 can do better.

Before we go in-depth with their capabilities, let's look at their individual specifications.

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Specs

A side-by-side is not entirely fair, as AMD introduced the 7900 XTX to compete with the RTX 4080. Thus, the RTX 4090 is naturally superior to AMD's flagship graphics card.

Here are the detailed specs of both GPUs.

	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Year	2022	2022
Architecture	Ada Lovelace	RDNA 3
Process	4nm	5nm, 6nm
Transistors	76.3 billion	57.7 billion
Compute Units	512	96
Ray Accelerators	128	96
Stream Processors	16384	6144
Base Clock Speed	2235 MHz	2300 MHz
Boost Clock Speed	22520 MHz	2500 MHz
Memory Capacity	24 GB GDDR6	24 GB GDDR6
Memory Bus	384-bit	384-bit
AMD Infinity Cache	-	96 MB
Memory Bandwidth	1,008 GB/s	960 GB/s (3,500 GB/s w/ InfinityCache)
Power Draw	450W	355W
Price	$1,599	$999

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Pricing

The RTX 4090 was launched at a whopping $1599, making it more expensive than an entire PC build a couple of years ago. Although it outperforms everything that has preceded it, the question is whether a $1600 GPU is required in the current market.

The 7900 XTX costs $999 and performs excellently, making it a value-for-money proposition. If you are constrained by a budget of less than $1000, the comparison between the two ends here, and AMD is the way to go for you to get the best performance within your budget.

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Architecture and performance

Both GPUs have launched their respective makers' latest architecture. The 7900 XTX brought the latest RDNA 3, while the RTX 4090 introduced the Ada Lovelace. AMD uses larger 5 and 6nm manufacturing processes, while Nvidia has adopted the 4nm process.

7900 XTX's RDNA 3 has more potential and can compete with the Ava Lovelace in the future, but for now, it is no match for the RTX 4090.

In terms of performance, the RTX 4090 is the only GPU that can handle 8K gaming comfortably, which means it reigns supreme over every other graphics card in the market. However, with most gamers owning non-4K screens, this level of performance currently doesn't yield much value.

A side-by-side comparison of the graphics cards' FPS numbers for different games doesn't make sense here, as the RTX 4090 naturally wins on all fronts.

What is important to note is that the 7900 XTX can deliver over 60 FPS on average when running games like Cyberpunk 2077, DOOM Eternal, and Far Cry 6 in 4K Ultra settings. It can also handle ray tracing well for the most part. This is why it is in consideration against the RTX 4090 in the current market.

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Conclusion

The Nvidia RTX 4090 undoubtedly outperforms the AMD RX 7900 XTX in almost all aspects. So if you are okay with paying more than 1000 dollars for a GPU alone, the RTX 4090 will give you the best gaming experience possible presently and have you covered for a long time.

However, for those with tighter budget constraints, the AMD RX 7900 XTX is the way to go. It delivers in most aspects to give you a satisfactory gaming experience. With AMD's history of providing excellent post-sale support, the RDNA 3-based card will likely improve with future driver enhancements.