Radeon 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super: Which is better for 1440p gaming?

Picture of Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon GPU with ARGB lightbar
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon GPU with ARGB lightbar (Image via Sapphire)

A new Radeon 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super debate has arisen in the gaming community over the last few weeks. This comes after the release of the Radeon 7900 GRE in the global market. The RTX 4070 Super is currently available for $589. However, the Radeon 7900 GRE costs $539, making it $50 cheaper than its RTX counterpart. On top of that, it has more VRAM to offer.

This article takes a deep dive into the Radeon 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super battle to determine which one is better for 1440p gaming.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinions.


Radeon 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super: Which is better for 1440p gaming?

With the launch of the RTX 4070 Super, Nvidia generated a lot of buzz in the gaming industry and gained an upper hand in the benchmarks. The product was better than the Radeon 7800 XT, but its performance was inferior to the Radeon 7900 XT.

AMD didn't have anything to counter the RTX 4070 Super, so they launched the Radeon 7900 GRE, which was previously exclusive to China. With the new graphics card, the company believes it can better compete with the RTX 4070 Super.

Can it beat the RTX 4070 Super and help you save $50? Let's find out by comparing the specs first.


Specs comparison

MSI RTX 4070 Super Ventus 2X GPU (Image via iVadim/YouTube)
MSI RTX 4070 Super Ventus 2X GPU (Image via iVadim/YouTube)

The Nvidia 4070 Super is based on the Ada Lovelace generation, which brought a significant increase in performance per watt. The generation’s power consumption decreased a lot while its performance increased. Moreover, it brought new technologies like frame generation, which doubles the frame rate by inserting previously rendered frames in the mix.

On the other hand, the Radeon 7900 GRE is based on RDNA 3, which provides a good price-to-performance ratio. It also has a similar frame generation technology to that of Nvidia’s.

Here are the Radeon 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super specs:

RTX 4070 SuperRadeon 7900 GRE
Shading units71685120
RT cores5680
Base clock1980 MHz1287
Boost clock2475 MHz2245
VRAM size12 GB16GB
VRAM bus width192 bit256 bit
Manufacturing process node5nm5nm, 6nm
Power draw220W260W
Price$599$549

Based on these specs, the Radeon 7900 GRE appears to have fewer shading cores but more raytracing cores. This indicates that it has lower rasterized performance and higher ray tracing performance than the RTX 4070 Super. However, you will soon find out that it's the complete opposite. That's why experts often ask you to not just focus on specs.

Having said that, there is one spec difference that is not a gimmick, and that's the VRAM. The Radeon 7900 GRE has 16GB VRAM, while the RTX 4070 Super only has 12GB VRAM. This is a big difference, especially in the 1440P department, where some games exceed 14GB.

Let's now take a look at the Radeon 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super performance in video games.


Performance comparison

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Here's the Radeon 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super performance comparison at 1440P:

Radeon 7900 GRERTX 4070 Super
Alan Wake 2
67 (+12%)
60
Starfield
75 (+9%)
69
Cyberpunk 2077102 (+16%)88
Baldur's Gate 3115 (-3%)118
Resident Evil 4 Remake158 (+6%)149
Rachet and Clank122 (-7%)130

As you can see, the Radeon 7900 GRE beats the RTX 4070 Super by 5% - 6% in multiple games. However, these are just rasterized performance differences. In ray tracing, it's a different story altogether.

Here's the Radeon 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super comparison when it comes to performance at 1440P ray tracing:

Radeon 7900 GRERTX 4070 Super
Alan Wake 2 (RT)2444 (+83%)
Cyberpunk 2077 (RT)2951 (+76%)
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (RT)5763 (+11%)
Rachet and Clank (RT)6965 (-6%)

As you can see, the results are completely different in ray tracing. There's a massive performance difference between the two GPUs, and the RTX 4070 Super wins by a huge margin.

However, the RTX 4070 Super can't get 60 FPS in two of four RT games. Would you want to play sub-60 FPS after paying around $600? When this is considered, the ray tracing performance doesn't matter as much as you think, especially in this price range.

Also, did you notice that the 4070 Super loses at RT performance in Ratchet and Clank? This is due to VRAM spillover. The game consumed 14GB VRAM in the Radeon 7900 GRE, but since the RTX 4070 Super only has 12GB VRAM, there was some performance degradation.


Verdict

We have finally come to the verdict for the Radeon 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super battle.

The Radeon 7900 GRE wins in rasterized performance, while the RTX 4070 Super wins in ray tracing. However, when it comes to 1440P gaming, VRAM is more important, which makes the Radeon 7900 GRE a value-for-money card.


Check out our other GPU comparisons:

Intel Arc A750 vs RTX 4060 || Nvidia RTX 4080 Super vs RTX 4080 || AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT vs RTX 3070

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Edited by Rachel Syiemlieh
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