That's rough. Honestly, while everybody talks about RDNA 4's absence from the high-end, it's RT performance, yada yada, I just want this to be solved. I don't want to see 50 W being wasted on a 7800 XT class GPU playing a damn video file.
If I could have a single feature to have AMD focus on it would be finding how to run VRAM at 1/2 speed or less for low-demand workloads. That's it, my PC version of the single-issue voter.
When I see my 7700 XT or 6700 XT or (more rarely) 6600 XT, and even 6400 ramp up the VRAM to full speed just to play a video clip or play a simple 2D game or do something other than idling at the desktop, this tells me there is a longstanding problem with VRAM speed management that needs to be fixed. I only run 1 monitor but I understand from you all here that high multimonitor power usage is this same problem. Fix this and the high power usage for low-end tasks will be fixed. I know because that's what the other guy's video cards do happen to manage properly.
My 6600 XT is the best at this and in fact is a
real standout among my current AMD stuff and my complaint about my 7700 XT is not at the top end. It's a
great GPU when using 200W but it really doesn't like to power down as well as I'd like when under lower demand usage.