AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT

[Chrispy_]

It's a stable and consistent load. A scene in a game varies frame by frame, causing tiny inconsistencies. That's where your card's stability comes through.

Most of the GPU instabilities I've seen in the last decade or so have been crashes caused by sudden clock and voltage changes. I guess where a GPU is stable at higher clocks and loads, something about the silicon degradation or VRM degradation over time seems to hate the sudden ramps from low load to high load and vice-versa. In other words, a failing GPU can be 100% stable for an hour of Furmark/OCCT/Superposition but will crash in real games, or 3DMark where the scene gets unloaded and reloaded and the GPU cycles from idle to full regularly.

So, Furmark is useless for years now.

Nah, not useless. It's a very quick and successful way to test if the GPU's cooler can handle full TDP. Variants like OCCT or Kombustor also integrate output checking so you can quickly tell if there is faulty VRAM or if the GPU is spitting out errors because it's fallen the wrong side of the stable clock/voltage curve.

For real-world stability, it's not very useful any more, but as a rapid diagnostic to check for cooler/paste issues and faulty silicon it's still an excellent litmus test.

 

[Splinterdog]

I'm considering upgrading my trusty Asus ROG Strix RX 5700 XT which performs brilliantly. However, I wanted to go RTX but the prices on anything 4070 and above are crazy down here.
In my price range are Asrock Phantom RX 6800 XT 16GB (3x8 pin power) and I can only find Gigabyte RX 7800 XTs. I notice that the 6800 has significantly more cores than the 7800, but I'm not sure why?
The upgrade would be quite significant in terms of performance, especially with RT and being a much newer card, but I am constrained by price.
Most places recommend the 7800 between the two, being newer tech, so what's the general consensus?

 

[Chrispy_]

I'm considering upgrading my trusty Asus ROG Strix RX 5700 XT which performs brilliantly. However, I wanted to go RTX but the prices on anything 4070 and above are crazy down here.
In my price range are Asrock Phantom RX 6800 XT 16GB (3x8 pin power) and I can only find Gigabyte RX 7800 XTs. I notice that the 6800 has significantly more cores than the 7800, but I'm not sure why?
The upgrade would be quite significant in terms of performance, especially with RT and being a much newer card, but I am constrained by price.
Most places recommend the 7800 between the two, being newer tech, so what's the general consensus?

I switched from a 6800XT to a 7800XT and wouldn't go back.

It was a bit of a sidegrade but I wanted Starfield and I sold the 6800XT for basically what I paid for the 7800XT, so got the game for free.

I think there are a few "worst case" situations where the 6800XT is slightly faster than the 7800XT, but those are rare. Typically the 7800XT is faster because it clocks higher and has more memory bandwidth, all whilst drawing significantly less power. Even undervolted, 2.25GHz needed all 300W on the 6800XT - it's on an old 7nm process node so it's hot and hungry. The 7800XT on 5nm is a lot less hungry and I'm able to get 2500-2700MHz out of it (depending on the game) at a -10% power limit, so it's using only 240W at most to outperform the 6800XT.

If I had to guess, I'd say that the most likely cause for the 6800XT being underwhelming for its number of cores is because it was power limited, and to a lesser extent possibly bandwidth-starved. It was barely any slower than the 6900XT which was also stuck at 300W with the same memory bandwidth, and the 6950 raised the power limit by 35W while adding faster VRAM which explains why it was such a significant step up from the 6900XT despite having the exact same core configuration.

 

[AusWolf]

I'm considering upgrading my trusty Asus ROG Strix RX 5700 XT which performs brilliantly. However, I wanted to go RTX but the prices on anything 4070 and above are crazy down here.
In my price range are Asrock Phantom RX 6800 XT 16GB (3x8 pin power) and I can only find Gigabyte RX 7800 XTs. I notice that the 6800 has significantly more cores than the 7800, but I'm not sure why?
The upgrade would be quite significant in terms of performance, especially with RT and being a much newer card, but I am constrained by price.
Most places recommend the 7800 between the two, being newer tech, so what's the general consensus?

How does the 6800 have more cores? The last time I checked, both the 6800 XT and 7800 XT had 3840.

To answer the question, yes, the 7800 is newer tech, it's better with max power, but because of the chiplets, it's worse on video playback and idle power with a high refresh / multi monitor setup. Unless that bothers you, I'd go for the 7800.

In some games, they're sort of equal because of the same number of cores, but in some others, the 7800 can pull ahead because of the newer architecture.

 

[Chrispy_]

How does the 6800 have more cores? The last time I checked, both the 6800 XT and 7800 XT had 3840.

6800 and 7800XT both had 3840 cores, but the 6800XT had waaaay more:

Presumably @Splinterdog is talking exclusively about the 6800XT here since the vanilla 6800 was rare over here, being always out of stock and likely limited volume because it needed faulty Navi21 dies to appear which wasn't really a thing with very late-game TSMC N7. That process node was old as shit by the end of 2020 and running as smooth as silk with godlike yields.

 

[AusWolf]

6800 and 7800XT both had 3840 cores, but the 6800XT had waaaay more:

View attachment 390767

Presumably @Splinterdog is talking exclusively about the 6800XT here since the vanilla 6800 was rare over here, being always out of stock and likely limited volume because it needed faulty Navi21 dies to appear which wasn't really a thing with very late-game TSMC N7. That process node was old as shit by the end of 2020 and running as smooth as silk with godlike yields.

Ah I see. I most have confused the XT and non-XT

 

[Chrispy_]

Ah I see. I most have confused the XT and non-XT

Probably because of this sentence. Bold emphasis mine, it was omitted, I think.

In my price range are Asrock Phantom RX 6800 XT 16GB (3x8 pin power) and I can only find Gigabyte RX 7800 XTs. I notice that the 6800 [XT?] has significantly more cores than the 7800, but I'm not sure why?

 

[HD64G]

Easy choice: the best vfm for the last 2 years in GPU market. 7800XT that is!

 

[Splinterdog]

Easy choice: the best vfm for the last 2 years in GPU market. 7800XT that is!

Good advice, so I'll be going for the RX 7800 XT of which I can only source the Gigabyte version which has had good reviews anyway. It should be a decent leap from my trusty 5700 XT.
Please don't ask me the price, but at least here in Argentina I can spread the payments over nine months. I would have bought in the UK, but I'm not planning to return for at least a year!

 

[HD64G]

Good advice, so I'll be going for the RX 7800 XT of which I can only source the Gigabyte version which has had good reviews anyway. It should be a decent leap from my trusty 5700 XT.
Please don't ask me the price, but at least here in Argentina I can spread the payments over nine months. I would have bought in the UK, but I'm not planning to return for at least a year!
View attachment 391487

Getting more than 2X FPS than your 5700XT will be a great experience. Have fun!

 

[blinnbanir]

Prepare to do way more Gaming