Introduction
AMD has been on somewhat of a GPU resurgence over the last couple of years, with their Radeon RX 6000 series bringing their largest generational improvements in years on the graphics side. Now, with a new 7000 series of GPUs out, consumers looking to opt for a Team Red GPU have more choices than ever before. But just which card is best, the newer Radeon RX 7900 XTX or last generation’s RX 6950XT powerhouse?
In this GPU comparison battle, we’ll be comparing the Radeon RX 7900 XTS and RX 6950 XT so see which card is really the better overall buy. We’ll be doing so in typical GeekaWhat fashion with a GPU Versus Battle, testing a wide variety of gaming titles, from the latest AAA releases to Esports favourites and the biggest Battle Royale’s out right now.
Suggested Article: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Review
GPU Versus Battle
AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX
| Memory Capacity | 24GB GDDR6X |
| Boost Clock Speed | 2.5GHz |
| Ray Accelerators | 96 |
| Stream Processors | 6144 |
| TBP | 355W |
| Release Date | December 2022 |
| Price | Check Price on Amazon |
There was plenty of speculation surrounding the launch of AMD RDNA3 cards, which includes this RX 7900 XTX. Following a couple of challenging launches, AMD are after a big win with this new lineup – something they absolutely appear to have achieved.
The Radeon 7900 XTX is very powerful card on paper, with a 2.5GHz boost clock speed, more than 6000 stream processors, and 96 ray accelerators. These are all a nice bump over the last gen RX 6950XT, with an additional 8GB of VRAM on this new card.
These specs do come at a price, but with this card clocking in at a $200 lower MSRP than its closest Nvidia rival, and $99 lower than the 6950 XT, it’s value proposition cannot be faulted.
The 7900XTX has offered clear generational improvements, where 4K titles pose no issue to this card, allowing for a stress free gaming experience. Throw in the added bonus of FSR, and hitting higher targets becomes even less of a problem.
The only major caveat with this card is Ray Tracing. This is an area that Nvidia have typically excelled, and have been working on implementing in their cards for longer than AMD. The performance overhead of turning Ray Tracing on with this card is simply a little higher than we’d like, and a problem AMD will hope to fix once FSR 3 hits next year.
AMD Radeon RX 6950XT
| Memory Capacity | 16GB GDDR6 |
| Boost Clock Speed | 2310MHz |
| Ray Accelerators | 80 |
| Stream Processors | 5120 |
| TBP | 335W |
| Release Date | May 2022 |
| Price | Check Price on Amazon |
AMD’s Radeon 6000 launch was the answer to Nvidia’s RTX 3000 series, and provided a big jump from AMDs historical card performance levels. This allowed budget and mid-range cards to compete well with Nvidia for the first time in years. It also allowed higher end cards, like this RX 6950XT, to come close to their Nvidia rivals. On the whole, Nvidia still retained the edge, but the value for money prospect on Radeon 6000 was still pretty strong.
Performance wise, the RX 6950XT sits somewhere in between an RTX 3090 and an RTX 3090Ti. With a hefty 335W TDP, 80 Ray Accelerators and more than 5000 stream processors, it stacks up well on paper and in practice. In certain titles the 6950XT can outperform Nvidia’s previous generation titan, and in others we’ve seem performance drop to the equivalent of a 3080Ti. 4K doesn’t tend to pose much of an issue to this card, but this is entirely dependent on your other components and the game that you’re playing. Ray Tracing remained a weak point with this card, but overall straight rasterisation performance was certainly solid.
Looking at pricing, and the MSRP of the 6950XT is actually priced slightly higher than that of the 7900 XTX, something we’d expect to fall in practice as the card becomes end of life.
This could make the 6950 XX a solid budget bet in retailer sales and promotions as time passes, or a great bet on the used market.
How We Tested the RX 7900 XTX and RX 6950 XT
We’re very fortunate to have a myriad of components through our doors each month from a huge range of manufacturers and brands. Because of this, we’ve had to devise a concrete testing and evaluation method to ensure that all of these components are tested fairly, and performance as expected. We do this to see whether they offer good value at their given price point, which allows our Editorial team to decide whether a product is worth recommending. Our standardised testing procedure involves firing up the latest triple A games and Esports tiles, whilst recording all of our in-game settings.
Once we’re ready to hit record, we fire up MSI’s Afterburner, alongside NVIDIA Frameview to take note of thermals, utilisation, and framerates across two pieces of software. This ensures that our numbers are the same across multiple applications, ruling out any anomalous results. Frameview also provides percentile results, which allow us to provide an average across the board once we’re finished with our benchmarking runs.
Our benchmarking suite consists of great titles, such as Valorant, COD Warzone 2.0, Fortnite, Apex Legends, and more. We always keep up with the latest titles to ensure consumers can find framerates for the newest games available on the market. Both the 7900 XTX and 6950 XT have been tested in a range of these games, alongside productivity benchmarks to get a clearer idea of how they would fare in a workstation system. You can find more information on our evaluation methods and testing procedures in a number of reviews we’ve provided below. You can also find our full benchmarking runs on our component testing YouTube channel – Benched.
| Brand | Review Link |
|---|---|
| AMD (Reference Card) | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Review – Back with a Vengeance |
| MSI | AMD RX 6650 XT Review & Benchmarks – MSI Gaming X Edition! |
| Gigabyte | Gigabyte RX 6600XT Eagle Review & Benchmarks |
RDNA 3 vs RDNA 2
AMD RX 7900 XTX Architecture – RDNA 3
AMD‘s latest entrant on the market are their brand new Radeon 7000 cards. RDNA 3 has been sitting on the ‘back benches’ so to speak for a quite while, but a rather late announcement last year officiated the existence of Radeon 7000, and boy are these cards powerful. The new RDNA 3 architecture brings the first ever chiplet designed GPU, increasing power and efficiency across the board. Consumers also can leverage the brand new AI accelerators, 2nd generation ray-tracing accelerators, combined with a vast increase in compute units. This significant increase in hardware makes these cards ideal for multifaceted systems.
Alongside the hardware improvements, FSR has also seen a big leap in performance, with the technology rivalling NVIDIA’s AI-powered DLSS. AMD haven’t quite managed to provide an answer to Frame Generation as of yet, but we’re expecting to hear further announcements later this year. FSR’s suite of games has seen a huge increase, making it a big competitor to NVIDIA‘s solution. All in all, RDNA 3 has definitely seen massive improvements overall to the hardware and software of AMD’s GPUs, and we’re only expecting it to improve as we see more SKU’s release later in the next year or so.
AMD RDNA 2 Architecture – Radeon 6000
AMD’s Radeon 6000 architecture was initially a promising counter-offer to NVIDIA’s RTX 3000 series of cards. But upon release of the Radeon 6000 GPUs, the initial offering was disappointing to a degree. Although we saw the introduction of AMD’s Infinity Cache, which drastically bandwidth, alongside improvements to Ray-Technology, Smart Access Memory, and clock speeds. Radeon 6000 looked to be strong competition, but it is only now after RTX 3000 is less relevant that the Radeon 6000 series of GPUs is a better choice. AMD’s biggest problem upon launch, was driver issues.
The software of the new cards while strong, was very fresh out of the oven, and it seems time is the key metric to improving AMD’s cards. However, after plenty of time, AMD’s Radeon 6000 line of GPUs are in a much better position compared to NVIDIA’s RTX 3000 range due to the pricing. Radeon 6000 is definitely the weaker option compared to Radeon 7000, but these cards will only improve with time. And because FSR is entirely open source and not limited to any specific SKUs, the cards will continue to hold their value at higher resolutions.
Our Favourite Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPUs
1. MSI Gaming Trio Classic RX 7900 XTX
👑A ‘Classic’ cheaper option.
Introduction
First up in our GPU recommendations is a GeekaWhat office favourite, the Gaming Trio Classic 7900 XTX. MSI is well known for creating awesome graphics cards, and their Gaming Trio versions always deliver when it comes to thermals, aesthetics and performance. The Gaming Trio Classic features a unique angular design on the shroud with three fans aiding thermals across the board.
Consumers will also be able to immediately notice the RGB stripes moving diagonally through the middle fan on the front of the GPU. The RGB can of course be customised using MSI’s Mystic lighting software. This card is definitely a winner for those that are a fan of MSI’s signature Gaming Trio designs.
Key Specs
| Spec | MSI Gaming Trio Classic RX 7900 XTX |
|---|---|
| Base Clock Speed | 1.85GHz |
| Boost Clock Speed | 2.5GHz |
| Ray Accelerators | 96 |
| Stream Processors | 6144 |
| Wattage | 355W |
Things We Like
Solid price point: AMD’s RX 7900 XTX is a rather popular card, and for this reason it can be rather difficult to pick up at MSRP. However, the MSI Gaming Trio Classic is one of the cheaper options, allowing consumers to secure this GPU for a price close to the release value.
Excellent aesthetic: Although there are loads of other fancy RGB options on the market, the MSI Gaming Classic shroud offers a familiar aesthetic that I feel the vast majority of consumers will love.
Things We Don’t Like
Very minimal RGB: If you’re the kind of consumers trying to max out your RGB wherever possible, this card won’t be for you, as you’re somewhat limited to the lighting which only pops up on the front of the card.
No improved clock speed: One of the big benefits of picking up an AIB model is that manufacturers often tend to improve upon the reference card. However, the MSI Gaming Classic doesn’t seem to have a higher clock speed, which is somewhat disappointing.
Summary
MSI‘s Gaming Trio Classic RX 7900 XTX is a familiar design that will look great in any build. It is a bit minimalist compared to other options we’ve seen, but it performs extremely well and comes in at a very reasonable price point.
Features: 4/5
Design: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Value for Money: 4/5
Pros
- Strong performance in intense applications.
- Well priced.
- Familiar and awesome design.
Cons
- Not much in terms of RGB.
- Doesn’t offer a better clock speed.
Where to Buy
Buy the MSI Gaming Trio Classic RX 7900 XTX on:
2. Yeston Sakura RX 7900 XTX
👑The crazy colours option.
Introduction
One of the more recent entrants to the 7900 XTX line-up is Yeston‘s Sakura RX 7900 XTX. If you’re looking for a graphics card that has insane colours and RGB, then this is the option for you. The Sakura version of this card just looks absolutely insane, coated in rainbow colouring from back to front, and has excellent RGB lighting wherever you look. Not to mention, but the fans are also coloured too.
The Yeston Sakura unfortunately doesn’t offer a better boost clock speed, but considering how insane this GPU will look in a build with matching colours, I feel most consumers won’t mind. This is definitely a great option for those looking to build a PC with all the colours and lighting!
Key Specs
| Spec | Yeston Sakura RX 7900 XTX |
|---|---|
| Base Clock Speed | 1.85GHz |
| Boost Clock Speed | 2.5GHz |
| Ray Accelerators | 96 |
| Stream Processors | 6144 |
| Wattage | 355W |
Things We Like
All the colours and lights: As we’ve alluded to above, this GPU looks absolutely insane compared to the rest of the market. Yeston has thrown ‘traditional’ out of the window, because this card definitely does not adhere to any standard black and white designs we’ve seen before.
Reasonably priced: Despite all of the insane colours and lights we can see on this GPU, this excellent card is actually priced pretty well. It definitely doesn’t sit at MSRP, but you won’t have to pay an absolutely fortune to secure this graphics card.
Things We Don’t Like
It’s massive: As you can probably expect, this GPU is not small by any means. The Yeston Sakura is a triple-slot card, sitting at 330m in terms of length, which will limit your case choices to a degree.
Won’t be for everyone: As much as I think the design of this graphics card is awesome, I can fully understand how it won’t appeal to all consumers, as the colours and lighting definitely don’t fit in to more minimalist themed builds.
Summary
The Yeston Sakura is definitely one of my favourite RX 7900 XTX GPUs that we’ve seen, offering insane colours and lighting featuring across the entire card. This GPU is definitely worth a consideration if you’re looking to build a PC with plenty of flair and lights.
Features: 4.5/5
Design: 5/5
Performance: 4.4/5
Value for Money: 4.5/5
Pros
- Lighting and colours are insane.
- Somewhat reasonably priced.
- Ideal for crazy colourful builds.
Cons
- Design won’t be for everyone.
- Doesn’t offer any extra performance bonuses.
Where to Buy
Buy the Yeston Sakura RX 7900 XTX on:
Our Favourite Radeon RX 6950 XT GPUs
3. XFX Speedster MERC 319 RX 6950 XT
👑The best priced option.
Introduction
XFX has been an add-in board partner with AMD for as long as I can remember. If you weren’t able to pick up a GPU from your favourite manufacturer, XFX has always been around to offer some of the best priced GPUs on the market. Their Speedster line-up offer great thermals, a slight overclock, and an easy to work with design, that will blend in, in a multitude of different build styles.
This particular model features a matte black and grey design which can be seen across the entirety of the GPU. Gone are the days of finger smudges on metallic GPUs, somewhat taking away from the flair of your build. Ultimately, this isn’t the flashiest 6950 XT you’ll see, but it follow a traditional look that can be very easy to work with if you’re looking for a particular aesthetic.
Key Specs
| Spec | XFX Speedster MERC 319 RX 7900 XTX |
|---|---|
| Base Clock Speed | 1.89GHz |
| Boost Clock Speed | 2.36GHz |
| Ray Accelerators | 80 |
| Stream Processors | 5120 |
| Wattage | 335W |
Things We Like
Buy this card, it is cheap: As we’ve mentioned in the architecture, Radeon 6000 cards right now are priced exceptionally, and considering the performance, the value is insane. The XFX Speedster is no exception, and is a card consumers should definitely pick up right now, if they’re looking to play 4K games!
Minor overclock: The XFX Speedster variant of the 6950 XT features a small overclock to the boost speed. This can add some extra performance in certain applications, which is a nice added bonus.
Things We Don’t Like
No RGB: Unfortunately for you RGB lovers out there, this card won’t be for you. As much as the XFX Speedster is a great option for the price, if you’re looking to add some flair with extra lighting, the Speedster won’t be a great card to pick.
Quite large dimensions: As is the standard with AIB cards, the size compared to a reference model tends to increase a fair bit. This is no small card overall, and sits at around 340mm which may limit your case options.
Summary
The XFX Speedster MERC 319 RX 6950 XT is quite literally one of the best priced cards right now. It isn’t the best looking option that you can find on the market. But if you’re looking for an absolute bargain of a GPU, this is definitely the one to purchase.
Features: 4/5
Design: 4/5
Performance: 4.1/5
Value for Money: 5/5
Pros
- The best priced option!
- Minimalist design is easy to work with.
- Slight overclock on the boost speed.
Cons
- Doesn’t offer much in terms of flair.
- Quite big overall.
Where to Buy
Buy the XFX Speedster MERC 319 RX 6950 XT on:
4. Gigabyte AORUS XTREME WATERFORCE RX 6950 XT
👑The best cooled option.
Introduction
Gigabyte is quite well known at this point for manufacturing gaming-based components in this space. But some consumers may not know that they also design fully water-cooled GPUs. The XTREME WATERFORCE model of the 6950 XT is water-cooled design which features it’s own RGB lighting, and all the hassle of removing a shroud to place a water block has been done for you.
Aside from this model being one of the best cooled options available, it is also one of the best looking options. Water blocks often end up housing much more RGB compared to their air-cooled counterparts, so this makes them ideal for consumers looking to create a disco in their PC build. This model is definitely a worthwhile consideration for those that want the best thermals money can buy.
Key Specs
| Spec | XFX Speedster MERC 319 RX 7900 XTX |
|---|---|
| Base Clock Speed | 1.89GHz |
| Boost Clock Speed | 2.56GHz |
| Ray Accelerators | 80 |
| Stream Processors | 5120 |
| Wattage | 335W |
Things We Like
Looks incredible: The AORUS WATERFORCE model is one of the best looking GPUs you can buy right now, equipped with more RGB than you can shake a stick at, and the sleek design just looks great.
Ideal thermals: Water-cooled components generally performance better than air-cooled options because of how quickly heat can disperse. The AORUS WATERFORCE will consistently sit at low temperatures allowing you to push it in intense applications.
Things We Don’t Like
Requires a custom loop: Because this is a water-cooled fit with it’s own individual block, consumers purchasing this card will need to put together their own custom loop with a radiator, pump, reservoir and fittings in order for it to work properly.
Rather expensive: Although the XTREME WATERFORCE is rather cheap right now, it won’t be like that forever as popularity and demand increases due to the nature of the card.
Summary
Gigabyte‘s AORUS XTREME WATERFORCE RX 6950 XT is one of the best looking and best performing cards from the 6950 XT SKU. If you’re looking for strong 4K gaming and workstation performance, alongside excellent thermals, this is the card for you.
Features: 4/5
Design: 4.5/5
Performance: 4.5/5
Value for Money: 5/5
Pros
- Incredible thermals.
- Awesome design.
- Slightly overclocked.
Cons
- Requires a custom loop.
- Won’t be well priced forever.
Where to Buy
Buy the Gigabyte AORUS XTREME WATERFORCE RX 6950 XT on:
Gaming Benchmarks
In this section of the articles we’ll be looking at some gaming benchmarks for both of the cards in this GPU Versus Battle. We’ve provided some comparative graphs so you can see how these new cards perform against current and older GPU options. As always, you’ll be able to located the full runs for these games on our Benched YouTube channel, where we test all of the latest components in a range of games and productivity applications.
Apex Legends GPU Winner – RX 7900 XTX
Starting off the battle, we fired up Apex Legends and cranked the resolution up to 4K for both of these games. Our overall winner was the 7900 XTX, outputting an impressive average framerate of 202 FPS, which is the most we’ve seen from any GPU. Ultimately 202 FPS wouldn’t really be visible to the human eye, but if you’re an Esports player, this can be particularly important to ensure your monitor is putting out a smooth image with a high refresh rate. The 7900 XTX is a clear winner in this instance if that’s your goal.
The RX 6950 XT wasn’t particularly far behind losing out to the 7900 XTX by about 40 frames or so. It was great to see that the 6950 XT was able to surpass the 144Hz sweet spot, as this game can be particularly intense, and demands a high frame rate to secure a victory. Although the gap between these cards is quite large, because our framerates are so high, the overall difference would be rather negligible, especially if you don’t have a monitor that can’t go above 144Hz.
Spiderman Miles Morales GPU Winner – RX 7900 XTX
Next up is Spiderman Miles Morales at 4K, with FSR enabled. This game is a rather intense title overall, which is why we’re seeing somewhat diminished performance contrasting to Apex Legends. However, the 7900 XTX still offered great performance overall, with an average framerate of 112 FPS. Miles Morales tends to be less intense in terms of the gameplay, so a high refresh rate won’t be a requirement for many consumers, but it is disappointing to see that we weren’t able to hit the 144Hz sweet spot.
The RX 6950 XT again, wasn’t particularly close behind compared to the 7900 XTX, with an average framerate of 97 FPS. The majority of GPUs do tend to struggle a little bit more in this title just because of it’s modernity and performance overhead, which is why we’re seeing performance so close together. I would argue that the 6950 XT definitely held its own in this one, just sitting slightly below the 100 FPS mark. The 7900 XTX is a clear winner in terms of performance, but because framerates are closely tied, the 6950 XT is a competitive option.
Battlefield 2042 GPU Winner – RX 7900 XTX
Unsurprisingly the GPU winner of our Battlefield 2042 is yet again, the 7900 XTX. Much like in Spider Man Miles Morales, we are seeing weaker performance across the board, because Battlefield 2042 is a rather demanding title, especially at higher resolutions. The 7900 XTX was able to output an average framerate of around 104 FPS, which is still quite strong considering how intense this game is. However, we were saddened to see that the 7900 XTX couldn’t quite reach the 144Hz sweet spot, as frames definitely do matter in this game.
We saw a similar story with concerns to the RX 6950 XT, this GPU was able to output around 89 frames on average, which is about a 15 frame loss compared to the 7900 XTX. Ideally we’d like to see a higher framerate here, but if the settings are dumbed down slightly, consumers can enjoy more frames on average. Ultimately, because of how demanding Battlefield 2042 is, I’d say anything above 60 FPS is going to be a win for the majority of users playing this game at 4K.
Fortnite GPU Winner – RX 7900 XTX
For our final benchmark, we fired up Fortnite, and dialled the settings back to 1080P Competitive. This gives us an idea of how our chosen GPUs will perform in an Esports style setting. As you’ve guessed from the title, the RX 7900 XTX is yet again the winner, reaching excessively high frames with an average of 312 FPS. We weren’t expecting the 7900 XTX to falter here, but it is good to see that consumers can enjoy insanely high refresh rates with minimal frame drops, creating a buttery smooth experience overall.
The RX 6950 XT was quite literally, a frame behind the 7900 XTX overall. These GPUs offered extremely similar performance, and it seems AMD is the winner when it comes to Fortnite, as the vast majority of their cards can output perform most of NVIDIA‘s available options. Consumers can expect incredibly smooth gameplay here, with no hindrances, no stuttering, and no tearing.
Conclusion
GPU Versus Winner – AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT
Our GPU Versus Winner is AMD‘s Radeon RX 6950 XT. Now you’re probably thinking ‘Jay, didn’t the 7900 XTX absolutely dominate the 6950 XT, and has incredible performance overall?!’. And yes, you’re correct it did, but despite the strong performance of the 7900 XTX, the 6950 XT is the clear winner because of it’s insane value for money. Although you get access to all of the new RDNA 3 technology and hardware, AMD’s 6950 XT is incredibly powerful, and very well priced right now. Consumers can play games at 4K, and run high intensity workstation applications with very few issues.
However, if you’re looking for the best that money can buy right now, the 7900 XTX is the clear decided victor. As much as the 6950 XT is incredibly strong in terms of performance, the 7900 XTX is one of the best cards that you can currently buy right now. Although I imagine the 6950 XT will last for quite some time, the 7900 XTX is a beast of a GPU, and definitely a winner for a top-end high performance system.
Buy the Radeon RX 7900 XTX on:
Buy the Radeon RX 6950 XT on:
