Leaked AMD RDNA 3 GPU benchmarks disappoint some gamers
AMD RDNA 3 graphics cards are imminent, and we’ve just seen benchmark leaks that highlight what Team Red claimed in their pre-release marketing – namely that the flagship will be a close match for Nvidia’s RTX 4080.
VideoCardz (opens in a new tab) has compiled the revealed 3DMark scores for the RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT, which are based on data collected from multiple reviewers, the site tells us; but of course we have to be careful with such a leak.
The results alone show that in 3DMark Time Spy at 4K resolution (Extreme setting), the RX 7900 XTX scores 13,729 and the 7900 XT scores 13,687, closely following the flagship. This compares to the RTX 4080 at 14,005, so both AMD graphics cards are very close to the Nvidia product.
At 1440p in Time Spy, the RTX 4080 has a bigger lead with a score of 28,050 compared to the RX 7900 XTX with a score of 25,473 and the 7900 XT with a score of 23,897.
Switching to 3DMark FireStrike, the 7900 XTX outperforms the RTX 4080 with 18,853 points compared to the Nvidia GPU’s 17,294 and the 7900 XT trailing behind at 16,915.
And at 1440p for FireStrike, the 7900 XTX graphics card once again beats the Nvidia card with a score of 37,702, with the RTX 4080 slightly off the pace at 33,932, and the 7900 XT not far behind with a score of 33,497.
Analysis: Driver weirdness?
If these benchmarks are accurate, it means the RX 7900 XTX is actually 9% and 13% faster than the RTX 4080 in FireStrike (4K and 1440p respectively), and the RTX 4080 turns the tables in TimeSpy by being 2% and 10% faster . So the idea that the two graphics cards are pretty close in terms of performance – which is the line AMD is pushing, or at least saying its flagship RDNA 3 offering competes with the RTX 4080 and not the 4090 – looks very much for the money (and overall coincides with other leaks we’ve seen recently).
Naturally, apart from the fact that these results are due to a leak, which requires skepticism, we must also remember that these are synthetic benchmarks. A set of actual gaming scores is really needed to be able to evaluate how AMD RDNA 3 GPUs perform versus the RTX 4080.
And for that matter, the RTX 4090, if you’re wondering, is included in the leaderboard provided by VideoCardz, and as you’d expect, it’s in the lead. Indeed, it’s around 20% to 40% faster than the AMD 7900 XTX, depending on the benchmark and the resolution you’re looking at.
While there’s something odd here, we should note that the Time Spy results show the 7900 XT to be very close to the flagship XTX, and even virtually equal to 4K. There seems to be something wrong here, so if there’s no mistake with the leak, it could be a case of a shaky early graphics driver? Hopefully any wrinkles here will be smoothed out before launch.
These benchmarks caused disappointment online, with people basically hoping the 7900 XTX would be faster – but given the positioning of AMD’s flagship as a rival to the RTX 4080, we don’t see where any surprise factor comes into the equation with this leak, really. (Keep this anomaly with a potentially shaky driver, which could mean the XTX turns out to be faster than shown here.)
Another potential cause for concern is that if third-party custom models are rumored to be significantly more expensive for RDNA 3 GPUs – as opposed to the slightly more expensive you’d expect – this could leave the 7900 XTX value proposition not as compelling as we expected, compared to the RTX 4080 (at least in these cases). The same goes for when stocks are scarce, as the vine recently suggested, and scalpers are also sticking their oars in and driving up prices. And don’t forget, rumor has it that Nvidia may lower the prices of the RTX 4080, perhaps in part in response to the launch of RDNA 3.
We’ll see how it all plays out soon…
