RX 6950 XT vs RX 7900 XT

The RX 7900 XT is out in the world, which means it’s time to consider the RX 6950 XT vs RX 7900 XT.

There’s a lot to like about AMD’s RX 7900 XT – considering it to be one of the best prices we’ve seen for a GPU in a while. Though this may just be because of Nvidia’s sky high prices for its 4000 series, we genuinely think the 7900 XT has a lot to offer.

We’re guiding you through the specs, price and overall performance before arriving at our final decision. If you think you’re already there, opting for the RX 7900 XT, we’re one step ahead with the best CPUs for RX 7900 XT.

Naturally, the easy answer is to automatically crown the RX 7900 XT as top dog. By specs alone it’s clear that AMD has made significant strides thanks to RDNA 3 architecture and their focus on energy efficiency. However, the RX 6950 XT is still going for cheaper price, so ultimately, it boils down to whether the RX 7900 XT’s performance is worth the slightly higher price tag.

RX 6950 XT vs RX 7900 XT – specs

	RX 7900 XT	RX 6950 XT
Architecture	RDNA 3	RDNA 2 / NAVI 21
Fab process	TSMC 5+6nm	TSMC 7nm
Full GPU	~533mm²	520mm²
Compute units	84	80
Stream processors	5,376	5120
VRAM	20GB GDDR6	16GB
Memory bus	320-bit	256 bit
Memory bandwidth	Up to 800 GB/s	576.0 GB/s
Clock rate (base, boost)	1500MHz, 2500Mhz	1925MHz, 2324MHz
Board power	300 W	335 W

AMD Radeon 6950 XT uses RDNA 2 architecture which means it comes with RayTracing. There’s also a Media engine capable of decoding video of up to 8K resolution which means 4K gaming is easily within its ability. However, with RDNA 3, the RX 7900 XT, expect RayTracing to be taken to the next level, delivering up to a 1.8 performance increase compared to RDNA 2.

The RX 7900 XT also outperforms the RX 6950 XT on clock rates and memory bandwidth, making it a predictably more powerful GPU in terms of performance.

We also highly rate AMD’s decision to focus on power efficiency for their 7000 series. As you can see above, the RX 7900 XT only requires 300 W, which helps keep down the running costs despite being a more powerful graphics card than its predecessor.

If you’ve seen everything you need to see from the RX 6950 XT, take a look at our buying guide comparing the RX 7900 XT vs RX 7900 XTX. We’ve also answered a frequently asked query about the size of the RX 7900 XT which you can read about here.

RX 6950 XT vs RX 7900 XT – price

GPU prices have always been prone to fluctuate on their release and in the months proceeding.

Currently, the RX 6950 is retailing for just over $800 on Amazon, down from over $1000 late last year. However, we think the RX 7900 XT currently offers the sweeter deal at just $899. Since it offers a performance increase of around 25%, if you can afford to spend an additional $100, you should go for AMD’s newer model in the interest of future-proofing your gaming set-up.

That being said, you might need to consider a new PSU for the RX 7900 XT to support its higher power consumption.

Is the RX 7900 XT worth it?

Considering the RX 7900 XT is retailing for just $100 more than its predecessor, we’d say it’s definitely worth it.

RX 6950 XT vs RX 7900 XT FAQs

Is RX 6900 good for ray tracing?

The 6900 XT comes with a “ray accelerator” in its compute unit, so yes it has ray tracing features, but NVIDIA’s 30 series comes with its own ray tracing cores which makes its performance better.

Why is the RX 7900 XT good?

AMD’s second best (and latest) graphics card comes with the ground-breaking RDNA 3 with chiplet technology firmly marking it as a next-gen graphics card.

Which graphics card should I buy in 2022?
Factoring in the cost as a determining factor, Nvidia’s 40-series line-up is ever so tempting but eye-wateringly expensive. That’s before you’ve upgraded your PSU and PC case just to cope with the size and sheer power of the RTX 4090 & 4080. If you’re after the best value graphics card, the RTX 3070 will deliver strongly for 1440p gaming.