RTX 4080 Super vs RX 7900 XTX – Battle of the two high-end GPUs

RTX 4080 Super vs RX 7900 XTX – Battle of the two high-end GPUs
Aleksha McLoughlin Updated on by

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If you’re in the market for a truly high end video card for 4K gaming then you’ll want to weigh up the brand new RTX 4080 Super vs RX 7900 XTX. Both Team Green and Team Red’s upper echelon of video cards are incredibly capable in 4K, but there’s a lot which separates them, too. With the former launching today, we’re also showing you where to buy RTX 4080 Super graphics cards.

We’re committed to helping you get the full lowdown on the best GPUs out there, so for further reading, we recommend checking out more upgrades with the best CPU for RTX 4080 Super, best case for RTX 4080 Super, and best PSU for RTX 4080 Super, too. It’s also worth giving the best AMD graphics cards a read as well, as we compare other Team Red GPUs as well, such as the RTX 4080 Super vs RX 7900 XT.

RTX 4080 Super vs RX 7900 XTX price comparison

RTX 4080 Super FE

The RTX 2080 Super graphics card, now upgraded to the RTX 4080 Super FE edition.

Base Clock

2.29 gigahertz

Boost Clock

2.55 gigahertz

VRAM

16GB

TDP

320

Price is arguably the most important factor when buying a graphics card, and in the case of these two high end models, it’s a touch complicated. That’s because the RTX 4080 Super is set to retail for $999 for the Nvidia-made Founders Edition model and as a starting point for partner cards. The RX 7900 XTX debuted at $999 with some partner cards selling north of this rate.

It’s interesting because the RTX 4080 Super course corrects one of the main criticisms with the original RTX 4080 from 2022 – the price tag. That’s because the original RTX 4080 was released with an MSRP of $1,199 (a 70% increase from its predecessor the RTX 3080). AMD won major favor at the time for undercutting not only the RTX 4080 by a full $200, but also the RTX 4090 by $500 as a value play.

RTX 4080 Super vs RX 7900 XTX release date comparison

The RTX 4080 Super is scheduled to be released today (January 31, 2024) making it the far newer of the two cards. For context, the RX 7900 XTX debuted in November 2022 as the RDNA 3 flagship model, around the same time as the first RTX 4080 from the Ada Lovelace line-up. That positions the RTX 4080 Super as more futureproofed option in theory, but both cards have enough grunt under the hood to power your games for many years to come.

RTX 4080 Super vs RX 7900 XTX specs comparison

The main differences between the RTX 4080 Super and the RX 7900 XTX comes down to their architecture. The former is built on the AD103 die and the latter is made on the Big Navi 31 silicon. Nvidia’s video card once again utilizes the same 16GB GDDR6X memory of its predecessor, the RTX 4080, but includes a bumped up core count to 10240 CUDA cores. It’s forged on a 256-bit memory bus which is ideal for 4K gaming.

In contrast, the RX 7900 XTX features a total of 6,144 stream processors with 24GB GDDR6 memory with a larger 384-bit memory bus. There’s a total of 8GB more VRAM to play with here, however, it’s clocked considerably slower than the leading GDDR6X found in the RTX 4080 Super. The differences in memory bus also impact bandwidth. Team Green’s card is capable of 736.3 GB/s with Team Red leading the charge at 960.0 GB/s. These are figures more comparable to the RTX 4090, same amount of VRAM and a similar bandwidth at a price identical to the RTX 4080 Super.

RTX 4080 Super vs RX 7900 XTX performance comparison

The RTX 4080 Super is reported to be around 2-3% faster than the base RTX 4080 model according to Nvidia. This side of the release window, we can use benchmarks of the former to inform just how the two compete side-by-side. What’s more, some benchmarking channels on YouTube have reportedly posted benchmarks early. This includes popular channel, Mark PC, which has compared the two graphics cards in demanding games.

The video showcases the prowess of both GPUs when maxed out in 4K. In Cyberpunk 2077, the RTX 4080 Super pulls ahead with 76fps to the 7900 XTX’s average of 67fps. However, Team Red’s GPU pulls ahead in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla with 135fps average on the XTX and 126fps on the RTX 4080 Super. This is due to a larger memory bus and 8GB more VRAM. However, both cards are effectively neck-in-neck in some games, such as Watchdogs: Legion where both GPUs average around 120fps.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is another example of where the RTX 4080 Super pulls ahead with an average of 118fps to the XTX’s 108fps. That’s around a 9% performance difference, but still incredibly impressive given the game’s maxed out in 4K. Some well-optimized games really benefit from the extra VRAM and wider memory bus, though. This can be evidenced in Doom Eternal as the RTX 4080 Super achieves a staggering 254fps but the Ryzen 7900 XTX leads with 311fps. The two cards go blow for blow the majority of the time.

Should you buy the RTX 4080 Super or RX 7900 XTX?

The decision of whether to buy the RTX 4080 Super or 7900 XTX comes down to your use case. If you want to utilize Nvidia technologies such as DLSS 3 Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction then the former will be the better buy. However, if you want higher brute force power then the larger memory pool and bigger memory bus means it’ll be able to squeeze higher framerates out of certain software. We love both the RTX 4080 and the RX 7900 XTX GPUs, and the Super variant looks to be another winner in a leading GPU generation. Considering the $999 price tags of both, you’ll be able to make the decision based on your needs.

Is the RTX 4080 Super better than the RX 7900 XTX?

From the benchmarks we’ve observed it seems as though the RTX 4080 Super goes blow for blow with the RTX 7900 XTX and leads ahead in ray tracing heavy titles such as Cyberpunk 2077. However, the extra VRAM and larger memory bus of the 7900 XTX means it can brute force higher fps in some games.

How much power does RTX 4080 Super use compared to RX 7900 XTX?

The RTX 4080 Super has a 320W TDP and the 7900 XTX uses 355W TDP. That means AMD’s card has a slightly higher power draw. However, the minimum recommended PSU for both is 750W.