AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 GRE was an unexpected product, featuring a heavily cut-down Navi 31 die in a similar configuration to the RX 7800 XT. Offering a higher shader count than the XT, the 7900 GRE costs $50 more, with an MSRP of $549. This places it right between the GeForce RTX 4070 and the 4070 Super, currently going for $544 and $579, respectively. We benched the three GPUs to figure out which one you should buy depending on your gaming needs.
Test Bench
- CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K.
- Cooler: Lian Li Galahad 360.
- Motherboard: ASUS Z790 Maximus Hero.
- Memory: 16GB x2 DDR5-6000 CL30.
NVIDIA RTX 4070 vs AMD RX 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super Specs
The Radeon RX 7900 GRE features 5,120 cores clocked at a peak frequency of 2.245 GHz and 16 GB of GDDR6 18 Gbps memory. It uses a 256-bit bus backed by 64 MB of L3 cache and has a total board power (TBP) of 260W.
| NVIDIA RTX 4070 | AMD RX 7900 GRE | NVIDIA RTX 4070 Super | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | AD104 | Navi 31 | AD104 |
| SMs/RT Cores | 46 | 80 | 56 |
| Shaders | 5,888 | 5,120 | 7,186 |
| VRAM | 12 GB | 16 GB | 12 GB |
| TMUs | 184 | 320 | 224 |
| LLC | 36 MB | 64 MB | 48 MB |
| ROPs | 64 | 160 | 80 |
| Memory bus | 192-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit |
| Memory Clock | 21 Gbps | 18 Gbps | 21 Gbps |
| GPU Boost Clock | 2,475 MHz | 2,245 MHz | 2,475 MHz |
| TBP | 200W | 260W | 220W |
| Price | $544 | $539 | $579 |
The GeForce RTX 4070 offers 5,888 cores spread across 46 SMs, clocked at 2.475 GHz. It features 12 GB GDDR6 memory clocked at 21 Gbps across a 192-bit bus, backed by 36 MB of L2 cache. The 4070 has a TBP of 200W.
The RTX 4070 Super features the same AD104 die as the 4070 but with additional FP32 cores, TMUs, and ROPs. It incorporates 7,186 cores across 56 SMs, 224 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. It increases the L2 cache to 48 MB, and the TBP to 220W.
NVIDIA RTX 4070 vs AMD RX 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super: 1080p Benchmarks
At 1080p, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE trades blows with the pricier GeForce RTX 4070 Super, readily beating the RTX 4070 in almost every game. The 7900 GRE offers the best performance in 8 out of 15 games, while the RTX 4070 Super tops the framerate chart in 7 out of 15 titles. Meanwhile, the RTX 4070 finishes last despite costing the same as the RX 7900 GRE ($544 vs. 539).
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake 2, despite being an NVIDIA partner title, performs better on the Radeon RX 7900 GRE (without ray tracing), leading the RTX 4070 Super by 12.6%. It beats the similarly priced RTX 4070 by 33%.
Assassin’s Creed: Mirage
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Avatar: Frontiers is an AMD partner title, but like Alan Wake 2, favors the opposite team. The RTX 4070 Super averages 100.3 FPS, leading the RX 7900 GRE by 14%. The RTX 4070 is about as fast as the GRE, likely due to the use of ray-tracing.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 is an NVIDIA sponsor title, but the Radeon RX 7900 GRE grabs the top spot at 1080p, beating the RTX 4070 Super and 4070 by 7.7% and 22%, respectively.
Dying Light 2
Dying Light 2 runs best on GeForce hardware. The RTX 4070 Super holds a 15% lead over the RX 7900 GRE and the 4070.
F1 2022
F1 2022 has always preferred Radeon hardware and it shows. The RX 7900 GRE averages 257.7 FPS, up from 234.7 FPS on the 4070 Super and 215.6 FPS on the 4070.
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Hitman 3
Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy is another game that runs smoother on Radeon GPUs. The RX 7900 GRE is 10% faster than the 4070 Super, beating the 4070 by 21% in the same scenario.
Robocop
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider has had a long and prosperous reign on PC. The game averages 272 FPS on the RTX 4070 Super, up from 252 FPS on the Radeon RX 7900 GRE. The RTX 4070 sits at an average of 228 FPS.
The Callisto Protocol
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands runs best on the GeForce RTX 4070 Super, averaging 188 FPS, followed by the RX 7900 GRE with 176 FPS and the 4070 with 163 FPS.
Average 1080p Performance
| Game | NVIDIA RTX 4070 | AMD RX 7900 GRE | NVIDIA RTX 4070 Super |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Plague Tale Requiem | 88.4 FPS | 99.4 FPS | 102.6 FPS |
| Alan Wake 2 | 78.8 FPS | 104.6 FPS | 92.9 FPS |
| Assassin’s Creed: Mirage | 137 FPS | 145.5 FPS | 153 FPS |
| Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla | 154.2 FPS | 157.7 FPS | 161.4 FPS |
| Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora | 85.6 FPS | 87.8 FPS | 100.3 FPS |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 128.8 FPS | 156.9 FPS | 145.6 FPS |
| Dying Light 2 | 167.9 FPS | 165.6 FPS | 193.1 FPS |
| Ghostwire Tokyo | 185.4 FPS | 227.7 FPS | 222.4 FPS |
| F1 2022 | 215.6 FPS | 257.7 FPS | 234.7 FPS |
| Hitman 3 | 206.8 FPS | 216.7 FPS | 211 FPS |
| Hogwarts Legacy | 118.5 FPS | 143.6 FPS | 130.8 FPS |
| Robocop Rogue City | 88 FPS | 101.3 FPS | 97.9 FPS |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 228.4 FPS | 252.1 FPS | 272.4 FPS |
| The Callisto Protocol | 119.2 FPS | 146.4 FPS | 139.2 FPS |
| Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands | 162.9 FPS | 176.2 FPS | 188.4 FPS |
| 15 Game Average | 144.36 FPS (100%) | 162.31 FPS (112.43%) | 163.05 FPS (112.95%) |
The GeForce RTX 4070 Super and the Radeon RX 7900 GRE are tied at 1080p with an average of 162/163 FPS, beating the RTX 4070 by 12-13%. It’s worth noting that all three GPUs deliver more than 144 FPS which is usually the upper limit in these games.
NVIDIA RTX 4070 vs AMD RX 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super: 1440p Benchmarks
QHD or 1440p increases the pixel count to ~4 million, twice as much as 1080p. This increases the strain on the memory bus and the shader engine. The Radeon RX 7900 GRE’s wider 256-bit memory bus comes into play as it edges past the RTX 4070 Super.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Alan Wake 2
Assassin’s Creed: Mirage
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Cyberpunk 2077
Dying Light 2
Dying Light 2 runs 12% smoother on the RTX 4070 Super than the RX 7900 GRE, beating the 4070 by 20% or more.
F1 2022
F1 2022 runs considerably faster on the Radeon RX 7900 GRE, producing 18% higher framerates than on the RTX 4070 Super.
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Hitman 3
Hogwarts Legacy
Robocop
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider performs at least 10% smoother on the RTX 4070 Super than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE. The vanilla RTX 4070 finishes last, trailing the Super by 21% on average.
The Callisto Protocol
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
Average 1440p Performance
| Game | NVIDIA RTX 4070 | AMD RX 7900 GRE | NVIDIA RTX 4070 Super |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Plague Tale Requiem | 62.8 FPS | 75.4 FPS | 72.7 FPS |
| Alan Wake 2 | 53.1 FPS | 67.7 FPS | 62 FPS |
| Assassin’s Creed: Mirage | 106.3 FPS | 113.4 FPS | 118.8 FPS |
| Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla | 117.4 FPS | 122.6 FPS | 127.9 FPS |
| Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora | 57.4 FPS | 61.2 FPS | 66.7 FPS |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 77.1 FPS | 101.4 FPS | 89.4 FPS |
| Dying Light 2 | 112.9 FPS | 121.7 FPS | 136.2 FPS |
| Ghostwire Tokyo | 144.4 FPS | 163.7 FPS | 160 FPS |
| F1 2022 | 178.2 FPS | 228.7 FPS | 194.2 FPS |
| Hitman 3 | 166.6 FPS | 194.8 FPS | 182.2 FPS |
| Hogwarts Legacy | 94.1 FPS | 120.2 FPS | 109.4 FPS |
| Robocop Rogue City | 60.2 FPS | 66.9 FPS | 66.4 FPS |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 162.7 FPS | 178.1 FPS | 196.5 FPS |
| The Callisto Protocol | 100.7 FPS | 108.1 FPS | 101.8 FPS |
| Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands | 111.5 FPS | 123 FPS | 129.7 FPS |
| 15 Game Average | 107.03 FPS (100%) | 123.13 FPS (115%) | 120.93 FPS (112.99%) |
The Radeon RX 7900 GRE establishes its dominance at 1440p, beating the RTX 4070 Super and 4070 by 2% and 15%, respectively. It finishes first in 9-out-of-15 titles, with an average of 123 FPS.
NVIDIA RTX 4070 vs AMD RX 7900 GRE vs NVIDIA RTX 4070 Super: Ray Tracing Benchmarks
Ray tracing is NVIDIA’s turf, so it’s not surprising to see the RTX 4070 and 4070 Super defeat RX 7900 GRE in most games. We see performance deltas of 20-50% and higher at 1080p when ray tracing is enabled.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
A Plague Tale Requiem produces a deficit of 42% between the RTX 4070 Super and the Radeon RX 7900 GRE. The RTX 4070 also holds a 25.5% lead over the GRE.
Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake 2 runs a whopping 52% faster on the RTX 4070 Super than on the RX 7900 GRE, with the 4070 finishing second with a lead of 29% over the GRE.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Crysis Remastered
Cyberpunk 2077
The GeForce RTX 4070 Super holds a lead of over 40% over the Radeon RX 7900 GRE in ray-traced Cyberpunk, beating the 4070 by 21%.
Dying Light 2
Dying Light 2 continues to favor NVIDIA hardware, averaging 107 FPS on the RTX 4070 Super, up from 87 FPS on the 4070, and 80 FPS on the RX 7900 GRE.
F1 2022
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy is another title that favors AMD in rasterization, and NVIDIA in ray tracing. The RTX 4070 Super averages 71.8 FPS at 1080p (with ray tracing enabled), up from 56 FPS on the 4070 and 49.5 FPS on the RX 7900 GRE
Metro Exodus
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
The Callisto Protocol
Average Ray Tracing Performance
The GeForce RTX 4070 Super holds a hefty 21.6% lead over the Radeon RX 7900 GRE in 1080p ray tracing. The Super averages 102.6 FPS, up from 84.4 FPS on the 7900 GRE and 86.8 FPS on the RTX 4070. The latter holds a tiny 2.8% lead over the GRE.
| Game | NVIDIA RTX 4070 | AMD RX 7900 GRE | NVIDIA RTX 4070 Super |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Plague Tale Requiem | 59.1 FPS | 47 FPS | 67.3 FPS |
| Alan Wake 2 | 49.3 FPS | 38.4 FPS | 58.3 FPS |
| Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora | 38.5 FPS | 41.6 FPS | 45.6 FPS |
| Crysis Remaster | 148.5 FPS | 143.3 FPS | 176.2 FPS |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 59.5 FPS | 50.8 FPS | 72.3 FPS |
| Dying Light 2 | 87 FPS | 79.8 FPS | 107.1 FPS |
| Ghostwire Tokyo | 125.1 FPS | 122.9 FPS | 139.4 FPS |
| F1 2022 | 112.3 FPS | 121 FPS | 127.7 FPS |
| Hitman 3 | 72.4 FPS | 62.3 FPS | 82.6 FPS |
| Hogwarts Legacy | 56.3 FPS | 49.5 FPS | 71.8 FPS |
| Metro Exodus | 71.6 FPS | 75.9 FPS | 83.6 FPS |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 155 FPS | 166 FPS | 202.3 FPS |
| The Callisto Protocol | 94 FPS | 104 FPS | 99.2 FPS |
| 13 Game Average | 86.8 FPS (102.8%) | 84.4 FPS (100%) | 102.6 FPS (121.6%) |
NVIDIA RTX 4070 vs AMD RX 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super: Power Efficiency
The Radeon RX 7900 GRE may be the faster graphics card in non-ray tracing scenarios, but the RTX 4070 and 4070 Super are notably more power efficient. The Super is 15-20% more efficient depending on the game with nearly twice the lead in ray tracing.
The RTX 4070 is 10-14% more power efficient than the RX 7900 GRE with a close to 20% lead in ray tracing.
NVIDIA RTX 4070 vs AMD RX 7900 GRE vs RTX 4070 Super: Performance per Dollar
The Radeon RX 7900 GRE shines when it comes to value for money. It delivers 10-15% more framerates per dollar than the GeForce RTX 4070 and 4070 Super at 1440p. However, in ray tracing we see the opposite with roughly the same lead for the 4070 Super.
Conclusion
Following the launch of the GeForce RTX 4070 Super, the RTX 4070 was supposed to drop in value (at least to ~$500). However, the latter continues to sell at $549, $10 higher than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE which is a better card in every regard. The RTX 4070 Super decisively beats the 7900 GRE in ray tracing but falls short in rasterization. The Super is more efficient, while the GRE offers better value. I’d say the Radeon is the better option regardless of your gaming style.
