A major aspect of the new RX 7000 GPUs revolves around the hotbed topic of ray tracing. AMD was heavily criticized for its lacking support of ray tracing for its RX 6000 series cards, but it took that feedback to heart. As was previously known, the RX 7000 GPUs include a new ray tracing accelerator compute unit. This accelerator should deliver 50% improvement to ray tracing over the GPU’s standard ray tracing performance. As for what that means, AMD’s newly confirmed specs for its launch RX 7000 cards help provide clarity.

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The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX features 96 compute units within its Graphics Computer Die. That should deliver what AMD says is a 2.3GHz game clock speed The GPU is paired with a robust 24GB of memory, which runs at 20Gbps over a 384-bit memory bus. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is a step lower, featuring 84 compute units, 20GB of memory over 320-bit bus, and a 2GHz game clock speed. Both cards support DisplayPort 2.1 connections.

To frame its cards’ performance, AMD provided some of its own metrics for in-game framerates. The RX 7900 XTX is said to deliver up to 295 fps in Apex Legends and 355 fps in Overwatch 2 at 4K resolution. Cyberpunk 2077, running at 4K with Ultra ray tracing settings, delivers up to 62 fps. AMD compares that to the RX 6950 XT, which manages 42 fps running ray tracing in Cyberpunk 2077. A similar ray tracing comparison is made with Dying Light 2, with the RX 7900 XTX managing 32 fps next to the RX 6950 XT’s 39 fps.

While AMD didn’t provide a direct comparison between the RX 7000 GPUs and Nvidia’s 4000 series cards, it did take some shots at its competitor. It joked about the RX 7000 cards featuring dual 8-in power connectors, a reference to Nvidia’s issues with the RTX 4090’s 12-pin connectors melting. DisplayPort 2.1 support was also heavily mentioned, another feature Nvidia’s cards lack.

Where AMD’s RX 7000 cards particularly stand out, however, is their prices. The RX 7900 XTX is priced at $999 and the RX 7900 XT is $100 less at $899. While those are hardly entry-level prices, they are more than $500 more affordable than Nvidia’s most expensive RTX 4000 cards. Both the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT will launch on December 13, 2022. Expect further AMD card announcements in the months to come.

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