AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT vs AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT occupy opposite ends of the Radeon stack, one a 2019 entry-level part and the other a 2022 high-end flagship. The benchmark data shows a decisive overall victory for the RX 7900 XT, which wins 9 of the 10 head-to-head tests, but the single loss is so dramatic that it redefines how these two cards should be evaluated. The RX 5500 XT’s win in Geekbench OpenCL is an outlier of massive proportions, while the RX 7900 XT dominates every DirectX and compute workload where the two are compared.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most striking result in the entire comparison is the Geekbench OpenCL test. The RX 5500 XT scores 46,965, while the RX 7900 XT scores just 12,756. That is a 268.2% advantage for the older card, a reversal so complete that it suggests the two architectures handle this particular workload through fundamentally different paths. No other test comes close to this margin, and it stands as the RX 5500 XT’s only victory across the entire benchmark suite.

Everywhere else, the RX 7900 XT is dominant. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the RX 7900 XT scores 5,623 against the RX 5500 XT’s 1,032, an 81.6% lead. The PassMark suite tells a similar story across every DirectX version. In DirectX 9, the RX 7900 XT scores 322 versus 133, a 58.7% advantage. DirectX 10 shows 158 versus 46, a 70.9% lead. DirectX 11 is the largest gap at 83.5%, with scores of 340 and 56. DirectX 12 narrows slightly to 63.6%, with 110 against 40.

Compute performance follows the same pattern. The PassMark GPU Compute test gives the RX 7900 XT a score of 16,828 against 4,446, a 73.6% advantage. The PassMark G3D score, which represents overall 3D graphics performance, shows 29,009 for the RX 7900 XT versus 9,083 for the RX 5500 XT, a 68.7% margin. Even the 2D test, PassMark G2D, favors the newer card, with 1,232 against 774, a 37.2% lead.

The Vulkan test is another clear win for the RX 7900 XT, scoring 71,068 against 44,191, a 37.8% advantage. This is notable because the RX 5500 XT’s Vulkan score is its second-best result, yet it still falls far short. The pattern is consistent: the RX 7900 XT wins every graphics and compute workload by margins ranging from 37.2% to 83.5%, while the RX 5500 XT’s sole win comes through a single OpenCL implementation quirk.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins more head-to-head benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT wins 9 of the 10 head-to-head tests. The AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT wins only the Geekbench OpenCL test.

Q: What is the largest performance gap in either direction?

A: The largest gap is in Geekbench OpenCL, where the RX 5500 XT leads by 268.2%. The largest gap in favor of the RX 7900 XT is in PassMark DirectX 11, where it leads by 83.5%.

Q: How do the two cards compare in DirectX 12 performance?

A: In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the RX 7900 XT scores 5,623 versus 1,032, an 81.6% lead. In PassMark DirectX 12, the RX 7900 XT scores 110 versus 40, a 63.6% lead.

Q: What are the average benchmark scores for each card?

A: The RX 5500 XT has an average benchmark score of 14,692, while the RX 7900 XT has an average benchmark score of 13,745. Despite the RX 7900 XT winning most head-to-head tests, its average is lower because the OpenCL outlier inflates the RX 5500 XT’s average.

Q: How do their overall GPU percentiles compare?

A: The RX 5500 XT sits at the 57th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 7900 XT sits at the 55th percentile. The RX 5500 XT’s higher percentile is driven by its exceptional OpenCL score.

Q: Which card has the higher score in Vulkan?

A: The RX 7900 XT scores 71,068 in Geekbench Vulkan, compared to 44,191 for the RX 5500 XT, representing a 37.8% advantage.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 7900 XT is the clear choice for any workload that relies on DirectX rendering, 3D graphics, or general compute. Its wins span every DirectX version from 9 through 12, with margins that grow from 58.7% in DirectX 9 to 83.5% in DirectX 11. The PassMark G3D score of 29,009 versus 9,083 confirms that this is not a narrow lead but a generational chasm in raw 3D performance. For Vulkan workloads, the RX 7900 XT also holds a comfortable 37.8% edge, making it the better option for modern cross-platform APIs. The 2D test, while less demanding, still favors the RX 7900 XT by 37.2%, suggesting its advantage extends even to lighter tasks.

The RX 5500 XT’s only meaningful win is in Geekbench OpenCL, where its 46,965 score dwarfs the RX 7900 XT’s 12,756. This is not a small margin; it is a 268.2% difference. For users whose primary benchmark is OpenCL, the RX 5500 XT is the better performer. This could matter for specific compute applications that leverage OpenCL through certain drivers or libraries. However, this single result does not translate into wins elsewhere, and it is outweighed by the RX 7900 XT’s nine other victories.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. Memory capacity is a major split: the RX 5500 XT has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the RX 7900 XT has 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus, delivering 800.0 GB/s. That is a five-fold increase in capacity and a 3.57x increase in bandwidth.

The GPU cores scale accordingly. The RX 5500 XT has 1,408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The RX 7900 XT has 5,376 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. The RX 7900 XT also has 84 ray tracing cores, while the RX 5500 XT has none. Clock speeds differ as well: the RX 5500 XT has a base clock of 1607 MHz and a boost clock of 1845 MHz, while the RX 7900 XT has a lower base of 1387 MHz but a higher boost of 2394 MHz.

The memory clock is faster on the RX 7900 XT, rated at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective) versus 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) on the RX 5500 XT. The power requirements are also different, with the RX 5500 XT rated at 130 W TDP and the RX 7900 XT at 300 W TDP. The RX 7900 XT requires two 8-pin power connectors and a 700 W PSU, while the RX 5500 XT uses one 8-pin connector and a 300 W PSU.

The bus interface differs: the RX 5500 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the RX 7900 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs also diverge, with the RX 5500 XT offering 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, and the RX 7900 XT offering 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C. Physical dimensions are vastly different: the RX 5500 XT is 180 mm long, while the RX 7900 XT is 276 mm long, 110 mm tall, and 51 mm wide.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide is foundational. The RX 5500 XT is built on RDNA 1.0 and uses the Navi 14 chip, fabricated on TSMC’s 7 nm process. The RX 7900 XT uses RDNA 3.0 and the Navi 31 chip (codenamed Plum Bonito), on TSMC’s 5 nm process. The transistor count reflects the generational leap: the RX 5500 XT has 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die, while the RX 7900 XT has 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die. Transistor density increases from 40.5M per mm² on the RX 5500 XT to 109.1M per mm² on the RX 7900 XT.

The RX 7900 XT’s RDNA 3.0 architecture introduces dedicated ray tracing hardware, with 84 RT cores, a feature entirely absent from the RX 5500 XT. The shading and texturing throughput scales with the core counts, leading to a pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s on the RX 7900 XT, against 59.04 GPixel/s and 162.4 GTexel/s on the RX 5500 XT. Floating point performance follows: the RX 7900 XT delivers 51.48 TFLOPS FP32 and 103.0 TFLOPS FP16, while the RX 5500 XT delivers 5.196 TFLOPS FP32 and 10.39 TFLOPS FP16.

API support also differs. The RX 5500 XT supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RX 7900 XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 7900 XT’s newer architecture is also reflected in its generation name, Navi III (RX 7000), compared to the RX 5500 XT’s Navi (RX 5000). The RX 5500 XT’s predecessor is listed as Vega, and its successor as Navi II; the RX 7900 XT’s predecessor is Navi II, and its successor is Navi IV.

The Verdict

The data points to a straightforward conclusion for most users: the RX 7900 XT is the overwhelmingly faster card in nearly every benchmark category. It wins all DirectX tests, all PassMark graphics tests, the Vulkan test, and the compute test. If the workload is gaming, 3D rendering, or general GPU compute, the RX 7900 XT delivers between 37.2% and 83.5% more performance depending on the API. The only scenario where the RX 5500 XT is preferable is a workload that heavily depends on OpenCL, where its 268.2% advantage is unmistakable.

For users who prioritize DirectX 11 or 12 gaming, the RX 7900 XT is the only rational choice from this pairing. Its 20 GB of memory and 800.0 GB/s bandwidth also provide headroom that the 4 GB RX 5500 XT cannot match. The RX 5500 XT, meanwhile, remains relevant only for niche OpenCL compute tasks. Its 57th percentile ranking against all GPUs is higher than the RX 7900 XT’s 55th percentile, but that ranking is skewed by the OpenCL outlier. In practical terms, the RX 7900 XT is the superior hardware, and the RX 5500 XT’s single benchmark win should be treated as an anomaly rather than a trend.