AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data splits these two cards into distinct profiles. Across the ten benchmark comparisons, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE takes seven wins, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 claims three. The largest single victory belongs to NVIDIA in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where the RTX 4070 scores 174,152 against 99,850 for the RX 7900 GRE, a commanding 74.4% advantage. That result indicates a substantial lead in Vulkan compute workloads, a category where the Ada Lovelace architecture appears to excel.

The RX 7900 GRE counters with a strong showing in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. Its score of 4,814 beats the RTX 4070’s 3,854 by 19.9%, making this the biggest win for AMD in the entire set. This is a modern DirectX 12 stress test, and the margin suggests the RDNA 3.0 card has a meaningful edge in rasterization-heavy scenarios under that API. The Geekbench OpenCL result follows a similar pattern, with AMD ahead at 175,758 versus 154,858, a gap of 11.9%. OpenCL is often used for compute tasks, and the RX 7900 GRE’s higher raw throughput shows up here.

Older DirectX versions also favor AMD. In Passmark DirectX 11, the RX 7900 GRE scores 300 against 244, a lead of 18.7%. The DirectX 12 Passmark test is much closer, with AMD ahead by just 3.7% (107 versus 103). The DirectX 10 test is a perfect tie at 139 for both cards, so there is no separation in that legacy API. NVIDIA takes the DirectX 9 test by a narrow 3.2% margin, scoring 320 versus 310.

The remaining tests are tight. In Passmark G3D, the RX 7900 GRE edges out the RTX 4070 with a score of 27,089 versus 26,927, a difference of only 0.6%. The Passmark G2D test shows AMD ahead by 1.4% (1,180 versus 1,164), and the GPU compute test gives AMD a 2% lead (15,016 versus 14,720). These margins are small enough that they fall within normal run-to-run variance, but the consistency of AMD’s advantage across multiple tests is notable.

Looking at the broader database picture, the RTX 4070 holds an 81st percentile ranking among all GPUs, while the RX 7900 GRE sits at the 77th percentile. The average benchmark score for the RTX 4070 is 37,648, compared to 32,456 for the RX 7900 GRE. That is a curious inversion: the RX 7900 GRE wins more individual head-to-head tests, yet its average score across the full database is lower. This can happen when the head-to-head set emphasizes tests where AMD performs well, while the wider database includes workloads where the RTX 4070’s strengths, such as Vulkan performance, carry more weight. The nearest rivals for the RTX 4070, including the NVIDIA Tesla P4 at 37,628 and the RTX 4080 Mobile at 38,135, confirm that its average sits in a competitive band. The RX 7900 GRE’s nearest rivals are older AMD cards like the FirePro S10000 at 32,388, which indicates its average is closer to legacy workstation parts than to current high-end consumer GPUs.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins the most head-to-head benchmark comparisons?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE wins seven of the ten recorded tests, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 wins three. One test, Passmark DirectX 10, is a tie at 139 for both.

Q: What is the largest performance gap between the two cards?

A: The largest gap is in Geekbench Vulkan, where the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 scores 174,152 versus 99,850 for the RX 7900 GRE, a 74.4% advantage for NVIDIA.

Q: How do the cards compare in modern DirectX 12 gaming workloads?

A: In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the RX 7900 GRE leads with 4,814 points against 3,854, a 19.9% margin. In the Passmark DirectX 12 test, the RX 7900 GRE is ahead by only 3.7% (107 versus 103).

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score in the database?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 has an average benchmark score of 37,648, while the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE averages 32,456. This is despite the RX 7900 GRE winning more head-to-head tests.

Q: How do the cards rank percentile-wise among all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks in the 81st percentile, while the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE ranks in the 77th percentile.

Q: Are there any tests where the two cards perform identically?

A: Yes, the Passmark DirectX 10 test shows both cards scoring 139, a perfect tie with 0% difference.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 uses the AD104 chip built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated by TSMC on a 5 nm process. It packs 35,800 million transistors into a 294 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 121.8 million per square millimeter. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE uses the Navi 31 chip with the RDNA 3.0 architecture, also on TSMC’s 5 nm node, but the die is far larger at 529 mm² and contains 57,700 million transistors. That works out to a lower density of 109.1 million per square millimeter, which reflects the more spread-out layout of AMD’s chiplet-style design approach.

The compute resources differ in structure. The RTX 4070 has 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation pipelines. It also includes 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores, the latter being a key feature for AI-accelerated workloads. The RX 7900 GRE has 5,120 shading units, which is fewer than the RTX 4070, but it compensates with 320 texture units and 160 ROPs, both substantially higher. AMD’s card has 80 ray tracing cores but no tensor core equivalent listed in the database. The higher TMU and ROP counts on the RX 7900 GRE explain its strong pixel rate of 359.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 718.4 GTexel/s, both roughly double the RTX 4070’s figures of 158.4 GPixel/s and 455.4 GTexel/s.

Clock behavior also differs. The RTX 4070 has a base clock of 1920 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, with no separate game clock listed. The RX 7900 GRE runs at a lower base clock of 1287 MHz but boosts to 2245 MHz, and AMD also lists a game clock of 1880 MHz, a figure NVIDIA does not provide for this card. The floating-point output tells a clear story: the RX 7900 GRE delivers 45.98 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the RTX 4070 manages 29.15 TFLOPS. In FP16, the gap widens further, with the RX 7900 GRE reaching 91.96 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, while the RTX 4070 stays at 29.15 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio.

Memory architecture is another major split. The RTX 4070 uses 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 7900 GRE steps up to 16 GB of GDDR6 on a wider 256-bit bus, yielding 576.0 GB/s. The memory clock figures are 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA and 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) for AMD. The larger capacity and wider bus give the RX 7900 GRE an advantage in bandwidth-hungry scenarios, while the GDDR6X type on the RTX 4070 offers higher per-pin efficiency.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every primary specification. The RTX 4070 has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory, while the RX 7900 GRE has 16 GB of GDDR6. The bus width is 192-bit on the NVIDIA card versus 256-bit on the AMD card, and memory bandwidth is 504.2 GB/s versus 576.0 GB/s. Shading units favor NVIDIA at 5,888 versus 5,120, but texture units and ROPs heavily favor AMD at 320 and 160 versus 184 and 64. Ray tracing cores are 46 on the RTX 4070 and 80 on the RX 7900 GRE, while tensor cores exist only on the NVIDIA card at 184.

The power draw differs by 60 W, with the RTX 4070 rated at 200 W and the RX 7900 GRE at 260 W. The suggested power supply is 550 W for NVIDIA and 600 W for AMD. Power connectors also differ: the RTX 4070 uses a single 16-pin connector, while the RX 7900 GRE uses two 8-pin connectors. Physical dimensions vary as well, with the RTX 4070 measuring 240 mm in length, 110 mm in height, and 40 mm in width, while the RX 7900 GRE is longer at 276 mm and thicker at 51 mm, with the same 110 mm height. Both cards are dual-slot.

Display outputs show a clear generational difference. The RTX 4070 offers one HDMI 2.1 port and three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The RX 7900 GRE provides one HDMI 2.1a port, two DisplayPort 2.1 outputs, and one USB Type-C port. The API support is identical on paper, with both cards supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The production status differs, with the RTX 4070 listed as end-of-life and the RX 7900 GRE as active. Release dates are close, with the RTX 4070 launching on 2023-04-11 and the RX 7900 GRE on 2023-07-26.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear choice for different priorities. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE wins the majority of head-to-head tests, particularly in modern DirectX 12 workloads like 3DMark Steel Nomad where it leads by 19.9%. It also offers more memory at 16 GB versus 12 GB, higher bandwidth at 576.0 GB/s, and a wider 256-bit bus. Its higher TDP of 260 W is the trade-off for that extra performance, and it still ranks in the 77th percentile of all GPUs. For users prioritizing rasterization performance across a broad set of benchmarks, the RX 7900 GRE is the stronger card.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 tells a different story. Its Vulkan result is a standout, with a 74.4% lead over the RX 7900 GRE, and its average benchmark score of 37,648 is higher than AMD’s 32,456. It ranks in the 81st percentile, four points above the RX 7900 GRE. The tensor cores give it capabilities the AMD card lacks entirely, and its lower 200 W power draw makes it the more efficient option. The RTX 4070 is also shorter at 240 mm, which matters for smaller cases, and its single 16-pin connector simplifies cabling.

The verdict from the recorded data is straightforward: pick the RX 7900 GRE for raw rasterization wins and higher memory capacity, or pick the RTX 4070 for Vulkan compute dominance, tensor core support, higher average scores, and lower power consumption. The RX 7900 GRE is the better choice for anyone who wants the majority of benchmark wins, while the RTX 4070 suits those who value its specific strengths in Vulkan and its higher overall database standing.