AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT vs AMD Radeon RX 9060 Comparison

The Verdict

The benchmark data presents a clear split between these two AMD Radeon cards. The RX 7900 XT wins 9 of the 10 head-to-head tests, while the RX 9060 takes a single, but massive, victory. The RX 7900 XT is the dominant performer for traditional rasterization and DirectX workloads, leading by margins from 13% to 60% depending on the test. The RX 9060, however, delivers an extraordinary result in Geekbench OpenCL, scoring 591.3% higher than the 7900 XT, a figure that stands out sharply against the rest of the data.

The RX 7900 XT is the pick for users prioritizing gaming and DirectX performance. Its PassMark DirectX 12 score of 110 versus 44 for the RX 9060, a 60% advantage, shows a substantial lead in the most demanding modern API. The RX 9060, in contrast, should be considered by those whose workloads are heavily compute-oriented in the OpenCL API, where its score of 88183 dwarfs the 12756 of the 7900 XT. The RX 7900 XT is marked as end-of-life, while the RX 9060 is active, but the recorded data shows the older card still holds a commanding performance lead in most measured areas.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins the most benchmark tests?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT wins 9 out of 10 head-to-head benchmarks. The only test won by the AMD Radeon RX 9060 is Geekbench OpenCL.

Q: How large is the RX 9060's victory in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The RX 9060 scores 88183, while the RX 7900 XT scores 12756, resulting in a 591.3% advantage for the RX 9060.

Q: What is the largest margin of victory for the RX 7900 XT?

A: The RX 7900 XT's biggest win is in PassMark DirectX 12, where its score of 110 is 60% higher than the RX 9060's score of 44.

Q: How do the cards compare in 3DMark Steel Nomad?

A: The RX 7900 XT scores 5623, which is 40.9% higher than the RX 9060's score of 3322.

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The RX 9060 has a higher average benchmark score of 16014, compared to the RX 7900 XT's 13745. This is despite the RX 7900 XT winning most individual tests.

Q: What are the percentile rankings of each card?

A: The RX 9060 is in the 59th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 7900 XT is in the 55th percentile.

Architecture Differences

The two cards belong to different architectural generations. The RX 9060 is based on the Navi 44 chip and uses the RDNA 4.0 architecture, with the codename Strix Point. The RX 7900 XT uses the Navi 31 chip with the RDNA 3.0 architecture, codenamed Plum Bonito. The RX 9060 is fabricated on a 4 nm process at TSMC, while the RX 7900 XT uses a 5 nm process, also at TSMC.

The transistor counts differ substantially. The RX 7900 XT packs 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 109.1M per mm². The RX 9060 has 29,700 million transistors on a much smaller 199 mm² die, giving it a higher transistor density of 149.2M per mm². This means the newer, smaller chip achieves greater density despite having fewer total transistors.

The execution resources scale accordingly. The RX 7900 XT features 5376 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 192 render output units. The RX 9060 has 1792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Ray tracing hardware also differs, with the RX 7900 XT carrying 84 RT cores versus 28 on the RX 9060. Neither card has tensor cores listed in the database.

The memory subsystems are architecturally distinct. The RX 7900 XT uses a 320-bit memory bus with 20 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the RX 9060 uses a 128-bit bus with 8 GB of GDDR6. The RX 9060 belongs to the Navi IV (RX 9000) generation, succeeding the Navi III line, while the RX 7900 XT is from the Navi III (RX 7000) generation and lists Navi IV as its successor. The RX 9060 is an active product, whereas the RX 7900 XT is end-of-life.

Specification Differences

The clock speeds show the RX 9060 running at higher frequencies. Its base clock is 1700 MHz, boost clock is 2990 MHz, and game clock is 2400 MHz. The RX 7900 XT has a base clock of 1387 MHz, a boost clock of 2394 MHz, and a game clock of 2025 MHz. Memory clocks also differ, with the RX 9060 running at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) versus 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective) for the RX 7900 XT.

Memory capacity and bandwidth heavily favor the RX 7900 XT. It has 20 GB of memory and 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth, compared to the RX 9060's 8 GB and 288.0 GB/s. The bus width explains this gap, 320-bit for the RX 7900 XT versus 128-bit for the RX 9060.

Compute throughput figures favor the RX 7900 XT. Its FP32 performance is 51.48 TFLOPS, and it reaches 103.0 TFLOPS in FP16 with a 2:1 ratio. The RX 9060 delivers 21.43 TFLOPS in FP32 and the same 21.43 TFLOPS in FP16, indicating a 1:1 ratio. Pixel rate is 459.6 GPixel/s for the RX 7900 XT versus 191.4 GPixel/s for the RX 9060, and texture rate is 804.4 GTexel/s versus 334.9 GTexel/s.

Power and connectivity specifications differ. The RX 7900 XT has a TDP of 300 W, requires a 700 W power supply, and uses two 8-pin connectors. The RX 9060 has a TDP of 132 W, a suggested 300 W power supply, and a single 8-pin connector. Both are dual-slot cards. The RX 7900 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the RX 9060 uses PCIe 5.0 x16. Display outputs are similar but not identical: the RX 9060 has 1x HDMI 2.1b and 2x DisplayPort 2.1a, while the RX 7900 XT has 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C. The RX 7900 XT has recorded physical dimensions of 276 mm in length, 110 mm in height, and 51 mm in width; the RX 9060 dimensions are not listed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The RX 7900 XT dominates the DirectX benchmark suite. In PassMark DirectX 12, it scores 110 against 44 for the RX 9060, a 60% lead. The DirectX 11 test shows a similar pattern, with the RX 7900 XT at 340 and the RX 9060 at 182, a 46.5% margin. DirectX 10 results are 158 versus 104, a 34.2% advantage, and DirectX 9 shows the narrowest DirectX gap at 322 versus 280, still a 13% win for the RX 7900 XT.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, a modern ray-traced workload, also goes to the RX 7900 XT. Its score of 5623 is 40.9% higher than the RX 9060's 3322. Geekbench Vulkan follows the same trend, with the RX 7900 XT scoring 71068 versus 39476, a 44.5% margin.

Compute and general performance tests reinforce the RX 7900 XT's lead. PassMark GPU Compute shows 16828 for the RX 7900 XT against 9919 for the RX 9060, a 41.1% difference. PassMark G3D scores 29009 versus 17631, a 39.2% gap. Even the 2D test favors the RX 7900 XT, with 1232 versus 1002, an 18.7% advantage.

The single exception is Geekbench OpenCL. The RX 9060 scores 88183, which is 591.3% higher than the RX 7900 XT's 12756. This result is an outlier compared to every other test in the dataset. It suggests the RX 9060's architecture, despite lower raw compute specifications, delivers exceptional performance in this specific OpenCL workload. The data shows no other test where the RX 9060 comes close to matching the RX 7900 XT, making this one result a notable anomaly in an otherwise one-sided comparison.