AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Comparison

The Verdict

The recorded data presents a clear split between two cards that occupy different tiers entirely. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX wins 9 of 10 head-to-head benchmarks, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 claims a single, but significant, victory. The RX 7900 XTX is the choice for users prioritizing raw rasterization performance, high-resolution gaming, and compute-heavy workloads. The RTX 4060, despite its losses, shows a unique strength in OpenCL compute that the AMD card cannot match, making it the pick for specific productivity tasks that leverage that API. Looking at the average benchmark scores, the RX 7900 XTX records 19,410 versus the RTX 4060's 17,639, a gap of roughly 10%. However, the percentile data tells a different story: the RX 7900 XTX sits at the 64th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 4060 is close behind at the 61st percentile. This suggests that while the AMD card is faster, both occupy a similar performance tier relative to the entire database, which is an unusual outcome for two cards with such different specifications.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on fundamentally different architectures. The RX 7900 XTX uses AMD's RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 31 chip, codenamed Plum Bonito, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The RTX 4060 uses NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD107 chip, also on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The transistor counts diverge sharply: the RX 7900 XTX packs 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die, while the RTX 4060 has 18,900 million transistors on a much smaller 159 mm² die. This translates to a transistor density of 109.1M per mm² for the AMD card versus 118.9M per mm² for the NVIDIA card, indicating a denser design on the smaller chip. The RX 7900 XTX belongs to the Navi III generation (RX 7000 series) with a predecessor of Navi II and successor of Navi IV, while the RTX 4060 is part of the GeForce 40 series, succeeding GeForce 30 and preceding GeForce 50. Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API compatibility is identical. The RX 7900 XTX features 6,144 shading units, 384 texture mapping units, 192 ROPs, and 96 ray tracing cores, with no dedicated tensor cores. The RTX 4060 has 3,072 shading units, 96 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 24 ray tracing cores, and 96 tensor cores, giving NVIDIA the advantage in AI-accelerated workloads despite the AMD card's larger raw compute resources.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 7900 XTX dominates in traditional graphics benchmarks. In PassMark's DirectX 11 test, it scores 356 versus the RTX 4060's 175, a 103.4% advantage. The DirectX 12 test shows a 72.4% lead (131 versus 76), and the DirectX 10 test shows a 61.2% lead (166 versus 103). Even in legacy DirectX 9, the AMD card leads by 39.8% (330 versus 236). The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test shows the largest gap: the RX 7900 XTX scores 6,841 versus the RTX 4060's 2,302, a 197.2% difference. In Vulkan, the RX 7900 XTX leads by 76% (85,612 versus 48,643). The PassMark G3D test shows a 59.8% lead (31,238 versus 19,545), and the GPU compute test shows a 92% lead (17,689 versus 9,213). The 2D test is closer, with the AMD card leading by 22.2% (1,267 versus 1,037). The RTX 4060's sole victory comes in Geekbench OpenCL, where it scores 95,057 versus the RX 7900 XTX's 50,465, a 46.9% advantage. This suggests the RTX 4060 has a more efficient compute path for OpenCL workloads, likely due to its tensor cores, even though the AMD card has higher raw FP32 and FP16 throughput.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX records an average benchmark score of 19,410, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 records 17,639. The RX 7900 XTX also holds a higher percentile ranking at 64 versus the RTX 4060's 61.

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

A: The largest difference appears in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, where the RX 7900 XTX scores 6,841 versus the RTX 4060's 2,302, a 197.2% advantage for the AMD card.

Q: Does the RTX 4060 win any benchmarks?

A: Yes, the RTX 4060 wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 95,057 versus the RX 7900 XTX's 50,465, a 46.9% advantage. This is the only test where the NVIDIA card comes out ahead.

Q: How do the memory configurations compare?

A: The RX 7900 XTX has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 4060 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 272.0 GB/s bandwidth. The AMD card offers three times the capacity and over three times the bandwidth.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The RX 7900 XTX has a TDP of 355 W and a suggested PSU of 750 W, using 2x 8-pin power connectors. The RTX 4060 has a TDP of 115 W and a suggested PSU of 300 W, using a single 12-pin connector. The NVIDIA card requires significantly less power.

Q: Which card has better compute performance in the database?

A: In the PassMark GPU compute test, the RX 7900 XTX scores 17,689 versus the RTX 4060's 9,213, a 92% advantage for AMD. However, in Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4060 leads by 46.9%, indicating the result depends on the specific compute API used.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most striking result in the head-to-head comparison is the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. The RX 7900 XTX delivers 6,841 points, while the RTX 4060 manages only 2,302, a 197.2% delta. This is a massive margin that reflects the AMD card's superior shading units (6,144 versus 3,072) and texture rate (959.2 GTexel/s versus 236.2 GTexel/s). The DirectX 11 test shows a similar pattern: the RX 7900 XTX scores 356 versus 175 for the RTX 4060, a 103.4% advantage. The DirectX 12 test follows with a 72.4% lead (131 versus 76). The Vulkan test shows the RX 7900 XTX at 85,612 versus 48,643, a 76% advantage. In the PassMark G3D test, the AMD card scores 31,238 versus 19,545, a 59.8% lead. The GPU compute test shows 17,689 versus 9,213, a 92% advantage for the RX 7900 XTX. The DirectX 10 test shows 166 versus 103, a 61.2% lead, and DirectX 9 shows 330 versus 236, a 39.8% lead. The 2D test is the closest, with 1,267 versus 1,037, a 22.2% lead. The only reverse result is Geekbench OpenCL, where the RTX 4060 scores 95,057 versus 50,465, a 46.9% advantage for NVIDIA. This single win is remarkable because it contradicts the overall trend, suggesting that the RTX 4060's 96 tensor cores provide a specialized compute advantage that the RX 7900 XTX cannot match despite its larger raw compute resources.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The RX 7900 XTX has a base clock of 1929 MHz, a boost clock of 2498 MHz, and a game clock of 2365 MHz. The RTX 4060 has a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz, with no game clock listed. Memory clocks also differ: the RX 7900 XTX runs at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective), while the RTX 4060 runs at 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective). The AMD card has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, while the NVIDIA card has 8 GB on a 128-bit bus. Bandwidth is a major differentiator: 960.0 GB/s versus 272.0 GB/s. The RX 7900 XTX has 6,144 shading units, 384 TMUs, 192 ROPs, and 96 RT cores. The RTX 4060 has 3,072 shading units, 96 TMUs, 48 ROPs, and 24 RT cores, but adds 96 tensor cores. Pixel rate is 479.6 GPixel/s for the AMD card versus 118.1 GPixel/s for the NVIDIA card. Texture rate is 959.2 GTexel/s versus 236.2 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 61.39 TFLOPS versus 15.11 TFLOPS, and FP16 is 122.8 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 15.11 TFLOPS (1:1). The RX 7900 XTX has a TDP of 355 W, while the RTX 4060 has a TDP of 115 W. The AMD card uses 2x 8-pin connectors and suggests a 750 W PSU, while the NVIDIA card uses a single 12-pin connector and suggests a 300 W PSU. The RX 7900 XTX uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the RTX 4060 uses PCIe 4.0 x8. Display outputs differ: the AMD card has 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C, while the NVIDIA card has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. Physical dimensions also vary: the RX 7900 XTX is 287 mm long, 110 mm high, and 51 mm wide, while the RTX 4060 is 240 mm long, 111 mm high, and 40 mm wide. Both are dual-slot cards. The RX 7900 XTX was released on 2022-11-02 with a launch MSRP of 999 USD, while the RTX 4060 was released on 2023-05-17 with a launch MSRP of 299 USD. Both are end-of-life products.