NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 vs AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Side-by-side benchmark comparison, specs, pricing, and value analysis.
Benchmark Comparison
Gaming figures are average frames per second, measured by Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy. Geometric mean of 15 games, ultra settings, no upscaling. Ray tracing figures are DXR-enabled at 1440p. A dash means the card was not tested at that resolution. Productivity and Steel Nomad are synthetic scores on their own scales and are not comparable to the fps columns.
Specifications
| Spec | GeForce RTX 4090 | Radeon RX 7900 XT |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24GB GDDR6X | 20GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 1008 GB/s | 800 GB/s |
| Shaders | 16384 | 5376 |
| Boost Clock | 2520 MHz | 2400 MHz |
| TDP | 450W | 300W |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | RDNA 3.0 |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 9,236 | 5,616 |
| Best Price | $1,599 | $680 |
| Value Score | 27/100 | 56/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is faster but costs more. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT offers better value for money. Your choice depends on budget vs. performance priority.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 vs AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT: Which Should You Buy?
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is 16% faster at 1440p ultra (146.1 fps against 125.9 fps). That is roughly one settings notch — enough to matter if you are chasing a specific refresh rate, not enough to rescue a bad price.
You pay a 135% premium for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ($1,599 against $680) to get 16% more frames. The extra frames do not keep up with the extra cost — the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the better value here.
Two things beyond raw speed: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 carries 24GB against 20GB — the deciding factor at 1440p and above with ray tracing or texture packs, and the reason 20GB cards age badly; and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT draws 150W less (300W versus 450W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case.