One of the first big questions was “where were the comparisons to NVIDIA?” AMD usually isn’t shy about comparing its new products to its competitors, where both NVIDIA and Intel usually prefer to compare themselves to their own previous generation products. We could write a lot about why this is the case, but apparently the reason AMD didn’t compare with NVIDIA this time is because the GeForce RTX 4080 hasn’t been released yet and that’s the card the red team was targeting with their product . That makes sense, given the $900 and $1000 prices for Navi 31-based GPUs. NVIDIA’s preliminary pricing for the GeForce RTX 4080 16GB model — which is now the only 4080 model — puts it at $1200 , so if AMD’s product is competitive, it will definitely have a place in the market. However, AMD could have compared its GPU to NVIDIA’s previous-gen components, which are still technically current-gen below the GeForce RTX 4090 – especially if claims of drastically improved ray-tracing performance are to be believed. Speaking to PC World and answering a question from the livestream audience, Frank Azor also noted that AMD’s frame generation FSR3 technology “is not a reaction … to DLSS3” and that the company has been working on it for “a little time.” He says it’s not ready for primetime yet, because AMD wants to make FSR 3 continue the tradition of openness passed down from FidelityFX Super Resolution. In other words, he wants to make it available on older and competitive GPUs, not just RDNA 3 Radeons. A lot of details about RDNA 3 were leaked before the cards were released, and most of those details were accurate, but one area where the leakers really got it wrong is on the subject of clock rates. Rumors had pegged the RDNA 3 GPUs at easily over 3GHz and in some cases up to 4GHz. Meanwhile, the actual cards that AMD sells exceed 2.5 GHz, at least for their nominal clock rates. Of course, boost clocks will be higher than rated clocks, and AMD doesn’t disclose “max boost” numbers, preferring to give “game clocks” that it believes will more accurately represent what gamers will see while gaming. According to Jarred Walton for Tom’s Hardware, the maximum boost could be quite a bit higher than that. Speaking on the live stream, Walton said AMD told him the GPU was “designed to scale up to 3GHz.” Whether that means the standard Radeon RX 7900 XTX will hit 3GHz, or instead that partner cards with higher power limits can hit 3GHz—or if Walton misinterpreted something—we don’t know. We should have our usual reviews of the new Radeons ready for you as soon as possible, so sit tight and keep your eyes on HotHardware to find out if AMD’s new boards are boom or bust for the red team.
