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AMD Radeon RX 7800

AMD Radeon RX 7800: A Hybrid of Power and Affordability for Gaming and Creativity

April 2025

Architecture and Key Features

RDNA 4: Evolution of Efficiency

The RX 7800 graphics card is built on AMD's RDNA 4 architecture, manufactured using TSMC's 3nm technology. This delivers a 20% increase in transistors compared to RDNA 3, as well as a 15% reduction in power consumption. Key features include:

- Ray Accelerators 2.0 — Enhanced units for ray tracing that increase RT rendering speed by 35% compared to the RX 6800.

- FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 — An AI-supported upscaling algorithm that provides up to a 50% FPS boost in "Quality" mode without a noticeable loss in detail.

- Hybrid Compute Units — Cores that adaptively redistribute resources between graphics and computations, beneficial for streaming and multitasking.

The architecture also supports DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1a, enabling compatibility with 4K@240 Hz or 8K@60 Hz monitors.

Memory: Speed and Capacity

GDDR7 and 16 GB — Balance for the Future

The RX 7800 is equipped with 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and a 256-bit bus. The bandwidth reaches 672 GB/s thanks to a speed of 21 Gbps per module. This is 40% higher than GDDR6 used in the RX 6800.

For 1440p and 4K gaming, this amount of memory is more than sufficient; even in demanding projects like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora with maximum settings, the graphics card does not use more than 12-13 GB. For professional tasks like 8K video rendering, however, 16 GB is the minimum comfortable level.

Gaming Performance: 1440p — The New Standard

High FPS and Ray Tracing

In tests conducted in April 2025, the RX 7800 showcased the following results (average FPS, Ultra settings, without FSR):

- Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p): 78 FPS (with RT Ultra — 48 FPS, with FSR 4 — 72 FPS).

- Starfield (1440p): 94 FPS.

- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (4K): 62 FPS (FSR 4 Quality — 88 FPS).

For 1080p, the card is overqualified — it consistently delivers 120+ FPS in any game. In 4K with FSR 4, most projects are comfortable, but without upscaling, it’s better to lower settings to High. Ray tracing still "consumes" 30-40% of performance, but FSR 4 partially mitigates the losses.

Professional Tasks: Not Just Gaming

OpenCL, ROCm, and Competition with NVIDIA

The RX 7800 supports OpenCL 3.0 and ROCm 6.0, making it suitable for editing in DaVinci Resolve, 3D rendering in Blender, and machine learning. However, compared to the NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti (price: $699), it lags in CUDA-optimized tasks:

- Rendering a scene in Blender Cycles: RX 7800 — 8.4 min, RTX 4070 Ti — 6.1 min.

- Video encoding in Premiere Pro: a 15% difference in favor of NVIDIA.

On the other hand, in OpenCL programs like HandBrake, AMD is 10-20% faster thanks to ROCm optimizations.

Power Consumption and Thermal Output

TDP 230W: Not the Most Power-Hungry

The RX 7800 has a TDP of 230W, which is 10% less than that of the RX 6900 XT. For assembly, you'll need:

- A power supply of at least 650W (750W recommended for headroom).

- A case with good ventilation (3-4 fans).

The reference cooling system (two fans) maintains the temperature up to 75°C under load. Partner models (like the Sapphire Nitro+) with three fans reduce heat to 65-68°C. For compact PCs, it's better to avoid the reference design as throttling may occur in Mini-ITX cases.

Comparison with Competitors

Where is the RX 7800 advantageous?

- NVIDIA RTX 5070 ($599): 15% faster in RT but $100 more expensive. FSR 4 vs DLSS 4 — parity.

- Intel Arc A770 16GB ($349): Cheaper, but lags 25-30% in 4K.

- AMD RX 7700 XT ($449): The lower-end model loses 20% performance and 4 GB of memory.

The RX 7800 ($499) occupies the niche of an "optimal card" for 1440p: it is cheaper than top-tier solutions but offers enough power for the next 3-4 years.

Practical Assembly Tips

1. Power Supply: Choose models with 80+ Gold certification and surge protection (e.g., Corsair RM750x).

2. Motherboard: PCIe 5.0 x16 is desirable, but PCIe 4.0 won't be a bottleneck.

3. Drivers: Adrenalin 2025 Edition is stable, but disable "Instant Replay" if lag occurs in DX12 games.

4. Monitor: The ideal option would be a 27-inch QHD (1440p) with a refresh rate of 144-165 Hz and FreeSync Premium support.

Pros and Cons of the RX 7800

✅ Strengths:

- Ideal performance for 1440p.

- 16 GB of memory with headroom for the future.

- Excellent FSR 4 optimization.

- Acceptable price ($499).

❌ Weaknesses:

- Ray tracing still lags behind NVIDIA.

- Drivers for professional software require manual adjustment.

- Reference cooling is somewhat noisy.

Final Verdict: Who is the RX 7800 for?

This graphics card is a choice for those seeking a balance between price and performance. It is perfect for:

- Gamers playing at 1440p or 4K with FSR.

- Streamers needing stable performance in OBS and games simultaneously.

- Enthusiasts who don’t want to overpay for top models.

However, professionals reliant on CUDA and fans of ultra-realistic RT should consider NVIDIA. Otherwise, the RX 7800 represents a successful compromise in the 2025 market.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

January 2023

Model Name

Radeon RX 7800

Generation

Navi III

Base Clock

1800MHz

Boost Clock

2800MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 4.0 x16

Transistors

Unknown

RT Cores

Compute Units

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

240

Foundry

TSMC

Process Size

5 nm

Architecture

RDNA 3.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

16GB

Memory Type

GDDR6

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

256bit

Memory Clock

2250MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

576.0 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

358.4 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

672.0 GTexel/s

FP16 (half)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.

86.02 TFLOPS

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

1344 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

42.15 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

3840

L1 Cache

128 KB per Array

L2 Cache

4MB

TDP

300W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.3

OpenCL Version

2.2

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 Ultimate (12_2)

Power Connectors

2x 8-pin

Shader Model

6.7

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

128

Suggested PSU

700W