4090 worth it over 7900 XTX?

I have the Red Devil XTX. It's a superb card, and for now, it pushes all games way beyond what I want/need in games. Moreover, the cooling is excellent, it overclocks very well (flirting with stock 4090 in rasterization), and runs cool. I've also owned a 4080, and the experience is largely equivalent, but the XTX takes a non-trivial edge when overclocked (except in RT, of course). It's not a huge lead for the XTX, but noticeable in taxing games. Drivers and stability are effectively equivalent between the two cards in my experience.

As for whether a 4090 is worth the extra ~40% in cost over the 7900 XTX (if you can find them for those relative prices).... sort of, and it depends. If you plan on holding onto the card for 2-3 years, I'd say go for it. The longer you hold onto a card, the better the investment, and in 2-3 years you'll likely want the extra horsepower the 4090 provides. However, if you want a great card now for the next 1-2 years and plan on upgrading with the next gen or refreshes e.g. I tend to trade up when there's a refresh (likely the 4080 ti, when it becomes avaialble), go with the XTX. The 4080 is a hard sell since it's largely equivalent to the 7090 XTX in my view, but it costs ~$200 more.

One caveat, if you are ok running DLSS, nV has the obvious example. For me, I refuse to run with DLSS or FSR: it's one of those thing's that is very obvious when you know what it looks like -- and it's an unnoticiable distraction. I'd rather run "clean" and turn down settings a bit.

In fairness - the $999 XTX does not exist, really. It is faulty and not worth the investment (AMD reference models whether they're AMD or branded by PowerColor, MSI, etc.). You need to get an AIB model and in most cases that is an extra $50-$100 or more (Red Devil LE is $1099.99).

So - it's really just $100 more to go RTX 4080 from 7900 XTX.
 
In fairness - the $999 XTX does not exist, really. It is faulty and not worth the investment (AMD reference models whether they're AMD or branded by PowerColor, MSI, etc.). You need to get an AIB model and in most cases that is an extra $50-$100 or more (Red Devil LE is $1099.99).

So - it's really just $100 more to go RTX 4080 from 7900 XTX.
FWIW, it does exist. Not all of the reference coolers were affected by not having enough water in the vapor chamber. One does not "need to get an AIB model."

Personally, I'd have gotten a Red Devil as my first preference, but the Hellhound is also really nice and has a higher power target than a reference model even at 999. I almost went that route before the non-existent (callback pun intended) 4090 FE showed up at Best Buy and I was able to snag one before Christmas.

As far as the 4080, I'd never buy one on principle. From a $699 MSRP 3080 to a $1199 MSRP 4080, and Asus with their $1549 4080 Strix OC, ha! Nvidia can shut the front door on that. At least the 3090 to 4090 was only a reasonable $100 increase.
 
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FWIW, it does exist. Not all of the reference coolers were affected by not having enough water in the vapor chamber. One does not "need to get an AIB model."

Personally, I'd have gotten a Red Devil as my first preference, but the Hellhound is also really nice and has a higher power target than a reference model even at 999. I almost went that route before the non-existent (callback pun intended) 4090 FE showed up at Best Buy and I was able to snag one before Christmas.

As far as the 4080, I'd never buy one on principle. From a $699 MSRP 3080 to a $1199 MSRP 4080, and Asus with their $1549 4080 Strix OC, ha! Nvidia can shut the front door on that. At least the 3090 to 4090 was only a reasonable $100 increase.
Sure - you may want to play Russian roulette to save $100. But most won’t. It’s a big purchase and RMA is a pain.
 
Sure - you may want to play Russian roulette to save $100. But most won’t. It’s a big purchase and RMA is a pain.
AMD had stated that they sent out a recall to retailers. So, unless you're using a shady dealer it's fine. Also, where are you finding $1099 4080s? They need to drop to $799.
 
AMD had stated that they sent out a recall to retailers. So, unless you're using a shady dealer it's fine. Also, where are you finding $1099 4080s? They need to drop to $799.
Reference 7900 XTX is $999. AIB 7900 XTX is $1099. Save $100 for a gamble.

Reference RTX 4080 is $1199.

I was referring to someone trying to save $100 by going reference XTX versus AIB. I love reference cards but wouldn’t touch AMD’s design now. Glad that I didn’t - even the Red Devil is a flame thrower.
 
Reference 7900 XTX is $999. AIB 7900 XTX is $1099. Save $100 for a gamble.

Reference RTX 4080 is $1199.

I was referring to someone trying to save $100 by going reference XTX versus AIB. I love reference cards but wouldn’t touch AMD’s design now. Glad that I didn’t - even the Red Devil is a flame thrower.
The Powercolor 7900 XTX Hellhound is 999. Gamble away.

And my 4090 pulling 600+ watts is also fairly hot - hitting over 82C in Star Citizen at Orison. Stock it's not bad, usually no more than 73C.
 
The Powercolor 7900 XTX Hellhound is 999. Gamble away.

And my 4090 pulling 600+ watts is also fairly hot - hitting over 82C in Star Citizen at Orison. Stock it's not bad, usually no more than 73C.
Touché!

Yeah my 4090 doesn’t generate nearly the same heat as my 7900 XTX. It’s nuts.

Performance is the same if you let the 7900 XTX power 1080p and the 4090 power 3440x1440. Lol

EDIT: I also doubt your 4090 is pulling that much wattage unless you’re using some crazy firmware. If so - why?
 
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In fairness - the $999 XTX does not exist, really. It is faulty and not worth the investment (AMD reference models whether they're AMD or branded by PowerColor, MSI, etc.). You need to get an AIB model and in most cases that is an extra $50-$100 or more (Red Devil LE is $1099.99).

So - it's really just $100 more to go RTX 4080 from 7900 XTX.
Faulty how? Apart from the earlier batches with the water fill issue, the reference design is very good. I had one of the first ones that had the water fill issue which got RMA'ed no issue. Had someone in the factory not calibrated the filler machine correctly, I would have 100% had kept it.
 
Touché!

Yeah my 4090 doesn’t generate nearly the same heat as my 7900 XTX. It’s nuts.

Performance is the same if you let the 7900 XTX power 1080p and the 4090 power 3440x1440. Lol

EDIT: I also doubt your 4090 is pulling that much wattage unless you’re using some crazy firmware. If so - why?
Stock firmware, power slider +33, +150 core, +1000 VRAM, voltage slider maxed (seems to be 570 to 580W this patch, a few patches ago it hit 600W fairly consistently in that spot). Why? Because I moved sliders and the 4090 can pull a metric fudge ton of power, and I game at 4K where the 4090 actually needs to stretch its legs:
 

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Stock firmware, power slider +33, +150 core, +1000 VRAM, voltage slider maxed (seems to be 570 to 580W this patch, a few patches ago it hit 600W fairly consistently in that spot). Why? Because I moved sliders and the 4090 can pull a metric fudge ton of power, and I game at 4K where the 4090 actually needs to stretch its legs:
Yeah. I somehow doubt that accuracy. Here is max reading from my AX1600i:

power_draw.jpg


And my UPS:

ups_4090.jpg


That's my ENTIRE SYSTEM.
 
FWIW, it does exist. Not all of the reference coolers were affected by not having enough water in the vapor chamber. One does not "need to get an AIB model."

Personally, I'd have gotten a Red Devil as my first preference, but the Hellhound is also really nice and has a higher power target than a reference model even at 999. I almost went that route before the non-existent (callback pun intended) 4090 FE showed up at Best Buy and I was able to snag one before Christmas.

As far as the 4080, I'd never buy one on principle. From a $699 MSRP 3080 to a $1199 MSRP 4080, and Asus with their $1549 4080 Strix OC, ha! Nvidia can shut the front door on that. At least the 3090 to 4090 was only a reasonable $100 increase.
Speaking as someone who did get a defective card on launch day (where you don't get to be picky about reference/AIB models, Micro Center has what they have, take it or leave it) and needed a few weeks to figure out why it was overheating, I certainly wouldn't want to go through that crap again, especially not for $1,000 + sales tax.

Regarding the 4080, it is obnoxiously priced for sure, but the performance is also there to the point that I'm not sure I feel like spending $500+ extra for the 4090, especially when said 4090 is realistically a $1,700+ card when it restocks. Better off pocketing the savings and using it toward a future GPU generation now that my performance target is generally met.
 
Stock firmware, power slider +33, +150 core, +1000 VRAM, voltage slider maxed (seems to be 570 to 580W this patch, a few patches ago it hit 600W fairly consistently in that spot). Why? Because I moved sliders and the 4090 can pull a metric fudge ton of power, and I game at 4K where the 4090 actually needs to stretch its legs:
What’s your real world performance difference when drawing that extra wattage vs default settings? Have you measured or merely going this route because you can?
 
What’s your real world performance difference when drawing that extra wattage vs default settings? Have you measured or merely going this route because you can?
It's very minor from what I've heard of similar oc'd cards in owners' threads. The card does well at 3ghz core, but undervolting and no mem oc works best with that.
 
What’s your real world performance difference when drawing that extra wattage vs default settings? Have you measured or merely going this route because you can?
In that particular spot on Orison, I went from 45FPS to 60FPS. It's an unoptimized alpha, so I just keep it at the default 100% power target unless I'm testing. That, and I'm not around Orison enough to care - performance is usually 70FPS+ elsewhere (some drops to 45 around cities in certain spots, but that's a CPU bottleneck there).
 
In that particular spot on Orison, I went from 45FPS to 60FPS. It's an unoptimized alpha, so I just keep it at the default 100% power target unless I'm testing. That, and I'm not around Orison enough to care - performance is usually 70FPS+ elsewhere (some drops to 45 around cities in certain spots, but that's a CPU bottleneck there).
Wow, so you gained 33% from the 150mhz core oc?! Amazing!!!!
;)
 
Wow, so you gained 33% from the 150mhz core oc?! Amazing!!!!
;)
I think during that testing (the 600W), it was +225MHz on the core, +1250MHz on the VRAM, voltage slider and power slider maxed. So around 150W more and a lot more core and VRAM frequency vs stock. My everyday OC is +150 on the core, +1000 on the VRAM, and no power or voltage slider increase. I used the +150/1000 my second time going there to see - and I only saw 570 to 580W drawn (and it was a newer SC patch).

Feel free to buy the game and a 4090 to test for yourself - take the elevator up to the top of the player habs on Orison. Afterburner is free. EDIT - just be aware that it is very much an alpha, prone to bugs - and they patch fairly often which does change performance (as an example, the upcoming 3.18 patch is part of their Gen12 graphics engine upgrade. It's not Vulkan yet, but it runs a lot smoother even though it's DX11 - just slightly less single CPU thread dependent).
 
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I have both. The 4090 is a wonderful card and I have a 7900XTX that suffers from the "hotspot" issue but both are fantastic to game on. Is the 4090 better? Yes. Is it $600 better? Certainly not. I actually use the 7900XTX on a 4k display whereas the 4090 is a 1440P Ultrawide. While gaming on both I don't think about FPS and never do I feel like either aren't up to the task. If DLSS and RT isn't something you care about, get the 7900XTX. I would recommend getting an AIB one, though. I took a risk and it did not pay off.
 
I have both. The 4090 is a wonderful card and I have a 7900XTX that suffers from the "hotspot" issue but both are fantastic to game on. Is the 4090 better? Yes. Is it $600 better? Certainly not. I actually use the 7900XTX on a 4k display whereas the 4090 is a 1440P Ultrawide. While gaming on both I don't think about FPS and never do I feel like either aren't up to the task. If DLSS and RT isn't something you care about, get the 7900XTX. I would recommend getting an AIB one, though. I took a risk and it did not pay off.
Why you are using the weaker card on a higher resolution display. Seems like you would want the 4090 on the 4K display. Case size issues? Just wondering. <shrug>
 
Why you are using the weaker card on a higher resolution display. Seems like you would want the 4090 on the 4K display. Case size issues? Just wondering. <shrug>
Exactly. My HTPC is small and I don't use it nearly as often as my desktop. I want the beast in my main machine.
 
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