Radeon 7900M trades blows with laptop RTX 4090 in Vulkan benchmarks

[Daniel Sims]

The big picture: Team Red conceded the top-end performance tier to Nvidia when the RDNA 3 and Ada Lovelace desktop graphics cards launched last year. However, benchmarks show a much smaller gap between the two companies' flagship laptop GPUs, especially in games utilizing Vulkan.

Recent Vulkan benchmarks show the Radeon RX 7900M faring surprisingly well against the mobile GeForce RTX 4090. The minor difference between the two cards is surprising, given the gulf between their respective desktop variants.

When AMD launched the Radeon RX 7000 series in late 2022, it quickly became evident that its top GPU – the RX 7900 XTX – would be closer to Team Green's RTX 4080 than the famous 4090. The comparisons resulted in AMD's RDNA 3 flagship debuting at $200 under Nvidia's second-tier card. However, with its new flagship mobile card, launched last month, the laptop graphics crown might be within Team Red's reach.

Benchmarks have begun appearing using the Alienware m18 laptop, which customers can configure with the RX 7900M or almost any RTX 4000 GPU. Although the options allow fairly direct comparisons between cards, all available Geekbench results for the 4090 pair it with Intel's Core i9-13980HX, while 7900M posts use AMD's Ryzen 9 7945HX. Both CPUs are enthusiast-class with the same number of threads, but readers should note the difference when comparing total benchmark scores.

Comparing compute tests on Vulkan and OpenCL suggests the mobile RTX 4090 struggles with the former. Most posts beat the RX 7900M's 171430 score, but not by much, with results ranging between 148498 and 188477.

Meanwhile, Nvidia's card thrashes the Radeon in OpenCL, with scores mostly ranging between 187377 and 208896 compared to the 7900M's 144611. However, the Vulkan results are likely more significant because it's a more popular API.

Recent notable releases supporting Vulkan include Counter-Strike 2 and Baldur's Gate 3. Players interested in those titles and willing to spend around $3,000 on a gaming laptop might want to consider their options carefully.

In related news, the US ban on exporting the RTX 4090 to China has boosted sales of the 7900 XTX there. Dwindling pre-ban stock of Nvidia's flagship is going for over $2,700 – hundreds of dollars above its US price. Meanwhile, AMD's counterpart sells at or slightly below its American MSRP. Vendors have responded with minor price hikes that likely won't dent its increasing desirability.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100889-radeon-7900m-trades-blows-laptop-rtx-4090-vulkan.html

 

[manowar51]

I cant consider an AMD graphics card right now. Not when its poor at ray tracing and lacks DLSS. Nvidia may be cornering the market for those features and yeah that's bad. But its working..

 

[Nobina]

I cant consider an AMD graphics card right now. Not when its poor at ray tracing and lacks DLSS. Nvidia may be cornering the market for those features and yeah that's bad. But its working..

In most cases I prefer AMD to Nvidia's overpriced and underVRAM'd cards, but if you're buying high-end cards for top dollar you should absolutely demand all the features and Nvidia is simply ahead there.

 

[dangh]

I still buy amd, as it really creates solid, open solutions and I want to support it. 7900xtx is great card, and maybe 3 games in playing support rt at all and it still works great.
Good to see they are relevant on laptop market.

 

[AndreV]

I cant consider an AMD graphics card right now. Not when its poor at ray tracing and lacks DLSS. Nvidia may be cornering the market for those features and yeah that's bad. But its working..

Your point of view is very valid at first glance, as long as it holds. The problems comes afterwards when if only NVIDIA remains top dog, or even the only dog, then their monopoly will bend all of us, spread our ***-checks, grease us well and aim for penetration.

 

[yRaz]

When you give an anti-consumer anti-competitive criminal organization money you give it justification to continue it's criminal behavior.

Yeah, I won't deny that nVidia is better but they got that way by paying devs to optimize or develop for their hardware and then market it heavily. Ray tracing has existed for nearly 20 years but noone was interested in it until nVidia marketed the RTX. There wasn't justification for faster cards after the 1080ti so they had to make up a reason to use more power. Raytracing is cool and everything, but probably 1 in 5 games that use it see much benefit from it and that isn't worth $1000+ to me. My 6700xt is my first AMD card and I'm happy with it. Most newer games aren't worth spending $1000+ to play anyway.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Your point of view is very valid at first glance, as long as it holds. The problems comes afterwards when if only NVIDIA remains top dog, or even the only dog, then their monopoly will bend all of us, spread our ***-checks, grease us well and aim for penetration.

If AMD cant make a competitive architecture that is not the consumer's fault. If AMD cuts off drivers at 6 years instead of 10 like nvidia, that is not the consumers fault. If AMD restricts GPU shipments during times of insane demand, that isnt consumers fault.

Nvidia got where it is because they have consistently pushed the bar in performance and features. AMD's 6900xt competing with the 3090 was novel, because the last time AMD did that was 2013.....9 YEARS earlier.

If AMD wants nvidia market-share, then they need to ACT like the premium company they claim to be (and justify charging for). Playing second fiddle for a decade isnt going to get you class leading sales.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

I cant consider an AMD graphics card right now. Not when its poor at ray tracing and lacks DLSS. Nvidia may be cornering the market for those features and yeah that's bad. But its working..

I will never buy an Nvidia GPU again in my life precisely because they raised this insanity that caused the current state of the gaming and GPU market.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Doesn't really matter, AMD is and has always been horrifically supply constrained on the GPU (and even CPU) side.

1 in 10 laptops has an AMD CPU vs Intel.

1 in 10 laptops has an AMD GPU vs Nvidia.

7600/N33 was supposed to be a cheap laptop part that they could crank out and increase marketshare and they're like unicorns out there. And that's the mass market part!

 

[HardReset]

If AMD cant make a competitive architecture that is not the consumer's fault. If AMD cuts off drivers at 6 years instead of 10 like nvidia, that is not the consumers fault. If AMD restricts GPU shipments during times of insane demand, that isnt consumers fault.

Of course those are consumers fault. Many times consumer decided that Nvidia is "better" even when AMD was clearly better. For that reason, AMD decided that it's not worth to make best GPU since stupid consumers just decide Nvidia is better and all development is essentially waste.

Same for CPU side. Intel has not had anything competitive on servers since Zen2 launch 2019 and after Zen3 launch 2020, Intel has been trailing on every category. Still, Intel sells much better. So, better product does NOT equal better sales.

Why AMD decided to invest on CPU tech then? Because they knew that better CPU will eventually guarantee better sales but with GPUs consumers are just too stupid. Believe me, there are plenty of geniuses considering this kind of decisions.

Nvidia got where it is because they have consistently pushed the bar in performance and features. AMD's 6900xt competing with the 3090 was novel, because the last time AMD did that was 2013.....9 YEARS earlier.

If AMD wants nvidia market-share, then they need to ACT like the premium company they claim to be (and justify charging for). Playing second fiddle for a decade isnt going to get you class leading sales.

Like said, Nvidia sells better anyway so why bother. Even if AMD just now releases 7950XTXX that beats every Nvidia card, Nvidia is still "better" because "nvidia has DLSS" or something else crap. So why bother?

 

[Nintenboy01]

I really want to go back to AMD but the poorer RT performance and inconsistency of FSR2 versus DLSS make it really hard. Like in some games FSR2 can look very good, almost indistinguishable from DLSS but in others you can see smearing/trailing and other artifacts not present in DLSS.

 

[wiak]

RTX 4090 mobile is NOT the same as desktop 4090, its just a nvidia smokescreen to trick people into believing its a desktop 4090 lol

 

[manowar51]

When you give an anti-consumer anti-competitive criminal organization money you give it justification to continue it's criminal behavior.

And if you buy an inferior product because you happen to be a fan of the multibillion-dollar US corporation that makes it you are giving justification to these companies to make lousy products. You appear to be an AMD fan, if you buy their card when its objectively second best they have no reason to improve as they will get your money regardless.

By the way, I find it amusing that people think AMD are somehow better than Nvidia. They are both just as disgusting as each other. Just pick what gives you what you want for the money. If AMD could beat Nvidia with RT on and if FSR was as good and as widely supported as DLSS id buy their stuff. I see all this as a commodity where all the salesmen are crooked.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

RTX 4090 mobile is NOT the same as desktop 4090, its just a nvidia smokescreen to trick people into believing its a desktop 4090 lol

It is literally the 4080 just power limited. It has nothing to do with the 4090 and the media should call out their marketing BS rather than stroke Huang's giant ego.

 

[mbk34]

"Players interested in those titles and willing to spend around $3,000 on a gaming laptop might want to consider their options carefully."
On a Venn diagram, that's a very small circle.

 

[havok585]

I cant consider an AMD graphics card right now. Not when its poor at ray tracing and lacks DLSS. Nvidia may be cornering the market for those features and yeah that's bad. But its working..

that is your loss, you wont be missed tho'. AMD still holds the crown when it comes to price/performance.

Who wants to pay twice the price of a card that is barely 10% faster than amd counterpart is just vain at this point.