Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 vs. AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT: battle of the flagships

Nvidia and AMD have been competing for years, trading blows when it comes to claiming the coveted spot of best GPU of the year. Nvidia is often named the winner in these battles, but in recent years AMD has caught up with its RDNA 2 cards. Now, with the RTX 4090 taking the performance crown, it’s time to compare the flagships from Nvidia and AMD and see how they compare.

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 is the crown jewel of the all-new Ada Lovelace RTX 40 series line. AMD has yet to announce its new graphics cards, although RDNA 3 is on the way. As such, Nvidia’s flagship is a generation ahead of AMD’s Radeon RX 6950 XT, but the latter can certainly hold its own. Let’s see how these two beastly GPUs compare to each other.

Glasses

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Although both the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 and the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT are top of the line, they differ greatly in terms of specifications. Looking at the specs alone, this won’t be a very fair comparison.

Although the RX 6950 XT wasn’t released until May 2022, it still has a set of specs that firmly belong to the previous generation of graphics cards. It marks a very small upgrade over the Radeon RX 6900 XT.

The RTX 4090, however, rules the next-gen line and will easily become the most powerful consumer GPU on the market — until Nvidia finally releases the RTX 4090 Ti, of course, or until AMD hits hard with the next-gen Radeon RX 7000 line.

The clock speeds are somewhat similar, but the RTX 4090 absolutely beats the RX 6950 XT in terms of core count, bus width, and bandwidth. It also offers GDDR6X memory as opposed to GDDR6.

Performance

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We had a chance to review both the RTX 4090 and the RX 6950 XT, so we have a detailed look at how these two cards match up in terms of performance.

While the RX 6950 XT can sometimes keep up with the RTX 3090 and even the RTX 3090 Ti, the RTX 4090 leaves it far, far behind. Overall, based on our 4K testing, the RX 6950 XT delivered about half the performance of the RTX 4090. In our gaming benchmarks, the RTX 4090 averaged 108.3 frames per second (fps) in 4K, while the RX 6950 XT peaked at 55.3.

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However, these results vary from title to title. IN Forza Horizon 5, The RX 6950 XT outperformed every other GPU, averaging 119 fps. On the other hand, the RTX 4090 still rules with 176.3 fps. In the meantime, in Gears TacticsThe RTX 4090 averaged 171 fps, while the RX 6950 XT lagged behind the RTX 3080 Ti, managing only 73.1 fps.

Even in AMD promoted titles like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the RTX 4090 wins by a wide margin. AMD’s flagship was able to beat every other GPU, but was destroyed by Nvidia’s latest and greatest; Nvidia scored 122.4 fps compared to AMD’s 75.1.

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This kind of performance continues in our 1440p tests, although we don’t recommend buying the RTX 4090 if you only plan on gaming at 1440p — the card has much more potential. On average, at 1440p, the RTX 4090 maintained a 68% lead over the RX 6950 XT.

The Ada Lovelace generation, in which the RTX 4090 is currently the champion, also brings an upgrade to DLSS, bringing the technology up to its third iteration. DLSS 3 predicts entire frames instead of just pixels, and while it’s not perfect, it certainly gives Nvidia another advantage over AMD.

Nvidia’s new flagship is a powerful GPU, no question. Comparing it to the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT is like comparing apples to blueberries — both are nice, but they’re of a completely different caliber because each belongs to a different generation of GPU.

The RTX 4090 is a card made for enthusiasts, with seemingly no limits. Set to create the highest caliber content, 4K gaming at ultra settings, and more, the GPU will be able to power through most tasks for several years. The AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT is powerful in its own right, but it failed to impress us with a slight upgrade over the RX 6900 XT. It’s currently AMD’s best graphics card, but that’s about to change with the arrival of the Radeon RX 7000 series.

Air tracking

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With ray tracing enabled, Nvidia’s RTX 4090 has such a huge advantage over all other cards that it’s not even funny. It vastly outperforms the RTX 3090 Ti and, unfortunately for AMD, destroys every card made by Team Red. Historically, this has always been the case: Nvidia does much, much better when it comes to ray tracing.

We took out two ray tracing spin cards Cyberpunk 2077. As you can see in the image above, at 1440p, ultra settings, the RTX 4090 leaves the RX 6950 XT in the dust, averaging 88.7 fps versus AMD’s 36.7. The Nvidia GPU was a full 152% faster than AMD’s flagship, proving just how much better the RTX 4090 is when it comes to ray tracing.

Energy withdrawal

Kiklas/Shutterstock

The power requirements of Nvidia’s new flagship were the subject of much speculation before its release, and it’s no wonder – this card is a power-hungry beast. Nvidia’s Founders Edition model comes with a base TDP of 450 watts, which is the same as the previous generation RTX 3090 Ti.

Nvidia’s RTX 4090 also comes in many custom flavors prepared by Nvidia’s board partners. These GPUs will likely achieve a higher TDP — around 550 to 600 watts is quite possible. It’s also worth noting here that the RTX 4090 is massive, so you’ll need a really roomy case if you want to use it.

Some of Nvidia’s add-in board (AIB) partners recommend a power supply of up to 1200W to support the card, which is, let’s face it, a pretty outrageous expectation. Nvidia itself is much more conservative, recommending an 850W power supply. However, if you end up getting a new flagship, remember that you should get a Gold or better 850W power supply because, combined with other components, it can still run pretty close to its limit .

Compared to Nvidia, AMD keeps things positively frugal when it comes to power consumption. The three-slot RX 6950 XT has a maximum TDP of 335 watts, and AMD suggests that the card will require an 850-watt PSU to run. This makes him much more conservative in terms of power; it even offers small power savings compared to the RTX 3090, which has a TDP of 350 W.

Prices and availability

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su. AMD/Nvidia

While the RTX 4090 is still brand new, the RX 6950 XT has been around for a while. It launched on May 10, 2022 and is available for sale at most major retailers, including Amazon. It launched with a price tag of $1,099, but now it can be had for as little as $900 at some retailers.

Nvidia was more expensive than AMD, so it’s no surprise to see the GeForce RTX 4090 at a pretty high price — but honestly, it’s not as bad as some of us expected. Nvidia has priced its own Founders Edition at $1,599, and we can only expect custom versions to cost more, given that they often increase performance as well. The GPU will be available from October 12, 2022.

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Strangely, because of how expensive the RX 6950 XT is compared to the RX 6900 XT, the GPU doesn’t fare well in our cost-per-frame tests. Although the RTX 4090 is a very expensive GPU, its performance means that it is more cost-effective than the RX 6950 XT in this test. However, this is assuming you have an unlimited GPU budget and don’t mind spending $1600 instead of $1100.

The winner is clear

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In terms of performance, it’s hardly even a contest. The RTX 4090 blows the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT out of the water, as it should, given that it belongs to the newer generation of RDNA 2 GPUs.

On the other hand, there’s also price and power consumption to think about, and in both cases, the RX 6950 XT is the clear winner. However, if you stick with that generation of GPU, there are plenty of other options to choose from, like the RTX 3090 or the RX 6900 XT, which is barely worse than the RX 6950 XT, but a lot cheaper.

The answer is clear — Nvidia’s RTX 4090 is much, much better, but also more expensive. Make a call based on what you need and what your wallet can handle right now.

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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn

Links: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 vs. AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT: battle of the flagships – Tekmonk Bio, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 vs. AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT: battle of the flagships – Kungfutv, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 vs. AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT: battle of the flagships – Blogtomoney