For the first time, I’m switching to an AMD graphics card

Well, AMD. I won. I jumped ship.

with launch RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XTA Nvidia fan was finally persuaded to choose an AMD graphics card as their next upgrade. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but for the first time ever, I couldn’t be more excited to join the Red Team.

I’ve never been a fan of AMD

Yes, I admit – I’ve never been a fan of AMD. Seeing computers has always been my favorite thing, I’ve always been up to date with AMD hardware and competitors on par, but one bad experience with an AMD processor years ago made me feel so comfortable that I didn’t really go back. It’s been about 15 years – ancient history, in terms of computing – and after testing and building for others, I’ve never had AMD CPU Or the GPU in my personal build.

Over time, this frequency from AMD grew into a habit, and it was often justified – I chose Intel and Nvidia because I trusted them more and their hardware was simply better. This was years ago GPU deficiency When the components were still affordable enough that I was OK with spending more if it meant I’d be putting good stuff into my new builds.

Of course, over time, AMD has improved. With the release of Ryzen CPUs and RDNA 2 GPUs, I was ready to admit that AMD is solid again, but still not quite ready to cut the rope and say goodbye to Nvidia.

So there I was, an Nvidia fan planning the next build, until the last few weeks finally broke me. AMD’s Launch of the RX 7900 XTX The final nail in the coffin was the “No AMD” stage.

Tried to stick with Nvidia

Despite the high prices during the lack of a GPU and the fact that the AMD range was quite affordable (although none existed at the time), my upgrade plan for months included an Nvidia card. I have prepared various designs, ranging from RTX 3070 Ti to the RTX 3090, and I’ve been watching the prices – still high in my area – until I find a deal that I consider worthwhile.

But my resolve was slowly fading. There I was, AMD graphics cards on hand; It may not be as good as Nvidia in ways like ray tracing, but it’s still more than enough. However, knowing that both manufacturers will release new lineups this year, I made the common mistake of waiting to see what we were getting instead of building my PC right away.

cue RTX 4090. It’s a true graphics card beast, with very high power requirements and a much higher price tag. In our testing, the card proved to be incredible in terms of performance, but in my opinion, that wasn’t enough to sway me into spending $1,600 on a graphics card. Not that I had a choice, anyway – despite the price, the GPU sold out within minutes, and I wouldn’t give a few hundred extra bucks to a scalper just to be able to play Cyberpunk 2077 movie in smooth 4K resolution.

Of course, I can wait for the RTX 4080 – 16 GB version, that is, because Nvidia “Not Released” Immediately The exaggerated error of the card was the RTX 4080 12GB. Unfortunately, the version with more memory didn’t convince me either. Maybe I’m cheap, or maybe I just want to pay reasonable prices for my hardware; Either way, I didn’t feel like it.

continuous decline

The past few weeks have been tough for Nvidia, despite the initial success of its new generation of Ada Lovelace GPUs. for the first time EVGA controversy – No matter which way you spin it, it just isn’t looking good. Then, the controversy surrounding RTX 40-series GPUs began, and I quickly ran out of ways to defend my choices.

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, said it himself:The idea that the chip will drop in price is a story from the past.“The timing of this statement could not have been worse, given the fact that many Nvidia fans, myself included, were largely unhappy with the way Nvidia chose to pricing its next-generation graphics cards. Essentially, Huang explained that things would not improve in This connection.

Now, it turns out that the RTX 4090, and thus also the RTX 4080, may have some Fusion issues Because of the power adapter. A quick PSA announcement: Do not bend the cables if you want to avoid the risk of fire. Don’t get me wrong – despite these issues, the RTX 4090 seems to be pretty cool in many ways, and in all likelihood the RTX 4080 will also be a significant upgrade over the previous generation.

Somehow, that doesn’t matter to me anymore. After 15 years, it’s time to give AMD another chance.

AMD couldn’t have picked a better time

With the Nvidia disappointment leaving a bitter taste in my mouth, I found myself increasingly excited about the announcement of RDNA 3 GPUs. I had already toyed with the idea of ​​choosing an AMD CPU for my next PC, and was ready to make the same choice in terms of the graphics card. .

While watching the AMD commercial, I knew I was on board. It’s sad that we’re at a time when a $1,000 GPU is exciting, but it is – especially if we’re talking about a flagship that has the potential to become one of the The best graphics cards of this generation.

The two new flagships from AMD, namely Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XTIt looks very cool. We won’t know their real performance unless they get into the hands of enthusiastic reviewers, but AMD promises a 54% increase over RDNA 2 in performance per watt along with being 1.7 times faster than the RX 6950 XT at 4K; Access to DisplayPort 2.1 ( Later, 8K screens, they should come soon); And second-generation ray tracing that could help it catch up with Nvidia in this regard. AMD also claims that AI performance will be 2.7 times better than previous generation GPUs.

AMD is keeping power requirements more conservative, hitting a maximum TDP of 355 watts for the 7900 XTX, and won’t use Nvidia’s ill-fated 12VHPWR adapter, which, so far, appears to be the reason for these melting RTX 4090s.

This is all nice, but the best part is that AMD, unlike Nvidia, hasn’t raised their prices. The flagship will cost $999 for the reference model, followed by $899 for the 7900 XT.

We don’t all need the RTX 4090

Some readers here might chime in and tell me there’s no way the RX 7900 XTX can keep up with the RTX 4090, and in all likelihood, they would be right. However, the truth is that not all of us need an RTX 4090 – in fact, most of us don’t. There are still many games that really need this kind of powerAnd even if they did, you could still run them on a cheaper GPU if you sacrificed a bit on frame rate or lowered the settings a bit.

Not many people really need to RTX 4090. Some do, but I’m definitely not one of them; At least, not at that price.

I think the market needs more of what AMD has to offer, which means semi-affordable hardware that’s more accessible to more users, and less premium components that most gamers can’t justify in their build budgets.

AMD flagships seem like a perfect compromise between the expensive enthusiast-only segment and the mid-range segment where you have to compromise some settings in some games. Most AAA titles will probably run on the max settings, but they’re still priced at a level I can get their hands on.

I’m ready, AMD. It would be nice to see you again.

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