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RDNA3 vs. RDNA4 in terms of IPC

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Also, our German Freunde have measured IPC differences between the two RDNA architectures.
While average gains in RT are wunderbar (48%), gains in standard raster load are gut (17%).


They've selected RX 9060 XT and RX 7600 XT, because these GPUs have same amount of compute units and both have 128bit/16GB VRAM.
Then they've set cores to same clocks. Memory bandwidth is also around the same for both cards (only 10 GB/s difference), so is the infinity cache (32 MB).
Comparison was made in 1080p.

1749720826586.png

(+17% perf. on average in rasterization, +49% perf. on average in RT, +130% perf. in PT based on result from CB2077 only)


Translation of final words:
With the help of targeted benchmarks, it was demonstrated for the first time outside of AMD's labs that the RDNA 4 architecture has made significant progress per processing unit. The evidence in the context of ray tracing is particularly valuable. The data clearly shows that AMD's previous ray tracing weakness was not due to Nvidia-friendly code, but rather to the previously weak processing units. With traditional rasterization, the gains are smaller, sometimes less than ten percent, but still considerable in many cases. Considering the impressive scaling from Navi 44 (9060 XT) to Navi 48 (9070 XT), the lack of a high-end solution is particularly painful. A hypothetical Navi 41 with double the processing power would undoubtedly have the potential to compete with Nvidia's GB202, aka GeForce RTX 5090.

That's to say, AMD has really put some efforts into improving RT performance. This was also proven by TPU reviews of RX 9070 (XT) and RX 9060 XT.

My personal opinion on RDNA4: 17% IPC improvement (in raster) is not bad, I don't care about RT/PT.
I'm happy with my RX 9070 XT's performance (had coil whiny RX 7800 XT before), but money-wise it hurts.

This generation of AMD and GPU graphics, AMD's performance improvement scales better with power than Nvidia's.
Example: RX 7900 XT has TDP of 300W and about 30% more compute units than RX 9070 XT with 304 W TDP.
RX 9070 XT has higher clocks by around 20%, but despite having significantly less units, manages to be 9% faster in raster than RX 7900 XT at the same power draw.
That's 44% more performance per compute unit for RX 9070 XT when compared to RX 7900 XT.


Similarly, I compared RTX 4090 with RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 with RTX 4080:
1749719948183.png


Compute units, TDP data are sourced from TPU's GPU specs database.
Performance numbers at 3840x2160 resolution are sourced from respective GPU reviews on TPU.
 
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Great :D article that says Me buying 9070 xt was not a bad decision ^^. Thanks ;)
The uplift is not as substantial like between older generations ( for example gtx 9xx and 10xx), but it is great to see that they are doing something, and it's working :).
 
's all fine and dandy but 7600 series cards ain't RDNA3, they're glorified RDNA2 despite the naming.

I'd duel 7800 XT @ 2.34 GHz against 9070 @ 2.5 GHz to witness actual RDNA3 VS RDNA4 improvements (at 60 VS 56 CUs, this makes almost 1-to-1 mathematical match (<1% error)).

Did they factor in upscaling / frame generation etc?
How? It's a clear L for RDNA2/3 at upscaling. By how much? By that much you could use FSR4 Performance and still get more reasonable image than with FSR3 Quality (at 4K).
 
How? It's a clear L for RDNA2/3 at upscaling. By how much? By that much you could use FSR4 Performance and still get more reasonable image than with FSR3 Quality (at 4K).
RDNA 4 competing against itself, i.e. native vs leveraging your ml based upscaling etc. I couldn't really see discernible difference having a cursory glance at those Cyberpunk images in the RX 9000 GPU owners thread using Optiscaler.
 
The difference between RDNA3 and 4 is huge,AMD seems to be on a good track,let's hope it continues with monolithic chips and leaves GPU chiplets for the distant future,the only thing for sure is that the 9700xt is crying out for memory bandwidth and a model with GDDR 7 would be a good choice with 15% more performance.
Considering the score of the 7800xt, it is with every trick the human mind can imagine,driver settings (performance),windows settings (performance) plus UV/OC,the card is at its limits, on the other hand the 9070xt runs default settings and I have only done UV -135(3.370GHz)...
 

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Great :D article that says Me buying 9070 xt was not a bad decision ^^. Thanks ;)
The uplift is not as substantial like between older generations ( for example gtx 9xx and 10xx), but it is great to see that they are doing something, and it's working :).
It's just a comparison. It says something, not much. You can alter performance with drivers a lot.
RDNA4 is what RDNA3 was supposed to be. RDNA3 brought efficiency improvements, but some products were a joke (RX 7800 XT).
I'm quite unsure on what RX 9070 XT is meant to be suceeding. AMD referenced it to RX 7900 GRE.
RDNA4 seems to be exceptionally well performing in undervolting. I could not believe my eyes when I saw in W1zzard's review of RX 9060 XT undervolt of -130mV.
That's plenty of performance headroom left on the table.

Did they factor in upscaling / frame generation etc?
Dragon Age Veilguard and both CB2077 runs were including FSR @ Quality. No version of VSR mentioned, though.
 
I'm quite unsure on what RX 9070 XT is meant to be suceeding. AMD referenced it to RX 7900 GRE.
Someone on here mentioned Crimson Desert recently. It will be interesting to see a game that has been developed with RDNA 4 in mind.
Dragon Age Veilguard and both CB2077 runs were including FSR @ Quality. No version of VSR mentioned, though.
Was that using Optiscaler? Does CB2077 use RDNA 4 or is it using 3? Not sure about Dragon Age?!
 
The difference between RDNA3 and 4 is huge,AMD seems to be on a good track,let's hope it continues with monolithic chips and leaves GPU chiplets for the distant future,the only thing for sure is that the 9700xt is crying out for memory bandwidth and a model with GDDR 7 would be a good choice with 15% more performance.
With how dies sizes raise along with demand for compute power, monolithic chips are much harder to make (lower yields) and thus are more expensive.
Chiplets are definitely good inventnion, for now they just luck optimal interface. Once that is solved, there's no point in monolithic chips for >mainstream products anymore.

Someone on here mentioned Crimson Desert recently. It will be interesting to see a game that has been developed with RDNA 4 in mind.

Was that using Optiscaler? Does CB2077 use RDNA 4 or is it using 3? Not sure about Dragon Age?!
1749725674411.png

1749725698503.png

1749725722910.png
ň
No word about Optiscaler.
 
It's just a comparison. It says something, not much. You can alter performance with drivers a lot.
RDNA4 is what RDNA3 was supposed to be. RDNA3 brought efficiency improvements, but some products were a joke (RX 7800 XT).
I like numbers, cause If for not that My gtx 1070 ti was failing Me, I was quite satisfied with the performance that it gave, and 9070 xt is only 325% faster than 1070 ti citing TPU relative performance, and I personally don't see it. So I need numbers to justify My purchase :). (It's better here and there, but the most fun part about gaming is playing games that are fun, and it is not always correlated with beautiful graphics, So even if not resolution of my screen 1050 could work just fine :) )
and 9070 xt is little heater in comparison with 1070 ti. (330W vs 180W), cause under windows I can't get lower than 70% powerlimit.
 
Thanks for sharing and summarizing the article! I'll take a closer look at it later with Google Translate :D

It's good to see that AMD considerably improved RT/PT with RDNA4. With previous generations, the inadequate performance was seen as a deal breaker by many. Faster RT, alongside higher quality upscaling and more "AI" features was what the market demanded, and AMD delivered.

Myself, I couldn't care less about any of these. That's why I never considered replacing my 7900xtx. I don't need more fps in the games I play, I don't buy popular AAA titles, and nothing on my wishlists requires RT.

Let's hope UDNA is truly competitive with Nvidia's next offering in terms of features and performance. AMD really need to strengthen its image as an equal in order to increase its mind share among gamers.
 
Very impressive. RDNA4 has improved so many things. Video encoding, upscaling, ray tracing, power efficiency, driver stability. The ray tracing performance and upscaling quality will continue to improve with driver updates. Excited for what's next.
 
Very impressive. RDNA4 has improved so many things. Video encoding, upscaling, ray tracing, power efficiency, driver stability. The ray tracing performance and upscaling quality will continue to improve with driver updates. Excited for what's next.
With the recent mentions of FP8 and ROCm 7 hopefully RDNA 4 has legs and AMD knows how to use them...
 
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