RX 9xxx Owner's Thread

[GodisanAtheist]

Stopped by the semi-local microcenter today and picked up a PC Reaper 9070xt open box that they had for $602. This is the most I've ever spent on a video card ever, in my entire life but by modern standards in both the new and used market, the thing is a steal (esp. given I snagged my 6800xt used 3+ years ago for $450 all in).

I was really hoping to switch back to Nvidia this round, I've gone back and forth between the brands every upgrade cycle with the exception of one of the first (GeForce 2 MX200 to a GeForce 4 4600ti wayyyyyyyy back in the day) but good lord Nvidia options are sofa king out of touch expensive for similar performance... I assume simply due to feature and mind share dominance.

So for the second time in my life I am upgrading from the same brand to the same brand.

Everyone wanted $550+ for their 4070ti Supers or $450 for their 4070's... Even 7800xt seemed to command $400+ pricing which was ridiculous IMO given what I paid for my 6800xt.

They also have ASRock Challengers for $599 brand new, but I've always been a little skeptical of ASRock as a brand (not entirely fair) and lawd the card is ugly (also not fair, it would be in my case the whole time and I'd never look at it but still).

Anyhow, putting the card through it's paces on 3DMark purely for stability testing purposes, and will download and run more graphically demanding games after I wrap up DOW2 Retribution to see how the thing does in the "real world".

So far so good though *knocks on wood*.

 

[Brian_B]

Nice. I was thinking about upgrading a couple of the computers in my house but.... nope. Not any more. I think you got a decent deal considering today's climate though.

Kid is still rocking an old AMD 5600XT - but he has a job now and doesn't care about graphics, like... at all. He would play on a potato and be happy. I don't get it. Wife has a newer 3060RTX and could use an upgrade - but she doesn't really play with graphics options or anything and whatever the game defaults to is almost always how she'll play through it. Sometimes that's ok, sometimes that gives me a headache from across the room with the FPS drops and tearing.

Myself, still on a 3080RTX and happy with it, so not looking at upgrading my main rig yet. But most of what I play is older and I'm ok with adjusting a few settings down here or there to get a steady, decent frame rate.

All our computers are still on DDR4, but did get up to Zen3 series AMD CPUs in all of them.

It may just be a year of monitor upgrades... and that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

 

[LazyGamer]

Anyhow, putting the card through it's paces on 3DMark purely for stability testing purposes, and will download and run more graphically demanding games after I wrap up DOW2 Retribution to see how the thing does in the "real world".

Only issues I've seen have been the OEMs being too aggressive with clocks, and that crashing newer games (see: BF6), and people trying to undervolt and then encountering instability later on.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Yeah, I really only upgraded after taking a look at part prices due to AI and deciding I'd rather pick something up now in the event that consumer GPUs experience another long drought a la mining than wait and potentially end up with even more expensive cards or having my 980ti finally crap out on me.

When I picked up my RX 6800xt back in 2022 (right after the bubble popped deflated) my 980ti already had 6 years under its belt.

RX 6800xt has been a real workhorse, but it's weakness with RT is starting to show a bit in newer games where turning RT off significantly reduces image quality because devs have stopped putting in the work on the Raster side of lighting and the visual gap has actually grown from early RT games not because the RT is better but because the Raster is worse.

Anyhow, I just downloaded Cyberpunk 2077, Doom Eternal, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider as my 9070xt burn in games (newest and best looking games I own)

 

[LazyGamer]

Anyhow, I just downloaded Cyberpunk 2077, Doom Eternal, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider as my 9070xt burn in games (newest and best looking games I own)

Have fun!

 

[Grimlakin]

Have fun with the card. Talking more current gen I went from a 2080, to a 6800xt to a 7900xtx to... nothing... no price point that would be an upgrade makes sense. And AMD either smartly or not didn't bother to release a replacement fort the 7900xtx so here I sit as prices soar.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I bought a couple month old used Red Devil 9070XT last year. It may as well have been open box. No complaints with it. I always use a frame cap, so I stick with the silent bios. I did manage to run out of vram using the same settings as my 7900XTX in Spider-Man 2. I play for hours at a time, so eventually, it hit the wall. When the 24GB did not. Other than that one game, I've yet to be able to tell which one I am using while playing.

FSR4 gets the good enough award for visual fidelity. I have not bothered trying it on RDNA3.

 

[LazyGamer]

FSR4 gets the good enough award for visual fidelity.

The only complaint is market penetration - in a few years, these cards will be bargains because FSR4 will be everywhere. Right now, depending on what you play, the Nvidia tax may just be worth it, unfortunately.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The only complaint is market penetration - in a few years, these cards will be bargains because FSR4 will be everywhere. Right now, depending on what you play, the Nvidia tax may just be worth it, unfortunately.

In general I agree. For my use case however, Nvidia is not even in the conversation. I am now spending 95% of my time Linux gaming. AMD graphics is the better solution for me, ease of use in particular. Also, I looked up a Linux gaming performance comparison a few months back. AMD showed a much bigger uplift in more titles vs windows, than Nvidia.

 

[LazyGamer]

AMD graphics is the better solution for me, ease of use in particular.

I know that this used to widely be the case, but is it anymore? I put the latest Pop_OS! onto my old 12700K / 3080 12GB system and stuff just runs.

If you're using a less optimized distro (say, RHEL or a clone) then I'd definitely understand!

Also, I looked up a Linux gaming performance comparison a few months back. AMD showed a much bigger uplift in more titles vs windows, than Nvidia.

This one I'm not sure about. GN did a video, and there's a question of whether benchmarks can be compared (can the performance be measured the same), but also whether the rendering is actually the same, i.e., stuff isn't working on Linux and we don't notice it.

I'd like to see these questions pretty thoroughly answered (and continually rechecked...) before really putting my own endorsement behind Linux for gaming from a performance perspective.

ETA: follow-on video with a deeper dive:

 

[GodisanAtheist]

The only complaint is market penetration - in a few years, these cards will be bargains because FSR4 will be everywhere. Right now, depending on what you play, the Nvidia tax may just be worth it, unfortunately.

-AMD's drivers will actually inject FSR4 into any FSR3 compatible game out there (FSR3 switched to an Nvidia style dll model, so versions are easily swappable) so there is supposedly way more FSR4 compatibility out there than it first seems if you're specifically looking for games built with FSR4.

 

[LazyGamer]

-AMD's drivers will actually inject FSR4 into any FSR3 compatible game out there (FSR3 switched to an Nvidia style dll model, so versions are easily swappable) so there is supposedly way more FSR4 compatibility out there than it first seems if you're specifically looking for games built with FSR4.

This can work for single-player games, but messing with DLLs is... well, dangerous for stuff with DRM. Really depends on what your rotation is IMO, but from the perspective of advising others, I have to make sure someone is willing to tinker first.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

stuff isn't working on Linux and we don't notice it.

If I don't notice it, then it doesn't matter to me. It is why I don't use any RT other than reflections unless there is no way around it e.g. Indy Jones. Not being dismissive, merely pragmatic.

I doubt anything I see or read will dampen my enthusiasm for Linux. 11 has gotten worse and worse. I am tired of fighting with it to minimize how intrusive it is. I'd much rather post with you guys, it is a far better use of time IMO.

Everyone I know that is a long time distro user, tells me to stay with AMD for the most hassle free experience. Proprietary, non-native integration, having more issues seems entirely logical to me. But it is good to read your anecdotal experience has been positive.

 

[LazyGamer]

I doubt anything I see or read will dampen my enthusiasm for Linux. 11 has gotten worse and worse. I am tired of fighting with it to minimize how intrusive it is. I'd much rather post with you guys, it is a far better use of time IMO.

Home or Pro?

I avoid Home like the plague, and Pro doesn't bother me the way I see most folks (rightly) complain.

Everyone I know that is a long time distro user, tells me to stay with AMD for the most hassle free experience. Proprietary, non-native integration, having more issues seems entirely logical to me. But it is good to read your anecdotal experience has been positive.

This can also be political, lol. Though when I upgrade my living room machine, the RX6800 is going to be a dedicated Linux gaming box. Can't knock it if I don't try it!

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Home or Pro?

I avoid Home like the plague, and Pro doesn't bother me the way I see most folks (rightly) complain.

Cool,cool. My windows filter is full. I have had enough. I only use pro on my builds. By the end of this year, I may not be using windows at all. Linux is going so well. I don't play anything with kernel level anti-cheat, so not a consideration for me. Canceled all my streaming, including game pass months ago.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Though when I upgrade my living room machine, the RX6800 is going to be a dedicated Linux gaming box. Can't knock it if I don't try it!

I used a 12600kf XFX RX 6800 to play Spider-Man Miles Morales yesterday. 1440 high hit my 120 frame cap a lot of the time. I did not try RT reflections. Last time I tried them on Linux, it CTD.

On Nvidia Linux gaming: I have a EVGA 2070 super, I'll see how that does with a fresh install, maybe this weekend. I also like to get first-hand experience with things.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

This can work for single-player games, but messing with DLLs is... well, dangerous for stuff with DRM. Really depends on what your rotation is IMO, but from the perspective of advising others, I have to make sure someone is willing to tinker first.

- Its literally what Nvidia does everytime they release a DLSS update (the recent DLSS 4.5 update for example). The driver simply intercepts the DLL calls and injects its own.

Its not like every game with DLSS has to manually be updated to the new DLSS version.

 

[LazyGamer]

- Its literally what Nvidia does everytime they release a DLSS update

Nvidia doesn't have a history of getting users banned, though