7900xtx or 4080 super?

None of the current gen cards are future proof when it comes to ray tracing though. E.g. even the 4090 is a 1440p card with ray tracing like the 3080 was borderline 1080p/1440p card with RT on when it launched and titles become more demanding over the years. RT is still not mature tech and requires a lot of GPU to run. Consoles and lack of powerful hardware on the majority of PCs will also limit the amount of meaningful ray tracing in titles as they are being developed for more than just those with very powerful machines. A few titles go all in, while most only do a little or nothing in the RT department. RT won't be that mainstream until the lower mid-range GPUs and consoles surpass a 4090 in performance.
I never said they were future proof; I was merely saying a 4080 Super in RT won't be needing to be replaced as quickly as a 7900 XTX if you want "RTX On" in everything that features it. In raster alone you can't go wrong with either, IMO. And you're right, only a few titles like Cyberpunk or Alan Wake II are the exception rather than the norm at the current time. The only point I was trying to make is that with RT capable consoles out now, even if it's just token effects like reflections and shadows or whatnot, it's still adoption of the feature, and in time that will only become more common. We all know RDNA 3 can only compete with nVIDIA Ampere GPUs in this regard.
 
Speaking as a 7900XTX owner, assuming no price drops, then I would buy the 4080 Super at MSRP, as I assume it will be in line on raster given the 5% bump in CUDA cores but will have superior performance for ray tracing plus DLSS functionality. I bought the 7900XTX because I game at 4K and the 4080 doesn't have enough power to do ray tracing at 4K at an acceptable framerate in my opinion, so I didn't want to pay a premium when I was largely running raster anyway. You can run RT ray tracing on the 7900XTX about as well as a 3090 or 3090 Ti, but RTX titles will run better with a 4080 Super for sure. Granted, RT is just one implementation of ray tracing. AMD is competitive in others like Lumen because they don't need to leverage RT cores for that.

16GB VRAM will be fine as far as I can tell for the foreseeable future in gaming applications.

That said:

1) Wait for reviews.
2) Wait to see if AMD drops the price, assuming you can wait, and then compare them again. I can't see them holding a $1000 MSRP against a $1000 4080 Super though. The price differential was my main motivation to buy it for this upgrade cycle.

Also, regarding drivers, honestly, they're fine. My previous card was a 1070 Ti, I don't see anything better or worse as far as the games I play are concerned when it comes to drivers. Your mileage may vary, but I seriously think the driver thing is overblown.
 
Nvidia user since 2015, coming from 3060TI, and I've been rocking a 7900XTX since October, got it for $880 as Prime deal. $400+ more for the 4080 didn't make sense, and I hate Nvidia's greedy moves and pricing.

It is a BEAST in all games (Playing mostly 3840x1620 UQ, a bit of upscaling in latest games) and has been amazing, I love the drivers and Adrenalin software, so refreshing coming from outdated, boring and wonky nvidia's.

Raytracing is pretty bad in Cyberpunk, I'm patiently waiting for FSR3 FG to use it like I want to, that said I don't miss it too much after 5 minutes of playing without it

I agree with poster before me on his points, we should see XTX going below $800 and I don't think we will see MSRP for 4080 SUPER for a while.

It all comes down to the $200+ difference and if its the same to you then go for the Super.
 
Also, regarding drivers, honestly, they're fine. My previous card was a 1070 Ti, I don't see anything better or worse as far as the games I play are concerned when it comes to drivers. Your mileage may vary, but I seriously think the driver thing is overblown.
It is. Other than certain edge use cases (like 16:9 resolutions on a 16:10 monitor [I am using two as my primary/secondary displays] stretching to 16:10 fullscreen regardless of the GPU scaling settings set) or the odd bug my experience was rather solid on Adrenalin drivers on a Vega 64, my experience was overall pretty solid. AMD's drivers have indeed come a very, very long way since the last time I rocked an AMD GPU (a Radeon HD 4890 1GB).
 
I bought a Sapphire Nitro 7900XTX last year, but it was DOA right out of the box. Found an unopened MSI 4080 on Mercari for $1000 and it's been running smoothly for me. I wish that 7900 hadn't been a dud because like so many others I've soured on Nvidia. Of course, I won't be buying another GPU for several years, so their price raping is a non-issue for me.
 
I generally agree with the sentiment that with the price being the same - The 7900XTX doesn't seem to show any value, unless you just want to be different and not go Nvidia. With price being equal the 4080 is just the better card from a hardware feature perspective, and manages thermals/power better.
I don't think anyone disagrees with that position. I just also think anyone who is paying attention also knows that AMD will drop their prices to remain competitive in the market.
It isn't really a matter of if they will, the only speculation is: by "how much"?
 
It is. Other than certain edge use cases (like 16:9 resolutions on a 16:10 monitor [I am using two as my primary/secondary displays] stretching to 16:10 fullscreen regardless of the GPU scaling settings set) or the odd bug my experience was rather solid on Adrenalin drivers on a Vega 64, my experience was overall pretty solid. AMD's drivers have indeed come a very, very long way since the last time I rocked an AMD GPU (a Radeon HD 4890 1GB).

It's likely a case of people having a really bad experience in the past and losing trust in the brand. I found the ATI Catalyst was a huge leap forward for Radeon back in the day. Prior to that, there was a legitimate case to be made that they were a genuine disaster, particularly compared to Nvidia's Detonator drivers. In terms of current day, I've found both brands to deliver more or less the same experience as far as drivers are concerned.

Ironically, Nvidia's driver overhead can drop performance in CPU limited situations quite markedly from what I've seen in benchmarks, but I've heard zero complaints about it from the Nvidia faithful, who still insist their drivers are perfection. Granted, that's a specific scenario, but I don't see that as a whole lot different than specific scenarios where you face issues with a Radeon driver.
 
Quite a few folk here have mentioned AMD drivers, but in my experience they have been pretty damn good on my 6900XT over the last 2 years. Personally, I would not let the historical perception of driver issues influence your buying decision (both companies have had them at some point in time!).
 
It's likely a case of people having a really bad experience in the past and losing trust in the brand. I found the ATI Catalyst was a huge leap forward for Radeon back in the day. Prior to that, there was a legitimate case to be made that they were a genuine disaster, particularly compared to Nvidia's Detonator drivers. In terms of current day, I've found both brands to deliver more or less the same experience as far as drivers are concerned.

Ironically, Nvidia's driver overhead can drop performance in CPU limited situations quite markedly from what I've seen in benchmarks, but I've heard zero complaints about it from the Nvidia faithful, who still insist their drivers are perfection. Granted, that's a specific scenario, but I don't see that as a whole lot different than specific scenarios where you face issues with a Radeon driver.
It has become a myth that Nvidia drivers are perfect. Having owned both sides and currently run a 6750xt in my sim racing PC and a 3080 in my main gaming rig. Both have had issues, but it is usually in shorter periods. E.g. I've had times where Nvidia drivers were so bad in some titles released in the span of 1-2 months where I had to swap between drivers due to one driver breaking game A and the other driver breaking game B. In the last 6 years I've probably had 100 days worth of issues in total where Nvidia drivers have caused issues in one game or the other and waiting on an updated driver is the only solution. Granted it has mostly been very close to launch of the titles, but still really annoying.

I've owned AMD for probably 7 out of the last 15 years and had maybe 3 periods with quite a few driver issues on AMD vs probably 8 or so periods with Nvidia cards for the about 11 of those years (sometimes using multiple machines). 9 of those years has been with Nvidia as the main GPU and other 6 was with AMD as main GPU.
 
I don't think anyone disagrees with that position. I just also think anyone who is paying attention also knows that AMD will drop their prices to remain competitive in the market.
It isn't really a matter of if they will, the only speculation is: by "how much"?
They'd have to drop at least $200 for it to be worth IMO. I don't see that happening. The problem is now that the 4080 will be actually more at the price it was supposed to be, it's a pretty kick ass card when you consider all of the Nvidia-only things that AMD just can't match. DLSS in particular if you're using this card at 4K is absolutely a must-have feature when compared to FSR in pretty much every title.
 
They'd have to drop at least $200 for it to be worth IMO. I don't see that happening. The problem is now that the 4080 will be actually more at the price it was supposed to be, it's a pretty kick ass card when you consider all of the Nvidia-only things that AMD just can't match. DLSS in particular if you're using this card at 4K is absolutely a must-have feature when compared to FSR in pretty much every title.
There are people in this thread that have gotten them before 4080S and before any official price drop in the mid $800s. There will be at minimum a $150 price differential, which puts it at being $50 more than a 4070TiS, which the 7900XTX will absolutely clobber.

The other aspect of this is whether or not there will be a 4080S that will be MSRP at launch. We already know that supply will be limited for all S cards, and as it stands there isn't a single 4070S that is at MSRP. Which actually also might mean that the 7900XTX ends up being roughly priced the same as a 4070TiS. I don't think it's nearly as clear cut as you're making it.
 
My take on as someone who has 7900 XTX (PowerColor Red Devil LE) but has been using Nvidia for the past 20 years.

AMD drivers are fine and Adrenalin is way better than GeForce Experience. People say overclocking on AMD is hard but it's actually not as complicated as for Nvidia cards. You can set separate overlock per game in Adrenalin and it has a very functional metrics overlay.
Nvidia doesn't seem to have their own overclocking software and apps like Afterburner are clunky and "yet another app I need to run in tray". AMD has everything built in. And it all looks nice.
I really like Adrenalin and if I ever go back to Nvidia I surely will miss it!

Performance wise I'm very happy with my 7900 XTX. I looked into 4080 (and even Super) and the main reason are DLSS 3 (I'm not against it), VR performance (fixed now by AMD, but Nvidia is still a bit better) as well as AV1 and RT performance. AV1 is pretty much wireless VR only and RT gimmicky for another gen or two. And 7900 XTX has 24gb vram.

The downsides are the power draw and no DLSS 3 competitor. While 7900 XTX beats 4080 and probably be at least on par with 4080S, I am getting annoyed that their software support is lacking. There is still no DLSS 3 competitor and AV1 performance is not that great in VR compared to 4080. I won't consider RT now as it's kinda pointless even on 4080.
 
...

The downsides are the power draw and no DLSS 3 competitor. While 7900 XTX beats 4080 and probably be at least on par with 4080S, I am getting annoyed that their software support is lacking. There is still no DLSS 3 competitor and AV1 performance is not that great in VR compared to 4080. I won't consider RT now as it's kinda pointless even on 4080.
Out of curiosity, what is FSR 3 then?

My understanding is that it is AMD's response to DLSS 3, frame generation and all (albeit true mostly not as good as DLSS can be for IQ on lower resolutions - but in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, at 4K, I think it looks amazing).
 
I've been running my 4090 for a while now, but I owned a XFX 7900 XTX (great card) before it and my son is currently running the 7900 XT. Before that, we both had 6900 XT's and my daughter was on a 3060. And even before that, I've run a LONG list of AMD/Nvidia cards (been building computers for myself and others for a long, long time). In my experience, AMD drivers have been every bit as reliable as Nvidia. Both have had issues from time to time, but largely a non issue either way. At the same price, between the XTX and 4080 Super I'd likely go with the 4080 Super. My main reasons are resell price and most features like DLSS generally being slightly better on Nvidia. I expect the 4080 super to close the gap in raster performance with the XTX and of course continue to offer better RT (Even though I still am rarely impressed by RT). That said, if AMD lowers the price of the XTX by $100 to be more compelling, I'd once again prefer AMD between the two.
 
For even money the Nvidia feature set is compelling. Get the card you like now for what you play/do now and near term. Future proofing is neat but upgrading a gpu is easy.

Personally I have a 7900xt main ,a 3060ti side box, a 3060 and pair of 6700xt in the kids PCs. We all play games and the usual PC home use and none of the machines have had any glaring driver issues. Like ever. Ymmv.


The gpu price hikes over the last 5 years have been brutal for a lot of us. Not because we don’t mind splashing on a hobby but because for the price of one mid to mid high tier gpu we built entire rigs not too long ago.

I’ve somehow walked myself up to $700 on GPUs and honestly my advice in todays clown world is get a sub 1k gpu every two years. Let’s be honest any enthusiast is going to get the upgrade bug by then anyway. For me once you top 1k after tax just yolo on a 4090 or whatever the top end is and go all in.
In the USA - they say, the prices will be similar - but, even in other countries - Canada, that is being said. Hard to believe.... In Canada, cheapest 7900 XTX is $1300 + tax. The supposed price in the USA for the 4080 Super is $999 USD? That's converted to $1350* (*approx - there will be an additional amount added to that - $1400 seem more likely or even higher). The current 4080 goes for about $1700 here - and some ppl think there will be a $300-$400 'discount' - so, that would match up. Really difficult to believe - even if Nvidia is trying a PR stunt - or it's expected - they will 'sell out' and be 'out of stock' - which often (always?) happens.

The 7900 XTX would probably only be slightly discounted in that case? A small price reduction - $50-$100 is probably wishful thinking?
 
I've been running my 4090 for a while now, but I owned a XFX 7900 XTX (great card) before it and my son is currently running the 7900 XT. Before that, we both had 6900 XT's and my daughter was on a 3060. And even before that, I've run a LONG list of AMD/Nvidia cards (been building computers for myself and others for a long, long time). In my experience, AMD drivers have been every bit as reliable as Nvidia. Both have had issues from time to time, but largely a non issue either way. At the same price, between the XTX and 4080 Super I'd likely go with the 4080 Super. My main reasons are resell price and most features like DLSS generally being slightly better on Nvidia. I expect the 4080 super to close the gap in raster performance with the XTX and of course continue to offer better RT (Even though I still am rarely impressed by RT). That said, if AMD lowers the price of the XTX by $100 to be more compelling, I'd once again prefer AMD between the two.
Do you use the same OS and drivers on each PC? Is the AMD driver usually/always the latest? I find it somewhat fascinating that some ppl say 'they're reliable' whereas others who claim they tried the gpus - insist that the (AMD) drivers are crap. I dunno how they can be so bad but related hardware is used in the Console hardware (world) and lots of reviewers are able to still get their benchmarks/tests out - you would think they would review it and report that *this and that* crashed or they couldn't finish the (review) benchmark?

My main complaint about AMD gpus - is the lack of support in features but mostly on the productivity side - the gaming side seems 'good enough' - even if RT isn't quite up to par to Nvidia - I've read some ppl claim that there will be progress with RDNA 4 - but, that remains to be seen - I am in the 'rasterization' camp - that it's probably a bigger deal since many games aren't really taking advantage of RT or aren't utilizing RT yet? That may change but I don't find RT in games to favor Nvidia - the ray tracing in productivity software (Blender, for e.g.) is a whole different story - and it's actually a reason or 'deal maker' for really considering Nvidia (seriously).
 
Do you use the same OS and drivers on each PC? Is the AMD driver usually/always the latest? I find it somewhat fascinating that some ppl say 'they're reliable' whereas others who claim they tried the gpus - insist that the (AMD) drivers are crap. I dunno how they can be so bad but related hardware is used in the Console hardware (world) and lots of reviewers are able to still get their benchmarks/tests out - you would think they would review it and report that *this and that* crashed or they couldn't finish the (review) benchmark?

My main complaint about AMD gpus - is the lack of support in features but mostly on the productivity side - the gaming side seems 'good enough' - even if RT isn't quite up to par to Nvidia - I've read some ppl claim that there will be progress with RDNA 4 - but, that remains to be seen - I am in the 'rasterization' camp - that it's probably a bigger deal since many games aren't really taking advantage of RT or aren't utilizing RT yet? That may change but I don't find RT in games to favor Nvidia - the ray tracing in productivity software (Blender, for e.g.) is a whole different story - and it's actually a reason or 'deal maker' for really considering Nvidia (seriously).
Yeah, all the PC's in my house are on the same OS, currently running 11 on all of them. Drivers are almost always up to date (my son is a little lazy updating though). Funnily enough I updated my Nvidia drivers today and my system black screened while updating and required a hard reboot. RT in games really has not wow'd me most the time. Alan Wake 2 as an example, does certainly look a bit better with RT, but the performance hit is insane. With my 4090 I have to run DLSS performance (4k) and frame gen to make it look/feel smooth enough for my liking. And then the combo of performance level DLSS and frame gen causes some annoying graphical issues that I can barely stand.
 
Yeah, all the PC's in my house are on the same OS, currently running 11 on all of them. Drivers are almost always up to date (my son is a little lazy updating though). Funnily enough I updated my Nvidia drivers today and my system black screened while updating and required a hard reboot. RT in games really has not wow'd me most the time. Alan Wake 2 as an example, does certainly look a bit better with RT, but the performance hit is insane. With my 4090 I have to run DLSS performance (4k) and frame gen to make it look/feel smooth enough for my liking. And then the combo of performance level DLSS and frame gen causes some annoying graphical issues that I can barely stand.
Interesting - I haven't gamed enough to really comment or be of any help - lots of experienced gamers here, though (afaik) - I keep reading how RT is 'overrated' - and there's such a performance hit - and/or there's not a lot of games even utilizing/supporting it.... it's more of a bonus to me than something that leans me towards Nvidia for the RT - I think the RT is good for productivity - when the ray tracing is utilized that way.
I'm now looking at mostly used cards - but, if the 7900 xtx gets discounted because of the release and the 4070 Ti Super is at the price most ppl say it'll be - I'll add that to my choices - I'm looking at 7900 XTX, 4070 Ti Super or a used 4080 - not sure which to choose but RT and 'drivers' doesn't cause me to lean either way. I am undecided because I'm not sure what prices will be (in a month) - although, both the nvidia and amd have their pros/cons.

That's pretty interesting - that you need all those features for the 4090 to perform adequately or to your liking - those games must be really demanding. :)

Oh, also, I will be playing at 4K - so, the gpus I am looking at - are the min. for 4K, I believe....right?
 
Out of curiosity, what is FSR 3 then?

My understanding is that it is AMD's response to DLSS 3, frame generation and all (albeit true mostly not as good as DLSS can be for IQ on lower resolutions - but in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, at 4K, I think it looks amazing).

FSR 3 has like 5 games, DLSS 3 around 80+

FSR 3 released a year and a half after DLSS 3.0.
On top of that looking worse. There's already DLSS 3.5 out.
 
FSR 3 has like 5 games, DLSS 3 around 80+

FSR 3 released a year and a half after DLSS 3.0.
On top of that looking worse. There's already DLSS 3.5 out.
That's AMD for you - everything is released late, doesn't work - isn't optimized or stable or supported....on and on....

But, on the bright side, maybe FSR 3 will work on older Nvidia cards long after DLSS X.X isn't supporting them anymore?
 
FSR 3 has like 5 games, DLSS 3 around 80+

FSR 3 released a year and a half after DLSS 3.0.
On top of that looking worse. There's already DLSS 3.5 out.
Ah, so you're more concerned with the number rather than the fact that AMD actually does have a DLSS 3 competitor. I remember when I was thinking the same thing about RT and DLSS, and kept my two 1080 Tis instead of getting a 20 series. The 3090 was a nice upgrade and I got to use DLSS and RT a good bit then - but not with most games. The more raster performance than two 1080 Tis was still more of a selling point, even then.

In case you aren't picking up what I'm putting down - give it time. It will get better, especially since FSR is open source.
 
I don't think anyone disagrees with that position. I just also think anyone who is paying attention also knows that AMD will drop their prices to remain competitive in the market.
It isn't really a matter of if they will, the only speculation is: by "how much"?
I don't know if I'd agree with that - their prices have been pretty static and there hasn't been many price drops - maybe for you guys in the USA - but, do you know anywhere else where they've dropped the price? The 4080 and 4090 actually INCREASED in price recently and Nvidia has kept the 4070 series price relatively the same. AMD has had pretty high prices for the 7900 XT and 7900 XTX for most of their retail time. If the new release from Nvidia results in a significant price reduction, great. I'll believe it when I see it (here). I don't care what happens in the USA because it doesn't always impact here.

I'll consider the 7900 XT (can almost buy this card now) and the 7900 XTX if I discover more info on it relating to productivity use - I think it would be worth the risk but if it's used - then, I obviously can't return it.
 
I don't know if I'd agree with that - their prices have been pretty static and there hasn't been many price drops - maybe for you guys in the USA - but, do you know anywhere else where they've dropped the price? The 4080 and 4090 actually INCREASED in price recently and Nvidia has kept the 4070 series price relatively the same. AMD has had pretty high prices for the 7900 XT and 7900 XTX for most of their retail time. If the new release from Nvidia results in a significant price reduction, great. I'll believe it when I see it (here). I don't care what happens in the USA because it doesn't always impact here.

I'll consider the 7900 XT (can almost buy this card now) and the 7900 XTX if I discover more info on it relating to productivity use - I think it would be worth the risk but if it's used - then, I obviously can't return it.
AMD ahead of the 4070TiS launch has already officially lowered the price of the 7900XT.
https://www.techpowerup.com/317929/...sd-710-on-newegg-msrp-lowered-to-usd-749?cp=2
https://www.thefpsreview.com/2024/0...rp-to-749-as-part-of-new-promotional-program/
(etc etc, could post a bunch of articles discussing this). Cards at this price or lower can be purchased today.

And I anticipate just before the 4080S launch they'll do the same to the 7900XTX.

The OP lives in the US and is therefore affected by US based pricing and not anywhere else. Why does anything I have to say need to be relevant to anywhere other than the US when it's not even germane to the topic at hand?
 
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Ah, so you're more concerned with the number rather than the fact that AMD actually does have a DLSS 3 competitor. I remember when I was thinking the same thing about RT and DLSS, and kept my two 1080 Tis instead of getting a 20 series. The 3090 was a nice upgrade and I got to use DLSS and RT a good bit then - but not with most games. The more raster performance than two 1080 Tis was still more of a selling point, even then.

In case you aren't picking up what I'm putting down - give it time. It will get better, especially since FSR is open source.

That only if the competitor does nothing.
I got 7900 XTX because I don't care about RT this gen. But it will become important in a gen or two.
 
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Ppl are asking about the drivers - but, not everyone is experiencing the same problems - honestly (and I don't want to dismiss what you say - believe me.... I get it) - but, some 7900 xtx owners say they haven't had drivers problems while others have it so bad - they are loudly complaining online - some even decide to sell their card and switch to an nvidia card.
If it was so bad and prominent - meaning widely prominent - there'd be several youtube videos on it from content ppl. I don't know what the problem is but it sounds pretty bad - I'm considering a 7900 xtx and want it at the cheapest I can find - so willing to go used. The transient spikes are a major concern, though - my psu is a Corsair RM850W so a good quality psu but at 850, still LOWER than a 1000W one. I don't know what to do - it's a real pita if I have to invest another $200 into a psu so add that to my gpu cost?!? Nvidia gpus tend to be lower power - at least, the Ada / 40 series are - although, yeah, the 4080 needs 1000w+ too? Maybe the 4070 series doesn't?
I've been using a 7900 XTX with a decent 850w psu for over a year now and had no issues with spikes.

Driver wise, has not been a problem for me. Performance has been good, no complaints

So I wouldn't worry about that, its more really what vram you want, if you want RT or Nvidia's software stack, and your budget/pricing of both.
 
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AMD ahead of the 4070TiS launch has already officially lowered the price of the 7900XT.
https://www.techpowerup.com/317929/...sd-710-on-newegg-msrp-lowered-to-usd-749?cp=2
https://www.thefpsreview.com/2024/0...rp-to-749-as-part-of-new-promotional-program/
(etc etc, could post a bunch of articles discussing this). Cards at this price or lower can be purchased today.

And I anticipate just before the 4080S launch they'll do the same to the 7900XTX.

The OP lives in the US and is therefore affected by US based pricing and not anywhere else. Why does anything I have to say need to be relevant to anywhere other than the US when it's not even germane to the topic at hand?
Because, I decided it should be? /s :)
 
I've been using a 7900 XTX with a decent 850w psu for over a year now and had no issues with spikes.

Driver wise, has not been a problem for me. Performance has been good, no complaints

So I wouldn't worry about that, its more really what vram you want, if you want RT or Nvidia's software stack, and your budget/pricing of both.
Well, the conundrum for *me* is this: Nvidia pros: better power efficiency, overall better for productivity - Blender, video editing, AI, ML - so, better overall - this is how I assess cards - others probably don't do it this way - they compare gaming features/performance/price combo - also, the 40 series is good at gaming - so, the gaming I will do -it's a bonus for me - RT etc. - DLSS 3.x - all good.... the cons (and worst part): price - it might be cheap where you are and most ppl are - USA and elsewhere but in CanuckLand - things like gpus are overpriced - and I don't think we'll get this huge discount - what will happen to the vanilla 4080s?

If the 7900 XTX gets this big price decrease ppl are talking about - I might go with that even though I am very suspicious and pessimistic w/ AMD gpus even the 7900 series - the gaming I think will be sufficient even if it's not as good at RT. What I want to use it for besides gaming is productivity stuff - the fields I just mentioned. However, it's probably good in Linux - and I want to use my gpu in Linux as well as Windows. So, it's a tough call. Too many variables and combinations to juggle.

However, the 7900 XTX decreasing in price also means used sellers probably have to lower their asking price - so, it could mean some decent options? The 4080 or 4080 Super is the 'better pick' but I think they'll both be overly expensive for me. I found a used seller asking (as low as) $1300 CAD for their card! Everyone is asking $1500+ and new here, it's $1600+ CAD. I don't anticipate a $1300* new price - but, even then - that's pretty high here.

I'll probably be weighing options like 4070 Ti Super vs 7900 XTX although I acknowledge the 4080 Super is probably the best choice if you don't consider the price. :) In the USA, the price is probably more competitive so it's more appealing.
 
Well, the conundrum for *me* is this: Nvidia pros: better power efficiency, overall better for productivity - Blender, video editing, AI, ML - so, better overall - this is how I assess cards - others probably don't do it this way - they compare gaming features/performance/price combo - also, the 40 series is good at gaming - so, the gaming I will do -it's a bonus for me - RT etc. - DLSS 3.x - all good.... the cons (and worst part): price - it might be cheap where you are and most ppl are - USA and elsewhere but in CanuckLand - things like gpus are overpriced - and I don't think we'll get this huge discount - what will happen to the vanilla 4080s?

If the 7900 XTX gets this big price decrease ppl are talking about - I might go with that even though I am very suspicious and pessimistic w/ AMD gpus even the 7900 series - the gaming I think will be sufficient even if it's not as good at RT. What I want to use it for besides gaming is productivity stuff - the fields I just mentioned. However, it's probably good in Linux - and I want to use my gpu in Linux as well as Windows. So, it's a tough call. Too many variables and combinations to juggle.

However, the 7900 XTX decreasing in price also means used sellers probably have to lower their asking price - so, it could mean some decent options? The 4080 or 4080 Super is the 'better pick' but I think they'll both be overly expensive for me. I found a used seller asking (as low as) $1300 CAD for their card! Everyone is asking $1500+ and new here, it's $1600+ CAD. I don't anticipate a $1300* new price - but, even then - that's pretty high here.

I'll probably be weighing options like 4070 Ti Super vs 7900 XTX although I acknowledge the 4080 Super is probably the best choice if you don't consider the price. :) In the USA, the price is probably more competitive so it's more appealing.
I think your assessment for the most part is accurate. I may weight some of the productivity stuff differently from you because all of my work is photo/video stuff and AMD does quite well there. With few exceptions the 7900XTX is ahead in general rendering tasks inside of Resolve. Certain functions like noise reduction nVidia has an advantage with. And obviously if you're doing 3D rendering, for the most part nVidia is solidly ahead, though as AMD's alternative options slowly gain traction that is narrowing. However "buying today", which is the most important thing and not some nebulous future that may never come: nVidia wins there.

AMD is ahead on raster, generally around 20-30% in terms of price class. nVidia is 30% or so ahead in RT generally in terms of price class.

4080S will definitely be the best card as you say, "cost no object", but becomes significantly tougher because of the level of price competition that is likely to happen.

The tough part is how much is coming to Canada? I don't really know.

Maybe try shopping at B&H/Adorama and see if you can get a card that way for less.
 
Got a great deal on a Sapphire Pulse 7900 XTX and am very happy.. No issues with AMD drivers, but I have never had AMD driver problems except on an RX 580 long ago.. And I could not care less about DLSS or RT!
 
My issue with AMD drivers has been from lesser-known games and they just never get fixed. Yes, I expect problems on the latest and greatest, but they get attention and fixed for both camps.
 
Right, I don't know enough about raytracing because I've never played with it directly to know if I care or not

from what I understand it's very much a niche feature that really only shows up in a handful of games in a meaningful way so I wouldn't say it's a key feature unless it's something that's going to become the norm. in general I don't obsess over image quality, But I do want to be able to game at my monitor's native res of four k
Raytracing is pretty dang amazing and youtube videos, due to compression, really don't show off how awesome it looks. I have a 3090 and have no problems playing CP2077 with everything on max at 3440 x 1440.
 
Raytracing is pretty dang amazing and youtube videos, due to compression, really don't show off how awesome it looks. I have a 3090 and have no problems playing CP2077 with everything on max at 3440 x 1440.
Yeah i'm so behind the most gaming I do these days is very non demanding indie games
 
I went from an RTX 2080 to a 7900XTX and it's been a complete shit show. Tons of driver crashes that proved to be caused by Win 11 insider changes (but Nvidia is fine) and a PSU that should have been more than enough.

I paid $800-ish after getting a partial refund because I never got the promised Starfield code. At that price it's difficult to beat. I wouldn't pay significantly more, though.

You're going to want a new ATX 3.0 PSU regardless - 1000w minimum - with the 4080 or 7900XTX, either because you want a native 12vHPWR or because the AMD card's transient spikes will require it.

Evga 850 G6 here. Had 6900XT with a older driver (23.5.2) and dropped the 7900XTX in and ZERO issues I was surprised I didn't even have to reinstall the driver... Oh and I'm also on Windows 10.
 
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