I Sold My 4090 for a 7900 XTX - 3 Months Later

Summary

In this video, the creator discusses their experience swapping from an RTX 490 to a 7900 XTX due to driver issues with Nvidia's 40 series GPUs. Despite the 7900 XTX being theoretically slower, the creator finds it performs comparably after overclocking, with fewer issues and at half the price of the RTX 490. They also praise AMD's Adrenaline software over Nvidia's control panel. While acknowledging AMD's own set of problems, the creator concludes that, for now, they prefer the 7900 XTX and don't regret their decision.

Takeaways

• 😀 The video creator sold their RTX 490 and switched to a 7900 XTX due to ongoing driver issues with the former.
• 🔄 The creator has been using the 7900 XTX for over 3 months and is now sharing their impressions on the switch.
• 📝 A list of driver problems with the RTX 40 series GPUs has been compiled, with some issues already resolved by Nvidia.
• 🚀 Despite the 7900 XTX being theoretically slower, the creator found that overclocking it can significantly boost performance.
• 🎮 In gaming performance, the 7900 XTX, when overclocked, can come close to the RTX 490, especially with ray tracing off.
• 🛠 AMD's Adrenaline software is praised for being more user-friendly and responsive compared to Nvidia's control panel.
• 💻 The 7900 XTX also performs well for professional tasks like video editing, without crashes or slowdowns.
• 🔄 The creator acknowledges that both Nvidia and AMD have their own set of issues, but AMD's seem to have more workarounds.
• 🌐 Nvidia is ahead in upscaling technology, with DLSS offering better quality than AMD's FSR 2, especially for games that support it.
• 💰 The 7900 XTX is considered a better value for money, being available at about half the price of the RTX 490.
• 🔄 The creator does not regret the switch to the 7900 XTX and plans to stick with it, especially considering its performance and value.

Q & A

Why did the user sell their RTX 4090 for a 7900 XTX?

The user sold their RTX 4090 due to persistent driver issues with the Nvidia RTX 40 series GPUs, which were causing significant inconvenience and affecting their work.

What were some of the driver problems the user experienced with the RTX 4090?

The user faced issues such as locked custom resolutions, DSR being locked out, 5-second black screens when alt-tabbing out of full screen games, display freezes, and slow Nvidia control panel response times.

What is the user's opinion on AMD's Adrenaline software compared to Nvidia's control panel?

The user finds AMD's Adrenaline software to be much better than the Nvidia control panel, appreciating its real-time change application and additional features that work effectively.

How does the user feel about the performance of the 7900 XTX after overclocking?

The user is impressed with the performance of the 7900 XTX after overclocking, noting a 20% increase in performance in Apex Legends, which brings it close to the RTX 4090's performance.

What is the user's stance on ray tracing technology at the moment?

The user believes that ray tracing technology is not yet fully mature, and they typically do not enable it, valuing it less until it improves.

What are some of the issues the user has experienced with AMD's 7900 XTX?

The user has encountered issues such as incorrect gamma curve on HDR, full system restarts required after GPU overclock instability, and problems with certain software like MSI Afterburner and Microsoft Excel.

How does the user compare the upscaling capabilities of Nvidia and AMD GPUs?

The user acknowledges that Nvidia is ahead in upscaling, particularly with DLSS being of better quality than AMD's FSR 2, offering more consistent performance across games.

What is the user's final verdict on whether selling the RTX 4090 for the 7900 XTX was a mistake?

The user does not regret the decision, considering the 7900 XTX offers similar performance to the RTX 4090 at a significantly lower price and with fewer issues.

What is the user's view on the price difference between the RTX 4090 and the 7900 XTX?

The user believes the 7900 XTX offers better value for money, being available at around half the price of the RTX 4090 and providing comparable performance.

What are the user's thoughts on the future of AMD and Nvidia GPUs?

The user expects more games to adopt DLSS and FSR 2 technologies and hopes AMD will continue to improve FSR 2 to compete with Nvidia's DLSS.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 GPU Upgrade Dilemma: RTX 4090 to 7900 XTX

The creator discusses their decision to switch from an RTX 4090 to a 7900 XTX due to persistent driver issues with the RTX 490, despite the latter being theoretically slower. They list various driver problems with Nvidia's RTX 40 series GPUs and express frustration with the lack of DisplayPort 2.1 in the RTX 490, especially considering its high price point. After three months of using the 7900 XTX, they share their impressions, noting that overclocking the card has led to performance improvements, making it competitive with the RTX 4090 in certain games. They also praise AMD's Adrenaline software for its superior usability compared to Nvidia's control panel.

05:02

🔥 Performance and Usability: 7900 XTX vs. RTX 4090

The video script continues with the creator's experience using the 7900 XTX for gaming and professional work, highlighting its performance and usability. They mention that while the 7900 XTX should be slower, it performs surprisingly well, especially when overclocked. The creator also discusses AMD's Adrenaline software, which they find to be more responsive and feature-rich than Nvidia's control panel. However, they acknowledge that not everything is perfect, pointing out some issues with AMD's GPU, such as HDR gamma curve problems and crashes due to unstable overclocks. They also touch on the comparison between Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR 2, noting that while DLSS generally offers better quality, FSR 2 has its merits in certain scenarios. The creator concludes that, considering the price and performance, the 7900 XTX is a worthy alternative to the RTX 4090 and expresses no regret over their decision to switch GPUs.

Keywords

💡RTX 490

The RTX 490 refers to a high-end graphics processing unit (GPU) from Nvidia, which is known for its powerful performance in gaming and professional applications. In the video, the creator sold their RTX 490 due to driver issues and replaced it with the 7900 XTX, highlighting the RTX 490's shortcomings and comparing its performance with the new GPU.

💡7900 XTX

The 7900 XTX is a graphics card from AMD, which is positioned as an alternative to Nvidia's RTX series. The video discusses the user's experience with this GPU, noting its performance improvements when overclocked and comparing it to the RTX 490, which was sold.

💡Driver issues

Driver issues refer to problems with the software that allows the GPU to communicate with the rest of the system. The video script mentions several driver problems with the RTX 490 that led the creator to switch to the 7900 XTX, emphasizing the importance of reliable drivers for a good user experience.

💡Overclocking

Overclocking is the process of increasing the clock rate of a GPU to achieve higher performance than the manufacturer's standard settings. The video mentions that the 7900 XTX has a high power limit and can achieve significant performance increases when overclocked, which is a key factor in the creator's decision to switch GPUs.

💡Adrenaline Software

Adrenaline Software is AMD's suite of tools for managing and optimizing GPU performance. The video praises the software for its usability and real-time changes, contrasting it with the Nvidia Control Panel, which is criticized for being slow and less feature-rich.

💡Nvidia Control Panel

The Nvidia Control Panel is a utility that allows users to adjust settings for Nvidia GPUs. In the video, it is criticized for being slow and having fewer features compared to AMD's Adrenaline Software, which affects the user's preference for AMD's GPU management tools.

💡Display Port 2.1

Display Port 2.1 is a version of the DisplayPort standard that supports higher resolutions and refresh rates. The video criticizes Nvidia for not including Display Port 2.1 in their RTX 490, which is seen as a significant oversight given the price point and capabilities of the GPU.

💡FSR 2

FSR 2 stands for FidelityFX Super Resolution 2, a technology developed by AMD that allows games to run at higher frame rates with less performance impact. The video compares FSR 2 to Nvidia's DLSS technology, noting that while FSR 2 has some advantages, it is generally considered inferior in terms of image quality.

💡DLSS

DLSS stands for Deep Learning Super Sampling, a technology by Nvidia that uses AI to upscale lower-resolution images to higher resolutions with minimal quality loss. The video suggests that DLSS generally provides better image quality and fewer artifacts than FSR 2, giving Nvidia an advantage in this area.

💡Upscaling

Upscaling is the process of increasing the resolution of an image or video, often to improve its appearance on higher-resolution displays. The video discusses the upscaling capabilities of both AMD and Nvidia, noting that while the 7900 XTX performs well, Nvidia's DLSS technology currently offers superior upscaling quality.

💡Price point

The price point refers to the cost at which a product is sold. The video mentions the 7900 XTX as being available at a significantly lower price than the RTX 490, which, combined with its performance and fewer issues, makes it a more attractive option for the creator.

Highlights

The user swapped their RTX 490 for a 7900 XTX due to driver issues with the RTX 490.

A list of driver problems with Nvidia RTX 40 series GPUs has been compiled and some have been resolved by Nvidia.

Issues with Nvidia include locked custom resolutions, DSR lockout, and display freezing.

The lack of DisplayPort 2.1 on Nvidia cards in 2023 is criticized as unacceptable for high-priced products.

The user's experience with the 7900 XTX has been positive, with high overclocking potential leading to performance close to the RTX 490.

AMD's Adrenaline software is praised as being much better than the Nvidia control panel.

The 7900 XTX performs well in video editing and other professional work without crashes or slowdowns.

AMD's problems, though fewer, include issues with HDR gamma curves and system restarts required after GPU overclock instability.

Nvidia's driver installation and recovery is considered to be ahead of AMD's.

MSI Afterburner causing stutter when open on a second monitor is an issue unique to AMD.

DaVinci Resolve's audio tracks in the cut panel sometimes disappearing is a notable problem with AMD.

Nvidia's upscaling technology, including DLSS, is ahead of AMD's FSR 2, offering better quality and fewer artifacts.

The 7900 XTX is available at a significantly lower price point than the RTX 490, offering better value for money.

The user does not regret selling their RTX 490 for the 7900 XTX and plans to stick with AMD going forward.

The user suggests that unless Nvidia fixes all driver issues, the 7900 XTX is a better recommendation for most users.

The user invites viewers to share their thoughts on the decision to switch from RTX 490 to 7900 XTX in the comments.

Transcripts

so it's been over 3 months now since I

sold my RTX 490 for a 7900 XTX but why

did I do it was it a huge mistake or did

I make the right call let's talk about

it okay so I feel like guys I've been

holding on to the 7900 XTX for long

enough to give you guys my full

Impressions on whether or not I feel

like it was really worth swapping from

my RTX 4090 to the 7900 XTX as on paper

it doesn't really make any sense the

7900 XTX should be significantly slower

than the RTX 490 so first of all if you

didn't watch my previous videos real

quick why did I do it and it mostly came

down to driver issues that I was having

with my RTX 490 and in fact since then

I've gone ahead and put together a list

as you should see on screen right now of

all the various different driver

problems that I was having and continue

to have with Nvidia RTX 40 series gpus

now as you can see on screen they have

knocked out a couple of these issues

since I started collecting them and

Reporting them to Nvidia so it's great

to see that they are making progress and

maybe as time goes on they can finally

squash all of these annoying bugs and

some of these bugs are more than just

annoying they're actually incredibly

irritating and can lead to my job

actually becoming much much harder

custom resolutions are locked out DSR is

locked out D DSR is locked out get

5-second black screens when alt tabbing

out of full screen games displays can

cause the entire Drive to freeze up new

57in Samsung Neo G9 is locked to 120 HZ

Nvidia control panel is incredibly slow

to apply changes and the last issue that

I have with Nvidia cards when it comes

to display problems mostly is well they

don't have display port 2.1 which let's

face it that's kind of unacceptable to

be charging $1,600 and using an ancient

display port 1.4 connector in 2023 I was

really shocked when they brought out the

490 and didn't have it and it's

definitely biting them in the butt right

now especially when you look at stuff

like like the 57in Neo G9 so those are

most of the issues and reasons as to why

I felt like I was kind of being driven

towards AMD against my will so I

actually put my money where my mouth was

and purchased a 7900 XTX and here we are

over 3 months later I've been using it

and we have to answer the question was

it a mistake and I think we first have

to answer that question by talking about

the performance because yes the 7900 XTX

should be a much slower GPU than the RTX

490 but guys in my experience that's not

necessarily the case it does depend on

what you do but for example my specific

7900 XTX has an insanely high power

limit and these cards can scream when

you overclock them if you give them

enough power and it allows me to get as

you can see in Apex Legends around a 20%

actual performance increase over the

stock values and that actually puts it

really really close to the RTX 490 in

fact when I did a five game average of

the games I was currently playing it was

basically identical to the RTX 4090 at

least with rate tracing off now some

people do really value rate tracing

right now although I feel like we're

just not quite there yet so I typically

don't enable it and I don't value it

that much at least not yet but I do want

to also mention that amd's adrenaline

software is actually really good and in

fact I would consider it to be much much

better than the Nvidia control panel now

I'm typically someone who says if it

ain't broke don't fix it but at this

point I think the Nvidia control panel

can be qualified as kind of broke it

just doesn't work real well it's really

slow and there's so many features that

AMD has in the adrenaline software that

just work really great that don't really

happen in the Nvidia control panel such

as I can have a game open hit alt R open

the adrenaline software and make changes

and they will apply in real time that's

something that you typically can't do on

the Nvidia control panel at least in

most cases in my experience so overall

in terms of performance and the actual

usability I've had a really good

experience with AMD even when it comes

to stuff like video editing and other

professional work it just works really

well I don't have crashes I don't have

problems it's not slow it's overall a

really great experience so the question

is was it worth it and wait we can't

answer that question yet because of

course not everything's perfect so

Nvidia has their problems and of course

AMD has their problems too although I

will mention definitely not as many but

if we take a look at their problems some

of these could be frustrating to other

users as well and to name them off we

have stuff such as freeing HDR actually

locks the incorrect gamma curve on ties

and Os displays in my experience

although they did add edid editing so

there is a workaround to this thankfully

and one thing I did notice is that most

of the AMD problems do have workarounds

which is not necessarily the case for

NVIDIA then another problem that has no

workaround is crashes due to testing

unstable GPU overclocks actually

necessitate a full system restart most

of the time which is something you don't

have to deal with on Nvidia and in

general I'd say nvidia's driver

installation and Recovery is just a

little bit ahead then another thing

would be that programs like MSI

afterburner if you have them open on a

second monitor while you're playing

games it'll actually cause stutter and

that's actually kind of an issue as

that's something that many people

wouldn't even know to check for then

another issue would be Microsoft Excel

graphs sometimes disappear when you type

on them Oculus VR airlink shows

Distortion in the right eye and then Da

Vinci resolve audio tracks in the cut

panel can sometimes also just disappear

and then the other big issue that I want

to bring up to you guys before we talk

conclusions is the upscaling and yes

Nvidia is definitely ahead in this area

I mean Nvidia has frame generation

support in far more games but many

people don't really care about frame

generation but I think you will care

about the dlss versus FSR 2 because

let's face it in general dlss is

definitely better quality than FSR 2 now

I have found some unique instances where

at 4K in a certain very small number of

games FSR 2 can look better but in

general dlss does look better and has

less issues like shimmering or other

artifacts while giving you similar

amounts of performance it just seems

more consistent across the board there

are times when FSR 2 is good and then

there's some games where FSR 2 is

honestly pretty bad and looks far worse

than even xcss and definitely a lot

worse than dlss 2 so I think Nidia in

general definitely has a leg up in that

department and that can lead to a

situation where if you're playing a lot

of games that do have dlss and FSR 2 as

an option even though in overclock 7900

XTX can come very close to 4090 at

Native resolution well at a similar

quality level that Nvidia GPU might

actually be significantly ahead so that

is definitely an advantage for NVIDIA

and I expect more and more games will

start to go that route as time goes on

unless AMD continues to improve upon FSR

2 which I do think they could it just

depends on whether or not they do and

that's something I don't know dlss is

better now and that's all I know but at

the end of the day you know is it

actually worth buying a 7900 XTX over an

RTX 490 and will I be sticking with the

7900 XTX I mean you can get an RX 7900

XTX I think I've seen them as low as

$800 although I think they're typically

between $900 to $11,000 but if you do

find it at $800 that is literally half

the price of an RTX 490 and considering

in my experience that it actually has

less issues and if you overclock it can

come very very close to an RTX 490 yeah

it's hard to recommend a 490 in its

current state over the 7900 XTX for

double the money now I did mention that

nvidia's is working on their driver

problems and if they get basically all

their driver problem fixed then maybe at

that point in time maybe I would

recommend it to people who just want the

fastest and don't care but right now

it's kind of hard to recommend and for

that reason yes I will be sticking to

the 7900 XTX going forward and no I

don't regret selling my 490 for the 7900

xdx but hey that's just what I think do

you think it was a big mistake or do you

think I made the right decision let me

know your guys thoughts in the comments

below and of course I'll see you in the

next video if you made it to the end of

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