I Sold My 4090 for a 7900 XTX - 3 Months Later
Summary
TLDRIn 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
🤔 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.
🔥 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡RTX 490
💡7900 XTX
💡Driver issues
💡Overclocking
💡Adrenaline Software
💡Nvidia Control Panel
💡Display Port 2.1
💡FSR 2
💡DLSS
💡Upscaling
💡Price point
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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time you do so AMD and Nvidia release
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