Sapphire RX 7900 GRE Edition Graphics Card Review

How Much Does it Cost?

So I’m more than aware that this card has technically been out on the market for around 7 months, but as it was only available in Asia, it was only fair that we took our own look at it and I’m glad we did. The issue with any GPU generation is releasing models that can hit all of the major price points, and to be competitive on a performance level, especially when compared to the competition.

AMD until now had the 7800 XT at $499 and the 7900 XT at $899 when it launched and while that’s seen price cuts now down to $739, that’s quite a big gap of over $200. Now if the GRE had launched in western markets for the originally proposed $649, I would simply say that it’s not worth it, as it’s too close to the pricing of the 7900 XT, but at $549, it’s much more palatable but comes with its own issues of being so close to the 7800 XT which offers up a much more favourable argument in terms of value.

Overview

The GRE is an odd one though, especially given the TDP and slower memory bandwidth when compared to its little brother, and that is partly its downfall, but if the TDP was higher, say to 300 Watts and the memory bandwidth was increased, then we’d likely see performance closer to the 7900 XT which would then make that particular card redundant. These are all reasons that I can look at and see why AMD have done what they’ve done and having something that can compete with the likes of the 4070 SUPER is a wise choice, because the 7800 XT just falls short in comparison for overall performance, but more than makes up for it in terms of cost.

If I were in the market for a new GPU, I’d honestly still be looking at the 7800 XT, but if I had more money to spare, then the GRE makes sense without going too crazy and pushing your budget up to 7900 XT territory but on the same hand, NVIDIA have the 4070 SUPER that competes and in Ray Tracing and other functionality and features, it’s the clear winner, so really it comes down to what’s right for you. If it’s pure rasterisation, then there’s a big argument but I fear that budget and what you as an individual are willing to spend is going to be the biggest decision you’ll have to make.

For now, that’s going to do it for this one. Let me know, is the 7900 GRE a card that you’d consider buying or have AMD just muddied the stack a bit too much now? Let us know in the comments section below.