With the release driver on paw for the Radeon VII we decided to go dorsum to the test bench. Steve has spent the last few days doing zero but benchmarking... after spending the few days before that, doing nothing but benchmarking.

Since our day-one review of the Radeon VII, we were told by AMD commuter improvements were coming merely there would exist no performance improvements, withal the numerous stability problems nosotros experience should be solved. And indeed, with the update in place the Radeon VII is at present rock solid, which is a massive improvement.

Today we take over xxx games to check out, including the new World of Tanks update as well as Noon Legends. For testing we used our Core i9-9900K examination bench clocked at 5 GHz with 32GB of DDR4-3400 memory. We'll encompass some of the results individually and then bound into the full functioning breakup with all 33 games.

Since the review covered results for Fortnite, Battlefield V, World of Tanks, Strange Bridge, Monster Hunter: World, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Rainbow Half dozen Siege, Far Weep v, Forza Horizon 4, Resident Evil 2, ARMA three and Hitman 2, we're going to skip over them and instead pick a dozen dissimilar games to discuss.

Benchmarks

Apex Legends is a fresh new battle royale game that came out of nowhere, but information technology does seem like people are enjoying this 1. It's based on the same engine as Titanfall 2 and like Titanfall ii information technology'southward capped at 144 fps.

The Radeon 7 does OK in this ane. It'due south slightly slower than the GTX 1080 Ti, 12% slower than the RTX 2080 and 26% faster than Vega 64. So that's kind of Radeon 7 in a nutshell.

The Radeon 7 performs quite well in Sniper Elite 4, but who didn't see that coming? This is a well optimised title that plays well on both AMD and Nvidia hardware. The GeForce RTX 2080 was still slightly faster only the margin is small. The Radeon Vii likewise manages to improve on Vega 64 by a 30% margin.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a late 2022 release but it's certainly non the oldest game we test with. For those wondering DirectX xi works improve than DX12 on both AMD and Nvidia GPUs, so that'south why we use it.

The Radeon VII was able to match the GTX 1080 Ti, making information technology a little slower than the RTX 2080 but a good bit faster than the RTX 2070 and Vega 64.

It's non the most well optimized title to exist released last yr but Just Cause four is still a lot of fun. Anyway, performance for the Radeon VII was… okay. The i% low performance matched that of the GTX 1080 Ti and RTX 2080 which is good, the average frame charge per unit positioned it squarely betwixt the RTX 2080 and 2070, which is… okay.

The Star Wars Battlefront II results are decent, here the Radeon VII provides strong 1% depression performance coupled with a slightly lower than expected average frame rate. In the end it was ten% slower than the RTX 2080 for the average frame charge per unit, but 32% faster than Vega 64.

Project Cars ii has ever favored Nvidia hardware. Nosotros come across this when comparing Vega 56 and the GTX 1070 for example, typically the Vega GPU is faster. As a result Radeon Vii was only able to beat the GTX 1080, making it much slower than the RTX 2080 and way slower than the GTX 1080 Ti.

Moving on we have Assassin's Creed Odyssey, a title that never plays nice with AMD hardware comparatively even though information technology's an AMD sponsored title. Evidently that doesn't hateful much equally this game prefers Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs.

The Radeon 7 is a big step forward from Vega 64 offer 28% more than functioning, though information technology was but able to lucifer the RTX 2070, which is not great for a $700 flagship AMD GPU.

On previous tests we were using the standalone World of Tanks benchmark, simply considering that hasn't been updated and the game has received a major overhaul we're switching back to testing with the HD customer.

The game engine improvements were generally focused on better CPU utilization, which is useful for those using depression clocked multi-core processors. Before the Radeon 7 was 17% slower than the RTX 2080, now it's 16% slower, so the result is the same.

On Vermintide 2 the Radeon VII was slower than both the RTX 2080 and GTX 1080 Ti, though it was a huge footstep forward from Vega 64, delivering 36% more frames on boilerplate.

The Witcher three has the Vega 56 card matching the GTX 1070, however the Radeon VII didn't fare equally well, where it was nine% slower than the GTX 1080 Ti and even slower than the RTX 2080.

AMD no longer enjoys a performance reward in Vulkan-based titles. Have Wolfenstein 2 for example, hither the Radeon Seven was 12% slower than the RTX 2080.

DiRT 4 is always an interesting inclusion as CMAA enables god style on the Radeon GPUs and we again encounter this hither with the Radeon VII. Vega 64 was able to beat the ane% depression performance of the RTX 2080 Ti and hither we encounter the Radeon Vii shatter it while delivering the same 154 fps on average. AMD'south GPU partitioning would be in pretty good shape if every game looked like this.

Performance Summary

That's how the Radeon VII stacks upward in some other dozen titles, so between this characteristic and the twenty-four hours-one review we've closely looked at 24 games, but there'southward another 9 that were part of our mega benchmark.

The graphs below will prove you how the Radeon Seven compares to the RTX 2080, 2060, GTX 1080 Ti and Vega 64 in all 33 games...

In our review featuring just a dozen games, Radeon Vii was iv% slower than the RTX 2080. Now with 33 games it'south seven% slower, and so a slight modify there. The previous 12 titles are included here so an even amount of favorable and unfavorable titles for the GCN fifth-gen architecture.

What the graph above tell us is that in that location's an overwhelmingly expert gamble that in a given championship the RTX 2080 volition exist faster, making information technology the superior gaming graphics card right at present.

The Radeon VII was 2% slower than the GTX 1080 Ti with our 12-game sample, now it's 5% slower. No major changes, merely for the near part the much older GTX 1080 Ti was faster. Moreover, it was faster by a x% margin or greater in 10 of the 33 games whereas the Radeon Seven was faster past a ten% margin or greater in but two of the 33 games.

Against the RTX 2060 the Radeon VII is 28% faster...

Finally compared to Vega 64 the latest Radeon is 24% faster. That'south a dainty piffling functioning bump, just every bit we said in the day-one review, you lot're paying 40% more for a little over 20% more functioning.

Putting Information technology All Together

For improve or worse, information technology seems nosotros pretty much nailed information technology with our sample of games in the day-one coverage. The Radeon Vii is indeed slightly slower than the RTX 2080, while costing the aforementioned corporeality and consuming a little extra ability. Currently the reference bill of fare is extremely loud, but AMD has promised a fix is coming for that. We're likewise glad to report all the stability bug we were seeing prior to release have been addressed, and so anyone who bought this card should enjoy a flawless experience.

We've all the same to delve into whatsoever overclocking and/or undervolting, something we'll report on if nosotros find there'south room for tweaks and squeezing more than functioning at that place.

Something worth noting, AMD does believe that the Radeon VII is performing as it should exist. Even though we plan to continue benchmarking this GPU during its lifespan, equally nosotros always do, AMD is non putting upwardly excuses and saying drivers are still immature or early on revisions. A surprise would be squeamish, but in the meantime what yous encounter is what you get.

The Radeon VII is a fine graphics card, but it's not competitive enough against the RTX 2080. We review it exclusively as a gaming product (where that 16GB frame buffer is not really a factor) and frankly it nether delivered. If it was more efficient than the RTX 2080 and ran serenity, perchance we could deem it a worthy alternative, but let'south not carbohydrate glaze this or beat out around the bush-league, it'southward not as efficient, it's loud and for the virtually office information technology's slower, only a picayune slower but it'due south slower.

For those reasons we can't recommend the Radeon VII over the GeForce RTX 2080. Equally badly as we wanted the RTX 2080 to be obliterated, forcing Nvidia to get real with their pricing, that has not happened. Therefore gamers are forced to pay 2022 pricing for 2022 performance (unless at that place's a DLSS phenomenon, just wait, no titles supporting that...). It's not a dour scenario at all -- read why we believe building a gaming PC right now is a good idea -- but let's nonetheless promise later in the yr nosotros see GPUs evangelize meliorate value for gamers.

Shopping Shortcuts:
  • GeForce RTX 2060 on Amazon, Newegg
  • GeForce RTX 2070 on Amazon, Newegg
  • GeForce RTX 2080 on Amazon, Newegg
  • GeForce RTX 2080 Ti on Amazon, Newegg
  • Radeon RX Vega 56 on Amazon, Newegg
  • Radeon RX Vega 64 on Amazon, Newegg
  • Radeon RX 570 on Amazon, Newegg
  • Radeon RX 580 on Amazon, Newegg