AMD’s new Radeon VII graphics card is finally here coming in at $699 USD, the same price
you get an RTX 2080 from Nvidia, so let’s compare the two in a number of games at 4K,
1440p and 1080p to see what the differences in performance are.
For testing I’m using the reference Radeon VII graphics card, third party cards may perform
better. For the 2080 I’ve used MSI’s Ventus as it’s what I happened to have available,
and out of the box it does have a higher boost clock than stock, but is otherwise a fairly
midrange 2080.
The system that I’m testing with has an Intel i7-8700K CPU in an MSI Z390 Gaming Pro
Carbon motherboard running at stock speeds, along with 16GB of T-Force Night Hawk CL16
memory running at DDR4-3200 in dual channel. Check the links in the description for details
on all of the components as well as for up to date pricing. This same system was used
to test both graphics cards, and I used DDU to clean the display drivers between testing,
so with that in mind let’s get into the results.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode with high settings rather than multiplayer
as I find it easier to reproduce the test run and it seems to be less CPU intensive.
In this game the Radeon VII appears to be winning, the average frame rates of both are
extremely close together, however the frame times are coming out ahead at 1440p and 4K
resolutions, 14% and 20% better respectively, as shown by the 1% low results.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with high settings using the built in benchmark,
and in this game the 2080 was coming out ahead in all instances. At 1080p the average frame
rate of the 2080 was 36% ahead of the Radeon VII, however at 4K the difference lowers,
with the 2080 now just 3% ahead, and the Radeon VII is actually 10% ahead in 1% low.
Far Cry 5 was tested with the built in benchmark at high settings, and at all resolutions the
1% low from the 2080 was a fair bit ahead, however the average frame rates were much
closer together, with the Radeon VII actually slightly ahead at the 4K resolution. At 1080p
the 2080 was only 3% ahead for average FPS, 1% at 1440p, and then at 4K the Radeon VII
was 1% ahead.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical benchmark with all settings set to medium, and this
game was consistently performing better with the Radeon VII in terms of average frame rates,
the 2080 was scoring better 1% lows though. At 1080p the Radeon VII was getting 17% higher
average frame rates compared to the 2080, and a 5% improvement once we step up to 4K.
Fortnite was tested using the replay feature with the same replay file, and at high settings
the 2080 was coming out ahead in all tests, both in regards to average frame rate and
1% low. At 1080p we’re looking at 15% higher average FPS with the 2080, a 24% improvement
at 1440p, and then a 26% improvement at 4K.
Overwatch was tested in the practice range with ultra settings, as this allows me to
replicate the test accurately compared to playing with bots or other players. Again
the 2080 was coming out ahead in all tests, but realistically these frame rates are very
high and plenty for this game. At 1080p the 2080 was 8% ahead in terms of average FPS
and then 15% ahead at both 1440p and 4K.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark at high settings, and in this
game the 1% lows from the Radeon 7 were a fair bit lower compared to the 2080. The average
frame rates were also down with Radeon VII, though not as much compared to 1% low. At
1080p the 2080 was 13% ahead in average FPS, 12% at 1440p and 18% at 4K.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested using the built in benchmark with high settings,
and the results between the two were much closer together here, within a frame of each
other at 1080p, and then the 2080 was 5% ahead at 1440p and 3% ahead at 4K.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature with the same replay file, and at high settings
I was seeing slightly higher 1% lows from the Radeon VII at 1080p and 1440p, otherwise
the 2080 was coming out ahead. At 1080p the 2080 was getting 8% higher average FPS, a
massive 26% higher at 1440p and 27% at 4K.
Watch Dogs 2 is a resource intensive game which I found to play well on both cards even
at 4K with very high settings in use, I think it runs pretty well as long as you’re getting
a solid 30 FPS. The 1% lows in this game were a lot higher with the 2080 though, so much
less dips in performance, especially at 4K where the 1% low from the 2080 is actually
ahead of the Radeon VII’s average frame rate.
In terms of overall improvement, over all 10 of the games tested with a 1080p resolution
on average the RTX 2080 is performing 9% better than the Radeon VII, however as we can see
it can vary quite wildly depending on the particular game, and this would probably differ
even further with different settings in use.
At 1440p on average over the same games the 2080 was now performing 10% better than the
Radeon VII, but again the results still vary quite a bit depending on the specific game
being tested.
At 4K the 2080 was now 11% ahead of the 2080 in terms of average FPS in the 10 games tested,
with the Radeon VII coming out ahead in two titles.
It’s possible that with all settings maxed out the Radeon VII may have come out ahead
more in 4K, or at least closed the gap, as we might actually start seeing the 8GB of
memory in the 2080 becoming more of a limiting factor, unfortunately I sent the 2080 back
a few days before receiving the Radeon VII card so I wasn’t able to compare that.
Because of that extra memory I suspect that the Radeon VII may be better in other compute
tasks that can better utilize it, I’ve only tested gaming here.
As for power differences with the Heaven benchmark running I found the test system with the Radeon
7 graphics card installed to draw about 10% more power from the wall.
Now for the final difference, the price. I suggest checking updated prices using the
links in the description, as prices will change over time. As mentioned at the start of the
video though, they’re both around $700 USD, however my specific MSI Ventus 2080 does have
an overclock out of the box, so it costs 10% more for the exact model that I tested with,
which sounds reasonable given on average I was getting about 10% higher average frame
rate with it compared to the Radeon VII card.
Based on the performance difference there is of course no reason to upgrade from one
to the other, unless perhaps you really need the extra memory from the Radeon 7. If you’re
looking to buy today though which should you get? Honestly based on these results I’d
be leaning towards the 2080, even without my slightly overclocked out of the box card
I’ve only seen small performance differences with graphics overclocks, I believe in most
cases the 2080 would still be in front for a similar price. I’ve only tested games
though, I’m suspecting that the Radeon VII may be more useful when it comes to compute
tasks, especially things that can better utilize that 16gb of HBM2 memory. Either way I think
it’s great to see a graphics card capable of 4K gaming with good settings from AMD.
Let me know which card you’d pick down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe
for more comparisons and tech videos like this one.