Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs HD 6790

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 6790 and Radeon RX 7900 XTX, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

HD 6790
2011
1 GB GDDR5, 150 Watt
3.55

RX 7900 XTX outperforms HD 6790 by a whopping 1860% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking70810
Place by popularitynot in top-10057
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.7134.93
Power efficiency1.8715.51
ArchitectureTeraScale 2 (2009−2015)RDNA 3.0 (2022−2025)
GPU code nameBartsNavi 31
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date4 April 2011 (13 years ago)3 November 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$149 $999

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

The higher the performance-to-price ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices for comparison.

RX 7900 XTX has 4820% better value for money than HD 6790.

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores8006144
Core clock speed840 MHz1929 MHz
Boost clock speedno data2498 MHz
Number of transistors1,700 million57,700 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)150 Watt355 Watt
Texture fill rate33.60959.2
Floating-point processing power1.344 TFLOPS61.39 TFLOPS
ROPs16192
TMUs40384
Ray Tracing Coresno data96

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x16
Length198 mm287 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pin2x 8-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR5GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount1 GB24 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit384 Bit
Memory clock speed1050 MHz2500 MHz
Memory bandwidth134.4 GB/s960.0 GB/s
Shared memory--
Resizable BAR-+

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB Type-C
HDMI++

API and SDK compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX11.2 (11_0)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model5.06.7
OpenGL4.44.6
OpenCL1.22.2
VulkanN/A1.3

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score.

HD 6790 3.55
RX 7900 XTX 69.57
+1860%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

HD 6790 1584
RX 7900 XTX 31086
+1863%

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

HD 6790 2887
RX 7900 XTX 83322
+2786%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

HD 6790 13637
RX 7900 XTX 148746
+991%

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

HD 6790 2150
RX 7900 XTX 64680
+2908%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

900p52
−1823%
1000−1050
+1823%
Full HD61
−295%
241
+295%
1440p8−9
−1925%
162
+1925%
4K5−6
−1920%
101
+1920%

Cost per frame, $

1080p2.44
+69.7%
4.15
−69.7%
1440p18.63
−202%
6.17
+202%
4K29.80
−201%
9.89
+201%
  • HD 6790 has 70% lower cost per frame in 1080p
  • RX 7900 XTX has 202% lower cost per frame in 1440p
  • RX 7900 XTX has 201% lower cost per frame in 4K

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2 14−16
−2436%
355
+2436%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
−3025%
250
+3025%
Hogwarts Legacy 8−9
−2625%
218
+2625%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5 14−16
−1167%
190−200
+1167%
Counter-Strike 2 14−16
−2386%
348
+2386%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
−2900%
240
+2900%
Far Cry 5 10−12
−1827%
212
+1827%
Fortnite 21−24
−1273%
300−350
+1273%
Forza Horizon 4 18−20
−1778%
338
+1778%
Forza Horizon 5 9−10
−2889%
269
+2889%
Hogwarts Legacy 8−9
−2225%
186
+2225%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 16−18
−1006%
170−180
+1006%
Valorant 50−55
−758%
450−500
+758%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5 14−16
−1167%
190−200
+1167%
Counter-Strike 2 14−16
−2321%
339
+2321%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 65−70
−303%
270−280
+303%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
−2613%
217
+2613%
Dota 2 35−40
−463%
197
+463%
Far Cry 5 10−12
−1764%
205
+1764%
Fortnite 21−24
−1273%
300−350
+1273%
Forza Horizon 4 18−20
−1733%
330
+1733%
Forza Horizon 5 9−10
−2722%
254
+2722%
Grand Theft Auto V 12−14
−1358%
175
+1358%
Hogwarts Legacy 8−9
−1938%
163
+1938%
Metro Exodus 7−8
−3314%
239
+3314%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 16−18
−1006%
170−180
+1006%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
−4442%
545
+4442%
Valorant 50−55
−758%
450−500
+758%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 14−16
−1167%
190−200
+1167%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
−2488%
207
+2488%
Dota 2 35−40
−409%
178
+409%
Far Cry 5 10−12
−1618%
189
+1618%
Forza Horizon 4 18−20
−1539%
295
+1539%
Hogwarts Legacy 8−9
−1850%
156
+1850%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 16−18
−1006%
170−180
+1006%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
−2383%
298
+2383%
Valorant 50−55
−758%
450−500
+758%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Fortnite 21−24
−1273%
300−350
+1273%

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2 5−6
−5240%
267
+5240%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 27−30
−1679%
500−550
+1679%
Grand Theft Auto V 3−4
−5400%
165
+5400%
Metro Exodus 2−3
−7950%
161
+7950%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 30−33
−483%
170−180
+483%
Valorant 40−45
−1113%
450−500
+1113%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−4767%
146
+4767%
Far Cry 5 9−10
−1978%
187
+1978%
Forza Horizon 4 9−10
−3122%
290
+3122%
Hogwarts Legacy 4−5
−3100%
128
+3100%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6−7
−3867%
238
+3867%

1440p
Epic Preset

Fortnite 7−8
−2057%
150−160
+2057%

4K
High Preset

Grand Theft Auto V 16−18
−1063%
186
+1063%
Valorant 18−20
−1647%
300−350
+1647%

4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
−7200%
73
+7200%
Dota 2 12−14
−1225%
159
+1225%
Far Cry 5 5−6
−3080%
159
+3080%
Forza Horizon 4 4−5
−5575%
227
+5575%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 4−5
−2300%
95−100
+2300%

4K
Epic Preset

Fortnite 4−5
−1875%
75−80
+1875%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 190−200
+0%
190−200
+0%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2 67
+0%
67
+0%
Hogwarts Legacy 60−65
+0%
60−65
+0%
Metro Exodus 108
+0%
108
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 197
+0%
197
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 130−140
+0%
130−140
+0%
Counter-Strike 2 43
+0%
43
+0%
Hogwarts Legacy 69
+0%
69
+0%

This is how HD 6790 and RX 7900 XTX compete in popular games:

  • RX 7900 XTX is 1823% faster in 900p
  • RX 7900 XTX is 295% faster in 1080p
  • RX 7900 XTX is 1925% faster in 1440p
  • RX 7900 XTX is 1920% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

  • in Metro Exodus, with 1440p resolution and the High Preset, the RX 7900 XTX is 7950% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • RX 7900 XTX is ahead in 58 tests (88%)
  • there's a draw in 8 tests (12%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 3.55 69.57
Recency 4 April 2011 3 November 2022
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 24 GB
Chip lithography 40 nm 5 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 150 Watt 355 Watt

HD 6790 has 136.7% lower power consumption.

RX 7900 XTX, on the other hand, has a 1859.7% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 11 years, a 2300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 700% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6790 in performance tests.

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AMD Radeon HD 6790
Radeon HD 6790
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Radeon RX 7900 XTX

Other comparisons

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Community ratings

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