AMD RX 8800 XT could match RTX 4080’s performance – and easily outgun Nvidia’s GPU for ray tracing

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AMD RX 8800 XT could match RTX 4080’s performance – and easily outgun Nvidia’s GPU for ray tracing

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• RX 8800 XT is rumored to equal RTX 4080 for non-ray tracing performance
• The RDNA 4 graphics card could match the RTX 4080 Super for ray tracing
• The GPU is about to enter mass production, hinting at an early 2025 launch

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AMD’s rumored Radeon RX 8800 XT could pack a real punch – especially for ray tracing – if a fresh ***** about the next-gen GPU turns out to be true.

In theory, this will be the top-tier RDNA 4 graphics card – although it’ll be a mid-range GPU, as AMD isn’t doing the high-end this time around, going by the rumor mill – and the new info on performance and a possible release date comes from Zhangzhonghao, a leaker over at the Chiphell forums (in China).

Add plenty of seasoning, but the claim (as highlighted by

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) is that the RX 8800 XT is a huge improvement in ray tracing performance, and a good step up for rasterization performance (no ray tracing) too.

Zhangzhonghao believes that rasterization performance will equal Nvidia’s RTX 4080 GPU, and that the 8800 XT will be more in the ballpark of the RTX 4080 Super when it comes to ray tracing.

The leaker also claims that the RX 8800 XT is 45% faster in ray tracing compared to the current flagship, the RX 7900 XTX, with the Resident Evil 4 Remake. And that in other popular games, the 8800 XT’s generational ray tracing boost is ‘epic’ albeit partly because the performance levels seen with RDNA 3 were pretty shoddy.

Another point to note is that power consumption for the 8800 XT should be 25% less than the 7900 XTX, although we aren’t provided with any specific metric here, just a vague assertion.

Regarding the release date, we’re told that the RX 8800 XT is about to start mass production in the middle of December. In theory, then, it could emerge late in January 2025, or perhaps February, which fits with current rumors of a Q1 launch for RDNA 4 graphics cards.

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(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

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Analysis: Reasons to be hopeful

Interestingly, most of the recent buzz is about the RX 8800 XT, and we’re not hearing anything much on the 8700 XT which would, in theory, be the likely partner GPU (based on guesswork and past rumors).

Considering that the unveiling of AMD’s RDNA 4 desktop GPUs is apparently planned for CES 2025, in just over a month, we’d expect more spillage about a sibling GPU to come through soon – unless Team Red is kicking off with a solo launch here before other RDNA 4 cards arrive further down the line, but we’d be very surprised if that was the case.

With the performance leaks, previous speculation has suggested that the top RDNA 4 GPU (in theory this 8800 XT) could be a bit faster than the 7900 XT, and equating the 8800 XT with the RTX 4080 here indicates that is indeed the case (though other rumors have suggested it’ll be level with the 7900 XT, so a touch slower than the 4080).

That’s for rasterization, but the leap with ray tracing looks to be a huge one – and that makes sense in terms of AMD wanting to fix that weakness with its next-gen desktop graphics cards. Fingers crossed on that front, as often the arguments in favor of Nvidia being the superior choice revolve around ray tracing (and DLSS too).

On the topic of power usage, with the current 7900 XTX flagship having a TDP of 355W, based on the above info, we could be looking at 265W or so for the 8800 XT, which would put it in much the same bracket as the 7800 XT. That suggests AMD is concentrating on driving performance with RDNA 4, rather than efficiency (but not performance at the cost of efficiency, crucially).

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