AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE vs RX 7900 XT: What’s the difference?

It’s official! The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE graphics card will be available to buy worldwide from today.

However, its name has caused a lot of confusion, with fans unsure how the specs and performance will compare with the existing AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT. 

We’re here to clear up all of the confusion with this extensive comparison guide of the two graphics cards. So if you’re unsure which graphics card to buy out of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, find out the key differences below. 

AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE is cheaper

The first thing to clear up is that the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE is not a more expensive variant of the RX 7900 XT – quite the opposite in fact. It has an RRP of $549, making it a whopping $350 cheaper than the launch price ($899) of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT.

It’s important to note that the RX 7900 XT has seen significant price drops since its initial release in December 2022, so the price gulf isn’t quite as big anymore. We’ve found units of the RX 7900 XT to be available closer to the $799 mark. 

Nevertheless, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE is comfortably the cheaper graphics card of the two. So what does GRE actually stand for in that case? Believe it or not, it stands for ‘Golden Rabbit Edition’ to celebrate the zodiac sign of 2023 in the Chinese calendar. 

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is more powerful

With the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE being the most affordable graphics card of the two, you didn’t expect it to also be more expensive than its XT sibling, did you? AMD has cut down on some of the specs to lower the performance for the GRE model. 

AMD says the GRE card is designed for 1440p/4K gaming, excelling at the former but still capable of a decent performance for the latter resolution. Meanwhile, the RX 7900 XT is primarily pitched as a true 4K card. 

The RX 7900 GRE sports 80 Compute Units, 160 ray accelerators and a max boosted clock speed of 2245GHz. In comparison, the RX 7900 XT boasts 84 Compute Units, 168 ray accelerators, and a boosted frequency of 2400GHz. AMD has even reduced GDDR6 memory from 20GB to 16GB for the RX 7900 GRE. 

While we’re yet to test the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE, all of the specs indicate that it will have a weaker performance than the XT. That said, both cards use the latest RDNA 3 architecture, so you can still expect all of the latest Radeon features such as AMD’s most efficient ray tracing technology yet. 

AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE consumes less power

The one positive aspect of more conservative specs is the reduction of power consumption – that’s especially important in a time where energy bills are so costly. 

AMD says the typical board power of the Radeon RX 7900 GRE comes in at 260W, which is notably lower than typical board power of the RX 7900 XT at 315W – that’s a 55W difference. 

As a result, AMD says the minimum PSU recommendation for the RX 7900 GRE is 700W, whereas you’ll need at least a 750W PSU for the RX 7900 XT. That admittedly isn’t a huge difference, but the GRE model is still slightly more tempting if you’re keen to keep your energy bill to a minimum while still benefiting from a high-end gaming performance.