Radeon RX 7900 XT(X): AMD wants to reduce excessive idle power consumption

As can be seen from our test of the new RDNA 3 graphics cards, the Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX struggle with high power consumption. Although the computing loads in the grid area are where you could ultimately expect them to be, the Navi 31 cards do not perform well with hardware-accelerated video playback and monitors with high refresh rates.

“Our suspicion that the problem ‘high refresh rate = high power consumption’ is making a dubious comeback is correct.”

AMD promises a remedy for some of the problems with new drivers. But when they come is left open. The launch driver for the Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX only says: “High idle power has situationally been observed when using select high resolution and high refresh rate displays.”

That doesn’t necessarily sound like there is a solution for a more economical video accelerator. In a UHD video on Youtube, the Radeon RX 7900 XT uses a respectable 64 watts and the XTX even 69 watts. The Radeons were never a fan of food: The Radeon RX 6900 XT reports 52-59 watts – depending on the model. Geforce cards manage the task with 20-35 watts – again depending on the model.

Until the problem is solved, our advice from the Radeon RX 7900 XT(X) test applies: “We therefore recommend every Radeon owner to switch through different refresh rates and check the power consumption using tools (e.g. GPU-Z or Hwinfo), to find a good compromise. Geforce graphics cards are not immune to the problem, but the thirst is very limited with increasing refresh rates.”