Asus' TUF graphics cards are gaining a reputation for being "quiet. Unlike the best Strix cards, TUF graphics cards are becoming quiet designs of understated beauty. And this latest generation is big. Very big, as in what it takes to cool a 450W RTX 4090; the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is not as demanding as the regular Nvidia RTX 4090 (open in new tab), so if the mega-sized TUF cooler can handle an RTX 4090, the 355W 7900 XTX should be able to handle it easily.

If you haven't checked out our review of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX yet, now's your chance. it's worth a look for a deep dive into the innovative architecture that AMD has brought to consumer gaming graphics. AMD has built chiplets and interconnects that allow chiplets to communicate with each other without significantly impacting performance, and the performance is nothing short of amazing.

It is now widely accepted that the 7900 XTX is very competitive with Nvidia's RTX 4080 in rasterized games, but the reference card has had to compromise due to AMD's desire not to lose too much of its compact size and power efficiency

Asusus is a very competitive company.

The Asus TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX OC Edition (opens in new tab) aims to address the shortcomings of the reference cards, allowing the Navi 31 GPU to achieve lower temperatures without compromising on power efficiency or resorting to unreasonable noise levels and reach higher clocks without compromising on power efficiency or resorting to unreasonable noise levels.

Is this quiet giant an attractive option?" As we have seen, the competition is stiff, as evidenced by the excellent Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X (open in new tab). This product is a competitor to the Strix, but at about the same price as the TUF.

Core specifications are the same on all RX 7900 XTXs: the TUF 7900 XTX features the Navi 31 chip, all seven of whose chiplets are fully unlocked. This means that all 96 Graphics Compute Die (GCD) compute units are enabled, 12 more than the RX 7900 XT's 84 (open in new tab) The XTX has 6,144 stream processors, 96 Ray accelerators, 192 AI processors.

The card has 24GB of 20Gbps GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit memory interface, providing a total memory bandwidth of 960GB/s.

The TUF 7900 XTX is clocked higher than the reference card, with a boost clock of up to 2565 MHz. This is not much higher than the reference card's 2499 MHz and considerably lower than the Sapphire Nitro+'s 2680 MHz. However, Asus offers a software OC mode that raises the boost clock to 2615 MHz.

The highlight of this card is its cooler. It is effectively a quad-slot card, and at 35.2 cm long and 15.8 cm tall, it is certainly not a card for small form factor systems. However, I do like the design. The gray matte finish gives it a premium feel, and Asus has not overdone the RGB either, with only a small element and logo on the right side of the card.

The cooler is clearly made for 450W+ cards. It has a simple baseplate and heatpipe design, with seven heatpipes dissipating heat towards the fins. Thermal pads help cool the memory chips and some of the VRM circuitry.

Like most premium-class cards, the TUF 7900 XTX comes with a metal backplate. However, we found that the backplate gets very hot during operation. Proper airflow solves that problem, but it is something to be aware of. Thankfully, most modern PC cases have front-to-rear case airflow, so this should not be a problem for some cases.

Video output consists of three DP 2.1 and one HDMI 2.1 port; Asus omits the USB Type-C connection on the reference card.

The PCB is quite robust, with a 70A 17+4 phase VRM. This is more than enough to power the overclocked Navi 31 GPU. Power is supplied through three 8-pin power connectors. It also has a dual BIOS with a performance mode and a quiet mode, the latter of which is not necessary at all since the default mode is already quiet.

The 4080 and 7900 XTX have relative advantages and disadvantages. Aside from price, anyone googling "RX 7900 XTX vs RTX 4080" will find data comparing their performance.

The excellence of modern high-end GPU coolers amazes me time and again: the Asus TUF 7900 XTX is on par with the best, with a surprisingly low peak temperature of only 60°C. This is on an open test bench, but it is effectively silent. Temperatures inside the case will be a bit higher.

I thought the Sapphire Nitro+ Vapor-X cooler was the best AMD cooler I've ever encountered, but the TUF cooler rivals, if not exceeds it. Again, the backplate needs to be cooled.

Looking at the power consumption figures, the TUF card consumes about 25W less than the Sapphire, which also explains the Asus' 100MHz lower boost clock. This also explains Asus' 100MHz lower boost clock.

Composite gaming performance

1440p gaming performance

4K gaming performance

As for gaming performance, the results were almost as expected. Based on the limited benchmark data I have on the reference 7900 XTX, the TUF is faster than the reference card, but underperforms the Sapphire by a consistent margin.

The TUF7900 XTX and RTX 4080 are in line with what I would expect. The same story is repeated ad nauseum: the 7900 XTX is very good at traditional rasterized titles, but the RTX 4080 is a generation ahead of it in ray tracing. If RT and the ever-improving DLSS 3 and frame generation capabilities of Nvidia's RTX 40 cards are important to you, the 4080 is a strong (if expensive) and power-efficient competitor.

In some games, the TUF 7900 XTX can go toe-to-toe with the RTX 4090, but with demanding ray-tracing effects enabled, the RTX 4090 is far behind. [Navi31 is a forward-thinking consumer GPU, and we look forward to seeing what the future holds for AMD and future chiplet designs. 3D V-cache GPUs?

While I did not test 10 different 450W RTX 4090s, the Asus RX 7900 XTX TUF OC Edition has probably the best cooler I have ever encountered. GPU manufacturers usually find the right balance between low noise levels and low temperatures. The GPU manufacturer usually has to find the right balance between low noise levels and low temperatures. If the card is too hot, the boost clock will drop. Aiming for low temperatures often results in high fan noise levels; the TUF 7900 XTX has no such dilemma. Aside from the backplate, the card never gets above lukewarm temperatures, effectively keeping it quiet. It's a win-win.

Build quality is excellent, and its subtle matte metallic finish looks great; the PCB is very over-specced and, like all previous RX 7900s, uses the well-established 8-pin power connector.

Asus clearly has the headroom to push the power limits a bit more for higher clocks, but its modest boost clock is intentional to position the yet-to-be-announced Strix card for a full performance role There is no doubt that this is the case.

Whether TUF is the right card for you depends on what you value most in a graphics card. For full performance, there are higher-clocked RX 7900 XTX cards, not to mention the superior RT performance and DLSS technology of the RTX 40 series cards. The higher-clocked RX 7900 XTX tends to be less power efficient, but full performance at any cost is not everything to everyone.

Even if it is not the fastest RX 7900 XTX, you will certainly get a noiseless, well-designed card, and these two factors will appeal to many gamers. Fans of quiet computing will be overjoyed.

TUFs face stiff competition. Premium tier cards like Sapphire's Nitro+ and Gigabyte's Aorus offer similar features and characteristics; Asus attracts loyal buyers, and these customers usually do not mind paying a little extra for Asus products.

After all, the Asus TUF 7900 XTX offers very good 4K gaming performance and a great cooler; maybe AMD will find something and release some high-performance drivers, or maybe the Asus TUF 7900 XTX will be a great choice for the Asus TUF 7900 XTX.