XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT Review: Bigger, Badder RDNA 3
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker launched at the end of last year, and as usual, Square-Enix updated its free character creator and benchmark tool. The free utility checks in at approximately a 2.21GB download. It will test your PC's ability to run the game at various settings, and presents a final result with an overall rating upon its conclusion. We tested Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker at 1440p and in 4K UHD, with maximum image quality settings.
Final Fantasy Endwalker
This benchmark is somewhat CPU bound at 1440p, but at UHD resolution the field spreads out. The XFX MERC 310 RX 7900 XT is able to just barely overtake the reference 7900 XT design once again, and it stacks right on top of an RTX 3090 Ti but with much better min frame rates and not that far behind an RTX 4080 and Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which command about a 15% lead.
XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT Details @ 4K
AC Valhalla ranks average frame rates ahead of an RTX 4080 at 1440p res for the Radeon RX 7900 XT cards, but a touch behind when resolution is scaled up to 4K. What's becomes clear though is that AMD is still likely in need of some optimization here, as min frame rates are lower than even a previous gen Radeon RX 6900 XT. And as always, our custom XFX Radeon 7900 XT card once again just slips by the reference 7900 XT design.
Forza Horizon 5 shows AMD's new Radeon RX 7900 series putting up a command performance and sandwiching the RTX 4080 once again. The XFX MERC 310 RX 7900 XT is barely ahead of the reference 7900 XT, and scaling to 4K resolution closes the gap even more.
Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker Benchmarks
Final Fantasy Endwalker
This benchmark is somewhat CPU bound at 1440p, but at UHD resolution the field spreads out. The XFX MERC 310 RX 7900 XT is able to just barely overtake the reference 7900 XT design once again, and it stacks right on top of an RTX 3090 Ti but with much better min frame rates and not that far behind an RTX 4080 and Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which command about a 15% lead.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla Benchmarks
The open-world Assassin's Creed Valhalla is an action-adventure game in which the player controls Viking raider Eivor Varinsdottir as he and his compatriots battle Anglo-Saxons through various regions. The games uses the AnvilNext 2.0 engine, which requires DirectX 12...
Assassin's Creed Valhalla
XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT Details @ 4K
Forza Horizon 5 Benchmarks
Forza Horizon 5 is the latest edition of the popular racing game franchise. The game features much larger maps than its predecessors, with more detailed models, and higher graphics fidelity in general. Forza 5 leverages the proprietary ForzaTech engine and DirectX 12...
Forza Horizon 5
XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT Details @ 4K
XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT Details @ 4K
Forza Horizon 5 shows AMD's new Radeon RX 7900 series putting up a command performance and sandwiching the RTX 4080 once again. The XFX MERC 310 RX 7900 XT is barely ahead of the reference 7900 XT, and scaling to 4K resolution closes the gap even more.
Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is an action-adventure game where you play as Star-Lord and lead the rest of the Guardians from mission to mission. The game’s minimum requirements call for a Radeon RX 570 or GeForce GTX 1060-class GPU, but it also supports some of the latest graphics technologies, including DXR and DLSS.
XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT Details @ 4K
Guardians is a tougher slog for AMD's new RDNA 3-based Radeons, and the XFX MERC 310 RX 7900 XT puts up roughly GeForce RTX 3090-class performance but with much lower mins, which hints again at the need for driver optimization.
XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT Details @ 4K w/ RT
With ray tracing enabled, the picture looks even worse for the new Radeon 7900 XT and XTX cards, which can only catch an RTX 3080 here. This once again points to the need for further tuning and optimization from AMD because, as you'll see in our next gaming benchmark, much more untapped horsepower is available for these new Radeons.
Far Cry 6 Benchmarks
Next up, we’ve got some benchmark scores from Far Cry 6, the latest installment in the storied franchise. Like its predecessors, Far Cry 6 is a fast-action shooter set in an open world environment with lush visuals and high graphics fidelity. The game is set on the fictional Caribbean island of Yara, ruled by dictator "El Presidente" Antón Castillo, famously played by actor Giancarlo Esposito. We tested all of the graphics cards here at multiple resolutions using Ultra Quality settings to see how they handled this AAA title.
XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT Details @ 4K
The performance ranking tables here are completely flipped in AMD's favor, and at 4K, the new XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT is able to not only best a GeForce RTX 4080 but also chalk up a few more FPS over a stock 7900 XT reference card as well. That said, the anomaly we witnessed at 1440p with the technically faster custom XFX Radeon RX 7900 XT falling in behind the stock reference AMD card, is just evidence that at lower resolutions this game is CPU limited, so scores are all over the place.
XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT Details @ 4K w/ RT
F1 2021 & F1 2022 Benchmarks
F1 2022 is Codemaster’s latest Formula One racing simulation, and like previous version of the game, it sports impressive visuals. This latest addition to the franchise supports DirectX 12 with ray tracing, and it incorporates support for a number of AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) and NVIDIA technologies (like DLSS). We tested the games with its Ultra High graphics preset, with ray-tracing and TAA enabled at a couple of resolutions to see what the graphics cards could do.
F1 2021 / F1 2022
In the newer, more taxing F1 2022, the framerates are somewhat lower but the Radeon RX 7900 XT cards, including this new custom card from XFX, are able to put up slightly better average frame rates over a GeForce RTX 3090 Ti and at least remain in the hunt with an RTX 4080.
FSR / DLSS 3 And Latency Testing
We also tested F1 2022 and a couple of additional games—namely A Plague Tale: Requiem and Fortnite—with the various DLSS 3 modes available. Please note, all of these games were also tested with beta builds, updated to support DLSS 3 with resolution scaling and AI Frame Generation options.
A Plague Tale: Requiem is more CPU-bound than F1 2022, and our test group ranking is a bit tighter, with the exception of the GeForce RTX 4090 that breaks away from the rest of the pack. Here once again, we see the XFX MERC 310 7900 XT perform completely as expected, just edging out the stock Radeon RX 7900 XT and overtaking the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. It's only about 10% away from GeForce RTX 4080 performance levels as well.
