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Yes—but only in a narrow, extreme test. In a 2023 3DMark Time Spy Extreme run, a power-unlocked, water-cooled Asus TUF Radeon RX 7900 XTX scored close to an RTX 4090. That result does not mean a stock RX 7900 XTX matches an RTX 4090 in games: the modified card drew nearly 700 W, and the published gaming results cover only two titles.
What the modified RX 7900 XTX achieved
PC Gamer reported 19,137 graphics points for the modified Asus TUF RX 7900 XTX in 3DMark Time Spy Extreme in 2023. In the same test, an RTX 4090 Founders Edition scored 19,540 points. TechSpot cited an RTX 4090 average of 19,508 points, also in Time Spy Extreme. Those scores put the modified card close to the RTX 4090 in this synthetic graphics benchmark, not on equal footing across all workloads.
The distinction matters: Time Spy Extreme is one benchmark, and the result came from a single heavily modified card rather than a stock RX 7900 XTX. It cannot establish that ordinary retail cards, or even other samples of the same model, will produce the same score.
What was changed to remove the card’s power limit
PCB-level power modification
Overclocker Jedi95 connected an Elmor Labs EVC2SE to the Asus card’s GPU PCB I2C bus to bypass its programmed power limit. A separate report characterized the technique as “shunt-like”: it makes the voltage-regulator controller report false power consumption, preventing the GPU from throttling at its usual limit. This is hardware work on the graphics card, not a routine driver setting or a software-only overclock.
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- Flagship Gaming Performance, AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU with 2615 MHz boost clock and 24GB GDDR6 memory for elite 4K gaming
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Clock speeds reached
During the benchmark, PC Gamer and TechSpot reported a peak GPU clock of 3,467 MHz and an average of about 3,333 MHz. These are figures from the modified test setup; they should not be read as expected clocks for a stock RX 7900 XTX.
How much power and cooling the result required
PC Gamer and TechSpot reported peak power draw of 696 W for the modified card; Tom’s Hardware described it as nearly 700 W. The experiment used a high-end custom water loop. Tom’s Hardware reported 10°C coolant, while TechSpot described the cooling as chilled water. This is far outside normal RX 7900 XTX operating conditions.
The reports do not specify a recommended power-supply model or rating, and a GPU’s reported draw alone is not enough to determine a safe power supply for an entire PC. The figures do show why this result is not a practical overclocking target for a typical system: the card required exceptional power delivery and chilled custom cooling to reach it.
Rank #2
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- Next‑Gen AMD RDNA 4 Architecture: Powered by the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT GPU with 32 Compute Units featuring 3rd Gen Ray Tracing and 2nd Gen AI Accelerators, delivering exceptional 1440p gaming and AI‑enhanced performance.
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What the gaming results do—and do not—show
TechSpot reported that the modified card was about 15% faster than a stock RX 7900 XTX in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p Ultra and just over 17% faster in Warzone 2 at 1440p. These are enthusiast-reported gains over stock in two games, not a broad independent comparison of the modified card against an RTX 4090 across a game suite.
Consequently, the Time Spy Extreme result cannot be translated into a general claim that the modified card performs like an RTX 4090 in gaming. The available game figures establish an uplift over stock in those specific titles and settings, but do not show how the modded card compares with a 4090 in those same game tests.
How a stock RX 7900 XTX compares with an RTX 4090
For broader context, TechSpot’s 2023 comparison used a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 32 GB of DDR5-6000 memory, Nvidia Game Ready driver 546.33, and AMD Adrenalin driver 23.12.1. Its average results show that the unmodified RX 7900 XTX remained behind the RTX 4090, with a larger gap in ray tracing than in rasterization.
Rank #3
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| Workload | 1080p | 1440p | 4K |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rasterization: stock RX 7900 XTX versus RTX 4090 | 12% slower | 18% slower | 21% slower |
| Ray tracing: stock RX 7900 XTX versus RTX 4090 | 22% slower | 28% slower | 34% slower |
These are average gaps from TechSpot’s tested games and stated system and driver setup, not a prediction for every individual title. The comparison found that the XTX could be close to or ahead in some CPU-limited games, while falling much further behind in demanding ray-traced workloads.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is the modification practical or reliably repeatable?
- It requires hardware expertise: the reported power-limit bypass involved connecting a controller to the GPU PCB’s I2C bus.
- It depends on exceptional cooling and power delivery: this benchmark run used a chilled custom water loop and drew nearly 700 W at the card.
- Results are not established across models: the evidence concerns one modified Asus TUF sample; it does not establish safe reproducibility on other RX 7900 XTX board variants.
- Long-term reliability is unknown: the reports do not establish how the modification affects the card’s lifespan or reliability over time.
For most owners, the useful takeaway is not that an RX 7900 XTX can be turned into a routine RTX 4090 equivalent. It is that one extensively modified sample approached a 4090 in a particular synthetic benchmark under extraordinary test conditions.
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