Technologies

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX Review: Faster, but Is It Enough?

Reply hazy, try again.

AMD’s latest top-end, next-gen gaming GPUs, which are based on its new RDNA 3 architecture, show marked improvement over the last generation. But the $899 Radeon RX 7900 XT and $999 Radeon RX 7900 XTX may only stand out at the moment because they’re cheaper than Nvidia’s latest top-end models, the GeForce RTX 4080 and 4090. And the XTX only occasionally hits the same level of performance in 4K as the RTX 4080 (or in some cases the RTX 3080 Ti).

That price gap looks a lot more enticing in reality than on paper, however, because Nvidia’s RTX 4080 isn’t selling at its nominal price of $1,200. Cards at that price aren’t in stock, with most of the available models running closer to $1,500 or more.

On the other hand, we won’t know what price AMD’s RX 7900 cards will settle on in reality until they’ve been out a while, making a price-to-performance comparison more difficult. If the gap sticks at $500, then dialing back your settings in order to get «good enough» 4K performance with the XTX in the games where it lags may be worth it. Both cards can handle 4K 1440p maxed out with ray tracing pretty well. But until we see the price and performance of whatever Nvidia turns its «unlaunched» lower-end model of the RTX 4080 into, it’s hard to determine the relative value of the 7900 XT for 4K or even 1440p.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT

Like

DisplayPort 2.1 support
USB-C connector

Don’t Like

Big for its performance level
Disappointing raytracing performance
Some driver issues

At least the two AMD-branded models are more similar than they are different. They have different specs and therefore different levels of performance, with concomitant physical differences to support that. Third-party cards will likely have a lot more variations.

The XTX does have an extra temperature sensor for monitoring the air intake temperature of the case, which is intended to facilitate dynamic power allocation based on cooling. AMD hasn’t yet made the data collected by the sensor available for anyone to use, though.

Both cards are relatively big and heavy. In fact, the XTX is the first card I’ve tried to install where I’ve worried it might do some damage to the slot before I got it screwed in. It was fine once locked in, though.

Although they can work with eight-pin power connectors and fit into the same slot widths as before, the cards are higher than their predecessors, rising 5.3 inches (135 millimeters) above the motherboard (compared to 4.7 in. or 120 mm for the RX 6950 XT). So depending on your case size, they may be a snug fit. They do retain the USB-C port, which I like since desktops never have enough of them. But if you need a third full-size DisplayPort connector, you’ll have to join team Nvidia.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

Like

DisplayPort 2.1 support
USB-C connector

Don’t Like

Big for its performance level and very heavy
Disappointing ray tracing performance
Some driver issues

RDNA 3 and performance

Among other things, RDNA 3 adds support for DisplayPort 2.1, which has the necessarybandwidth to support 165Hz at 8K and 12 bits per color (up from 10 bits) for HDR, and to enable full gamut coverage of Rec.2020, or up to 480Hz in 4K. That’s a link bandwidth of up to 54Gbps, up from 20Gbps in DP 1.4a, which Nvidia’s cards still use. I can’t imagine trying to play in 8K with one of these, but more bandwidth for HDR is always welcome.

RDNA 3 architecture improves on RDNA 2 in several ways. It’s the first GPU built from chiplets, the modular building blocks of modern processor design. That allows AMD to use different process sizes on the same die, in this case, a 5nm graphics core and 6nm memory cache die. This can theoretically result in the ability to optimize the performance of the two separately, to squeeze in more power or speed where it does the most good, and ultimately fit a better processor in the same space and power envelope as earlier models.

It also enables AMD to add dedicated AI acceleration and improved raytracing accelerators — unfortunately, not enough to catch up to Nvidia’s RTX and Tensor cores — and to decouple the memory clock speeds from the compute unit speeds to help conserve power draw.

AMD says the GPU gets better DirectX raytracing performance, and it does. But AMD continues to seriously lag Nvidia in this respect. Neither card seems fast enough for 4K with maxed-out ray tracing like the RTX 4080, much less the RTX 4090. The XTX does match the RTX 4080 in 4K on some games without ray tracing, but for the most part, it varies across games and graphics applications.

When you stick one of these cards into a late-generation AMD-based motherboard, SmartAccess Video joins the company’s other «smart» technologies, which include Smart Access Memory. In this case, when you have a system equipped with a Ryzen 7000 CPU and RX 7000 GPU, it can distribute encoding and decoding tasks between the two for better performance. (My current testbed is Intel. I’m building out an additional AMD testbed, but it’s not yet ready for benchmarking duties.)

It’s possible that AMD’s next generation of its upscaling and performance optimization technology, FidelityFX Super Resolution 3, will bump either or both the GPUs over the performance line without losing much detail, but that won’t be available for a while. FSR 2.2 has barely arrived — it’s only available in two games thus far, Forza Horizon 5 and Need for Speed Unbound — and I haven’t been overly impressed with FSR 2.1 when I’ve tried it.

In Cyberpunk 2077, for example, unless I dropped the settings down to Balanced, I got no significant performance improvements. Even then it looked softer than I expect from 4K. Radeon Super Resolution, AMD’s in-driver equivalent that doesn’t require developer support, seemed to randomly fail to kick in, or at least fail to indicate it had, making it hard to judge.

Another still-to-come Adrenalin driver capability is Hyper-RX mode, a one-click optimizer for performance and latency that takes into account all the settings you’d normally have to hunt down and tweak individually. That capability is due in June, and it might make a notable difference, but I only occasionally saw a marked improvement using Rage mode, its current automatic overclocking feature.

I also encountered some type rendering issues in Microsoft Word and Outlook (although it’s probably the same bug for both), with characters disappearing and reappearing as I typed subsequent letters. Your mileage may vary, but it’s unbelievably annoying if you encounter it and use those applications a lot.

It’s hard to slot the AMD Radeon RX 7900 cards into any particular recommendation niche, at least until we’ve got more information on upcoming competitors, not only from Nvidia, but from AMD’s own line. So like a Magic 8 Ball I’m forced to settle on «Cannot predict now.»

Relative performance of recent GPUs

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, May 21

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for May 21.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword is a bit of a tough one. 6-Across and 2-Down want you to come up with words that match up with another word that starts with the same two letters. 2-Down was easy, but 6-Across stumped me until my other answers filled it in. (Hint: It’s not green grass…) Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Either role played by Michael B. Jordan in 2025’s «Sinners»
Answer: TWIN

5A clue: «Wow, wow, wow!»
Answer: OHMY

6A clue: Gr-» word that follows «green»
Answer: GRAPE

7A clue: Bit of land in the ocean
Answer: ISLE

8A clue: Père ___, name for Santa Claus in France
Answer: NOEL

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Trunk of the body
Answer: TORSO

2D clue: «Wh-» word that follows «white»
Answer: WHALE

3D clue: Urge forward
Answer: IMPEL

4D clue: Bill ___ the Science Guy
Answer: NYE

6D clue: Alcohol paired with tonic
Answer: GIN

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Technologies

I Took Google’s New Try On Feature for a Spin — It Was Fascinating (and Hilarious)

Commentary: I used AI to see how different outfits would look on me, and the results were revealing.

Online shopping often feels like a shot in the dark. It’s hard to predict how an outfit a model is wearing will fit me. But at Google I/O on Tuesday, I demoed a new feature called Try On that uses AI to show you how a dress, shirt, skirt or pants will actually look on you. I was surprised, and also incredibly amused.

After posing for a quick photo, a Google employee showed me different clothing options in the Shopping tab. I settled on a cute long-sleeved denim jumpsuit, tapped it and uploaded my photo. After about 30 seconds, my real-life floral jumpsuit was replaced by the denim one. The generated image looked impressively real: the sleeves were perfectly tailored, the collar was popped and my pink headscarf (which I was wearing in real life and Gemini thankfully kept on) was neatly tucked in.

«It actually looks like I’m wearing it,» I said in amazement. «I’m quite impressed.» It even added a purse in my right hand, which was a funny touch.

Try On is powered by Google’s custom image generation model, which can demonstrate how materials drape, fold and stretch on different body types. It’s available now in Search Labs, which lets people try out Google Search features before they roll out to the masses.

After opting into the feature, you’ll see an icon that says «try it on» when browsing for clothes in Google. Upload a full-length photo of yourself (ideally with good lighting and fitted clothing), and watch in wonder as that dress or shirt miraculously appears on you. You can also save the generated image and share it with friends.

Of course, I had to have some fun with Try On. As someone who wears hijab, I only wear long sleeves and long pants when I’m out and about. So I decided to test the feature and see what it would do if I picked a pink sleeveless dress. The result was hilarious.

It did in fact expose my arms (or what it thinks they look like), and also added some random bracelets and a watch that I was definitely not wearing in real life. Thankfully, it kept my headscarf on (which perfectly matched the pink dress), but that only made for a more hilarious juxtaposition with my exposed AI skin. Well, at least it maintained the dress’s accuracy.

If you’re worried about privacy concerns, my colleague Katelyn Chedraoui reached out to Google to ask about Try On’s privacy policies. In response, a Google spokesperson said: «Your uploaded photo is never used beyond trying things on virtually, nor is your photo used for training purposes. It is not shared with other Google products, services or third parties, and you can delete or replace it at any time.»

So, if you’re keen to see how that outfit you would totally wear — or totally wouldn’t — looks on you, look no further than your phone; no fitting room required. Personally, I look forward to trying on more outfits, both appealing and ridiculous, just for the heck of it.

Technologies

McDonald’s Snack Wrap: Is the Viral Food Favorite Returning on July 14?

July 14 could be the release date for the much-longed-for chicken Snack Wraps, but Ronald and crew aren’t talking.

McDonald’s is riding a viral wave. The fast-food chain’s Minecraft Happy Meals and adult Minecraft Meals hit restaurants on April 1 and sold out quickly. Diners ordering a Happy Meal these days will find a Squishmallow theme meal instead. But there’s more viral buzz about another McDonald’s product online. People are eagerly awaiting the return of Snack Wraps, a chicken-tortilla entree that’s been missing from US locations of the Golden Arches since 2020.

Read more: Review: McDonald’s Minecraft Meals Feature The Hottest Nugget Sauce Ever

On April 15, McDonald’s tweeted «snack wraps 0x.14.2025,» hinting the wraps would return on the 14th of an upcoming month. This leaves fans having to check their McDonald’s mobile app or local restaurant menus on the 14th of every month, hoping the wraps will make an appearance. The wraps didn’t appear in restaurants on May 14, so now fans must check again in June, and again in July if the June date does not pan out.

At least one Reddit users seems to think the McDonald’s Snack Wraps could return on July 14. One user wrote, «It’s July, I work for McDonald’s,they revealed the date on the employee app.»

But another person posted, «It’s not July. I work at McDonald’s corporate and can confirm.»

Neither of those posts can be confirmed.

June 14 is a Saturday, while July 14 is a Monday. Some suggest that McDonald’s would be more likely to launch a new product on a Monday than on a weekend, so if that’s true, July 14 could be the day.

A representative for McDonald’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

snack wraps 0x.14.2025

— McDonald’s (@McDonalds) April 15, 2025

Snack Wrap fever

Snack Wraps first came out in 2006, and were meant to be a chicken item that would appeal to drive-thru customers. There are different versions, but the basic one includes white-meat chicken strips known as McCrispy Strips wrapped in a flour tortilla with cheese and lettuce with either ranch, honey mustard or salsa. McCrispy Strips are a reworked version of a chicken item formerly known as Chicken Selects.

Zach Ciampa, who regularly covers new food releases under the social-media handle Snach With Zach, said there’s been an intense fanbase out there for the wraps. «Regarding McDonald’s Snack Wrap, it’s by far the most requested item I’ve ever seen my audience ask or demand to come back,» he told CNET. «Not just the most requested in recent memory, but the most requested of all time. And that’s not limited to McDonald’s.» Ciampa said the only similar fast-food items that come close to the same level of interest are Dairy Queen’s S’mores Blizzard and Taco Bell’s Caramel Apple Empanada, both of which also made recent returns.

«I’ve been covering food releases for years, and in that time, I’ve seen countless comments to the tune of ‘We don’t want this. We want the Snack Wrap,’ and, ‘Can you tell us when the Snack Wrap is coming back?'» he said. «A couple years ago, the chances of its return were pretty bleak. However, things escalated pretty quickly in late 2023 when McDonald’s did indeed announce that the Snack Wrap would return in a new form. Since then, details have slowly but surely trickled out, and the hype has steadily grown.»

While Snack Wraps left McDonald’s locations in the US back in 2020, they remained available at Canadian and UK restaurants. The current online McDonald’s Canada menu includes several tortilla-wrapped items, including ones with crispy chicken, grilled chicken, buffalo chicken and chicken with a sweet chili sauce.