If you’re working with a more limited budget for modern gaming and don’t want to miss out then the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT could be just what you’ve been waiting for. While this mid-range RDNA 3 GPU launched with a fairly competitive price point, time has been kind to the card which now enjoys regular discounts, too. While it won’t exactly beat the top-end of the best GPUs, there’s certainly a case to be made that it can stand triumphantly alongside the best budget graphics cards. This RX 7700 XT review goes through all the details that you need to know.
AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT price
The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT launched with a base MSRP of $449 and up depending on your card of choice, however, it’s now entirely possible to find this GPU around the $420 mark at retailers such as Newegg, Amazon, and Best Buy. Our review unit is the Sapphire Pulse RX 7700 XT which is available for the lower price of $419.99 making it an excellent value buy. That positions this graphics card in the same pricing bracket as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti at $399 for 8GB and $499 for 16GB variants.
Taken as a whole, AMD’s pricing structure of slowly but surely reducing the prices of its current Radeon RX 7000 generation is a smart move, and one you should try to take advantage of. For how Team Red and Team Green compare, we highly recommend checking out our dedicated RX 7700 XT vs RTX 4060 Ti piece which goes through all the details including performance. Considering what your money gets you, this video card offers a ton of value for money, which we’ll touch upon later.
Sapphire Radeon RX 7700 XT Pulse
- Great value for those wanting 1440p
- As advertised gaming performance
- Can run on an affordable 550W PSU
- The RX 7800 XT is similarly priced
- 4K performance is limited
- Not ideal for ray tracing
Before buying the RX 7700 XT
The RX 7700 XT is a good 1440p GPU for gaming but it’s targeting 60fps with max settings. If you want something that can stretch to higher framerates you’ll have to up your budget, or drop down to 1080p instead.
AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT key specs
In terms of tech specs, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT delivers where it counts. It’s built on the Navi 32 GPU with a total of 3,456 Stream Processors and 12GB GDDR6 video memory on a 192-bit memory bus. There are a total of 216 TMUs 96 ROPs, and 54 Ray Accelerators, too. It’s clocked a little slower out of the box than some higher-end options with a base clock speed of 1,435 MHz but has a Game Clock of 2,171 MHz and a boost clock of up to 2,250 MHz for 18 Gbps effective memory; a bandwidth of 432GB/sec.
Considering the available memory pool, the RX 7700 XT is fairly conservative on power usage with a 245W TDP, meaning you’ll want at least a 550W PSU to avoid any issues. Though, we’d recommend at least a 600W power brick to give yourself a little overhead if overclocking. As with other RDNA 3 cards, this one’s also powered by 2x 8-pin without the need for any adapters, which is something that can’t be said for Nvidia’s GPUs. It’s recommended that the Sapphire Pulse variant has at least 700W system power, though, so be sure to double-check your system power before investing.
AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT key design
Fans of the RX 7700 XT
Slot width of the 7700 XT
Branding of the RX 7700 XT
RX 7700 XT heatsink
As there’s no AMD Reference card available, the design of the 7700 XT is largely going to vary by manufacturer. Speaking of our review unit, the Sapphire Pulse RX 7700 XT, it happens to be one of the nicest-looking GPUs we’ve seen. It features a slick black and red color scheme with dual fans, a slender heatsink, and a fully enclosed metal backplate revealing the die with a fitting heart monitor-inspired decal.
It’s the more graphically demanding games such as Far Cry 6, Cyberpunk 2077, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla where this GPU gets to flex with impressive results
The Sapphire Pulse RX 7700 XT measures 11 x 5 x 2 inches making it slightly longer than some other variants. If your rig is a little cramped then we recommend considering one of the best PC cases for greater building freedom. This version also features fuse protection which should keep the card safe from any power outages as well, and the composite heatpipe should ensure temperatures are decently regulated, however, investing in some of the best case fans is never a bad idea.
AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT gaming performance
In the benchmarks conducted by BGFG’s Sebastian Kozlowski, we can see that the RX 7700 XT largely delivers on AMD’s goals of providing frame rates of or above 60fps when maxed out in 1440p. While Esports titles such as CS: GO and more well-optimized games like Doom Eternal are a given, it’s the more graphically demanding games such as Far Cry 6, Cyberpunk 2077, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla where this GPU gets to flex with impressive results. The gallery has the full details.
4K performance is certainly possible but far from the main attraction for a GPU like the RX 7700 XT. The benchmarks show more than playable figures but they are far from confident, and this extends to the ray tracing prowess; possible but not leading. If these are desired traits for your next upgrade then our advice is to up your budget a little more and consider the likes of the RX 7800 XT or the RX 7900 XT instead, which retails around the $500 and $750 mark respectively in 2024.
AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT synthetic performance
Similar can be said of the synethic performance of this graphics card, especially evidenced with 3D Mark. While the likes of Fire Strike show the prowess with DirectX 11 in 1080p, things get a little more tepid when doubling and quadrupling the resolution further, as the benchmarks for Extreme (1440p) and Ultra (4K) show. Time Spy for DirectX 12 is also consistent with the figures, too.
Alternatives to the RX 7700 XT
If you’re looking for a similarly priced video card instead of the RX 7700 XT then your top choices are either going to be the RTX 4060 Ti ($399) or the slightly pricier RX 7800 XT ($499). The former is a touch cheaper and should offer better ray tracing performance whether you go for the 8GB or 16GB model, but its native performance may not be as good across the board. In a similar vein, the RX 7800 XT costs around $50 more at MSRP and is a card built for high refresh rate 1440p gaming , so it may be worth spending that little bit more if you want a significantly smoother gaming experience.
Conclusion
The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT features enough VRAM for today’s games with its respectable hardware as a mid-range RDNA 3 architecture card. However, its more limited memory bandwidth than its similarly priced alternatives makes it a little less of a deal, given you can find the RX 7800 XT for just a bit extra. Through smart utilization of FSR and Fluid Motion Frames (frame generation), you should see a solid uptick in raw performance numbers in 1440p and even 4K, though.
For the best experience, you’re going to want to make sure that your motherboard and processor are up to the task to avoid any potential bottlenecking, whether that means a new AMD Ryzen or Intel Core CPU; check out the best CPU for gaming for our top recommendations. Then we get to the power efficiency which is good as the total board power is far from demanding thanks to the 192-bit memory interface, the bandwidth may be trailing behind the likes of the 7900 XTX but it still offers a lot in its target resolution.
The AI accelerators on board should mean that AI-powered upscaling should work wonders for many years to come, as that will be the biggest test for the GPU as games continue to get more demanding with native performance waning. Team Red’s answer to Nvidia DLSS may not quite be as good yet, but that could change in the near future with updates and optimizations. In terms of which card to get, we really like the Sapphire RX 7700 XT model, but similar such as the XFX model could be good, too.
Ultimately, the average frame rates do as delivered, 60fps or above in 1440p with some possibilities in 4K if you’re smart with your settings. Ensure you have one of the best gaming monitors to make the most of its DisplayPort and HDMI 2.1 capabilities for higher frame rates to push the onboard 12 GB VRAM. Will that be enough for the next few years? It’s hard to gauge; just four years ago 8 GB seemed fine but now is pushing it, hopefully, the extra 4 GB can be well-utilized going forward.
Buy the GPU if / don’t buy the GPU if…
- You want strong value for money
- You game in 1440p
- You don’t care about ray tracing
- 4K gaming is a must
- Ray tracing is important to you
Is the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT worth it?
The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is a solid graphics card overall with its respectable memory pool, strong gaming performance, and a competitive price point, but it’s unlikely to blow you away. If you buy one in 2024, you should be covered for a couple of years, but you may find yourself wanting to upgrade sooner rather than later if you’re targeting the likes of 4K gaming.
Copy by Aleksha McLoughlin ; Testing by Sebastian Kozlowski
