AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT review

Our Verdict

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT helps to alleviate the needs of the budget gamer with era appropriate specs and performance, but it's in serious need of a price drop to unlock the value it can offer.

Reviewing the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT feels like déjà vu, as it in many ways feels like we’re back at the launch of RDNA 3 all over again. As was the case back then, one graphics card feels like the clearly better option while the other struggles to escape from under its sibling’s shadow. Sadly, this GPU falls into the latter camp, somewhat spoiling its otherwise decent performance and value.

I’ve been testing the RX 7700 XT for a week or so now, testing it with our benchmark suite in addition to playing games with it in my spare time. When it’s not been in our test rig, the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT has taken its place, and its presence will be keenly felt throughout this review. Expect some Nvidia GeForce graphics cards to show face too, in this bid for a spot on our best graphics card guide.

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT specs

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT specs feature a cut down version of the Navi 32 GPU, with six fewer stream processors, compute units, and ray accelerators. Given this represents a 10% reduction, its price lines up accordingly, slightly disappointingly so – it would’ve been nice to see the price drop/performance ratio improve slightly on the cheaper card.

Looking at its predecessor, the 7700 XT shares several similarities with the RDNA 2-based AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT and a few surprising upgrades too. Both pixel pushers feature 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 192-bit bus, but the RDNA 3 graphics card boasts a welcome boost in bandwidth thanks to higher clocks.

While I would’ve preferred to see 16GB here, I’m glad to see an option with capacity greater than 8GB below $500, other than the slightly pointless GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB. You have to step up to the $600 GeForce RTX 4070 for a competitive Nvidia option with this much VRAM.

Both game and boost clock speeds are lower this time around, but the number of core components has dramatically increased so that this is basically a moot point. This is without even taking the improvements offered by the RDNA 3 microarchitecture into consideration.

It’s unclear whether efficiency has taken a knock here, given the souped up specs, but the 7700 XT does have a higher TBP of 245W. Looking at other cards in the RDNA 3 line up, like the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, this is likely the case, but it’s a minor gripe regardless.

Unlike all its other family members, the 7700 XT doesn’t have a reference design. Instead, it’s only available from board partners, like the ASUS TUF Gaming example we have for this review.

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT benchmarks

Before we get into our AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT benchmarks, I must highlight that I was unable to test the GPU with the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, as I have in all our other GPU reviews.

In its place, I’ve used the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, which should provide comparable frame rates at 1440p and 4K but may not be indicative of this card’s performance ceiling at 1080p. We’ll aim to update our findings once we’re able to retest the graphics card with the 7800X3D.

The following AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT benchmarks contain frame rate data for native 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions. In my testing, I’ve recorded metrics using the highest quality preset for each game, toggling between ray tracing and non-ray-traced settings. Each benchmark was run three times to produce an average result.

Here are the specs of our test system:

• GPU: ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7700 XT
• Driver: Adrenalin 23.20.01.05
• OS: Windows 11 Pro 22H2 (22621.2134)
• Motherboard: Asus TUF Gaming X670E-Plus (BIOS version 1636)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 6,000MHz
• SSD: WD_Black SN850X 1TB
• PSU: Corsair RMx SHIFT Series 1000W
• Case: Corsair 5000D RGB Airflow

For more information on our benchmarking process, see our how we test page.

1/20

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT ray tracing off

Delivering on its promise to craft a suitably powerful 1440p card, AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT rasterization performance is expectedly good. Despite 4K proving too much for the graphics card in some cases, it naturally can stretch its legs all the more at 1080p.

The 7700 XT pulls ahead against the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB in all but two of our gaming benchmarks. However, these are both at 1080p and the Ryzen 7 7800X3D could very well close the gap here. Even without the best gaming CPU at its side, though, it’s more often than not either in spitting distance of or impressively beating the RTX 4070.

This is felt all the more at 1440p, even in the Nvidia strongholds that are Hitman 3 and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to ignore the results from the 7800 XT, which offers an average of 16% more performance for an extra 11% in cost ($50).

The shadow of the 7800 XT grows ever larger at 4K too, blasting the 7700 XT away by 15-30% in average frame rates. This uncomfortable truth badly effects the value of this card. If AMD slashed the cost of the 7700 XT by $50 or so, matching the price of the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB, it would be in a far better position.

To be clear, the performance here is plenty to make most gamers happy. It just feels as though AMD is repeating the same mistake it made with the Radeon RX 7900 XT, pricing it too closely to another model at launch only to inevitably rectify its mistake with price cuts. This would also make the lack of a DLSS Frame Generation competitor sting less, which I’ll touch on more shortly.

1/14

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT ray tracing

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT ray tracing performance follows the same trajectory of other graphics cards in its family. Unlike the AMD Radeon RX 7600, however, playable frame rates are actually attainable.

Even so, its rasterized prowess at 1440p doesn’t translate here, try as it might. In fact, the RTX 4060 Ti generally matches or beats the 7700 XT at 1080p and above, save for in F1 22. The only exception here is Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy at 4K, but the 12GB of VRAM isn’t quite enough to make this a victory due to stutters.

To make matters worse, the 7800 XT continues to offer better value in ray tracing too. That same 11% price difference nets an additional 16-17% performance improvement, which grows to a whopping 53% when you take Cyberpunk 2077 and Hitman 3 at 4K into account. However, I’d sooner discount these results since neither GPU produces playable frame rates.

Introducing DLSS Frame Generation into the equation leaves the 7700 XT in the dust. This isn’t a problem that’s unique to this particular AMD GPU, but it is a larger problem given its direct competition is already less expensive. For what feels like the umpteenth time, AMD FSR 3 cannot come soon enough.

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT price

As I’ve alluded to throughout this review, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT price is the biggest issue facing this graphics card. At $449, it simply begs to be $50 cheaper, at least.

At its current price, it remains a solid buy, but there’s simply no reason to buy it instead of the 7800 XT unless your budget absolutely can’t  possibly stretch that far. With that in mind, the 7700 XT is at the very least better value for money than the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB, but the bar wasn’t set particularly high there.

I am convinced that we will see the 7700 XT price fall not long after release, however, as has been the case with previous Radeon releases. At $400, the 7700 XT will become something of a no-brainer for today’s games and beyond.

This is if you’re not bothered about ray tracing, of course. In which case, you might be better off picking up a secondhand GeForce RTX 3000 series GPU (assuming you can get one at a decent price) as other current generation offerings at this price simply aren’t worth the money.

Is the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT worth it?

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the cheapest current generation graphics card that I can generally recommend, but this is less about the GPU itself and more a commentary on the poor state of the market.

To its credit, it features the minimum amount of VRAM that I would expect from a modern midrange graphics card, and puts in a strong showing when it comes to playing games without ray tracing. I simply wish it was more than $50 cheaper than the RX 7800 XT, as that card presents better value right now.

When AMD likely course corrects with a price drop, I hope this results in the company grabbing something of a stranglehold on the midrange market. This should, hopefully, force Nvidia to likewise push prices down in the short term. Looking to the future though, I expect this to become the new floor of upcoming generations, as we simply cannot be bound by the constraints of 8GB VRAM buffers any longer.

Pros:

• More VRAM than RTX 4060 Ti 8GB
• Good rasterization performance
• Better specs than previous generation

Cons:

• 7800 XT feels like better value
• Ray tracing performance is somewhat lacking
• No answer for DLSS Frame Generation

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT alternatives

Want to know what other graphics card options you have before settling on the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT? Here are a few of our picks:

AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT may cost $50 more than the 7700 XT, but it offers greater value in terms of performance and specs that exceed its price difference.

Check out our AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT review for more details.