AMD’s Radeon RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT aim at Nvidia’s weakest links

After weeks of leaks and full-blown unintended reveals, it’s lastly official: AMD fleshed out its Radeon RX 7000-series in the present day, introducing each the $499 Radeon RX 7800 XT and the $449 Radeon RX 7700 XT throughout a keynote from Germany’s Gamescom.

These graphics playing cards aim to ship elegant 1440p gaming efficiency, with AMD claiming that its new duo outpunches Nvidia’s rival RTX 4070 and 4060 Ti by a hefty margin in lots of video games at most settings. The Radeon RX 7800 XT and 7700 XT handle to simply clear the hallowed 60 frames-per-second mark at 1440p/max in video games the place older GPUs just like the Radeon RX 5700 XT and GeForce RTX 2070 Super are beginning to present their age, like The Last of Us and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor.

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And that’s with none of AMD’s performance-boosting software program options enabled. AMD additionally pulled again the curtain on the DLSS 3-like FSR 3 with Fluid Motion Frames at Gamescom, whereas lastly unleashing its long-teased “Hyper-RX” function to supercharge body charges in different methods.

Both graphics playing cards are constructed utilizing AMD’s fashionable 5nm RDNA 3 structure and 6nm reminiscence chiplets, together with the following era of the corporate’s on-die Infinity Cache (albeit in decrease capacities than final gen). They additionally provide AV1 encoding and DisplayPort 2.1, with the latter being one thing lacking in rival GeForce GPUs. You can learn all about RDNA 3’s capabilities in our assessment of the Radeon RX 7900 collection. Here’s what you’ll want to know in regards to the Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT.

AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT specs

Let’s begin with the extra highly effective Radeon RX 7800 XT first. The specs:

• Compute items: 60
• RT accelerators: 60
• AI accelerators: 120
• Game clock: 2124MHz
• Boost clock: 2430MHz
• GDDR6 reminiscence: 16GB
• Memory bus: 256-bit
• Memory velocity: 19.5Gbps
• AMD Infinity Cache: 64MB
• DisplayPort: 2.1
• AV1 {hardware} encoding: Yes
• Total board energy: 263 watts
• Price: $499

Keen-eyed graphics geeks will discover that with 60 compute items, the brand new Radeon RX 7800 XT truly matches the compute unit rely of final era’s Radeon RX 6800 and not the 6800 XT. The 6800 XT had 72 CUs, a considerable quantity extra, so it’ll be fascinating to see how a lot sooner the brand new Radeon RX 7800 XT is than its predecessor — or if it even is. Hopefully AMD isn’t pulling a dear side-grade similar to Nvidia’s meh GeForce RTX 4060 Ti.

I requested in regards to the distinction in compute items throughout a press briefing forward of Gamescom. Scott Olschewsky, Radeon’s director of product administration, mentioned that when AMD appears to be like at branding over generations, it doesn’t take compute items into consideration — simply efficiency and positioning. He mentioned the variety of CUs doesn’t actually matter in relation to naming Radeon GPUs.

The newer GPU can lean on larger clock speeds to assist push efficiency, with the Radeon RX 7800 XT hitting a 2124MHz Game Clock and 2430MHz Boost Clock, in comparison with the 6800 XT’s 2015MHz and 2250MHz, respectively. AMD claims the Radeon RX 7800 XT beats Nvidia’s $600 RTX 4070 in all kinds of video games, although the GeForce card claims some wholesome victories of its personal in video games with ray tracing enabled. AMD’s ray tracing chops are a lot better than final gen however nonetheless can’t go toe-to-toe with Nvidia’s {hardware} in video games that closely use the intensive visible results.

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AMD’s graphics card holds an important reminiscence benefit over its rival as properly, in an age when video games are beginning to gobble down ever-increasing quantities of RAM. The Radeon RX 7800 XT comes with a full 16GB of GDDR6 reminiscence, in comparison with the RTX 4070’s 12GB. Both must be a lot for taking part in most video games at 1440p max settings, however as latest occasions have proven, you ideally need 16GB for full-fidelity 1440p gaming.

Interestingly, whereas the Radeon RX 7800 XT makes use of a bit much less energy than the 6800 XT, it consumes 14W extra energy than the Radeon RX 6800, which additionally had 60 CUs.

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT specs

Onto the Radeon RX 7700 XT!

• Compute items: 54
• RT accelerators: 54
• AI accelerators: 108
• Game clock: 2171MHz
• Boost clock: 2544MHz
• GDDR6 reminiscence: 12GB
• Memory bus: 192-bit
• Memory velocity: 18Gbps
• AMD Infinity Cache: 48MB
• DisplayPort: 2.1
• AV1 {hardware} encoding: Yes
• Total board energy: 245 watts
• Price: $449

The Radeon RX 7700 XT makes use of a cut-down model of the Radeon RX 7800 XT’s die, sporting fewer compute items, a narrower reminiscence bus, and much less GDDR6 reminiscence and Infinity Cache. In alternate, it hits barely larger clock speeds and makes use of a bit much less energy.

Interestingly, whereas the Radeon RX 7800 XT has fewer compute items than its predecessor, the Radeon RX 7700 XT pushes comfortably forward of the last-gen 6700 XT (which stays an impressive buy in in the present day’s GPU market). The 6700 XT wields 40 CUs however the Radeon RX 7700 XT has 54. The new GPU has a lot decrease clock speeds, nonetheless, hitting a 2171MHz common recreation clock versus the 6700 XT’s 2424MHz.

The reminiscence loadout stays constant, providing 12GB of GDDR6 reminiscence throughout a 192-bit bus. It’s a serious benefit over the $400 RTX 4060 Ti, which we are able to’t suggest for 1440p gaming because of its paltry 8GB of VRAM and minuscule 128-bit bus. Nvidia’s GPU landed with a convincing thud so AMD’s new providing has an actual probability at proudly owning this phase of the market if efficiency is as much as snuff.

AMD

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Going off AMD’s numbers, it actually appears to be like prefer it. AMD has a double-digit efficiency benefit in over half the video games listed, and the Radeon RX 7700 XT meets or beats the 4060 Ti in some video games that AMD mentioned the 7800 XT loses to the 4070 in, reminiscent of Dying Light 2 and Spider-Man Miles Morales with ray tracing on.

Filling out the brand new era

At their bones, the reminiscence configuration of the Radeon RX 7800 XT and 7700 XT look a lot better fitted to long-term 1440p gaming than Nvidia’s rival RTX 40-series GPUs, although the GeForce choices will doubtless keep a lead in ray traced video games.

AMD

All fashionable Radeon 7000 GPUs assist AV1 encoding, DisplayPort 2.1, and AMD’s killer suite of software program options (like Smart Access Memory, Radeon Anti-Lag, Radeon Super Resolution, FSR, and extra). To make these new Radeon GPUs much more tempting, AMD took the wraps off FSR 3 and the long-promised Hyper-RX function at Gamescom, with each pushing efficiency to blistering new heights with the assistance of DLSS 3-like “AMD Fluid Motion Frames.” Hit these links to study extra about every of the brand new options.

AMD’s new graphics playing cards hit the streets on September 6, and the corporate will even toss in a free copy of Bethesda’s hotly anticipated Starfield with buy. You’ll be capable of decide up an AMD-designed model of the Radeon RX 7800 XT alongside the same old blitz of customized boards, however the Radeon RX 7700 XT will solely be obtainable from AMD’s GPU companions like Sapphire, XFX, and Asus.

Further studying: The finest graphics playing cards for PC gaming