AMD's finally filled out its mid range selection, so what 1440p GPU is the one for you?
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As more and more hardware releases, it’s best to know how it holds up against everything else. Now with AMD Radeon finally releasing some mid-tier cards to fill out its lineup, we see how well they perform. With that, we look at how the RX 7700 XT vs RTX 4060 Ti compare and which you might getting.
Now with the more popular range of best GPUs getting a good selection, it might be time to decide which of them is the better option to go for. The RX 7700 XT came out on the 6th of September 2023 alongside its higher-tier sibling the RX 7800 XT filling out the gap in the RDNA 3 lineup. While the RTX 4060 Ti has two versions 8GB and 16GB. These came in May and July 2023 respectively, beating out the Radeon card by a few months. Although with quite the community backlash for what they are so let’s see how they compare.
Overclocked model offers improved perfromance over factory setting
Pricing still at MSRP giving better clocks for the same price
Large heat sink and three fan design provides great cooling
Simple block design might not be the best for everyone
The core of the differences between most GPUs comes from what they are made of. Although it’s much easier to compare the architecture from the same manufacturer and generation it still shows us the core changes between them. As such looking between Nvidia and AMD means you don’t get a direct comparison but rather an understanding of the basics of each GPU.
There we have the RX 7700 XT based on the RDNA 3 architecture featuring the Navi 32 XL GPU variant. Made with TSMC’s 5 and 6nm process it is a MCM design, with a GCD and MCD made up of those. They are sized at 200mm² and 150mm² respectively it features 28.1 billion transistors.
Whereas the RTX 4060 Ti has the AD106-350 GPU variant for the 8GB model and AD106-351 for the 16GB model. They are exactly the same because the only difference between the two is the VRAM capacity. That means you get a 188mm² die with 22.9 billion transistors made with TSMC’s 5nm process.
| RX 7700 XT | RTX 4060 Ti | |
|---|---|---|
| GPU | Navi 32 XL | AD106-350/351 |
| GPU process | TSMC 5 & 6nm | TSMC 5nm |
| Shaders | 3,456 Stream processors | 4,352 CUDA cores |
| Base clock | 1,900MHz | 2,310MHz |
| Boost clock | 2,171MHz Game, 2,544MHz max | 2,535MHz |
| Memory | 12GB GDDR6 | 8/16GB GDDR6 |
| Memory clock/bandwidth | 18Gbps/432GB/s | 18Gbps/288GB/s |
| Memory bus | 192-bit | 128-bit |
| TBP | 245W | 160/165W |
| PCIe interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x8 |
A look at the difference between these card specifications can give us an understanding of what we might expect. We’ll delve into what those entail and have an in-depth look at what each means for the performance.
Within the processor lies the GPU cores, each cluster endowed with distinct specialties. These GPU cores house various components, such as stream processors for shaders and graphics, as well as ray accelerators for superior ray tracing performance. These components are distributed among the compute units.
Between these two GPUs, there is a discrepancy in their core counts and also in how they function. So although the 7700 XT does have a lower count at 3,256 stream processors, they function differently from the 4,352 CUDA cores in the 4060 Ti. Since they do function differently, it could mean the AMD architecture could perform better still with a lower count.
The frequency, or clock speed, determines the speed at which these cores operate. This clock speed is crucial for processing graphics and executing instructions to render the final visual output. Comparing the two options, we notice a relatively similar specification, at least on the top end.
There are some variations in the clock rates from the two cards. AMD provides a likely game clock that will run when processing along with the maximum potential clock, the same as Nvidia, but that might not be the sustained one as the game clock is. So although the 7700 XT can reach 2,544 MHz max and a 2,535 MHz clock on the 4060 Ti, the AMD has a 2,171 MHz game clock which means that is the rate you can expect most of the time. But the clock doesn’t matter too much when the base performance is different but rather it can give you some extra frames from overclocking on your own model.
When delving into VRAM or video memory, several factors come into play. VRAM is a critical determinant of a graphics card’s performance, especially at higher resolutions. It serves as a buffer for managing the demands of increased pixel counts and requires robust bandwidth for seamless processing.
The Total Board Power, formerly known as TDP (Thermal Design Power), reflects the amount of electricity the GPU consumes. The peak load power consumption of the Nvidia cards is much lower, with only a rating of 160/165W. Whereas the RX 7700 XT comes in at 245W, meaning that extra power does require a lot more to run and even requires a higher tier of power supply.
Looking towards their recommended retail pricing, we do get a good comparison of what the companies think it’s worth and what you might consider buying with your budget. Although these prices may vary on model and retailer, they are the best starting point as even then it may change as we have seen with the likes of Nvidia dropping the price of the cards.
Initially, you could expect to pay around $399 for the 4060 Ti 8GB model, with the later 16GB model coming in at $499. Whilst the newest addition to the comparison, the RX 7700 XT slots nicely in between the two. With a recommended pricing of $449, it hits a good middle ground to provide an alternative choice. That makes it $50 less than the 16GB model, but $50 more than the 8GB option.
One of the more important factors for considering which to choose the RX 7700 XT vs RTX 4060 Ti, is how they actually perform. We reviewed the RX 7700 XT, but don’t have a direct comparison with the 4060 Ti as lack the card to do so. But with the raw performance of the 7700 XT, you can find below, achieving the expected 1440p performance and more in our selection of benchmarks.
However, looking at AMD’s own benchmarks for the time being we can compare it to the RTX 4060 Ti, and update this with other benchmarks when they release. But it seems as though the card performs from -3 to 31 % better than the other in AMD’s choice of non ray tracing games. The negative is an outlier, and most of the time it does improve over the 16GB card, and subsequently the 8GB card as well.
That changes when it comes to ray tracing performance. As Nvidia’s efficiency and capabilities still shine with its ability to run its ray tracing cores much better in creating that lighting. This does mean the change varies from -64% to +21% better than the 4060 Ti, although the highest differences are in fact just a couple of FPS due to Cyberpunk being intense. As the rest of the options are still reasonable performance as we saw with the likes of Doom Eternal.
When looking at the RX 7700 XT vs RTX 4060 Ti, it’s quite easy to recommend the AMD card overall. With a price tag in between the two Nvidia graphics cards, it has the specifications and performance that make it the better choice. The performance mostly is above what the Nvidia card can achieve along with a much more future-proof VRAM design. Since it features 12GB but with a much better bandwidth it can keep going even when game textures get more intensive.
The ray tracing drawback isn’t as significant as one could expect with still playable framerates and not as much knockback as expected. Along with great driver support behind it, that means the likes of RSR are available in any game if required.
Overclocked model offers improved perfromance over factory setting
Pricing still at MSRP giving better clocks for the same price
Large heat sink and three fan design provides great cooling
Simple block design might not be the best for everyone
Slim only two slot card
Available for the GPUs MSRP it’s a good entry point for performance
Large size not required for the lower TGP of the card
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