Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7700 XT Evaluation

Except for the long-awaited availability of the a lot anticipated HYPR-RX, AMD additionally launched its new Radeon RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT in response to NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and 4070, respectively. We managed to get our fingers on the RX 7700 XT this time and we’re solely going to check the graphic card as is first. We’ll depart the HYPR-RX for one more time as there are nonetheless no video games that formally assist this characteristic simply but.

Overview

The cardboard we’ve got is the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7700 XT geared up with a dual-fan cooler with Sapphire’s angular velocity fan blade. Mainly, it’s their customized fan design to enhance the airflow and air strain to enhance the cooling efficiency. It’s a dual-slot card that isn’t too lengthy with regards to the size, so it’s going to nonetheless slot in loads of PC circumstances with none points.

Now, the RX 7700 XT is in direct competitors with the NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti. Nonetheless, the VRAM on this AMD is just like the 4070. It has 12GB value of GDDR6 reminiscence with a 192-bit reminiscence bus. That, I feel, is an efficient promoting level for this RX 7700 XT.

This GPU requires 2x PCIe 8-pin cables and the facility provide requirement needs to be an influence provide that may ship as much as 245W on the 12V+ rail based mostly on the whole board energy (TBP) however AMD recommends a 700W energy provide for each the RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT in the event you’re utilizing a Ryzen 9 7950X. So in the event you’re utilizing a CPU with a a lot decrease TDP, in all probability below the 120W vary, a 650W energy provide will suffice for each the brand new Radeon GPUs.

The show outputs would possibly seem like the same old 3 x DP and 1 x HDMI, however they’re really DP 2.1 as an alternative of 1.4a – in contrast to what we’re seeing on NV playing cards.

Take a look at System Setup

For the benchmark numbers, you possibly can confer with the next specs of our take a look at system in the event you’re to understand how we get these numbers. For our video games benchmark take a look at, we’ve chosen plenty of AAA titles to run at their highest attainable settings utilizing the next setup below an ambient temperature of 32°C:

Benchmarks – Raster Efficiency

So, let’s begin off with the raster efficiency. Despite the fact that this RX 7700 XT is marketed by AMD to be a 1440P card, we nonetheless examined it with 4K anyway – and the outcomes are fairly spectacular efficiency.

It’s not the 60fps which many now deem as the sleek framerate for a recreation to really be playable. Titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Metro Exodus, and Watch Canines Legion are literally playable sooner or later at about 50+fps. The newly launched Starfield, nevertheless, isn’t precisely nice to take care of at this decision nevertheless it’s nonetheless working at about 40% quicker than the RTX 4060 Ti.

Scaling right down to 1440P decision – the decision that the RX 7700 XT was marketed for – we’re seeing a straightforward 70fps+ throughout all of the titles examined.
Properly, apart from Starfield, which runs at a median of 56 fps whereas the 4060 ti runs the title at 43 common fps. Meaning the RX 7700 XT performs round 30% higher than.

As for 1080p, it’s probably not an enormous difficulty for each playing cards apart from that one title – sure, it’s Starfield as soon as once more and that’s for the 4060 Ti.
Except for Starfield working at 55 common fps which remains to be superb, the remainder of the titles are all working at above 60fps+ common.

Benchmarks – Ray Tracing Efficiency

Transferring on to the ray tracing efficiency! As there’s nonetheless no approach for us to really present you simply how a lot acquire you’ll see by enabling it, the HYPR-RX demo that AMD confirmed us throughout a current briefing was unbelievable. Let’s hope that extra titles will undertake the tech alongside DLSS 3 so players can take pleasure in taking part in their favourite titles whatever the GPU model they’re utilizing.

At 4K decision, other than Cyberpunk 2077, the remainder of the titles examined are literally very playable and for the primary time, we’re really seeing a greater efficiency on an AMD Radeon GPU.
Although I’ll depart this to you to guage specs-wise, the RX 7700 XT does appear to be nearer to an RTX 4070 as an alternative of the 4060 Ti.

As for 1440P, not solely we will see greater than 80fps on the titles we’ve examined other than Cyberpunk, however the RX 7700 XT is once more displaying higher efficiency over the 4060 Ti more often than not.

Even at 1080P, we will really see that the RX 7700 XT simply maintains above 60fps+ for all of the titles we’ve examined, which makes the RX 7700 XT seem like an precise viable choice for GPU on this section. How is that this attainable although?

Energy draw and temps

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We’ll have to take a look at the facility draw of this card. And that is the place the thriller might be resolved. We’re seeing about 232W of energy draw from this RX 7700 XT alone throughout artificial exams and precise recreation exams. If we evaluate it in opposition to its rivals, the facility effectivity is unquestionably not so good as the 4060 Ti or the 4070. They each draw at solely round 165W and 203W peak, respectively.

The load temperature, however, is trying fairly okay. Though the GPU load temperature peaked at 71°C throughout our artificial exams, the precise load temperature throughout gaming periods is simply at about 66°C. The fan noise is sort of inaudible all through the session even after we’re at a really shut distance. Reminiscence junction temperature remained at 84°C all through the exams, which isn’t too dangerous as properly.

The one studying that I’m nonetheless uncomfortable with is the hotspot temperature, which peaked at nearly 97°C throughout heavy masses and 91°C throughout gaming periods. Although AMD nonetheless addressed this as secure and it’s inside the anticipated working temperature vary.

Closing ideas

Because the direct competitor of the 4060 Ti which is priced at $399 for the 8GB VRAM and $499 for the 16GB VRAM mannequin, I can see AMD is clearly specializing in the same old technique of value over efficiency ratio for its Radeon GPU regardless of not having the facility effectivity. Whereas the general efficiency is certainly a lot better than what it’s competing in opposition to, $459 remains to be not low-cost and we will really see individuals locally complaining in regards to the value good after AMD introduced each the RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT.

I do agree that the value remains to be considerably on the upper aspect however on the identical time, it’s a brand new choice for players who don’t really feel like paying for the 4060 Ti 16GB that doesn’t provide a big efficiency acquire. There’s positively much more potential we will see sooner or later however as of now, the titles that assist HYPR-RX are nonetheless restricted it’s going to take some time earlier than we will really conduct one other spherical for DLSS 3 vs HYPR-RX.

Conclusion? Similar to the 4060 Ti 16G, I’ll say the RX 7700 XT is an efficient card however a bit too highly-priced for the time being. Will I like to recommend this card? Perhaps, if recreation devs are actively pushing on the assist and adoption of HYPR-RX.