With the discharge of the Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT, AMD lastly set foot within the mainstream gaming sector with its RDNA 3 lineup. Nvidia, its largest rival, which additionally makes among the greatest graphics playing cards, was the primary to launch competing playing cards with comparable efficiency — at the least on paper. However are Nvidia’s choices higher than AMD’s on this era?
The RX 7800 XT was, from the get-go, stated to be the competitor to Nvidia’s RTX 4070, however in actuality, these GPUs differ each in value and efficiency. We’ve examined the RX 7800 XT and in contrast it to the RTX 4070, and we now know which of those two GPUs is the one to choose.
Pricing and availability
Whereas the RX 7800 XT and the RTX 4070 got here out a great few months aside, they have been each extremely anticipated releases that have been much-needed within the GPU market. When the RTX 4070 launched, it was just about the one mainstream choice in a market full of high-end playing cards just like the RTX 4090 or the RX 7900 XTX. The RX 7800 XT, alternatively, lastly bridges the hole in AMD’s lineup and presents an choice to avid gamers who want a fairly highly effective PC construct.
Nvidia’s card got here first. The RTX 4070 launched on April 13, 2023, and was priced at $600. This felt moderately aggressive when in comparison with its older sibling, the RTX 4070 Ti ($800). Even months after launch, it’s laborious to seek out an RTX 4070 for lower than $600.
The RX 7800 XT launched on September 6, 2023, with a really helpful record value (MSRP) of $500. Alongside the RX 7800 XT mannequin, AMD additionally launched the RX 7700 XT, priced at $450, which places it in a much less aggressive place than the 7800 XT.
Specs
| RTX 4070 | RX 7800 XT | |
| Structure | There’s Lovelace | RDNA 3 |
| Enhance clock pace | 2.47GHz | 2.43GHz |
| VRAM | 12GB GDDR6X | 16GB GDDR6 |
| Bus width | 192-bit | 256-bit |
| TBP/TGP | 200 watts | 263W |
| Value | $600 | $500 |
Relating to specs, evaluating AMD to Nvidia is all the time difficult, as there’s little overlap in specs. Every GPU has a wholly totally different structure, and whereas they’re each constructed to do comparable issues, the methods through which they obtain them are vastly totally different. First, let’s check out the specs they do have in frequent.
The RTX 4070 has a slightly increased increase clock pace, but it surely additionally has lots much less reminiscence (though it makes use of the extra environment friendly GDDR6X as an alternative of GDDR6). As VRAM has been a scorching matter in video games as of late, AMD decking out the RX 7800 XT with 16GB of reminiscence is a great transfer, though the reminiscence pace on the 7800 XT is decrease than on the RTX 4070 (19.5Gbps and 21Gbps, respectively). The 7800 XT additionally has a wider bus, however the value for these enhancements is a rise in energy consumption.
Then there are the specs that don’t actually translate in a one-to-one comparability. As an illustration, Nvidia’s RTX 4070 sports activities 5,888 CUDA cores, whereas the RX 7800 XT makes use of Compute Models (CUs), and it solely has 60 of them, which suggests 3,840 Stream Processors (SPs). Once more, as a result of completely totally different structure of every GPU, these numbers don’t make a lot of a distinction while you stack them up towards one another — they only communicate of every card’s particular person compute energy in comparison with the remainder of its respective lineup.
The RTX 4070 additionally comes with 46 Third-gen ray tracing cores and 184 4th-gen tensor cores. In the meantime, AMD’s RX 7800 XT presents 60 ray tracing accelerators and 120 AI accelerators.
Total, the playing cards are considerably shut by way of specs. AMD packs extra reminiscence, but it surely’s slower, whereas the RTX 4070 has much less VRAM, but it surely’s sooner. Let’s see how that interprets to efficiency.
Efficiency
Specs can solely get you thus far — what actually issues is the way in which these GPUs carry out, and as they’re shopper playing cards primarily made for avid gamers, one of the best ways to measure their capabilities is to take them out for an intensive spin in among the most demanding video games. We’ve examined them each totally, and we now know the way they fared in numerous gaming situations.
Whereas it’s value noting that each the RX 7800 XT and the RTX 4070 are supposed to be 1440p graphics playing cards, every exhibits some promise in 4K gaming, too. Nonetheless, let’s first examine them of their meant decision.
We’ve examined the playing cards in eight totally different video games, and in every benchmark at 1440p with out ray tracing, the RX 7800 XT managed to say victory by way of frames per second (fps). The lead shouldn’t be main in most titles, however in some video games, corresponding to Murderer’s Creed Valhalla and Forza Horizonit shoots forward. Throughout our complete check suite, the RX 7800 XT averaged 116.6 fps, whereas the RTX 4070 maxed out at 107.6, which makes the AMD card round 8.5% higher at this decision.
Introducing ray tracing into the combo shakes issues up somewhat, as is to be anticipated. Traditionally, Nvidia has been the uncontested champion of ray tracing, and AMD solely began to catch up within the final two generations. The benchmark scores present it, too; the RTX 4070 additionally beats the RX 7800 XT in Cyberpunk 2077 and in Metro Exodus. Within the case of Cyberpunkthe 4070 takes the rating into the low finish of playable territory.
Whereas these two GPUs are doing swell at 1440p, they’re nice for 1080p functions, too — though you would undoubtedly get away with spending much less. The benchmarks at 1080p with out ray tracing additional prolong AMD’s dominance, giving it a commanding lead in most titles. Nonetheless, Nvidia’s RTX 4070 really fares higher in Cyberpunk 2077 and Resident Evil 4. The scores in Horizon Zero Daybreak are virtually the identical, however in the event you look throughout the suite, the RX 7800 XT remains to be sooner in most video games.
Transferring as much as 4K exhibits that the RX 7800 XT has extra potential in that space than the RTX 4070. Certain, each GPUs maintain it playable, however the RX 7800 XT maintains respectable frames all through our check suite, dipping down somewhat in demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Final of Us Half 1. Total, at 4K with out ray tracing, the RX 7800 XT leads by 7.9%.
We now have a winner
The benchmark outcomes communicate for themselves — AMD’s RX 7800 XT performs higher in video games at each decision, all of the whereas being $100 cheaper than Nvidia’s RTX 4070. It’s additionally extra able to dealing with 4K gaming, which makes it a barely superior choice in the event you’re available in the market for a 4K monitor.
Nonetheless, as all the time when evaluating AMD to Nvidia, it’s not so simple as simply including up some fps figures and figuring out which card did higher. The RTX 4070 seems to be barely higher at tackling ray tracing, which ought to come as no shock. Nonetheless, the hole isn’t as large as one may need anticipated, and in the event you’re not huge on ray tracing, you gained’t even really feel a distinction. Ray tracing at 4K shouldn’t be really helpful with these GPUs anyway, and even at 1440p, there are titles (cough, Cyberpunk 2077) the place it’s going to be a lag fest in the event you try and toggle it on.
Then there’s the query of upscaling tech, particularly Nvidia’s coveted Deep Studying Tremendous Sampling 3 (DLSS 3). This has been a serious promoting level for Nvidia on this era, and it might doubtlessly increase your body charges properly previous the RTX 4080, and even the RTX 4090, in the event you flip it on. There’s a catch, although — not all video games assist it, and it won’t even be as helpful as Nvidia would have you ever consider. It’s nonetheless a promoting level, however not one to base your complete shopping for resolution round.
What’s the decision? All of it comes right down to how a lot you care about Nvidia’s further capabilities. For those who don’t want insane ranges of ray tracing assist, and DLSS 3 is of no use to you, then the RX 7800 XT is a simple $500 selection. If you need DLSS 3 and don’t thoughts that the cardboard will likely be somewhat slower throughout the board, then the RTX 4070 is the way in which to go. Remember that means spending $100 greater than the value of the RX 7800 XT, primarily to unlock DLSS 3.
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