I’m thrilled to share exclusive details on the upcoming AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT graphics card. As an avid PC gamer and hardware enthusiast, I live for leaks like this ahead of major product launches. In this article, I’ll provide a comprehensive overview of the leaked RX 7700 XT specs and discuss how this card will compete with Nvidia’s RTX 40 series.
RX 7700 XT Key Specs
The Radeon RX 7700 XT is shaping up to be an impressive mid-range graphics card:
- Chipset: AMD Navi 31 GPU
- Stream Processors: 4096 SPs
- Memory: 12GB GDDR6
- Memory Bus: 192-bit
- Clock Speeds: Game 2400 MHz, Boost 2600 MHz
- Bandwidth: 384 GB/s
- TDP: 230W
These specs position the RX 7700 XT to deliver substantial gains over the previous gen RX 6700 XT. The doubling of stream processors and move to a faster 192-bit memory bus will equate to major performance improvements.
The 230W TDP is higher than the 6700 XT’s 186W rating. This indicates AMD is pushing the 7700 XT harder to compete with Nvidia’s power-hungry RTX 4000 cards.
Navi 31 GPU Analysis
The switch from Navi 22 to Navi 31 graphics is the biggest change here. Navi 31 is AMD’s newest gaming architecture, built on an optimized 5nm process node. Early benchmarks of Navi 31 engineering samples show up to 50% higher performance compared to Navi 22.
Navi 31 also greatly improves ray tracing capabilities. While the 6700 XT struggled with ray traced workloads, the 7700 XT should handle them much more smoothly.
The 4096 stream processors confirm that AMD will position the RX 7700 XT to battle Nvidia’s RTX 4070 and 4070 Ti. This GPU has 33% more stream processors than the 3072 inside the 6700 XT.
Memory and Bandwidth Improvements
The jump to a 192-bit memory bus and 12GB of 18Gbps GDDR6 memory directly addresses one of the 6700 XT’s biggest weaknesses.
That card was hobbled by just a 128-bit bus and 10GB of slower 16Gbps GDDR6 memory. The 7700 XT sees a 50% increase in bus width and 12.5% faster memory.
This adds up to a massive bandwidth increase from 384 GB/s to 576 GB/s. Such wide memory bandwidth is critical for delivering smooth 4K gaming. It also future proofs the 7700 XT for demanding next-gen games.
Expected Performance Uplift
Based on these specs, I expect the RX 7700 XT will offer around 40-50% higher gaming performance compared to the 6700 XT.
The upgrades to stream processors, clock speeds, memory bandwidth, and GPU architecture all contribute to major generational gains. This keeps with the substantial performance leaps we’ve seen from AMD’s RDNA 3 architecture so far.
For direct competition, the 7700 XT should roughly match the RTX 4070 in traditional rasterization and edge out Nvidia in some ray tracing workloads. It may even get close to RTX 4070 Ti performance in certain games.
Better Value Than Nvidia?
The biggest question now is pricing. AMD positions the RX 7700 series as a high-end 1440p gaming solution.
If they price the 7700 XT from $499 to $549, it would offer much better value compared to Nvidia’s $799 RTX 4070. This competitive pricing could force Nvidia into some tough choices on RTX 4000 series MSRPs.
Of course, AMD margins would be lower at that price point. But stealing market share from Nvidia may take priority right now.
Closing Thoughts
Based on these leaked specs, the Radeon RX 7700 XT is shaping up to be a formidable 1080p and 1440p gaming card. It offers drastically improved performance over the previous generation and can go toe-to-toe with Nvidia’s RTX 4070.
I’m excited to see third-party benchmark results when reviews drop. For now, things are looking great for AMD’s RDNA 3 mid-range lineup. The RX 7700 XT will likely become the de facto choice for high-fps 1440p gaming when it launches later this year.
