Overall and Final Verdict
With our testing out of the way and having taken a closer look at the card design and checking out what both the new 7700 XT and 7800 XT are all about spec-wise we can finally step back and get a bigger picture on everything. For the Radeon RX 7800 XT reference card design, like with the reference 7900 XT and XTX as well as the 7600 I love the blacked-out design and the styling that AMD went with. While it isn’t a huge heatsink attached to a PCB like a lot of high-end partner cards offer. The design is a lot more premium with its all-metal shroud and backplate and a design that doesn’t feel tossed together. Sticking to a standard PCI height and not being a 3+ slot wide card (it is a 2.5 slot design) the card will fit in almost anything. Fitment doesn’t seem like something you should have to worry about, but unless you are running a huge case it is a concern with most card designs these days. The Radeon RX 7800 XT also utilizes standard PCIe power connections which means you don’t have to run an adapter or worry about upgrading your power supply. Given how much a build can cost these days, finding ways to save is always nice.
For performance, before I get into how it compares to other cards. AMD is promoting the Radeon RX 7800 XT to be a high-end 1440p option and in our testing, it handled 1440p without any issues with most situations being capable of frame rates that will work well with high refresh rate monitors. Given that the 1440p 240Hz is the sweet spot in my eyes, that is great to hear. Even if you decide to go up to 4K later the Radeon RX 7800 XT can handle that as well but high refresh rates are going to be very dependent on the game. The 7800 XT did struggle in our Blender testing, it wouldn’t be on my list if that is also important to you. As far as ray tracing and AI-based tech AMD is improving especially now with FSP 3, but Nvidia does still stand out there in those situations. Now all of that is great in a vacuum but we do have to look at the competition as well but I will get into pricing further down. The Radeon RX 7800 XT as a whole outperformed Nvidia’s RTX 4070 coming in 9 FPS higher at 1440p when our test results were averaged and that is impressive. Of course, the wet blanket on it all comes from AMD themselves with last generations 6800 XT. I didn’t have a reference 6800 XT for direct comparisons but our overclocked 6800 XT was FPS faster at 1440p than the 7800 XT. Most of that is likely the overclock. But even with matching performance, it isn’t the best optics for the next generation x800 XT to not be a step up. I mention optics because it is a little more complicated. AMD has the 7800 XT positioned as a replacement for the RX 6800, not the 6800 XT. Like Nvidia, it seems they are readjusting their card positioning. But I really wish we would see a complete reset in naming when doing it (maybe something like the 11X00 Series) to avoid any confusion.
When I got into noise and power testing, while the Radeon RX 7800 XT performed well as a whole it did struggle in the under load noise testing. The fan profile is extremely aggressive which hurt its performance there. The 7800 XT did improve on efficiency a lot compared to the 6800 XT, but the RTX 4070 still kicked its butt there. GPU hotspot temps were also higher than I would like in both the 100% fan speed test and stock fan profile testing.
As always though in most cases there aren’t really bad video cards, just bad pricing. Pricing will make or break the Radeon RX 7800 XT. Pricing will start at $499 and if we are looking to compare it against what Nvidia has going on right now that pricing looks great. The RTX 4070 is selling for $599 at the lowest, $100 more than the Radeon RX 7800 XT and that is with the 7800 XT outperforming it in most of our tests. If we closed things out on that the 7800 XT would be a solid buy, but we do have to keep in mind the RX 6800 XT as well, at least until the stock is depleted. The 6800 XT prices dropped down back in May to clear out stock ahead of these launches but there are still some available right now. Newegg seems to have a variety but on Amazon, there are only a few left. But there are some 6800 XT’s selling for $499, the same price as the 7800 XT. For those who are especially concerned with VRAM totals, those would be a good buy right now given that you get 16GB over the 7800 XT’s 12GB. AMD has also just launched their Starfield promotion which with the 6800 XT or 7800 XT you get a premium copy of Starfield which is a $99.99 value. One thing is for sure though, that deal on either card makes them a great value over the RTX 4070 currently.
Live Pricing: HERE
