AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT vs Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti: Which is better for your budget?

• Higher frame rates

  

  AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT

  Brand

  AMD

  Architecture

  RDNA 3

  Process

  5nm, 6nm

  Transistors

  28.1 billion

  Shader Units

  54

  Ray Accelerators/Cores

  54

  AMD's Radeon RX 7700 XT is a great 1440p graphics card released to take on the RTX 4060 Ti, and it does precisely that. It's more expensive than the 8GB RTX 4060, but offers considerably better performance.

  Pros & Cons

  • Better performance
  • More VRAM

  • More expensive (vs. 8GB)
  • Weaker ray tracing

  $449 at Amazon $449 at Newegg

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• Ray tracing king

  

  Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Founders Edition

  Brand

  Nvidia

  Architecture

  Ada Lovelace

  Process

  5nm

  Transistors

  22.9 billion

  Ray Accelerators/Cores

  34

  Stream Processors

  4,352

  Nvidia generally has better ray tracing support with its RTX 40-series GPUs and the RTX 4060 Ti is no exception. It may not be as powerful as the RX 7700 XT from AMD, but you'll be able to enjoy some seriously beautiful lighting effects.

  Pros & Cons

  • Better ray tracing support
  • More affordable (8GB version)

  • Worse performance
  • Less VRAM (8GB version)

  $399 at NVIDIA

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The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT launched as a direct competitor to take on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and AMD was largely successful in its endeavor. The RX 7700 XT is more powerful, yet more expensive, and is capable of some smooth 1440p gameplay. Should you be on the market for the best graphics card for your budget, we'd recommend the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT. However, should you value ray tracing and DLSS support, there's only one choice — Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4060 Ti.

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT vs Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti: Price, specs, and availability

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT launched on September 6, 2023 and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti was released on May 24, 2023. The AMD card comes in at $449 and the Nvidia GPU costs $399 for the 8GB model and $449 for the 16GB model. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti has more stream processors to work with, but it has fewer ray tracing cores. That said, it's capable of beating the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT at ray tracing even with 20 fewer cores at hand.

In terms of architecture, both companies have made strides with AMD using its RDNA 3 platform and Nvidia Ada Lovelace. The base clock speeds of the two GPUs comes in at 2,171 MHz vs. 2,310 MHz. AMD's GPU is capable of boosting slightly higher at standard settings with a maximum speed of 2,544 MHz with Nvidia's RTX 4060 Ti just behind at 2,535 MHz. 12GB of GDDR6 RAM is present on the RX 7700 XT, making it better for high resolution tectures.

• 	AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Founders Edition
  Brand	AMD	Nvidia
  Architecture	RDNA 3	Ada Lovelace
  Process	5nm, 6nm	5nm
  Transistors	28.1 billion	22.9 billion
  Ray Accelerators/Cores	54	34
  Stream Processors	3,456	4,352
  Base Clock Speed	2,171MHz	2,310MHz
  Boost Clock Speed	2,544MHz	2,535MHz
  Memory Capacity	12GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR6
  Memory Bus	192-bit	128-bit
  Memory Bandwidth	1,995.3GB/s	288GB/s
  Power Draw	245 W	160 W

If you are planning to make use of all available memory, we would recommend spending slightly more on Nvidia's 16GB RTX 4060 Ti, which has an additional 4GB over the RX 7700 XT. Using an AMD processor, it's possible to activate the company's Smart Access Memory, which improves the transfer of data between the GPU and CPU, further boosting performance. This will vary between system and game, but it's worth considering for newer PC builds.

Performance

We found in our extensive testing the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT to be the better graphics card for gaming. Overall, across our suite of games, the AMD card came out on top. As aforementioned, it's only when ray tracing and/or DLSS comes into play do things switch for Team Green. The Nvidia GPU only has 8GB of RAM against the 12GB found on the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, but there is a 16GB version available.

The numbers in the table above were captured using the 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti but in terms of pricing, the 16GB RTX 4060 Ti may be a better comparison. The RTX 4060 Ti also uses less power than the RX 7700 XT, so there's a higher chance you won't need to upgrade the PSU if upgrading from a lesser capable GPU.

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT vs Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti: Which is right for you?

Overall, we'd recommend the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT but choosing the best graphics card isn't quite as simple as going with the more powerful GPU. While it will offer a considerably better gaming experience at 1080p and 1440p resolutions, this is without forcing the card to battle its way through complicated lighting and shadows with ray tracing. It's the more expensive GPU but is well worth buying if you want the very best at this price point.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti costs less than the RTX 7700 XT, so long as you don't choose the 16GB model. 8GB of VRAM sounds like plenty of memory for the GPU to work with, but it's actually a hindrance at 1440p and higher resolutions. Luckily, this card is designed for 2K gaming, which puts it right alongside the RX 7700 XT Nvidia's RTX 4060 Ti may lose out to the AMD competition in game tests, but it'll come out on top with ray tracing and DLSS enabled.