ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT 12G OC review: Upsells the RX 7800 XT

ASRock Challenger RX 7700 XT 12G OC variant offers impressive 1080p and 1440p performance, and it performed admirably well in almost all my test titles. It's a solid contender to be on our list of the best 1440p GPUs, but it's hobbled by its pricing, which puts it closer to many RX 7800 XT variants that are much faster. It essentially suffers from the same problem as the new 4070 Ti Super GPU I reviewed not too long ago, which isn't necessarily a great pick either when compared to its sibling in the RTX 40-series Super family. The ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT's pricing leaves plenty to be desired, but there is a lot to like about this GPU that could potentially make it an excellent mid-range champion with a price cut.

About this review: AMD sent XDA the ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT GPU for this review but had no input to its contents.

Price and availability

A $450 graphics card with 12GB VRAM

The ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT was among the first partner cards to launch during the 7700 XT's debut on September 06, 2023, and it is the base model of the three RX 7700 XT cards ASRock offers. This particular GPU has been available for quite some time, and you can currently have it for $450 in the U.S. That makes it $50 more than a baseline RTX 4060 Ti graphics card, but it's only $50 or so cheaper than its 7800 XT sibling.

Design and features

A fairly basic design with just the essentials

As noted above, the ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT is the base model of the three RX 7700 XT cards the brand offers, and it pretty much represents what you can expect from baseline 7700 XT models. It's got a relatively small footprint, featuring a dual-fan design and some LEDs for indication. It measures 267 x 130 x 51mm and weighs a little over 2 lbs, so it's quite compact and lightweight and should easily fit into most PC cases without any issues. I could install it inside the ASUS Prime AP201 case fairly easily, and I didn't even have to fiddle with a GPU sag bracket to keep it in place. I also like that it features a metal backplate, which is usually reserved for premium graphics card designs. Even the MSI RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X came with a plastic backplate.

It's quite compact and lightweight and should easily fit into most PC cases without any issues.

I can't say I am a huge fan of the LED indicators on this GPU, though, as they only light up in a white color. It looks a bit out of place inside my PC case with a lot of RGB lights. It's not necessarily a deal-breaker, but it is something to keep in mind if you are planning to pick up this GPU. You'll also appreciate its 0dB fans that stop spinning when the GPU is idling for a low-noise operation. The ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT doesn't skimp on essentials despite its small footprint, as you still get dual 8-pin power connectors, a pretty good heatsink to handle the cooling, and a good selection of IO, which includes three DisplayPort 2.1 and an HDMI port.

Performance

A capable 1440p GPU

The RX 7700 XT, in case you are wondering, is built around the Navi 32 GPU, which is the same as that of the RX 7800 XT. It packs 54 compute units, 54 ray accelerators, and 96 ROPs, and as an OC edition GPU, the ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT comes with a slightly higher boost clock than other 7700XT cards on the market. It's less likely to make a huge difference in how this GPU performs compared to other 7700 XT cards on the market, but it's impressive to see a factory overclock for a GPU with such a footprint. You are looking at the 2,226 MHz and 2,584 MHz Game clock and Boost clock for this GPU, respectively.

Another thing to like about the RX 7700 XT GPU is its 12GB VRAM and 192-bit memory bus, which makes it look significantly better than Nvidia's RTX 4060 Ti with 8GB VRAM and 128-bit bus. 12 GB VRAM is the absolute minimum you should look for in a GPU in 2024, making the RX 7700 XT far more appealing than its competition from Nvidia.

12 GB VRAM is the absolute minimum you should look for in a GPU in 2024, making the RX 7700 XT far more appealing than its competition.

The RX 7700 XT is designed with 1080p and 1440p gaming in mind, and this variant from ASRock delivers on those expectations with reliable performance. I used a test bench with an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor, 32GB DDR5-6000 RAM, and a 1TB M.2 SSD to test the ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT GPU, and I was able to push the GPU to its limits without any issues. It also managed to deliver respectable frame rates on the board while maintaining reasonable temperatures.

Comparing the ASRock Challenger GPU's 3DMark Time Spy scores with the ASUS Pro GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GPU, it's safe to say that this AMD GPU yields better results, albeit not as significant as you would think. Yes, it is going against the ProArt model with a factory overclock, but it didn't land close to my expectations and delivered only an incremental upgrade. I am also adding benchmark numbers scored by the Zotac RTX 4070 Super to better understand where this RX 7700 XT variant from ASRock stands and how it stacks up.

Moving over to some real-world graphics testing in games, the RX 7700 XT could easily run a good mix of old and relatively new AAA titles. It performs well at 1080p and 1440p resolutions while showing its strength in raster performance. 4K gaming is not entirely out of the equation for the 7700 XT GPU, but I'd say it's best to leave that up to more powerful 4K GPUs unless you're only trying to run some older titles that are well-optimized and aren't too demanding.

The ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT OC GPU handled pretty much all my test titles very well at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions.

The ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT OC GPU handled pretty much all my test titles very well at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions. However, you will have to keep your expectations in check regarding ray-tracing performance, especially in more demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Alan Wake 2. Ray-tracing performance has never really been a strong suit of AMD GPUs, and that's no different here. It only delivered around 40fps when I tested Cyberpunk 2077 with ray-tracing at 1080p. It's sad to see that becoming a recurring theme of relatively poor ray-tracing performance in AMD GPUs, and it's more apparent in the case of a low or mid-range GPU like this one.

Temperatures and fan noise

Runs quiet and surprisingly cool

The ASRock Challenger's dual-fan heatsink design is surprisingly good at handling the 250W power of the card. It also ran pretty quietly throughout my testing, and I could immediately tell the difference as I am coming from the MSI RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X GPU with a more aggressive heatsink. The peak temperature that I was able to record while running my test titles and benchmarks was 68 degrees Celsius. In fact, many games stayed below the 65 degrees Celsius mark, which is pretty good for a GPU that's chugging around 250W of power while sitting inside a MicroATX case in an ambient room temperature of around 25 degrees Celsius.

Naturally, it also remained relatively quiet throughout the testing, compared to something like the RTX 4070 Super. It's easily among the quietest GPUs I've tested, with the noise stabilizing at about 40 dB with the GPU and the case fan spinning at around 1,500 RPM. The fans were also barely moving when it was simply idling or not running anything particularly resource-intensive.

Should you buy the ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT GPU?

You should buy the ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT GPU if:

• You are strictly restricted to a $450 budget and can't shell out more for the RX 7800 XT.
• You think ray-tracing remains pointless and don't care about the RT performance of the GPU.
• You are worried about the RTX 4060 Ti's 8GB VRAM limitation and can't extend your budget to $550 for an RTX 4070.
• You are looking for a GPU with a small footprint that runs quietly.

You shouldn't buy the ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT GPU if:

• You care about ray-tracing and want the best visual fidelity.
• You also want to dabble with 4K gaming, as there are better GPUs for that.

ASRock's RX 7700 XT performs well to deliver a good 1080p and 1440p gaming experience, but its $450 price tag puts it too close to the 7800 XT models that easily outperform it in modern titles. Even RTX 4060 Ti's ray-tracing performance becomes somewhat comparable to the ASRock Challenger RX 7700 XT in games like Cyberpunk 2077, which also gets close to the 40fps mark. The additional VRAM certainly helps it gain an edge over its competition from Nvidia, but you are better off picking up one of the RX 7800 XT cards by spending an additional $50 at that point.

Plenty of RTX 4070 GPUs are also currently going for $500 to $530 following Nvidia's new RTX 4070 Super's launch. So there's no shortage of GPUs that can deliver a solid 1440p gaming experience and even give you a better taste of 4K gaming from the RX 7700 XT. Overall, the ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 XT is a great GPU that struggles to find a spot on the market. It would have been easier to recommend this graphics card if it was $50 or so cheaper. I suggest waiting for a good deal or the inevitable price drop to make it a no-brainer in the mid-range segment.