ASRock Calls Dibs On AMD's New Radeon RX 7700 With First Model

AMD quietly added details for a Radeon RX 7700 non-XT GPU to its website and shortly thereafter ASRock revealed that it would be the first AIB to produce a card as part of its Challenger series. The ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7700 is the first GPU in the family and it seems to be configured to operate at AMD's reference specifications, though the beefy Challenger cooler will likely provide some headroom for overclocking.

Oddly, the Radeon RX 7700 isn't simply cut down from the RX 7700 XT. While it's true the card has only 40 RDNA 3 Compute Units versus the 7700 XT's 50, it also has an unexpectedly-healthy allocation of 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM connected over a 256-bit interface (the Radeon RX 7700 XT has a 192-bit interface). The increased memory capacity and interface width winds up giving it the same memory bandwidth and similar total power draw as the beefier Radeon RX 7800 XT, which suggests that the RX 7700 is likely derived from scrapped 7800 XT Navi 32 GPU that couldn't meet the full performance spec.


So, who is this card for? It's hard to say. In games, it will still easily be beaten by its older siblings thanks to its cut-down Compute Units, despite its much healthier VRAM allocation. But VRAM can also be put to use for other workloads, especially relating to generative AI or professional rendering tasks, and you're unlikely to find a cheaper GPU boasting 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM. It's still an odd card, though, and at time of writing no models actually seem listed for purchase, so its final MSRP and true value proposition remains unknown.

According to AMD's benchmarks at 1440p resolution, performance seems pretty good. On the Radeon RX 7700 XT at 1440p with max settings with RT where available, Hogwarts Legacy hits 79 FPS, Dying Light 2 reaches 75 FPS, and Resident Evil 4 hits 84 FPS, The same games at the seemingly the same settings (dubbed "1440p Ultra") on new Radeon RX 7700 hit 64 FPS, 63 FPS, and 70 FPS, respectively. If those numbers are accurate, that means the performance delta is as at-worst about 19%.

Based on its branding, the Radeon RX 7700 16GB will likely be priced on-par with or slightly lower than the RX 7700 XT -- the price reduction from the fewer number of compute units will be somewhat offset by the additional 4GB of VRAM. At today's street prices, assuming the Radeon RX 7700 will be priced higher than the RX 7600, but lower than a RX 7700 XT, it should land somewhere around the $300 mark. At that price, it'll have to compete with the likes of the RTX 5060, which doesn't have as much memory, but will offer significantly higher performance overall, along with support for newer features and technologies.