AMD Announces Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT

After nearly a year we will finally have a full RDNA 3 product stack

There has been a veritable chasm between the $269 Radeon RX 7600 and the next card in the current gen, the $899 (sometimes $799) Radeon RX 7900 XT. The silver lining is that RX 6000 Series parts like the excellent Radeon RX 6950 XT have been selling at significantly reduced prices, filling the gap.

But no longer must AMD rely on previous-gen parts to fill the product stack. On September 6, 2023, the Radeon 7000 Series family will finally have some midrange/midrange+ graphics cards. AMD is calling these the “next generation of 1440p gaming GPUs”, and obviously targeting the 2560×1440 (and perhaps ultrawide?) install base.

Chiplet GPUs Hit the Mainstream

Here is AMD’s slide showing high-level specs for the new Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon 7700 XT:

60 CUs is quite a bit lower than the 84 CUs found in the RX 7900 XT (there are 96 CUs in the RX 7900 XTX), and it suggests to this editor that we will not see an RX 7800 non-XT. If you remember, last generation the 6800 XT was a 72 CU part, with the 6800 non-XT offering 60 CUs.

Delving into some wild speculation here, as AMD has adopted a “GRE” branding for lower-end variants, perhaps the RX 7900 GRE took the place of what might have been the RX 7800 XT (albeit with 8 more CUs enabled), and this actual RX 7800 XT replacing what might have been the RX 7800 non-XT? It kind of makes sense in a way, if you think about it. Or not. Let’s move on.

Yes, these are both chiplet GPUs. As you may remember, the Radeon RX 7600 is based on a very small monolithic GPU (Navi 33, 204 mm²), though it is officially an RDNA 3 product. These new Radeon cards are based on AMD’s chiplet architecture, just as the RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT are, built using a TSMC 5N (GPU core) and 6N (memory chiplets). Both of these new GPUs also make use of a full 16 lanes of PCI Express 4.0, as in many ways we will find these to have a lot in common with the RX 7900 GPUs, and virtually nothing in common with the product called RX 7600.

However, GPU chiplets vs. monolithic die architecture, total number of PCI Express lanes, power draw, etc. are immaterial next to the great driving forces of all GPU discussion in 2023: VRAM and price! As to VRAM, AMD is repeating the formula from the RX 6000 Series, with the RX 7800 XT offering the same 16 GB of GDDR6 we saw with the RX 6800 XT, and the RX 7700 XT mirroring the 12 GB found in the RX 6700 XT. And now, pricing…

Pricing and Availability

Here is AMD’s slide:

The Radeon RX 7800 XT is $499 USD, placing it in direct competition with the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB. The Radeon RX 7700 XT is, curiously, only $50 less at $449 USD. I think $399 for the RX 7700 XT would have made a lot of people happy, but we will probably get a card at that price level (GRE or non-XT) at some point.

The cards will be available on September 6, and the usual AMD partners will have AIB models. Of note, only the Radeon RX 7800 XT will be offered in a made by AMD reference design.