AMD silently launches RX 7700 non-XT with 16 GB VRAM — New RDNA 3 GPU uses nerfed Navi 32 die, offers reduced performance and increased power draw

If you thought RDNA 3 was done, think again, because AMD has just refreshed the lineup with a brand new SKU — the RX 7700 non-XT. Listed silently on its website without any announcement, the RX 7700 comes with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory saturated across a 256-bit bus, compared to the 7700 XT's relatively meager 12 GB (across 192-bit). AMD has used 19.5 Gbps chips, so, combined with the aforementioned specs, that puts the memory bandwidth on par with the 7800 XT, at 624 GB/s.

The GPU under the hood is a cut-down version of Navi 32 with just 2,560 Stream Processors and 40 Compute Units. The 7700 XT uses the same Navi 32 but has 3,456 Stream Processors and 54 CUs; it also has more ROPs and TMUs (see table at the end), and 48 MB Infinity Cache compared to just 40 MB on the RX 7700. Moreover, there are 80 AI accelerators on the RX 7700, which isn't impressive on its own, but when you combine that with the 16 GB memory pool, this could become a sleeper option for local AI applications.

In terms of performance, AMD lists FPS numbers for a bunch of different games, showing a ~20% decrease in gaming compared to the 7700 XT (when taking into account games that overlap). Not only that, but the RX 7700 seems to be less efficient too, eating up 263W of power (versus 245W on the 7700 XT) despite the reduced performance. That leaves local AI inference the only real selling point for this SKU, if it's priced right to begin with. There are dual 8-pin connectors on board, and AMD recommends a 700W power supply for the RX 7700.

So far, AMD has not listed any availability, suggesting that this is perhaps an OEM product meant to be supplied to SIs and in prebuilts across the world. That being said, ASRock has already unveiled its custom "Challenger" design and—while the company didn't share price or availability either—we did learn that the card is clocked at 2,041 MHz (Game), boosting up to 2,459 MHz.

At the moment, AMD already has the RX 9060 XT 16 GB slotted nicely in the midrange, that's slightly faster (even its 8 GB variant would dwarf the RX 7700) and has a richer featureset. Therefore, launching the RX 7700 non-XT at anything more than ~$350 would seriously cannibalise the lineup, rendering it DoA.

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!