As 2025 arrives, there’s no doubt that the months ahead are going to be filled with new GPUs. We have GPUs coming from both NVIDIA and AMD but that doesn’t means you need to jump into the new tech straight away. There are loads of current GPUs that are now more affordable than ever. One of which is the Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT Gaming OC.
Watch the Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT Gaming OC review below
Gigabyte sent over the Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT Gaming OC for me to test out given it was the last current-get AMD card I didn’t get around to test on the channel.
This AMD card cost around R10,500 or as low as $400. Given that this is a mid-range GPU, these price tags make the GPU a great option for 1440p gaming. Of course, it also competes with other competitor models including the 4060 Ti and the 7800 XT. However, in both regards, the 4060 TI is weaker and the 7800 XT is better but more expensive.
On paper, the Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT Gaming OC comes with 3,456 shader cores, 54 raytracing processors, 108 AI processors, 12GB of GDRR6 RAM, 192-bit bus and memory bandwidth of 432GB/s. It comes with a Game Clock of 2,276MHz and a Boost Clock of 2,599MHz. This is slightly overclocked compared to the reference card at 2,171MHz and 2,544MHz.
Given that this is a Gigabyte card, it bears the same design as other Gaming OC models. You’ll find the classic black and grey shell cross the card and it comes packed with the brand’s triple-fan. WindForce cooling system. There’s no RGB on the fans of this card but you will find RGB on the brand logo on the side.
The card also uses two 8-pin PCIE power connectors and is rated at 245W. As for the ports, the GPU comes with one HDMI 2.1 port and 3 DisplayPort 2.1 ports.
Granted, this card won’t fly you to the moon but it falls into a budget build for those with a tighter budget. I tested this card on my Gigabyte PC build with the AMD Ryzen 9900X CPU, the Gigabyte X870 Aorus Master motherboard, 64GB Kingston FURY Beast 6000MT/s and the Aorus Waterforce X II 360 cooler.
You can see from the results that the Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT Gaming OC does perform fairly well. It does beat the RTX 4060 Ti when it comes to non ray-tracing results. Pushing this card to 4K does struggle to reach 60FPS in most cases but some older games hold up quite well in this regard.
Of course, this is a 1440p GPU and mostly everything I tested surpassed 60FPS at 1440p on High settings or maxed out settings. Ray-tracing results did struggle a bit due to the weaker RT cores on the card but AMD has struggled to beat NVIDIA’s raytracing performance across the board.
On paper, the Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT Gaming OC is mostly 20 – 30% faster than the RTX 4060 Ti. It all depends on the game but the general experience is that it beats the NVIDIA GPU. Comparing this GPU to other AMD cards, the RX 770XT comes in under the 7800 XT but only by 3-5%. Considering the 7800 XT costs $100 more, 3% isn’t bad at all. In fact, it makes this card exceptional for its asking price.
During tests, the GPU reached a max of 280W of power during power spikes. This is around 20W less than the 7800XT and 100W more than the RTX 4060 Ti. So you can see where the power is going and why it is slightly weaker and more powerful in some regards.
In terms of thermals, the WindForce Cooling system holds up well. I measured a physical hear reading of 83C on the card’s hotspot during 4K tests and a 70C sensor reading on the GPU itself. This temperature was also reached with the fan settings set to 1000RPM and the clock speed maxing out at 2599MHz. So there’s a lot of room to push these fans more and get better cooling and performance. However, 1000RPM is a sweet spot for a generally decent fan noise without it getting too loud.
We know that 2025 will play host to a number of new GPUs. Both AMD and NVIDIA have new cards on the horizon but the Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT Gaming OC is still a pretty impressive GPU. For its asking price, the card delivers great 1440p performance. Essentially, this card is going to cost a fraction of whatever 50-series and new AMD series GPU is coming. The GPU is ideally one of the best value for money 1440p cards you can get your hands on. It will likely drop further in price in the year ahead.
So if you’re looking for a 1440p PC build and you’re on a tight budget, the Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT Gaming OC GPU does exactly that. It will likely remain a great 1440p option into 2025 while we wait for other cards to drop in price.
Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT Gaming OC
Summary
The Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT Gaming OC is a fantastic 1440p GPU that offers more value than ever before thanks to its lower price tag. It should hold up well for users looking for a budget 1440p card in 2025 and beyond.
