AMD Radeon HD 7770M vs AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Comparison

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Radeon HD 7770M compare to the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT in raw benchmark scores?

A: The RX 7800 XT has an average benchmark score of 11627 across multiple tests, while the HD 7770M has a single recorded benchmark score of 13536 in Geekbench Metal. However, these numbers are not directly comparable because the RX 7800 XT’s average includes tests like 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (4157), Passmark G3D (24176), and Geekbench OpenCL (18290), whereas the HD 7770M only has one Metal test recorded.

Q: What is the architecture difference between these two GPUs?

A: The HD 7770M is built on GCN 1.0 architecture using a 28 nm process, while the RX 7800 XT uses RDNA 3.0 architecture on a 5 nm process. The transistor count jumps from 1,500 million on the HD 7770M to 28,100 million on the RX 7800 XT, and the die size grows from 123 mm² to 346 mm².

Q: Which GPU has more memory and bandwidth?

A: The RX 7800 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 624.1 GB/s bandwidth, while the HD 7770M has 1 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus with 64.00 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 7800 XT also runs its memory at 2438 MHz (19.5 Gbps effective) versus 1000 MHz (4 Gbps effective) on the older card.

Q: What are the power requirements for each GPU?

A: The HD 7770M has a TDP of 32 W and is a portable device with power connectors listed as "Portable Device Dependent." The RX 7800 XT has a TDP of 263 W, requires two 8-pin power connectors, and has a suggested PSU rating of 600 W.

Q: Which GPU supports newer APIs?

A: The RX 7800 XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, while the HD 7770M supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The RX 7800 XT also includes 60 ray tracing cores, which the HD 7770M lacks entirely.

Q: What is the production status of each GPU?

A: The HD 7770M is end-of-life, released on 2012-04-23, with its predecessor listed as Vancouver and its successor as Solar System. The RX 7800 XT is active, released on 2023-09-05, with its predecessor as Navi II and successor as Navi IV.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent radically different eras of AMD graphics design. The HD 7770M uses GCN 1.0 architecture on a 28 nm TSMC process, with 1,500 million transistors packed into a 123 mm² die. That yields a transistor density of 12.2M per mm². In contrast, the RX 7800 XT uses RDNA 3.0 architecture on a 5 nm TSMC process, with 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 81.2M per mm². This is a generational leap in manufacturing technology, allowing nearly 19 times more transistors in less than three times the die area.

The shading pipeline differs dramatically. The HD 7770M has 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPs. The RX 7800 XT has 3840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. That is 7.5 times more shading units, 7.5 times more TMUs, and 6 times more ROPs. The RX 7800 XT also adds 60 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the older GCN design. No tensor cores are present in either GPU, but the RX 7800 XT offers FP16 compute at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, whereas the HD 7770M has no recorded FP16 capability.

The memory subsystem is also fundamentally different. The HD 7770M uses 1 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 64.00 GB/s. The RX 7800 XT uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 624.1 GB/s. This is nearly 10 times the bandwidth, which matters for high-resolution textures and compute workloads.

Clock speeds show similar divergence. The HD 7770M lists only a memory clock of 1000 MHz (4 Gbps effective) with no base or boost clock recorded. The RX 7800 XT has a base clock of 1295 MHz, a game clock of 2124 MHz, and a boost clock of 2430 MHz. Memory speed on the RX 7800 XT is 2438 MHz, translating to 19.5 Gbps effective.

The bus interface also advances from PCIe 2.0 x16 on the HD 7770M to PCIe 4.0 x16 on the RX 7800 XT. Display outputs move from "Portable Device Dependent" on the older mobile chip to a fixed set of 1x HDMI 2.1a and 3x DisplayPort 2.1 on the newer card. The HD 7770M carries no listed dimensions, while the RX 7800 XT is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 50 mm in width.

Where Each One Wins

The HD 7770M, despite being a decade older, holds a niche in lightweight or portable scenarios. Its 32 W TDP means it can be deployed in devices where power draw is constrained, and its PCIe 2.0 x16 interface is sufficient for legacy systems. The single recorded Geekbench Metal score of 13536 places it at the 54th percentile of all GPUs in the database, which is surprisingly competitive for a chip from 2012. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, scores 13543, a difference of only 0.1%. This suggests that in Metal-based workloads, the HD 7770M performs at a level comparable to much newer hardware, likely because the test is not demanding enough to expose its architectural limitations.

The RX 7800 XT wins in almost every other measurable category. It has a broader benchmark suite, including 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (4157), Geekbench OpenCL (18290), Geekbench Vulkan (54228), Passmark G3D (24176), and Passmark GPU Compute (13473). The HD 7770M has no recorded scores in any of these tests, so the RX 7800 XT is the clear choice for DirectX 12, Vulkan, compute, and general 3D rendering workloads. Its percentile ranking of 51 versus the HD 7770M’s 54 is misleading; the RX 7800 XT’s average is dragged down by low Passmark DirectX scores (121 for DX10, 249 for DX11, 93 for DX12, and 304 for DX9), while its heavy-hitting tests like Geekbench Vulkan and Passmark G3D dominate.

For gaming, the RX 7800 XT is the only one of the two with ray tracing cores, so any workload involving ray-traced effects belongs exclusively to it. The HD 7770M’s DirectX 12 support is limited to 11_1, meaning it cannot run modern DX12 Ultimate titles at full feature set. The RX 7800 XT, with DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), supports the full modern graphics API stack.

In terms of memory capacity, the RX 7800 XT’s 16 GB is essential for current games at high resolutions or for compute tasks like machine learning inference. The HD 7770M’s 1 GB is insufficient for any modern workload beyond basic 2D or legacy 3D applications.

Specification Differences

The table below highlights only the fields where the two GPUs differ:

| Field | HD 7770M | RX 7800 XT |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | GCN 1.0 | RDNA 3.0 |

| Process node | 28 nm | 5 nm |

| Transistors | 1,500 million | 28,100 million |

| Die size | 123 mm² | 346 mm² |

| Transistor density | 12.2M / mm² | 81.2M / mm² |

| Base clock | Not recorded | 1295 MHz |

| Game clock | Not recorded | 2124 MHz |

| Boost clock | Not recorded | 2430 MHz |

| Memory clock | 1000 MHz (4 Gbps) | 2438 MHz (19.5 Gbps) |

| Memory size | 1024 MB | 16 GB |

| Memory type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |

| Memory bus width | 128 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory bandwidth | 64.00 GB/s | 624.1 GB/s |

| Shading units | 512 | 3840 |

| TMUs | 32 | 240 |

| ROPs | 16 | 96 |

| RT cores | None | 60 |

| Pixel rate | 10.80 GPixel/s | 233.3 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 21.60 GTexel/s | 583.2 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 691.2 GFLOPS | 37.32 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | Not recorded | 37.32 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 32 W | 263 W |

| Slot width | Not recorded | Dual-slot |

| Power connectors | Portable Device Dependent | 2x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | Not recorded | 600 W |

| Bus interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Display outputs | Portable Device Dependent | 1x HDMI 2.1a, 3x DisplayPort 2.1 |

| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Vulkan | 1.2.170 | 1.4 |

| Dimensions | Not recorded | 267 mm x 111 mm x 50 mm |

| Production status | End-of-life | Active |

| Release date | 2012-04-23 | 2023-09-05 |

The RX 7800 XT also has a launch MSRP of 499 USD, while the HD 7770M has no recorded launch price.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

Direct head-to-head benchmark results are not available in the database, so the comparison relies on the individual benchmark suites recorded for each GPU.

The HD 7770M’s sole benchmark, Geekbench Metal, scores 13536. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, scores 13543, a delta of -0.1%, meaning the HD 7770M is effectively tied with a much newer card in this specific test. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 scores 13515, a delta of 0.2%, so the HD 7770M edges out the GTX 570 by a hair. The NVIDIA P106-090 scores 13470, a delta of 0.5%, and the AMD Radeon Pro 555 scores 13407, a delta of 1%. This indicates that in Metal workloads, the HD 7770M performs at a level consistent with mid-range GPUs from several generations later, likely due to the lightweight nature of the test.

The RX 7800 XT has no Geekbench Metal score, so no direct comparison is possible on that front. Instead, its strongest results come from Geekbench Vulkan, where it scores 54228, and Passmark G3D, where it scores 24176. Its average benchmark score of 11627 is pulled down by the Passmark DirectX tests: 121 for DX10, 249 for DX11, 93 for DX12, and 304 for DX9. These low scores are unusual for a GPU with 37.32 TFLOPS FP32 compute, suggesting that the Passmark DirectX tests are not scaling with the RX 7800 XT’s architecture or driver optimization.

The RX 7800 XT’s nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 with an average score of 11680, a delta of -0.5%, meaning the RX 7800 XT is slightly behind. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M scores 11528, a delta of 0.9%, so the RX 7800 XT is slightly ahead. The NVIDIA Tesla K20c scores 11479, a delta of 1.3%, and the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT scores 11842, a delta of -1.8%. These deltas are all within 2%, which is remarkable given the RX 7800 XT’s vastly superior hardware specs. The conclusion is that the RX 7800 XT’s average benchmark score is not representative of its peak capabilities; its Vulkan, OpenCL, and G3D scores are far higher than those of its rivals, but the Passmark DirectX results drag the average down.

In terms of raw throughput, the RX 7800 XT delivers 233.3 GPixel/s pixel rate and 583.2 GTexel/s texture rate, versus 10.80 GPixel/s and 21.60 GTexel/s on the HD 7770M. That is a 21.6 times advantage in pixel rate and a 27 times advantage in texture rate. FP32 compute is 37.32 TFLOPS versus 691.2 GFLOPS, a 54 times advantage. These numbers illustrate that the RX 7800 XT is in an entirely different performance class, even if the database’s average benchmark score does not fully capture that gap.

The HD 7770M’s 54th percentile ranking versus the RX 7800 XT’s 51st percentile is a statistical artifact of the different benchmark sets. The HD 7770M’s single score is high relative to all GPUs because Geekbench Metal is not a demanding test, while the RX 7800 XT’s average includes several low-scoring Passmark tests. For any compute-heavy or modern gaming workload, the RX 7800 XT’s 16 GB memory, 60 RT cores, and 37.32 TFLOPS of FP32 performance make it the clear winner. The HD 7770M remains relevant only in legacy or power-constrained environments where its 32 W TDP and small footprint are advantages.