AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Comparison

The benchmark data positions the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT as the clear performance leader over the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti, though the comparison spans a decade of architectural evolution. The RX 7700 XT dominates in every shared workload, while the GTX 780 Ti holds a historical niche that is now firmly obsolete.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The direct comparison between these two cards is brief, containing only two shared benchmark results, yet the outcome is unambiguous. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT scores 138,383 against the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti’s 27,326. This represents an 80.3% delta in favor of the newer card, meaning the RX 7700 XT delivers over five times the raw compute throughput in this API. The gap is staggering, reflecting not just generational improvements but a fundamental shift in GPU design priorities.

The second shared test, Geekbench Vulkan, shows a narrower but still decisive margin. The RX 7700 XT posts 46,443 points, while the GTX 780 Ti manages 27,238. The delta here is 41.4% in favor of AMD. While the OpenCL result showcases the RX 7700 XT’s compute dominance, the Vulkan score highlights its superior modern API efficiency, as the GTX 780 Ti’s Kepler architecture was never designed with Vulkan’s low-level overhead model in mind.

Across these two benchmarks, the RX 7700 XT secures both wins. The GTX 780 Ti’s average benchmark score across all its tests is 24,236, which places it in the 70th percentile of all GPUs. The RX 7700 XT’s average score of 22,549 is lower on average because its benchmark suite includes a broader range of tests, but its percentile rank of 67 still reflects strong overall positioning. When isolating the head-to-head results, the RX 7700 XT’s lead is consistent and substantial, with no test where the older NVIDIA card comes out ahead.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is vast, spanning process technology, transistor budgets, and feature sets. The GTX 780 Ti is built on NVIDIA’s Kepler architecture, specifically the GK110B chip, fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. This chip contains 7,080 million transistors on a die size of 561 mm², yielding a transistor density of 12.6 million per square millimeter. In contrast, the RX 7700 XT uses AMD’s RDNA 3.0 architecture, built around the Navi 32 chip, on a 5 nm process also from TSMC. This newer chip packs 28,100 million transistors into a smaller 346 mm² die, achieving a density of 81.2 million per square millimeter — a 6.4x improvement in density that enables far more compute resources in a physically smaller package.

Clock speeds tell a similar story of advancement. The GTX 780 Ti runs at a base of 875 MHz with a boost up to 928 MHz. The RX 7700 XT operates at a base of 1435 MHz, with a game clock of 2171 MHz and a boost of 2544 MHz. This near-tripling of effective clock frequency, combined with the architectural efficiency of RDNA 3.0, produces a massive throughput advantage. The RX 7700 XT delivers 35.17 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, while the GTX 780 Ti manages just 5.345 TFLOPS — a 6.6x difference in raw floating-point performance.

Memory configurations also diverge sharply. The GTX 780 Ti features 3 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, providing 336.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 7700 XT comes with 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, but achieves 432.0 GB/s due to much higher memory clocks. The RX 7700 XT’s memory operates at 18 Gbps effective, versus the GTX 780 Ti’s 7 Gbps effective. The newer card also benefits from 96 ROPs and 216 TMUs, compared to the GTX 780 Ti’s 48 ROPs and 240 TMUs. Pixel rate on the RX 7700 XT is 244.2 GPixel/s versus 55.68 GPixel/s on the older card, while texture rate is 549.5 GTexel/s versus 222.7 GTexel/s.

Feature support is another differentiator. The RX 7700 XT includes 54 ray tracing cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and has an OpenGL 4.6 API. The GTX 780 Ti supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.175, with no ray tracing hardware. The RX 7700 XT also offers modern display outputs including HDMI 2.1a, DisplayPort 2.1, and USB Type-C, while the GTX 780 Ti is limited to DVI, HDMI 1.4a, and DisplayPort 1.2. The RX 7700 XT also supports PCIe 4.0 x16, double the bandwidth of the GTX 780 Ti’s PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.

Where Each One Wins

Given the benchmark data, the RX 7700 XT wins in every measurable category. In compute-heavy workloads, its OpenCL score of 138,383 dwarfs the GTX 780 Ti’s 27,326, making it the clear choice for tasks like scientific simulation, machine learning inference, or any application that leverages OpenCL acceleration. The 41.4% lead in Vulkan performance further cements its position for modern gaming and rendering workloads that rely on low-level API access.

The GTX 780 Ti’s only claim to relevance is its historical status. Its 70th percentile ranking against all GPUs shows it remains ahead of many older cards, and its average benchmark score of 24,236 is competitive with the GTX 1630, RTX 2080 SUPER, and RX 6800S in its nearest rival list. However, in any direct comparison with the RX 7700 XT, there is no workload where the GTX 780 Ti emerges victorious. The data shows zero wins for the NVIDIA card across the shared benchmarks.

For users prioritizing modern gaming with ray tracing, the RX 7700 XT’s 54 RT cores provide hardware acceleration that the GTX 780 Ti entirely lacks. For high-resolution texture workloads, the 12 GB frame buffer versus 3 GB means the RX 7700 XT can hold far more data locally, reducing reliance on slower system memory. For bandwidth-intensive tasks, the 432.0 GB/s versus 336.6 GB/s gives the newer card a 28% advantage.

The Verdict

The data is unequivocal: the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the superior GPU by every metric available in the benchmark pack. Its 80.3% lead in OpenCL and 41.4% lead in Vulkan are not marginal improvements but generational leaps. The RX 7700 XT offers 12 GB of memory versus 3 GB, over 6x the FP32 compute throughput, and modern API support including DirectX 12 Ultimate and ray tracing hardware.

The GTX 780 Ti is an end-of-life product, released in November 2013, while the RX 7700 XT is active and was launched in September 2023. The older card’s 250 W TDP and 600 W suggested PSU are comparable to the RX 7700 XT’s 245 W TDP and 550 W suggested PSU, so power consumption is not a differentiator. However, the performance per watt clearly favors the newer architecture.

For any user building a system today or upgrading from a decade-old GPU, the RX 7700 XT is the only rational choice based on this data. Its percentile rank of 67 versus the GTX 780 Ti’s 70 is slightly lower, but this is misleading because the RX 7700 XT’s benchmark suite includes more demanding modern tests like 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and PassMark DirectX 12, which the older card cannot even run. The GTX 780 Ti’s nearest rivals include the GTX 1630 and RTX 2080 SUPER, indicating it performs in a range that is now considered entry-level, while the RX 7700 XT competes with the RTX 5060 Mobile and RTX 4060 Mobile.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in OpenCL compute workloads?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT scores 138,383 in Geekbench OpenCL, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti’s 27,326, giving the RX 7700 XT an 80.3% advantage.

Q: Does the GTX 780 Ti support ray tracing?

A: No. The GTX 780 Ti has no ray tracing cores. The RX 7700 XT includes 54 ray tracing cores, which provide hardware-accelerated ray tracing support.

Q: How much memory does each card have?

A: The GTX 780 Ti has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus, while the RX 7700 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. The RX 7700 XT also has higher bandwidth at 432.0 GB/s versus 336.6 GB/s.

Q: What is the process node difference between the two cards?

A: The GTX 780 Ti is fabricated on a 28 nm process, while the RX 7700 XT uses a 5 nm process. This allows the RX 7700 XT to pack 28,100 million transistors into a 346 mm² die, versus 7,080 million transistors in 561 mm² for the GTX 780 Ti.

Q: Which card has better Vulkan performance?

A: The RX 7700 XT scores 46,443 in Geekbench Vulkan versus 27,238 for the GTX 780 Ti, a 41.4% lead for the AMD card. The RX 7700 XT also supports Vulkan 1.4, while the GTX 780 Ti is limited to Vulkan 1.2.175.

Q: Is the GTX 780 Ti still competitive against the RX 7700 XT?

A: No. The GTX 780 Ti wins zero benchmarks against the RX 7700 XT. Its average benchmark score of 24,236 places it near the GTX 1630 and RTX 2080 SUPER, while the RX 7700 XT’s score of 22,549 reflects a much broader and more demanding test suite, with a 67th percentile ranking that indicates strong modern performance.