AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile Comparison

The benchmark data presents a clear hierarchy: the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the dominant performer in the vast majority of tests, decisively outperforming the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile. However, the NVIDIA part secures a critical and massive victory in one key API, making the choice highly dependent on the specific workloads and software environments a user prioritizes.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most striking result in the comparison is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile's performance in the Geekbench Vulkan test. Here, the NVIDIA part scores 89,569, a staggering 92.9% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT's score of 46,443. This is a monumental lead and represents the single largest delta between the two cards in any test. It suggests that in Vulkan-based applications, the NVIDIA architecture holds an extraordinary advantage, flipping the overall performance narrative on its head. This is the one benchmark where NVIDIA wins, and it wins by a landslide.

Every other head-to-head benchmark result favors the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT. The most significant of these wins is in the Passmark GPU Compute test, where the AMD card scores 12,912 compared to the NVIDIA's 6,816. This represents a 47.2% advantage for AMD, indicating a substantial lead in general-purpose compute workloads. This is followed closely by the Passmark G2D test, where AMD's score of 1,161 is 37.1% higher than NVIDIA's 730, suggesting faster 2D graphics and desktop composition performance.

In the primary 3D gaming benchmarks, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT maintains a strong, consistent lead. In the Passmark G3D test, the AMD card scores 22,547, which is 22.5% higher than the NVIDIA's 17,469. This is a significant margin that would translate to a clear performance advantage in many DirectX-based games. The pattern continues across older DirectX versions. In Passmark DirectX 11, AMD's score of 232 is 32.3% higher than NVIDIA's 157. In DirectX 9, AMD's 294 is 26.5% higher than NVIDIA's 216. Even in the newer DirectX 12 API, AMD maintains a lead, scoring 79 against NVIDIA's 73, a 7.6% difference. The final AMD victory comes in Passmark DirectX 10, where it scores 119 versus NVIDIA's 107, a 10.1% lead. In total, AMD wins 8 out of the 9 head-to-head benchmarks.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile has a higher average benchmark score of 22,729, while the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT has an average score of 22,549. The difference is marginal, with the AMD card trailing by only 0.8%.

Q: How do these two cards compare to a common rival like the RTX 2080?

A: The data shows both are in the same performance tier as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080. The RTX 4060 Mobile has an average score of 22,729, which is 0.7% lower than the RTX 2080's 22,895. The RX 7700 XT's average score of 22,549 is 1.5% lower than the RTX 2080's.

Q: Is the RX 7700 XT always faster than the RTX 4060 Mobile?

A: No. While the AMD card wins 8 of 9 head-to-head tests, the NVIDIA card wins the Geekbench Vulkan test by a massive 92.9%. This indicates that in Vulkan-specific applications, the RTX 4060 Mobile is significantly faster.

Q: What is the most significant performance gap between the two cards?

A: The largest gap is in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where the RTX 4060 Mobile leads by 92.9%. The second largest gap is in the Passmark GPU Compute test, where the RX 7700 XT leads by 47.2%.

Q: Which card performs better in legacy DirectX 9 and 10 applications?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the stronger performer in legacy APIs. It scores 294 in Passmark DirectX 9, a 26.5% lead over the RTX 4060 Mobile's 216, and scores 119 in DirectX 10, a 10.1% lead over NVIDIA's 107.

Q: How do the cards compare in raw compute performance?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT has a substantial lead in compute workloads. Its Passmark GPU Compute score of 12,912 is 47.2% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile's score of 6,816.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the clear winner for users prioritizing raw rasterization performance and general compute tasks. Its victories span the entire Passmark suite, from legacy DirectX 9 to modern DirectX 12, and it holds a massive lead in GPU compute. This makes it the superior choice for gaming across a broad range of DirectX titles and for any workload that leverages OpenCL or general-purpose compute, as evidenced by its 35.4% lead in Geekbench OpenCL. The data shows a consistent, multi-generational API advantage for AMD.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile's single, but colossal, victory in the Geekbench Vulkan test is its primary area of dominance. A 92.9% performance lead is not a minor margin; it is a categorical difference. This makes the NVIDIA card the definitive choice for any application, game, or professional tool that is built on the Vulkan API. For users whose software stack is heavily Vulkan-centric, the RTX 4060 Mobile would provide dramatically better performance despite losing in all other comparisons.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ significantly in their core specifications, reflecting their different market positions. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is a larger, more power-hungry discrete card, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile is designed for integrated use in laptops. The most obvious difference is in memory: the RX 7700 XT offers 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s. In contrast, the RTX 4060 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, resulting in a much lower bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s.

The compute configurations also differ substantially. The RX 7700 XT features 3,456 shading units, 216 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The RTX 4060 Mobile is configured with 3,072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. This is reflected in the fill rates, with the AMD card achieving a pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s, far exceeding the NVIDIA card's 90.72 GPixel/s and 181.4 GTexel/s. The power and physical profiles are also contrasting, with the AMD card rated at a 245 W TDP and requiring a dual-slot cooler with two 8-pin power connectors, while the NVIDIA card is rated at 115 W and is integrated into the system (IGP) with no power connectors. The AMD card also uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface compared to the NVIDIA's PCIe 4.0 x8.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is fundamental. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using the AD107 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It integrates 24 dedicated ray tracing cores and 96 tensor cores, features that are central to NVIDIA's feature set. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, in contrast, is based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture and uses the Navi 32 chip, also manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has 54 ray tracing cores and does not list tensor cores in its specifications. The physical scale of the chips is very different; the AMD chip contains 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die, while the NVIDIA chip has 18,900 million transistors on a much smaller 159 mm² die.

These architectural differences also lead to different clock speeds and the presence of certain features. The AMD card has a much higher boost clock of 2544 MHz compared to NVIDIA's 1890 MHz, which contributes to its higher FP32 performance of 35.17 TFLOPS versus the RTX 4060 Mobile's 11.61 TFLOPS. The AMD card also has a notable "game" clock of 2171 MHz, a metric not listed for the NVIDIA card. The bus interface differs, with the AMD card using a full x16 link and the NVIDIA card using x8. Finally, the AMD card's display outputs are specified as 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C, while the NVIDIA card's outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," reflecting its mobile nature.

The Verdict

The verdict from the data is clear and split. For the majority of users and workloads, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the better performing GPU. Its dominance in 8 of 9 benchmarks, including all DirectX tests and compute workloads, establishes it as the superior choice for general gaming and productivity. The 22.5% lead in the Passmark G3D test and the 47.2% lead in GPU compute are significant, everyday advantages. Users playing a typical library of DirectX-based games or using OpenCL-accelerated applications should choose the RX 7700 XT based on this performance data.

However, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile has a specific, non-negotiable area of superiority. The 92.9% lead in the Geekbench Vulkan benchmark is not a subtle edge; it is a dominant performance in a specific and important API. For a user whose primary applications, games, or professional tools are built on Vulkan, the RTX 4060 Mobile is the only rational choice from this data. The performance gap is so large that it overrides all other considerations. In summary, the AMD card is the versatile performance leader, while the NVIDIA card is the specialist with a decisive advantage in a single, crucial area.