AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT represent two vastly different eras of graphics hardware, and the benchmark data confirms they are not direct competitors. The GTX 770, a Kepler-era card from 2013, and the RX 7900 XT, an RDNA 3.0 flagship from 2022, trade blows in the limited shared benchmark suite, with each winning one test decisively. However, the nature of those wins reveals a clear generational divide: the older card leads in one compute workload while the newer card dominates in a modern graphics API test by an overwhelming margin.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two cards share only two benchmark results in the data: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. In the OpenCL test, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 posts a score of 15707, which is 23.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT's 12756. This is a surprising result given the architectural gulf between them, but it is important to note that OpenCL performance on RDNA 3.0 cards is often not the primary optimization target, and the GTX 770's Kepler architecture was well-served by compute drivers of its era. The data shows this is the GTX 770's sole victory, and it is a narrow one in a legacy API context.

The Vulkan test tells a completely different story. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT scores 71068, which is 73% higher than the GTX 770's 19166. This is a catastrophic margin in favor of the newer card. A 73% delta is not a close race; it is a complete annihilation. The RX 7900 XT's Vulkan performance is built on modern asynchronous compute and a much larger shader array, while the GTX 770's Vulkan support is a compatibility afterthought on a decade-old architecture. In any modern game or workload that uses Vulkan, the RX 7900 XT is not just faster—it is in a different performance class entirely.

The overall wins are split 1-1, but this is misleading. The OpenCL win for the GTX 770 is an outlier, likely due to driver maturity for that specific workload on Kepler. The Vulkan win for the RX 7900 XT is the relevant metric for any current use case. The data indicates that if a user is choosing between these two for modern gaming or compute, the RX 7900 XT's Vulkan advantage is the deciding factor, while the GTX 770's OpenCL edge is a historical curiosity with no practical relevance today. The average benchmark scores also reflect this split: the GTX 770 averages 14747 across all its tests, while the RX 7900 XT averages 13745, but this is skewed by the RX 7900 XT's inclusion of low-scoring Passmark legacy tests (e.g., Passmark DirectX 9 score of 322) alongside its massive Vulkan result.

The Verdict

The verdict is unambiguous for any modern workload: the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the superior card. Its 73% lead in Vulkan is the single most important data point, as Vulkan is the foundation of current game engines and high-performance compute APIs. The GTX 770's OpenCL win is real but irrelevant for a user buying a GPU in the current market, as OpenCL has been largely superseded by Vulkan and DirectX 12 for gaming, and the RX 7900 XT's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) is generations ahead of the GTX 770's DirectX 12 (11_0) feature level.

For a user with a legacy application that relies solely on OpenCL, the GTX 770's 23.1% advantage over the RX 7900 XT might matter, but that is a narrow edge case. The RX 7900 XT also offers 20 GB of GDDR6 memory versus the GTX 770's 2 GB of GDDR5, which means the newer card can handle modern textures and datasets that would instantly exhaust the GTX 770's frame buffer. The data shows the RX 7900 XT has a higher average benchmark score in modern tests (Passmark G3D 29009 vs. the GTX 770's Geekbench scores), and its percentile ranking of 55 vs. the GTX 770's 57 is statistically negligible, but the raw performance in the shared Vulkan test is decisive. The GTX 770 is an end-of-life product from 2013, while the RX 7900 XT, despite also being end-of-life, is a far more capable piece of hardware. Choose the RX 7900 XT for anything that requires current graphics features or high-resolution textures.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf between the two cards is vast, and the data quantifies it clearly. The GTX 770 is built on NVIDIA's Kepler architecture, using the GK104 chip manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It packs 3,540 million transistors into a 294 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 12.0M per mm². In contrast, the RX 7900 XT uses AMD's RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 31 chip, built on a 5 nm process at the same foundry, TSMC. It contains 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 109.1M per mm². That is a 9x improvement in density, which explains how the RX 7900 XT fits nearly 3.5x the shading units (5376 vs. 1536) and 6x the ROPs (192 vs. 32) onto the card.

The memory subsystems are equally divergent. The GTX 770 uses 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 224.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 7900 XT uses 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus, delivering 800.0 GB/s. The RX 7900 XT also features 84 dedicated ray tracing cores and a 2:1 FP16 ratio (103.0 TFLOPS) versus the GTX 770's pure FP32 design (3.333 TFLOPS). The RX 7900 XT's FP32 throughput of 51.48 TFLOPS is over 15x higher than the GTX 770's 3.333 TFLOPS. The GTX 770 supports DirectX 12 (11_0), while the RX 7900 XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes hardware ray tracing and mesh shaders. The RX 7900 XT also has a much newer Vulkan API version (1.4 vs. 1.2.175) and uses PCIe 4.0 x16 versus the GTX 770's PCIe 3.0 x16.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 has a higher average benchmark score of 14747, compared to the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT's 13745. However, this average is skewed by the RX 7900 XT's inclusion of low-scoring legacy Passmark tests (e.g., DirectX 9 score of 322) and its strong Vulkan score of 71068.

Q: How much faster is the RX 7900 XT in Vulkan?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT scores 71068 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is 73% higher than the GTX 770's 19166. This is the largest performance delta between the two cards in any shared benchmark.

Q: Does the GTX 770 win any benchmark?

A: Yes, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 15707, beating the RX 7900 XT's 12756 by 23.1%. This is the only benchmark where the GTX 770 comes out ahead.

Q: What are the transistor counts of each card?

A: The GTX 770 has 3,540 million transistors on a 28 nm process, while the RX 7900 XT has 57,700 million transistors on a 5 nm process. The RX 7900 XT's die is 529 mm² versus the GTX 770's 294 mm².

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT has significantly more memory bandwidth at 800.0 GB/s, compared to the GTX 770's 224.4 GB/s. The RX 7900 XT also has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory versus the GTX 770's 2 GB of GDDR5.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of each card?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 had a launch MSRP of 399 USD, while the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT had a launch MSRP of 899 USD.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the clear winner in any modern graphics workload. Its 73% Vulkan lead makes it the only choice for current games, VR applications, or compute tasks that leverage Vulkan. The RX 7900 XT's 20 GB of memory and 800.0 GB/s bandwidth also mean it can handle 4K textures and large datasets without hitting a wall, something the GTX 770's 2 GB frame buffer cannot do. The RX 7900 XT's ray tracing cores (84 of them) and DirectX 12 Ultimate support give it access to features that the GTX 770 cannot even render, such as hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shaders. Its FP32 throughput of 51.48 TFLOPS is 15x the GTX 770's, making it vastly superior for any general-purpose GPU compute that uses modern APIs.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 wins in exactly one scenario: legacy OpenCL compute. Its 23.1% advantage in that test suggests that for older scientific or professional applications that are locked to OpenCL and were optimized for Kepler-era hardware, the GTX 770 might still hold up. However, this is a narrow and shrinking niche. The GTX 770's lower power draw (230 W vs. 300 W TDP) and smaller physical footprint (267 mm length vs. 276 mm) are practical advantages for older systems with limited power supplies (550 W suggested vs. 700 W) and smaller cases. The GTX 770's 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin connectors are also less demanding than the RX 7900 XT's 2x 8-pin requirement. For a retro build or a dedicated OpenCL compute box, the GTX 770 has a place, but for anything else, the RX 7900 XT is the definitive winner.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification, reflecting their generational gap. The GTX 770 uses a 28 nm process, while the RX 7900 XT uses a 5 nm process. The GTX 770's base clock is 1046 MHz with a boost of 1085 MHz, while the RX 7900 XT's base is 1387 MHz, boost is 2394 MHz, and game clock is 2025 MHz. Memory clocks differ significantly: the GTX 770 runs at 1753 MHz (7 Gbps effective), while the RX 7900 XT runs at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective). The GTX 770 has 1536 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs; the RX 7900 XT has 5376 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. Pixel rate is 34.72 GPixel/s for the GTX 770 versus 459.6 GPixel/s for the RX 7900 XT, and texture rate is 138.9 GTexel/s versus 804.4 GTexel/s. The RX 7900 XT has 84 ray tracing cores; the GTX 770 has none. TDP is 230 W for the GTX 770 and 300 W for the RX 7900 XT, with the GTX 770 requiring a 550 W PSU and the RX 7900 XT a 700 W PSU. The GTX 770 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the RX 7900 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs differ: the GTX 770 has 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 1x DisplayPort 1.2, while the RX 7900 XT has 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C. The RX 7900 XT is also slightly longer (276 mm vs. 267 mm) and wider (51 mm vs. 38 mm), but similar in height (110 mm vs. 111 mm).