AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 has a higher average benchmark score of 14,747, compared to the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT's 13,543. This places the GTX 770 at the 57th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 9070 XT sits at the 55th percentile.

Q: How do the two cards compare in the Vulkan benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the clear winner in the Geekbench Vulkan test, scoring 65,879 against the GTX 770's 19,166. This represents a massive 70.9% performance advantage for the AMD card.

Q: What is the difference in video memory capacity?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT comes with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, whereas the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 has only 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. The RX 9070 XT also offers significantly higher memory bandwidth at 644.6 GB/s versus 224.4 GB/s.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT has a dramatically higher transistor density of 151.0M per mm², manufactured on a 4 nm process. In contrast, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 has a density of just 12.0M per mm² on a 28 nm process.

Q: Are these GPUs in the same performance tier according to the data?

A: No. Although their average scores are close, their nearest rivals differ significantly. The GTX 770's closest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (0.4% delta), while the RX 9070 XT's closest rival is the AMD Radeon HD 7770M (0.1% delta). The RX 9070 XT's average score is dragged down by low DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 Passmark scores.

Q: What are the power connector requirements for each card?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 requires a 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin connector, with a suggested 550 W power supply. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT requires 2x 8-pin connectors and a suggested 700 W power supply.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear, if counterintuitive, split. Based on the average benchmark score and percentile ranking, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 is the higher-ranked product, sitting at the 57th percentile versus the RX 9070 XT's 55th. However, this metric is heavily skewed by the RX 9070 XT's unusually low Passmark DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 scores, which are outliers compared to its other results.

For users prioritizing raw modern API performance, the verdict is unambiguous. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the definitive choice. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 65,879 is more than three times that of the GTX 770, and its OpenCL score of 17,428 is also higher. The RX 9070 XT is an active product with 16 GB of memory and modern feature support.

The GTX 770, being an end-of-life product from the GeForce 700 generation, should only be considered by those constrained to legacy environments where its specific DirectX 11_0 support and older driver ecosystem are required. The data does not support choosing it for any current workload that leverages Vulkan or OpenCL, where its performance is simply outclassed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data includes two benchmarks, and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT wins both decisively.

In the Geekbench Vulkan test, the RX 9070 XT scores 65,879, a staggering 70.9% higher than the GTX 770's 19,166. This is not a marginal victory; it is a generational leap in performance for modern graphics APIs. The GTX 770, with its Kepler architecture and DirectX 12 (11_0) support, cannot compete in this metric.

In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RX 9070 XT again takes the lead with a score of 17,428, outperforming the GTX 770's 15,707 by 9.9%. While a smaller gap than Vulkan, this still represents a clear win for the AMD card in general-purpose compute workloads. The GTX 770 wins zero benchmarks in this head-to-head comparison.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every core specification. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is built on a 4 nm process with 53,900 million transistors, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 uses a 28 nm process with 3,540 million transistors. The RX 9070 XT also has a larger die size at 357 mm² compared to the GTX 770's 294 mm².

Clock speeds are substantially different. The RX 9070 XT has a base clock of 1660 MHz and a boost clock of 2970 MHz, while the GTX 770 operates at 1046 MHz base and 1085 MHz boost. Memory specifications also diverge: the RX 9070 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 644.6 GB/s bandwidth, whereas the GTX 770 has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 224.4 GB/s bandwidth.

Compute resources are heavily in favor of the AMD card. It has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, 128 ROPs, and 64 RT cores, compared to the GTX 770's 1536 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RX 9070 XT also has a much higher FP32 throughput at 48.66 TFLOPS versus the GTX 770's 3.333 TFLOPS. The bus interface differs as well, with the RX 9070 XT using PCIe 5.0 x16 and the GTX 770 using PCIe 3.0 x16.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is immense. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 is based on the Kepler architecture with the GK104 chip, which is a design from the GeForce 700 generation. It supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. It lacks dedicated ray tracing cores. In contrast, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT uses the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip, belonging to the Radeon RX 9000 series. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 9070 XT includes 64 dedicated RT cores, a feature entirely absent from the GTX 770.

The manufacturing technology is a key differentiator. The GTX 770 is fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC with a transistor density of 12.0M per mm². The RX 9070 XT is fabricated on a 4 nm process at TSMC, achieving a density of 151.0M per mm². This 12.6x increase in density explains how the RX 9070 XT can pack 53,900 million transistors into a die only 63 mm² larger than the GTX 770's. The RX 9070 XT also supports FP16 compute at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, a feature not listed for the GTX 770.

Where Each One Wins

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT:

• Modern API Performance: The RX 9070 XT wins the Vulkan benchmark by a 70.9% margin, making it the clear choice for any application leveraging Vulkan. Its OpenCL score is also 9.9% higher.
• Compute Throughput: With 48.66 TFLOPS FP32 and FP16 (1:1) performance, the RX 9070 XT is positioned for compute-heavy tasks, though its Passmark GPU compute score of 15,864 is notable.
• Memory Capacity: 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is vastly superior to 2 GB, providing more headroom for modern textures and high-resolution assets.
• Ray Tracing: The inclusion of 64 RT cores gives the RX 9070 XT a capability the GTX 770 simply does not have.
• Connectivity: The PCIe 5.0 x16 interface offers newer bandwidth capabilities compared to the GTX 770's PCIe 3.0 x16.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770:

• Aggregate Benchmark Ranking: The GTX 770's higher average score of 14,747 and 57th percentile ranking versus the RX 9070 XT's 55th percentile is the only metric where it leads. This is due to the RX 9070 XT's low Passmark DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 scores.
• Legacy DirectX Workloads: The GTX 770's DirectX 12 (11_0) support and its relatively strong performance in its era makes it a potential option for older software environments, though the RX 9070 XT's Passmark DirectX 11 score of 292 and DirectX 9 score of 353 are puzzlingly low compared to its other results.
• Power Draw: The GTX 770 has a lower TDP of 230 W and a lower suggested PSU of 550 W, making it a lighter load on a power supply compared to the RX 9070 XT's 304 W TDP and 700 W suggested PSU.