AMD Radeon RX 7700S vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Comparison

# NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 vs AMD Radeon RX 7700S

The database places the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 and AMD Radeon RX 7700S in adjacent performance percentiles, with the RTX 5070 at the 82nd percentile of all GPUs and the RX 7700S at the 78th. Their average benchmark scores, 40,377 and 33,849 respectively, suggest a meaningful gap that favors the desktop NVIDIA card, but the two are not direct competitors in form factor or intended use. The RTX 5070 is a dual-slot PCIe 5.0 desktop board with a 250 W TDP, while the RX 7700S is an integrated mobile part with a 100 W TDP and no discrete power connectors. The benchmark results show the RTX 5070 winning all three recorded head-to-head tests by substantial margins, yet the RX 7700S still holds its own in the lower percentile bracket, sitting within 0.7% of the NVIDIA RTX A5000 in average score.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5070 wins every recorded benchmark comparison, but the nature of those wins reveals distinct strengths. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the RTX 5070 scores 5,077 versus 2,185 for the RX 7700S, a 132.4% advantage. This is a modern DirectX 12 workload that stresses ray tracing and asynchronous compute, areas where the Blackwell architecture's dedicated RT cores and Tensor cores give it a clear edge. The RX 7700S, with its RDNA 3.0 design, still supports DirectX 12 Ultimate but lacks the same level of RT throughput per watt.

The Geekbench OpenCL score shows a 174.1% delta, with the RTX 5070 at 172,660 and the RX 7700S at 62,983. OpenCL is a compute-oriented workload that scales with raw shader count and memory bandwidth; the RTX 5070's 6,144 shading units and 672.0 GB/s bandwidth dominate the RX 7700S's 2,048 shading units and 288.0 GB/s. The Vulkan score is the most lopsided, a 391.8% gap (178,923 versus 36,380), indicating that the RTX 5070's driver and architecture handle Vulkan's explicit multi-threading and draw call overhead far more efficiently.

The RX 7700S's wins are not in the recorded benchmarks but in efficiency and portability. Its 100 W TDP is less than half of the RTX 5070's 250 W, and its integrated form factor (IGP slot width, no power connectors) means it can fit in thin-and-light laptops where the RTX 5070's dual-slot 245 mm length and 16-pin connector are impossible. The RX 7700S also uses PCIe 4.0 x16, which is more common in current mobile platforms, while the RTX 5070 requires PCIe 5.0 x16 for full bandwidth. For users prioritizing battery life and slim chassis, the RX 7700S wins on deployment flexibility, not raw performance.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different foundries and process nodes. The RTX 5070 uses TSMC's 5 nm process, packing 31,100 million transistors into a 263 mm² die, yielding a density of 118.3 million transistors per square millimeter. The RX 7700S uses TSMC's 6 nm node, with 13,300 million transistors on a 204 mm² die, a density of 65.2M / mm². This gives the NVIDIA chip more than twice the transistor count on a die that is only 29% larger, a direct result of the denser process and the larger compute array.

The RTX 5070 is built on Blackwell 2.0, NVIDIA's latest architecture, with a GB205 chip. It includes 48 RT cores and 192 Tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based features like DLSS. The RX 7700S uses RDNA 3.0 on the Navi 33 chip, with 32 RT cores and no Tensor cores. AMD relies on its own ray accelerators and shader-based compute for AI workloads, which is a fundamental difference in how the two handle advanced graphics features.

Memory subsystems diverge sharply. The RTX 5070 uses 12 GB of GDDR7 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 7700S has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s. This is a 2.33x bandwidth advantage for the NVIDIA card, which matters in 4K textures and compute tasks. The RTX 5070's clock profile is also different: base 2325 MHz, boost 2512 MHz, versus the RX 7700S's base 1500 MHz, boost 2500 MHz, and a game clock of 2200 MHz. The RX 7700S's lower base clock suggests it is tuned for power efficiency, while the RTX 5070 runs closer to its peak frequency even at idle.

Compute throughput follows the architecture. The RTX 5070 delivers 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 and the same 30.87 TFLOPS of FP16 (1:1 ratio). The RX 7700S offers 20.48 TFLOPS FP32 but 40.96 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio), meaning AMD's card can double its compute rate in half-precision workloads. This is a notable advantage for the RX 7700S in AI inference or scientific workloads that use FP16, though the RTX 5070's Tensor cores are designed to accelerate such tasks more efficiently.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test is the most balanced comparison of real-world gaming performance. The RTX 5070 scores 5,077, which is 132.4% higher than the RX 7700S's 2,185. This test uses ray-traced shadows and reflections, and the RTX 5070's dedicated RT cores process these effects in hardware while the RX 7700S uses a combination of RT accelerators and shader fallbacks. The delta is larger than the raw TFLOPS difference (30.87 versus 20.48, a 50.7% gap), indicating that the architecture's RT efficiency, not just raw compute, drives the result.

Geekbench OpenCL shows a 174.1% delta. The RTX 5070's 172,660 score reflects its 6,144 shaders and 192 TMUs, which scale well in this compute-heavy benchmark. The RX 7700S's 62,983 score is consistent with its 2,048 shaders and 128 TMUs. The bandwidth difference also matters here; OpenCL often involves large data transfers, and the RTX 5070's 672.0 GB/s versus 288.0 GB/s gives it a 2.33x memory throughput advantage that shows up in memory-bound kernels.

The Vulkan benchmark is the most dramatic, with a 391.8% delta. The RTX 5070 scores 178,923 while the RX 7700S manages 36,380. Vulkan's lower overhead and explicit control favor architectures with faster command processing and larger caches. The RTX 5070's 48 RT cores and 192 Tensor cores also accelerate certain Vulkan extensions, such as ray tracing queries, which the RX 7700S handles with fewer RT cores and no Tensor cores. This test likely includes mixed compute and graphics workloads, where the NVIDIA card's higher shader count and bandwidth produce a multiplicative advantage rather than an additive one.

Across all three tests, the RTX 5070's smallest win is 132.4% and its largest is 391.8%. The consistent pattern suggests that the gap is not workload-specific but reflects a fundamental performance tier difference. The RX 7700S, despite being a mobile part, does not compete with the desktop RTX 5070 in any recorded metric, though its 100 W TDP means it can sustain these scores in a laptop chassis without external power.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 scores 5,077 versus 2,185 for the AMD Radeon RX 7700S, a 132.4% advantage.

Q: How large is the Vulkan performance gap?

A: The RTX 5070 scores 178,923 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the RX 7700S scores 36,380, a 391.8% difference in favor of the NVIDIA card.

Q: Does the AMD card have any compute advantage?

A: The RX 7700S offers 40.96 TFLOPS of FP16 throughput (2:1 ratio) versus 30.87 TFLOPS for the RTX 5070 (1:1 ratio), so in raw half-precision compute, the AMD part is higher, though its FP32 is lower at 20.48 TFLOPS.

Q: What are the memory capacities and types?

A: The RTX 5070 has 12 GB of GDDR7 on a 192-bit bus with 672.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 7700S has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card is more power-efficient?

A: The RX 7700S has a 100 W TDP, which is less than half of the RTX 5070's 250 W TDP. The AMD card also uses no external power connectors, while the RTX 5070 requires a 16-pin connector.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The RTX 5070 has an average benchmark score of 40,377, placing it at the 82nd percentile of all GPUs. The RX 7700S averages 33,849, at the 78th percentile. The RTX 5070's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (0.1% delta), while the RX 7700S is within 0.3% of the AMD Radeon HD 7950.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every specification of interest, starting with the process node and die. The RTX 5070 uses a 5 nm TSMC process with a 263 mm² die and 31,100 million transistors. The RX 7700S uses a 6 nm TSMC process with a 204 mm² die and 13,300 million transistors. Transistor density is 118.3M / mm² for NVIDIA versus 65.2M / mm² for AMD.

Clock speeds: the RTX 5070 has a base clock of 2325 MHz and a boost of 2512 MHz. The RX 7700S has a base of 1500 MHz, a boost of 2500 MHz, and a game clock of 2200 MHz. The NVIDIA card has no game clock field, while the AMD card has no memory clock in the same format (its memory runs at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective, versus 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective for the RTX 5070).

Compute resources: the RTX 5070 has 6,144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, plus 48 RT cores and 192 Tensor cores. The RX 7700S has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 32 RT cores, with no Tensor cores. Pixel rate is 201.0 GPixel/s for the RTX 5070 versus 160.0 GPixel/s for the RX 7700S. Texture rate is 482.3 GTexel/s versus 320.0 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 30.87 TFLOPS versus 20.48 TFLOPS.

Power and physical: the RTX 5070 has a 250 W TDP, dual-slot width, 1x 16-pin power connector, and a 600 W suggested PSU. The RX 7700S has a 100 W TDP, IGP slot width, no power connectors, and no suggested PSU. The RTX 5070 measures 245 mm in length, 115 mm in height, and 40 mm in width; the RX 7700S has no recorded dimensions.

Interface and outputs: the RTX 5070 uses PCIe 5.0 x16 and offers 1x HDMI 2.1b plus 3x DisplayPort 2.1b. The RX 7700S uses PCIe 4.0 x16 with portable device dependent display outputs. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 5070 released on 2025-03-03, the RX 7700S on 2023-01-03. The NVIDIA card has a launch MSRP of 549 USD; the AMD card has no recorded launch MSRP.