In the two years since AMD debuted its RDNA 3 architecture, the cost of its current generation graphics cards have steadily fallen with several emerging as proper value champions. Radeon RX 7700 XT is one these select few, emerging from under the shadow of its formerly closely-priced sibling and shining as brightly as it should’ve upon release. Now, there’s never been a better time to buy one of the best models in the form of Sapphire’s Nitro+.
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7700 XT
“Enough horsepower under the hood to drive the latest games at an agreeable QHD resolution, naturally with all bells and whistles turned on.” Read our review.
Over on Amazon UK, a Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7700 XT is just £367.84. Despite lacking any indication of promotional pricing, this is the most affordable the graphics card has ever been. Compared to just a few weeks ago, you’re saving £55.99, which could foot the bill for a fancy RGB Lian Li Strimmer V2 GPU cable.
This is the same cooler as seen in our Radeon RX 7800 XT review. Not only is it a gorgeous example of a graphics card, it packs plenty of cooling chops to boot. With peak operating temperatures of 63°C and whisper-quiet operation on a more powerful GPU, it’ll perform just as well if not better on Radeon RX 7700 XT. I should note that I also never tire of the tasteful RGB strip either, frequently catching my eye between benchmark runs in the Club386 test systems.
Not to put the cart before the horse for too long, let’s talk about the GPU at the heart of Sapphire’s Nitro+ cooler. Radeon RX 7700 XT uses a cutdown version of the Navi 32 die found in Radeon RX 7800 XT, packing 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM. These specifications give it a suitable amount for comfortably gaming at 1080p, reaching to 1440p in some scenarios.
While Radeon RX 7700 XT is on the weaker side in terms of ray tracing performance it’s a dab hand at rasterized rendering. This makes it ideal for esports titles, but you can enhance its frame rates further through features like FSR 3 Super Resolution and Frame Generation.
When I first reviewed Radeon RX 7700 XT, I described it as “the cheapest current generation graphics card that I can generally recommend.” This sentiment is all the more true now as it was over a year ago now, with its price now far below its original MSRP.