Conclusion
In today’s review, we took a look at the new XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition video card, with an MSRP of $469.99. The XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition carries a price premium but comes equipped with a factory overclock, and custom cooling that makes a big difference.
We put this video card up against the current generation NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB Founders Edition and last generation AMD cards using an AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT and SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 6750 XT. The games we chose were run with and without Ray Tracing enabled at their highest settings at 1440p. All the while keeping in mind the question of whether this is a reasonable improvement in performance at this price point compared to the previous generation.
Performance
Looking at performance without Ray Tracing, it is a fair statement to say the XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition is a good bit faster than not only the prior generation but also the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB. In all but one game it is THE fastest card of the day. That and the FPS are considerable with very smooth gameplay. The end results show an average margin of 30% over the RX 6700 XT, 21% over the RX 67650 XT, and 16% over the RTX 4060 Ti. The widest was 55% and the least loss of 5%.
When Upscaling is enabled very similar results are seen. The margin over the RX 6700 XT is 26%, the RX 6750 XT 24%, and the RTX 4060 Ti again 16%. It would be remiss to not mention that upscaling allowed all the cards to be very playable in all these games in plain raster at quite a high rate of FPS.
With Ray Tracing enabled the performance does certainly change, but there were a few surprises. First, with upscaling included Returnal and Callisto Protocol were playable by all 4 cards. Chernobylite Enhanced was only playable on the RTX 4060Ti. Dying Light 2 saw playable results from the RTX 4060 Ti and the XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition. Cyberpunk 2077 was not having any of it. It looks promising for Ray Tracing performance more and more, but does seem somewhat game-dependent.
Second, the XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition performance bests the prior generation of video cards by 34% (RX 6700 XT) and 27% (RX 6750 XT). Last, the RTX 4060 Ti was only playable without upscaling in one game. While it did best with the XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition in 4 of 6 games with Ray Tracing, the margin was only 18%. In Forspoken and Callisto Protocol, the XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition came out on top by 16%.
Value
The big question in nearly all video card launches is does this new video card represent a real boost to my gaming in terms of performance and cost compared to the previous generation? Is it worth it to put down my hard-earned money? (you may ask) We tried to address these questions today.
Looking strictly at the MSRP, the brand new XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition will be listed at $469. The Radeon RX 6700 XT launched at an MSRP of $479 and the Radeon RX 6750 XT launched with an MSRP of $549. You are getting the brand new Radeon RX 7700 XT for less than you could buy the older cards at launch. In the case of the RX 6750 XT a LOT less. Is that a fair comparison? Yes, in apples to apples.
The wrench in the thinking is current street pricing has the Radeon RX 6700 XT and the RX 6750 XT at cheaper prices today. Simply put, these video cards were launched two and a half years ago, so prices have only dropped this low after this long. Eventually, the Radeon RX 7700 XT will fall in price as well, after two years on the market. The other simple fact is that the Radeon RX 6700 XT and Radeon RX 6750 XT supply will dry up, and the Radeon RX 7700 XT will be the new $449 video card replacing them, it will be the only option.
We saw in our testing, that the new XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition realizes a 25% uplift on average in raster and similar in Ray Tracing. In fact, many games are playable now in the highest Ray Tracing settings using FSR at those performance gains. So we think that the XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition is a good buy compared to the alternatives on the AMD side from the last generation.
Yeah, but…..and here is the 70-dollar question….is the XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition at $469 worth the price over the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB model at $399? In performance without Ray Tracing our XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition hands down was the faster video card, even with upscaling, except in one game. When you turn to Ray Tracing, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB is better, but not always, and not by a giant margin. The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti does have the advantage of DLSS, Ray Reconstruction, and Frame Generation.
What about the 16GB model of the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti you say? It started with a launch price of $499 but recently has had discounts taking it down to $449. Surely that is competitive? Well, the 16GB model of the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti still uses the same GPU, clock speeds, and memory bandwidth as the 8GB model. Therefore, both video cards perform the same, and thus the XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition will be just as fast against it as it was in this review today.
The other factor that needs to be asked, is if the discounts we are seeing are official permanent price drops, or if they will go back up over time. These are things only time will tell. When the XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition is compared against the 8GB GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, it’s faster, and has more VRAM 12GB compared to 8GB, and that justifies the price premium.
Final Points
We reviewed the XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition and compared it to the last generation cards of comparable value and the current NVIDIA competitor. The XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition has a price premium of $469 but has a factory overclock offering better performance than the standard Radeon RX 7700 XT. The XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition is well made, has a very competent cooler, runs quietly, and performs very well against the competition.
In comparison to MSRPs, it is cheaper than the older AMD cards, but slightly more expensive than the current GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB. The XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition offers a performance upgrade compared to the previous generation at the same price segment. The $449 price point is very competitive now, and the XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition offers stiff competition. If you are looking for an upgrade from the previous generation (at this same price point), or earlier generations the XFX Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7700 XT Black Edition will offer a nice upgrade and is worth the consideration. Don’t forget, Starfield bundle!