RX 6700 XT Vs RTX 3070 | Which is the Best?

Nvidia’s RTX 3070 and AMD’s RX 6700 XT are two competing graphics cards in the “high-end” GPU category. Both these cards have a similar performance and even the launch prices are very close in the $500 range. For someone who’s looking at a decent graphics card that offers excellent gaming or rendering performance and doesn’t put a hole in their pockets, the RX 6700 XT and the RTX 3070 are a couple of best choices. But how do these two GPUs compare with each other? Which among the 6700 XT vs 3070 is the best graphics card?

In this guide, let us compare the two most popular graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD. We will take a brief look at the specifications of the RTX 3070 and the RX 6700 XT GPUs. After that, we will compare 6700 XT vs 3070 in terms of features, gaming performance, and other important factors.

A Brief Note on RTX 3070

Let us begin the comparison starting with a brief overview of the RTX 3070. Nvidia launched the RTX 3000 Series of GPUs as a successor to the RTX 2000 Series with a new architecture, code-named Ampere.

While the RTX 2000 Series GPUs started the Ray Tracing trend, Nvidia improved the hardware Ray Tracing core in the RTX 3000 Series.

Coming to the GPU in the discussion, the RTX 3070 is an upper mid-range or high-end graphics card in the RTX 3000 Series. In terms of performance, the RTX 3070 has a similar or slightly better performance when compared to the previous generation’s flagship, the RTX 2080 Ti.

While the performance of the RTX 3070 isn’t a surprise due to the architectural improvements, it does this at a price that is less than half of the RTX 2080 Ti. Impressive. Speaking of price, the RTX 3070 has a launch MSPR of $499.

Nvidia has some run-ins with Samsung Foundry for their GTX 1000 Series GPUs but this time, they went full onboard with Samsung, essentially producing all the RTX 3000 Series GPUs on Samsung’s 8nm process node.

Let us speak some numbers now. The base clock of the RTX 3070 is 1.5 GHz while it can boost up to 1.73 GHz. The RTX 3070 has 5,888 CUDA Cores. But sadly, the memory is limited only to 8GB GDDR6.

It has all the bells and whistles such as Ray Tracing, Tensor Cores, NVENC, DLSS, etc. The RTX 3070 can draw up to 220 Watts of power. As a result, the system power supply must be at least 650 Watts.

A Brief Note on RX 6700 XT

AMD was a little late to the party, but it made an entrance with the Radeon RX 6000 of GPUs. Nvidia already created the buzz around Ray Tracing. So, AMD, with its RX 6000 Series GPUs, included hardware for this with its own naming (Ray Accelerators).

The Radeon RX 6000 Series of GPUs use the RDNA 2 Architecture, which is the successor to the previous RDNA Architecture (which is the basis for the RX 5000 Series GPUs).

Coming to the RX 6700 XT, AMD pitted this as a direct competitor to the RTX 3070, and hence has a launch MSRP of $479. This is slightly less than the RTX 3070 but when we compare the performance numbers of 6700 XT vs 3070, we will not see much of a difference.

AMD went to its preferred foundry partner, TSMC to manufacture the RX 6700 XT (and the other RX 6000 Series GPUs) using its 7 nm process node.

The RX 6700 XT has 2560 GPU Cores, 40 Ray Accelerators, and 40 Compute Units. If we take a look at the clock frequencies, the RX 6700 XT has a base frequency of 2321 MHz and a boost frequency of 2581 MHz.

One advantage of the RX 6700 XT over the RTX 3070 is the memory, which is 12GB GDDR6 in the case of the RX 6700 XT vs only 8GB in the RTX 3070. The TDP (or as AMD like to call the Typical Board Power – TBP) of the RX 6700 XT is 230 Watts while they recommend 650 Watts power supply for the system.

Specifications of RX 6700 XT vs RTX 3070

Let us now see a side-by-side comparison of the specifications of RX 6700 XT vs RTX 3070.

Comparison of 6700 XT vs 3070

1. Performance

a. 1080p Ultra

b. 1440p Ultra

c. 4K Ultra

From the above comparison, it is clear that both the RX 6700 XT and the RTX 3070 show very similar performance, in all three game settings.

But in 1080p and 1440p, which we feel are the more popular game settings, the RX 6700 XT has a slight edge over the RTX 3070.

2. Power and Thermals

On paper, both the RX 6700 XT and the RTX 3070 have similar TDP ratings of 230 Watts and 220 Watts respectively. During our testing, both the graphics hovered around the 72 – 75 °C mark.

3. Features

Both the RTX 3070 and the RX 6700 XT are loaded with useful features. Nvidia started the whole Ray Tracing trend with the RTX 2000 Series of GPUs. But with the RTX 3000 Series, they improved it a lot.

AMD also entered the Ray Tracing market with their RX 6000 Series of GPUs. As this is their first attempt, the results were slightly underwhelming when we compare them to Nvidia’s implementation.

Another important feature of Nvidia GPUs is DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling. They have dedicated hardware in the form of Tensor Cores that can upscale low-resolution images.

AMD also has similar technology, its FSR or FidelityFX Super Resolution. As this is a new feature, the support from game developers hasn’t fully blossomed.

4. Price

The last important thing you need to consider is the cost. Both the RX 6700 XT and the RTX 3070 have a similar launch MSRP, albeit the RX 6700 XT is $20 cheaper.

Which is the Best? 6700 XT vs 3070

So, the important question is, which one to buy among the RX 6700 XT vs 3070? As both these GPUs have very similar price and performance numbers, both of them are a very good choice.

If you are getting these cards close to their MSRP, then we recommend purchasing any of these cards. But if Ray Tracing and Video Encoding are a priority, then the RTX 3070 has a slight edge due to superior Ray Tracing technology and better NVENC hardware.

Conclusion

Nvidia’s RTX 3070 and AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT are two powerful high-end GPUs. Both these graphics cards fall under the $500 price bracket with very similar performance.

In this guide, we saw some basic specifications of both these graphics cards. After that, we compare the RX 6700 XT vs 3070 for their performance, features, price, and power.