Question RX 6800 vs 7700xt vs 7800xt which is the best bang for my buck?

[CoffeeStoreGuy]

The 7800xt is not just $50 more people keep telling me this and it's not. The very cheapest listing is a sapphire pulse card which is $469.99 and with shipping and taxes it would be around $499. The7700xt and rx 6800 the cheapest listings are XFX cards 7700xt $389.99 the RX 6800 $399.99 both with free shipping making it costs around $413 to $420. At the very least it's like $80 more.

The 7800xt is a better long term investment, but in most benchmarks I've been watching the performance increase at 1440p from 7700xt and RX 6800 is like 10 - 20 frames and the only game I saw go higher than that was warzone. The RX 6800 seems like the best deal out of the bunch, but I'm afraid that because it's an older card the performance will degrade over time compared to the 7700xt which seemed to have slightly better performance at 1440p in some UE5 games although the difference between 3 and 5 frames is hardly noticeable.

For the RX 6800 I would have to remove my hard drive cage out of my case and buy stackable cages for my 2 hard drives, and I'd have to buy a new power supply that would be able to handle the power spikes of the RX 6800. I'm pretty sure I'd still have to do that for the 7800xt and maybe the 7700xt, but the 7700xt I'm not really too sure on that though. I think my current bronze rated 650w PSU might be able to handle the 7700xt.

I'm also not too sure what VR performance is for these cards. All the benchmarks I found for the 7000 series of cards were performed over a year ago, and all they talked about how they were hitching and that it might be a driver issue, and there haven't been any benchmarks since then. I can't find benchmarks for 6000 series cards. I also can't really take advantage of AV1 because I have a quest 2 and I don't plan on upgrading for a while unless some big advancements happen and more games come out.

What card should I get?

Here is my current build I'm upgrading from: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/sCs89C

Here is the 6800xt build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FP989C

Here is the 7700xt build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BWPRv4

Here is the 7800xt build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/zBwygn

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Although I didn’t do this, depending what your timeline is and the fact you want the upgrade to last a while, you may consider waiting. The rumor is that AMD will announce a new lineup of cards at CES 2025, which I think is January 7-10.

Personally I don’t wait because I have an RX 6800xt that I’m actually upgrading to a 7900xtx that I got a good deal on.

Of the cards you listed, if you can afford it, I’d go for the 7800xt for the fact it’s newer than the rx 6800 and faster than both the other cards. I have the rx 6800 xt which is about the same performance as the rx 7800 xt and it’s a fine 1440p card. Since you plan on keeping the card longer term you don’t want to start any lower than needed if you have the money imo.

In my case, I didn’t wait, but I’ll also be selling my 6800xt which cuts a good amount from the cost of the newer card.

 

[CoffeeStoreGuy]

Although I didn’t do this, depending what your timeline is and the fact you want the upgrade to last a while, you may consider waiting. The rumor is that AMD will announce a new lineup of cards at CES 2025, which I think is January 7-10.

Personally I don’t wait because I have an RX 6800xt that I’m actually upgrading to a 7900xtx that I got a good deal on.

Of the cards you listed, if you can afford it, I’d go for the 7800xt for the fact it’s newer than the rx 6800 and faster than both the other cards. I have the rx 6800 xt which is about the same performance as the rx 7800 xt and it’s a fine 1440p card. Since you plan on keeping the card longer term you don’t want to start any lower than needed if you have the money imo.

In my case, I didn’t wait, but I’ll also be selling my 6800xt which cuts a good amount from the cost of the newer card.

I would go with the 7800xt if I could afford PSU upgrade to go along with it. I've had so many conflicting points of view telling me "If you get a 7800xt your PSU can't handle the power draw" which it can definitely handle the wattage, but they probably meant the quality of power supply I currently own is absolutely atrocious.

This is the current one I'm running: https://www.newegg.com/p/1HU-00J7-00D15

I've also had a lot of people tell me that my PSU could handle the power draw, but that they'd recommend a PSU upgrade a few months down the road. I'd honestly just say screw it and throw it in there if I wasn't afraid it my fry all of my parts. With the $400 cards I can safely get the card and the PSU, but I'm still on the fence on whether I'd risk frying all of my parts just the performance, because I've had so many people tell me that it was fine and to just "undervolt" it.

IF I can't buy the 7800xt I'm probably going to go with the RX 6800.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

If it helps the budget and you don’t mind refurbished, you might give this a look.

https://www.newegg.com/powercolor-r...gb-gddr6/p/27N-000F-000V8?item=9SIADFRKCF6363

As I remember, the secret about the 7800xt actually had more in common with the rx 6800 than the 6800xt. I’d need to look it up again but I think the 6800 xt actually has more stream processors etc than the 7800xt

As you can see by the benchmarks they are fairly close in performance.

https://www.techradar.com/computing/gpu/7800-xt-vs-6800-xt

So you might consider the 6800xt which would open up your budget a little for a psu upgrade.

 

[CoffeeStoreGuy]

If it helps the budget and you don’t mind refurbished, you might give this a look.

https://www.newegg.com/powercolor-r...gb-gddr6/p/27N-000F-000V8?item=9SIADFRKCF6363

As I remember, the secret about the 7800xt actually had more in common with the rx 6800 than the 6800xt. I’d need to look it up again but I think the 6800 xt actually has more stream processors etc than the 7800xt

As you can see by the benchmarks they are fairly close in performance.

https://www.techradar.com/computing/gpu/7800-xt-vs-6800-xt

So you might consider the 6800xt which would open up your budget a little for a psu upgrade.

I don't typically buy used cards, but if this was sold and shipped by newegg I would have. The seller though has a bunch of poor reviews. I'm not so sure about third party sellers. Thanks for trying though. Can't find a 6800xt for a reasonable price anywhere. :\

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I get it. In my area the local Microcenter store had one lonely 6800xt left. I’ve bought through eBay before with used gpus and never got burned but that said, the last couple of cards I’ve gotten new. Especially the 7900 xtx. A lot of money to chance on a used card.