PowerColor Radeon RX 7800 XT Hellhound

[W1zzard]

PowerColor's Radeon RX 7800 XT Hellhound is an amazing custom-design for AMD's new release. It sells at the $500 baseline price, yet has the best cooler of all cards tested today, with whisper-quiet fan settings, dual BIOS and RGB illumination.

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[Nostras]

If this card will truly retail for 500$ it will make all other higher (or similarly) priced cards look quite foolish.
Finally some good news.

 

[lukart]

Seriously, best cooling, noise and love the clean design! Well done PowerColor.

 

[Footman]

Just bought one at Newegg. $499 and a copy of Starfield premium.
I am looking forward to some quiet gaming without the need for a new waterblock...
BTW, I rely on your reviews to help me make a choice, as clearly I can't just try them all before I buy....
Thanks @W1zzard

 

[lukart]

Just bought one at Newegg. $499 and a copy of Starfield premium.
I am looking forward to some quiet gaming without the need for a new waterblock...
BTW, I rely on your reviews to help me make a choice, as clearly I can't just try them all before I buy....
Thanks @W1zzard

Not sure when the bundle expires, but there's no better deal right now. Well done.

 

[ecomorph]

@W1zzard 1 correction and 2 minor ones here:

and a last nitpicking punctuation

Thanks for the hard work!

 

[boomstik360]

The Red Devil is also the Flagship, not the Hellhound. Awesome review though. I just had to have the Red Devil!

 

[suraswami]

Dang! It almost matches 4070 Ti and older 3090.

Did AMD fix their crappy drivers on multi-monitor App amnesia issue? Or is it a Windows thing? For this particular issue I haven't updated my drivers in last 2 years.

 

[caleb]

Well this certianly messed things up for me. Im on 9600K, looking to change good old 1060 to something newer. Do these AMD cards still use up more CPU than nvidia?

 

[Assimilator]

Good on PowerColor for releasing a card that's significantly better than stock, yet remains at the stock price.

Well this certianly messed things up for me. Im on 9600K, looking to change good old 1060 to something newer. Do these AMD cards still use up more CPU than nvidia?

Your CPU is going to bottleneck any relatively recent GPU that you buy. AM4 systems are cheap and a second-hand one would give your 1060 a little bit of extra life.

 

[Nostras]

Well this certianly messed things up for me. Im on 9600K, looking to change good old 1060 to something newer. Do these AMD cards still use up more CPU than nvidia?

It's the opposite. AMD typically scales better in CPU constrained scenarios.
That said, a 9600K is certainly at the end of it's legs if you're considering this GPU tier.
I agree with Assimilator, but I'd go even further and just suggest you build a new PC.

 

[Scircura]

It's the opposite. AMD typically scales better in CPU constrained scenarios.
That said, a 9600K is certainly at the end of it's legs if you're considering this GPU tier.
I agree with Assimilator, but I'd go even further and just suggest you build a new PC.

I think both of you are forgetting just how slow a 1060 is. A lot depends on caleb's target framerate but for 4K60 gaming, a GPU upgrade will get caleb 95% of the benefit, and a CPU upgrade (and realistically, CPU+mobo+memory, so not cheap, plus a lot more time and hassle) will be just the last 5%. Sure this varies game-to-game but telling caleb to upgrade the CPU first is just bad advice.

 

[SunWukong]

For $500 this is the one to get. The AsRock Phantom Gaming is second at $530.

 

[boomstik360]

For $500 this is the one to get. The AsRock Phantom Gaming is second at $530.

100%

 

[lukart]

The Red Devil is also the Flagship, not the Hellhound. Awesome review though. I just had to have the Red Devil!

Hellhound is just missing the crazy RGB and more complex designs, the Hellhound to me is also a premium model, but just more clean and with out fancy RGBs.

 

[boomstik360]

Hellhound is just missing the crazy RGB and more complex designs, the Hellhound to me is also a premium model, but just more clean and with out fancy RGBs.

It is premium for sure, compared to others. The RD does have a slightly upgraded VRM Phase design. Plus it has a really neat box. Looks to be limited to 1000 as well.

 

[W1zzard]

@W1zzard 1 correction and 2 minor ones here:

all fixed, thanks. on holiday, not fun typing this up on the laptop while getting up early/going to sleep late

 

[Assimilator]

all fixed, thanks. on holiday, not fun typing this up on the laptop while getting up early/going to sleep late

Appreciate your dedication, boss man.

 

[Footman]

Well, that sure was a change since the pandemic. All 7800XT's on Newegg sold out in less than a day. Has me wondering if card levels were low, or interest in this card is higher than other releases over the last year or two. Also, not sure if driven by manufacturer or retailer but both Newegg and Amazon have increased price of Hellhound to $519... I guess I should be lucky I snagged one at $499...

 

[boomstik360]

Well, that sure was a change since the pandemic. All 7800XT's on Newegg sold out in less than a day. Has me wondering if card levels were low, or interest in this card is higher than other releases over the last year or two. Also, not sure if driven by manufacturer or retailer but both Newegg and Amazon have increased price of Hellhound to $519... I guess I should be lucky I snagged one at $499...

Definitely a good buy. Can't wait for mine to get here. 9/11 Delivery date on it.

 

[Footman]

Definitely a good buy. Can't wait for mine to get here. 9/11 Delivery date on it.

In the middle of a quick review for Newegg, I'll let you know what I think of this card soon.

Ok, so I spent an hour or so, bench marking this new Hellhound with Supposition and Timespy, and yes I realize that this is a very small subset of tests, but it's as good as I can get for now. I did a quick and dirty comparison to my XFX Merc 319 6950 XT, which I did not really enjoy using. Sounds weird even to me, I replaced the 6950 XT with a 7800 XT!!! No, I don't call this an upgrade, I just did not enjoy the noise and heat coming from my pc case during a gaming session....

Some really interesting results, Graphic Score in Timespy for the stock 7800XT was 19894 and 6950XT was 21808, Supposition Extreme average FPS with stock 7800XT was 76.72 and with 6950XT was 84.21. The 7800XT used 228W and the 6950XT used 301W, the max hotspot on the 7800XT was 88C and 102C on the 6950XT. The 7800XT was silent, I was not able to hear the card over the case fans, the 6950XT was just as loud as my AMD 5700XT..... Annoying.

So, after some quick overclocking and some sneaky undervolting on the 7800XT, I was hitting max core clocks of 2836mhz and this gave me Supposition fps of 84.46 and in Timespy the 7800XT returned a graphic score of 22088 with a hotspot of 90Cand 263W power!!!!

So, my overclocked 7800XT is as fast as my stock 6950XT, uses less energy and runs cooler and almost silently.... Color me impressed, even more so as I have a copy of Starfield Premium to play with now as well. And all for $499........

3Dmark shows the 7800XT as a generic VGA, so most likely needs to be updated! But here is the link to the 7800XT run https://www.3dmark.com/spy/41465818
and here is the link to one of my 6950XT 3D mark runs https://www.3dmark.com/spy/40830910
I added a screenshot for my 7800XT 3D Mark score as it is hidden I guess because 3D Mark has not been updated yet to show it as a 7800XT but Generic VGA!!!

 

[boomstik360]

In the middle of a quick review for Newegg, I'll let you know what I think of this card soon.

Ok, so I spent an hour or so, bench marking this new Hellhound with Supposition and Timespy, and yes I realize that this is a very small subset of tests, but it's as good as I can get for now. I did a quick and dirty comparison to my XFX Merc 319 6950 XT, which I did not really enjoy using. Sounds weird even to me, I replaced the 6950 XT with a 7800 XT!!! No, I don't call this an upgrade, I just did not enjoy the noise and heat coming from my pc case during a gaming session....

Some really interesting results, Graphic Score in Timespy for the stock 7800XT was 19894 and 6950XT was 21808, Supposition Extreme average FPS with stock 7800XT was 76.72 and with 6950XT was 84.21. The 7800XT used 228W and the 6950XT used 301W, the max hotspot on the 7800XT was 88C and 102C on the 6950XT. The 7800XT was silent, I was not able to hear the card over the case fans, the 6950XT was just as loud as my AMD 5700XT..... Annoying.

So, after some quick overclocking and some sneaky undervolting on the 7800XT, I was hitting max core clocks of 2836mhz and this gave me Supposition fps of 84.46 and in Timespy the 7800XT returned a graphic score of 22088 with a hotspot of 90Cand 263W power!!!!

So, my overclocked 7800XT is as fast as my stock 6950XT, uses less energy and runs cooler and almost silently.... Color me impressed, even more so as I have a copy of Starfield Premium to play with now as well. And all for $499........

3Dmark shows the 7800XT as a generic VGA, so most likely needs to be updated! But here is the link to the 7800XT run https://www.3dmark.com/spy/41465818
and here is the link to one of my 6950XT 3D mark runs https://www.3dmark.com/spy/40830910

Awesome!! Thank you buddy

In the middle of a quick review for Newegg, I'll let you know what I think of this card soon.

Ok, so I spent an hour or so, bench marking this new Hellhound with Supposition and Timespy, and yes I realize that this is a very small subset of tests, but it's as good as I can get for now. I did a quick and dirty comparison to my XFX Merc 319 6950 XT, which I did not really enjoy using. Sounds weird even to me, I replaced the 6950 XT with a 7800 XT!!! No, I don't call this an upgrade, I just did not enjoy the noise and heat coming from my pc case during a gaming session....

Some really interesting results, Graphic Score in Timespy for the stock 7800XT was 19894 and 6950XT was 21808, Supposition Extreme average FPS with stock 7800XT was 76.72 and with 6950XT was 84.21. The 7800XT used 228W and the 6950XT used 301W, the max hotspot on the 7800XT was 88C and 102C on the 6950XT. The 7800XT was silent, I was not able to hear the card over the case fans, the 6950XT was just as loud as my AMD 5700XT..... Annoying.

So, after some quick overclocking and some sneaky undervolting on the 7800XT, I was hitting max core clocks of 2836mhz and this gave me Supposition fps of 84.46 and in Timespy the 7800XT returned a graphic score of 22088 with a hotspot of 90Cand 263W power!!!!

So, my overclocked 7800XT is as fast as my stock 6950XT, uses less energy and runs cooler and almost silently.... Color me impressed, even more so as I have a copy of Starfield Premium to play with now as well. And all for $499........

3Dmark shows the 7800XT as a generic VGA, so most likely needs to be updated! But here is the link to the 7800XT run https://www.3dmark.com/spy/41465818
and here is the link to one of my 6950XT 3D mark runs https://www.3dmark.com/spy/40830910

Definitely warmer than the 4070 and 4070 Ti I’ve tested but that’s some darn good scaling with an overclock and under volt. The extra VRAM is definitely a good reason to go with this as well, let alone the price class. Last time I looked while playing BF2042 at 4K Res, 120hz G-Sync, afterburner showed almost 9GB of usage. Like others have said, they (4070 series) are good for today, not for tomorrow LOL. That’s not even a super intensive title! Definitely too close for comfort.

 

[Nostras]

Awesome!! Thank you buddy


Definitely warmer than the 4070 and 4070 Ti I’ve tested but that’s some darn good scaling with an overclock and under volt. The extra VRAM is definitely a good reason to go with this as well, let alone the price class. Last time I looked while playing BF2042 at 4K Res, 120hz G-Sync, afterburner showed almost 9GB of usage. Like others have said, they (4070 series) are good for today, not for tomorrow LOL. That’s not even a super intensive title! Definitely too close for comfort.

Yeah the Hellhounds are tuned to the max to be as quiet as possible. On my XTX Hellhound using the silent bios is downright dangerous as hotspot temperatures creep to 110°C lol.

I think both of you are forgetting just how slow a 1060 is. A lot depends on caleb's target framerate but for 4K60 gaming, a GPU upgrade will get caleb 95% of the benefit, and a CPU upgrade (and realistically, CPU+mobo+memory, so not cheap, plus a lot more time and hassle) will be just the last 5%. Sure this varies game-to-game but telling caleb to upgrade the CPU first is just bad advice.

Eh, it's a lot more about what games he's playing. Some games scale a lot better with a more decent CPU and vice versa. CPU restricted scenarios typically show nasty 1% and 0.1% lows and the vast majority of games give you very few handles to reduce the bottleneck.
For the GPU it just means lower fps all-around but at least you have options to get it more playable.
Not to say a GPU upgrade is more sensical here, but it's a lot more "ehhh, it depends".
I also very much doubt he's running 4k. Think 1080p is much much more likely but as he didn't mention the resolution, games he's targetting and FPS he wants giving proper advice is a crapshoot at best.
I'm more trying to counter the idea that a 9600K is serviceable with a 7800XT. The 9600K has aged very poorly and considering current pricing and advancements in the CPU world it should go on the chopping block.

 

[atschoo81]

In the middle of a quick review for Newegg, I'll let you know what I think of this card soon.

Ok, so I spent an hour or so, bench marking this new Hellhound with Supposition and Timespy, and yes I realize that this is a very small subset of tests, but it's as good as I can get for now. I did a quick and dirty comparison to my XFX Merc 319 6950 XT, which I did not really enjoy using. Sounds weird even to me, I replaced the 6950 XT with a 7800 XT!!! No, I don't call this an upgrade, I just did not enjoy the noise and heat coming from my pc case during a gaming session....

Some really interesting results, Graphic Score in Timespy for the stock 7800XT was 19894 and 6950XT was 21808, Supposition Extreme average FPS with stock 7800XT was 76.72 and with 6950XT was 84.21. The 7800XT used 228W and the 6950XT used 301W, the max hotspot on the 7800XT was 88C and 102C on the 6950XT. The 7800XT was silent, I was not able to hear the card over the case fans, the 6950XT was just as loud as my AMD 5700XT..... Annoying.

So, after some quick overclocking and some sneaky undervolting on the 7800XT, I was hitting max core clocks of 2836mhz and this gave me Supposition fps of 84.46 and in Timespy the 7800XT returned a graphic score of 22088 with a hotspot of 90Cand 263W power!!!!

So, my overclocked 7800XT is as fast as my stock 6950XT, uses less energy and runs cooler and almost silently.... Color me impressed, even more so as I have a copy of Starfield Premium to play with now as well. And all for $499........

3Dmark shows the 7800XT as a generic VGA, so most likely needs to be updated! But here is the link to the 7800XT run https://www.3dmark.com/spy/41465818
and here is the link to one of my 6950XT 3D mark runs https://www.3dmark.com/spy/40830910
I added a screenshot for my 7800XT 3D Mark score as it is hidden I guess because 3D Mark has not been updated yet to show it as a 7800XT but Generic VGA!!!

I just buy the same card will you share all you settings in amd software for undervolting?? Guess you set it manual, which min and max mhz did you set? which undervolt number? I am new on undervolting so all your numbers would be great

 

[Footman]

I just buy the same card will you share all you settings in amd software for undervolting?? Guess you set it manual, which min and max mhz did you set? which undervolt number? I am new on undervolting so all your numbers would be great

Apologies for my late reply, I was out all day.
Happy to help with my overclock settings, but mine are different to @W1zzard and will likely be different to your but it's a good starting point.
If you really want a quick and dirty idea of what to set your card to for a basic overclock, use the AMD drivers. You can go to the tuning tab in the driver and then look for the undervolt GPU, Overclock GPU and Overclock VRAM tabs and click on these one at a time. The drivers will give you some numbers, you can then plug these back into your starting OC.
For now, these are my numbers. And they are rock solid. Power limit to max (+15), then min frequency 2655, max frequency 2755, voltage 1000mV, VRAM max frequency 2588 and Fast timing enabled. Anything less than 1000mV on my card caused a crash in Starfield after a few minutes...