Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Pulse

[W1zzard]

Sapphire’s Radeon RX 9070 XT Pulse trades flashy extras for substance, to hit its $600 MSRP. There's no RGB lighting or factory overclock, but you get an outstanding cooler that runs whisper-quiet at full load with good temperatures. Performance where it counts.

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[Leiesoldat]

Display connections list 3x DP and 1x HDMI but there are 2x DP and 2x HDMI in the card photo.

 

[mb194dc]

Makes no sense @ $900, the Saphire 9070xt Gaming is available for £649.99 over here, , is stock really that much worse state side ?

 

[anonuser57]

From the photos it looks like there is no connection between the heatsink and the backplate and no connection between the backplate and the rear bracket. Is that normal for such a large card? To me it looks like it will have horrendous sag after a year, just like the Sapphire Pulse card I have.

 

[BigMack70]

I feel like you guys are going to need a new award for cards that are editor's choice but only at or near their MSRP... sort of the opposite of the "But Expensive" award I guess

 

[mate123]

No RGB lighting should also be listed amongst the positives

 

[Nater]

This is the card I wanted.

Gigabyte 5070 Ti in white is the card I got. (At like $970 :/ )

 

[atomsymbol]

Evidently, 3 slots wide mid-range GPUs are the norm now. What is next: 4 slots wide high-end GPUs? Or the GPU cooler and fans extending 3 centimeters above the 3 PCIe brackets? 1kg tower cooler to be mounted on a GPU?

 

[Mr. Stein]

Evidently, 3 slots wide mid-range GPUs are the norm now. What is next: 4 slots wide high-end GPUs? Or the GPU cooler and fans extending 3 centimeters above the 3 PCIe brackets? 1kg tower cooler to be mounted on a GPU?

Yah, I am worried about these monsters fitting, even in a full ATX tower. Hope to put a new rig together this year, or early 2026.

 

[Macro Device]

Evidently, 3 slots wide mid-range GPUs are the norm now. What is next: 4 slots wide high-end GPUs? Or the GPU cooler and fans extending 3 centimeters above the 3 PCIe brackets? 1kg tower cooler to be mounted on a GPU?

A dedicated cooling room of 6 by 6 by 6 feet (1.83 by 1.83 by 1.83 m) at -20F (-29C) for each GPU.

 

[W1zzard]

Display connections list 3x DP and 1x HDMI but there are 2x DP and 2x HDMI in the card photo.

fixed, thanks

 

[_roman_]

I dislike screws in plastics. Or screws in that metal bushing which are injected molded. I'm gifted to break those on e.g. msi laptops. I expect a little bit better build quality. Luckily there are other options available on the market. ~1.2 kg speaks about a lot of money was saved while building that graphic card. Similar graphic cards in that price range have up to ~2 - 3kg. I really wonder where all the weight was lost? Build quality? cooler quality? Assembly quality? It has a reason why other graphic cards are more heavy.

What is next: 4 slots wide high-end GPUs?

We already have that. Some specialist can sure name those cards by name. I consider anything bigger as 3.01 slots as a 4 slot card.

-- That card is out anyway for myself. Two hdmi connections are two dead connections. HDMI has to die. It belongs to television rooms and game consoles and television equipment. A graphic card with only two connections is useless.

 

[Frick]

Makes no sense @ $900, the Saphire 9070xt Gaming is available for £649.99 over here, , is stock really that much worse state side ?

£650 is $836, add taxes to that.

 

[Krit]

50% price increase over msrp that's worse than RTX 4080 Super few months ago. Well that's straight up downgrade at least for now not worth even considering to buy that crap. Right now high end 24GB RX 7900 XTX costs the same as mid range 16GB RX 9070 XT

 

[csendesmark]

Evidently, 3 slots wide mid-range GPUs are the norm now. What is next: 4 slots wide high-end GPUs? Or the GPU cooler and fans extending 3 centimeters above the 3 PCIe brackets? 1kg tower cooler to be mounted on a GPU?

The 5080 has many options with 2 slot
and the 5090 can be fitted into a 3 slot card, so don't worry

 

[Marcus L]

£650 is $836, add taxes to that.

That includes 20% VAT so it is as close to MSRP as you'll get

 

[brink]

i have an lg oled tv for gaming and a "smart" monitor (tv) for office, both connected via hdmi. i have never seen it as a + in a review to have two hdmis on gpus. i hardly see 3 or 4 monitors connected (via dp) AND most monitors usually have the option to connect via hdmi.
as a close nv competitor, there is only asus tuf 5070 ti left with 2x hdmi and 3x dp, of which 4x outputs can be used concurrently.
with 9070 (xt) a customer has more options for 2x hdmi outputs.

besides i love the pulse series, i had already 3x different cards. the last was then nitro. still i find the design very attractive. no unnecessary leds and stuff. but that is pure subjective impression/opinion

 

[Lew Zealand]

This will likely be the card I get when MSRP becomes a thing again. I've bought 7 AMD cards over the past few years- 5 Pulses, each one a great card with very good to great thermals. The other 2 were very good and... well I dislike that last card quite a bit so I know what line to avoid.

 

[Darc Requiem]

No RGB lighting should also be listed amongst the positives

I was just about to post this myself. It's the reason my PC Case doesn't have a glass side panel. I'm so sick of RGB it's not funny.

 

[bobalazs]

Let's also add that with 25.3.2, Windows Update will not be able to overwrite a newer installed AMD Software package with an older one on Radeon RX 9000 series GPUs.

 

[rusty caterpillar]

I dislike screws in plastics. Or screws in that metal bushing which are injected molded. I'm gifted to break those on e.g. msi laptops. I expect a little bit better build quality. Luckily there are other options available on the market. ~1.2 kg speaks about a lot of money was saved while building that graphic card. Similar graphic cards in that price range have up to ~2 - 3kg. I really wonder where all the weight was lost? Build quality? cooler quality? Assembly quality? It has a reason why other graphic cards are more heavy.



We already have that. Some specialist can sure name those cards by name. I consider anything bigger as 3.01 slots as a 4 slot card.

-- That card is out anyway for myself. Two hdmi connections are two dead connections. HDMI has to die. It belongs to television rooms and game consoles and television equipment. A graphic card with only two connections is useless.

Heaviest 9070 XT is Sapphire Nitro 1.8 Kg and XFX 1.7 Kg far from 3KG . Quality long gone.
I agree with the silly HDMI, should be 3x DP.

 

[Muaadib]

Evidently, 3 slots wide mid-range GPUs are the norm now. What is next: 4 slots wide high-end GPUs? Or the GPU cooler and fans extending 3 centimeters above the 3 PCIe brackets? 1kg tower cooler to be mounted on a GPU?

There are still some 2 slot cards, like the Powercolor Reaper.

 

[_roman_]

I was just about to post this myself. It's the reason my PC Case doesn't have a glass side panel. I'm so sick of RGB it's not funny.

Some cards do not even have a mechanism to disable the energy waste rgb light strip. I was forced to sell my MSI radeon 6800 z trio because of insanely loud fans and no turn off option for the rgb.
I have all rgb turned off except the little "power led" from my fractal design meshify 2 case. This power led seems to be some sort of debug led for the asus prime x670-p mainboard. the slow and fast blink rate during "boot" / post stage indicate if the computer hangs or will soon boot. Also one indicator if the computer is running at all or not.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I dislike screws in plastics. Or screws in that metal bushing which are injected molded. I'm gifted to break those on e.g. msi laptops. I expect a little bit better build quality. Luckily there are other options available on the market. ~1.2 kg speaks about a lot of money was saved while building that graphic card. Similar graphic cards in that price range have up to ~2 - 3kg. I really wonder where all the weight was lost? Build quality? cooler quality? Assembly quality? It has a reason why other graphic cards are more heavy.

I don't get this. Please explain how making this GPU twice as heavy would make it better. Where is the plastic inadequate for the job where you'd need metal to "fix" the problem? This is (supposed to be) an MSRP GPU, if you need things to feel heavy then there are loads of options for 20-30% more money with additional mass.

I'll take 2% less performance for 25% less money and half the mass weighing down my PCIe slot every time.

 

[LabRat 891]

So, this is effectively 'the reference' model then?

Guess I'll keep an eye out for a waterblock for my Pulse, or an Acer 3x 8-pin to replace it, eventually.

On the plus side, AMD did leave a very very nice 'feature' in all of the RX 9070s:

Only way I'll make it through the summer