Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT Pulse

[W1zzard]

Sapphire's Radeon RX 7900 XT Pulse is one of the more affordable RX 7900 XT custom designs out there. For $860 you get impressive 4K gaming performance and a triple-slot, triple-fan thermal solution that achieves amazing noise levels with good temperatures. Overclocking worked very well, too.

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[zo0lykas]

Complicated oc + complicated with water cooling, no water blocks for all "pulse" generations, but from mistakes we learn

 

[Nostras]

So it's just a bit better than stock but with a much better fanprofile out of the box.
Nobrainer over stock.

@W1zzard
Any interest in reviewing the Hellhound or the Phantom Gaming as well? It seems that these 2 are all competing with the reference model.

 

[Kapone33]

Complicated oc + complicated with water cooling, no water blocks for all "pulse" generations, but from mistakes we learn

The Nitro Block from Alpahcool fits the Pulse. All of the cards use the same PCB with things like ARGB headers and fan headers not populated. I have one on mine and am loving it.

 

[Garrus]

Power efficiency of the new Radeons is fantastic, clearly much better than the previous generation of RDNA2 and NVIDIA Ampere cards. NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 40 cards are a bit better still, by 22% (RTX 4080), 16% (RTX 4090), and 2% (RTX 4070 Ti). For all intents and purposes I'd say that RX 7900 XT and RTX 4070 Ti have the same energy efficiency.

A lot of trolls were saying otherwise, but the proof is in the numbers. 4070 Ti is only 2 percent more efficient.

 

[c2DDragon]

I knew my 6700XT was overpriced when I bought it from the AMD shop last year (532€82) but now it seems normal to see those things not able to get an average of 144FPS+ at 1440p on every games at those prices...I don't know what is the craziest between the buyers of those things or the sellers at those prices. They don't even try to talk about covid / transit issues or anything, they just stick with crazy prices and it seems to be ok xD

 

[Dr. Dro]

A lot of trolls were saying otherwise, but the proof is in the numbers. 4070 Ti is only 2 percent more efficient.

Considered the 4070 Ti is built out of a relatively small processor that ships clocked at the very edge of its v/f curve, this is much less of a positive attribute to point out than you may have intended.

Navi 31's chiplet design won't cooperate here, I'm afraid.

 

[W1zzard]

Any interest in reviewing the Hellhound or the Phantom Gaming as well? It seems that these 2 are all competing with the reference model.

Interest yes, but I doubt they'll sample them .. PowerColor doesn't want to sample me anything (we're still friends), I could ask ASRock, but they're more focused on Taichi

 

[zo0lykas]

The Nitro Block from Alpahcool fits the Pulse. All of the cards use the same PCB with things like ARGB headers and fan headers not populated. I have one on mine and am loving it.

No they are not the same!

Sure if you want cool only die, you can install that block.

Lots of post and questions from people was who was looking for water block for pulse version and answer always the same, no block pcb not the same.

 

[Kapone33]

No they are not the same!

Sure if you want cool only die, you can install that block.

Lots of post and questions from people was who was looking for water block for pulse version and answer always the same, no block pcb not the same.

So explain to me how I am using a Nitro block with my Sapphire Pulse 7900XT? There is one screw hole missing for the RGB Strip on the Nitro and you have to add 2 1mm pads to compensate for the missing RAM Chips but if you know what you are doing it works fine.

 

[zo0lykas]

So explain to me how I am using a Nitro block with my Sapphire Pulse 7900XT? There is one screw hole missing for the RGB Strip on the Nitro and you have to add 2 1mm pads to compensate for the missing RAM Chips but if you know what you are doing it works fine.

please show me block what you get, and picture of your water cooled gpu pls help me

 

[Mistral]

Would it make sense to include power consumption numbers in the overclock table? Or a card-with-OC number in the power consumption table?

 

[Chrispy_]

I'm still not feeling the 7900XT even with these improved AIB models and the new, lower price. The reduction to $799 wasn't enough for the XT and the fact that this Pulse adds an AIB premium means that it's worse perf/$ than the XTX again - That's been the biggest facepalm for the XT all along and Sapphire have just undone the good work of that price reduction.

There's a huge performance/$ gap between RDNA2 and RDNA3 and it's not like RDNA3 really brings anything new to the table apart from 30% more performance for 100% more cost. That's terrible value and for a non-flagship part, value is important. I know you can't compare new to old, but I just snagged a 6800XT for £380, the 7900XT Pulse is £900 here still (reduced from £950). At a mere 30% faster, why on earth would anyone concerned with value in the slightest be spending 250% the price of a 6800XT for 30% more performance? £380 is a good price - the median is closer to £425 but that still makes this 7900XT Pulse more than twice the price.

It's a mistake to flesh out the whole product lines this slowly; It's looking like 7 months from 7900-series launch until the 7800-series arrives and in those 7 months, the 2% of the market who are willing to spend the combined cost of an XBSX and a PS5 on just their GPU alone are happy. Meanwhile the other 98% of the potential customers just see it as a greedy cash-grab. We get it, the rich kids who 'gotta have the latest shiny things' are better for profit margins, but the other 98% of the market are the reason that the dGPU market sector exists at all.

 

[W1zzard]

Would it make sense to include power consumption numbers in the overclock table? Or a card-with-OC number in the power consumption table?

That's a good idea, I'll try to include it in future reviews

 

[Roph]

I'd hesitate if this mis-labeled 7800XT was $500

 

[Fluffmeister]

Yeah, sadly it seems AMD are more than happy to ride on NVIDIA's coat tails and focus on the 1%.

You don't see them rushing out affordable products for the masses despite their apparent good guy cult following.

 

[Assimilator]

A lot of trolls were saying otherwise, but the proof is in the numbers. 4070 Ti is only 2 percent more efficient.

Keep on huffing that copium:

While power consumption in non-gaming states like multi-monitor and video playback was terrible in the first round of reviews, this has been fixed since and the numbers are halved now, but with 40 W they are still fairly high compared to competing products. RTX 4070 Ti for example makes do with less than half the energy consumed.

@W1zzard from conclusion, should read "XTX":

The RTX 4080 is 14% faster, and the RX 7900 XT has a 17% lead.

 

[Mahboi]

Thanks a lot for this!
Due to my tiny case (Fractal Meshify C) I basically have no room for any card except the reference model and the small Sapphire Pulses (max length allowed: 315mm, this one is 313mm).

I'm pretty obsessed with general silence and my PC is absolutely quiet (you literally can't hear it at all unless your ear is stuck to it), and I wanted a card that would at least be generally quiet enough even in gaming. Looks like Sapphire has the perfect product for me. It's nice looking too.

I'm still a bit hesitant to buy the XT over the XTX which has the same cooler...also, my PSU is only 650W, so I'm not sure if the XTX is really an option. I'm only rocking one active m2 SSD and a 5600x, so maybe I won't reach the top power?

Do you intend to test the XTX at some point? And if not, do you think that the same cooler may not be sufficient for the extra 40W that the XTX will pull?

 

[Garrus]

Keep on huffing that copium:



@W1zzard from conclusion, should read "XTX":

Are you a child? I stated a fact, that in his review, the energy efficiency was tied. Facts bother you?

 

[Readlight]

How much ray tracing uses electricity?
It looses 50% game speed.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Yeah, as much as I think that Sapphire makes great cards, if I were going to buy one of these today, it would either be an OG reference or an ASRock Phantom Gaming D. This card isn't worth an extra $60USD.

Hell, as far as I'm concerned, none of these RX 7900 XT's are worth more than $600.

 

[W1zzard]

How much ray tracing uses electricity?
It looses 50% game speed.

Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT Pulse Review

Sapphire's Radeon RX 7900 XT Pulse is one of the more affordable RX 7900 XT custom designs out there. For $860 you get impressive 4K gaming performance and a triple-slot, triple-fan thermal solution that achieves amazing noise levels with good temperatures. Overclocking worked very well, too.

www.techpowerup.com

No difference, 319 W both

 

[csendesmark]

I have this puppy for a week now, and it is really great,
yet I a bit sad that Sapphire's own tweak tool (TriXX) does not support all the stuff regarding the card. yet.
I cannot set the fan speed to 20% on lower temps and my m.2 SSD-s running a bit hotter now.
No complaint on the graphics performance tho

 

[vladut50]

Interest yes, but I doubt they'll sample them .. PowerColor doesn't want to sample me anything (we're still friends), I could ask ASRock, but they're more focused on Taichi

Pretty nice card this Sapphire Pulse, even though without RGB. I wonder how it compares to ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT Phantom Gaming 20GB OC as they are similarly priced here in Romania.

 

[Kapone33]

I have this puppy for a week now, and it is really great,
yet I a bit sad that Sapphire's own tweak tool (TriXX) does not support all the stuff regarding the card. yet.
I cannot set the fan speed to 20% on lower temps and my m.2 SSD-s running a bit hotter now.
No complaint on the graphics performance tho

This is the best card I have ever owned. I put a Waterblock on mine (read my Posts) and am loving it. My card has a Power limit of 349W with the Auto OC. No Game feels even sluggish and all Games run butter smooth. I must also commend AMD on the 7900X3D. As you can see 5GHZ at 1.2v pulling 57W is pretty damn sweet.