Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Pulse

[Lew Zealand]

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:
View attachment 391784
Only way I'll make it through the summer

Thanks for posting that! The -6% limit on my 7700 XT is quite annoying.

 

[Macro Device]

@LabRat 891 @Lew Zealand

You're doing it wrong. What you wanna limit is the frequency:

At a full throttle (2720/2100) it consumes 177 W.

And at 2350/2000, it only consumes 119 W. Can you live with -10% performance? You decide.

 

[Jism]

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?

Buy one graphics card, a get chiller for free!

 

[Fuzzi0n]

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

Even £650 is a joke when the same retailer had it for £578 at release. I don't see how a card gets around 15% more expensive within a couple of weeks other than greed.

 

[LabRat 891]

@LabRat 891 @Lew Zealand

You're doing it wrong. What you wanna limit is the frequency:
View attachment 391790

At a full throttle (2720/2100) it consumes 177 W.

View attachment 391791

And at 2350/2000, it only consumes 119 W. Can you live with -10% performance? You decide.

Will look into.

By my recollection, Vega 10 64ROP was a very similar case. Limit clocks, and those things were an efficiency monster.

edit: I just noticed your colorfully named OSD readings
nice.

 

[Chrispy_]

I bought a 6600 Pulse, a 6700 10GB Pulse, a 6700XT Pulse, a 6800XT Pulse, and a 7800XT Pulse.....

I've also had a 6800XT TUF, a 7800XT Nitro, and a 7900XTX TUF - but if there's a choice I will buy the Pulse because it's always top-quality essentials with no frills and I hate paying for frills that offer only cosmetic improvements because I'm the kind of guy who puts his PC under his desk. I don't even look at it it to press the power button - I can feel that without bending down under the desk.

 

[LabRat 891]

I bought a 6600 Pulse, a 6700 10GB Pulse, a 6700XT Pulse, a 6800XT Pulse, and a 7800XT Pulse.....

I've also had a 6800XT TUF, a 7800XT Nitro, and a 7900XTX TUF - but if there's a choice I will buy the Pulse because it's always top-quality essentials with no frills and I hate paying for frills that offer only cosmetic improvements because I'm the kind of guy who puts his PC under his desk. I don't even look at it it to press the power button - I can feel that without bending down under the desk.

I've been convinced that Sapphire's Pulse lineup is the closest most can get to a MBA card, for awhile.

Amusingly, I've disproven that to myself*; yet, still feel that way. -Props to Sapphire for successful mindshare, I guess?

*7900XTX Pulse and 7900 XTX Nitro+ share PCBs.
Places for optional components are left bare (dual BIOS switch, aRGB sync, etc.), and a smaller cooler is installed on the Pulse.

 

[Chrispy_]

Even £650 is a joke when the same retailer had it for £578 at release. I don't see how a card gets around 15% more expensive within a couple of weeks other than greed.

Apparently there's a massive batch of Radeon 9000-series GPUs arriving mid-April which should alleviate some of the high pricing. For now, the 15% markup is part retailer greed, and part AMD screwing up the launch by not deciding on the MSRP until two full months after retailers had GPUs in stock, having already paid for them and waited for them to arrive.

If you can believe the retailers, they paid more than MSRP for the cards, and AMD are only offering limited quantities of rebates to retailers which seems pretty shady to me. Not only that, they've had these GPUs clogging up warehouse space since Christmas, having overpaid for them and being unable to sell them because of launch date embargos.

If that's true, AMD have screwed over retailers and buyers alike by fumbling the launch price AND the retailer rebates process. That is greed, regardless of how you explain it because the end result is that the retailers overpaid, have negative margins and are expecting AMD to rebate them, which apparently isn't happening for all the initial stock retailers overpaid for only a limited quantity of just three specific models (Pulse, Reaper, Swift).

I've been convinced that Sapphire's Pulse lineup is the closest most can get to a MBA card, for awhile.

Amusingly, I've disproven that to myself*; yet, still feel that way. -Props to Sapphire for successful mindshare, I guess?

*7900XTX Pulse and 7900 XTX Nitro+ share PCBs.
Places for optional components are left bare (dual BIOS switch, aRGB sync, etc.), and a smaller cooler is installed on the Pulse.

I actually prefer the Pulse models to the MBA cards. The MBA cards felt more premium - but Sapphire know how to make a card quieter and cooler without breaking the bank.

It's the same situation as the Nvidia FE cards. Their build-quality is top-notch, but AIB models are often better-cooled, more sensibly and cost-effectively designed, and significantly quieter despite feeling much cheaper and using lower quality materials!

 

[mechtech]

That vsync power consumption!! impressive.

 

[Chet_Manly]

I like the included real price. Absolutely a shame the state of the GPU market and any reading a review should know that!

 

[Dawora]

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

Long life the flagship GPUs

That vsync power consumption!! impressive.

Try 30fps gaming.. very low power consumption... works also whit RTX5090, for those who care..

Or buy cheaper slower gpu and play whitout Vsync restrictions..

 

[kilo]

No RGB lighting should also be listed amongst the positives

That's exactly why I went with this model myself.

 

[Lew Zealand]

@LabRat 891 @Lew Zealand

You're doing it wrong. What you wanna limit is the frequency:
View attachment 391790

At a full throttle (2720/2100) it consumes 177 W.

View attachment 391791

And at 2350/2000, it only consumes 119 W. Can you live with -10% performance? You decide.

It works similarly either way. I usually limit frequency (targetting a particular voltage to be specific), however:

Some games load the GPU more lightly than others (or have a rendering/shading bottleneck of some kind?) and thus limiting by frequency sees that game use notably less power than other games. Instead I prefer using the same power with higher clocks/voltage for more FPS. I have a couple like that and frankly which strat I use depends on my mood and sometimes how hot the room is.

Also I almost always run VSync and tailor my voltage to match the peaks needed depending on the game. For me half the game is setting the card my preferred way to limit power use. Having GPUs from AMD, Nvidia, and Intel keeps me on my toes, too.

I likes my choices.

 

[The Shield]

Real price = MSRP + 50% (or more...).
Editor's choice.
Ok.

 

[firefly36]

919,90€ (991.73$) at my local Computer Hardware shop!!

 

[rusty caterpillar]

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.

You need to get cards like RTX 4000 if you want slim and light. Since those cards has 200 Watt Pwr draw. NVD or AMD not gonna move to high quality condensed GPUs for gaming cards, really don't think so.
For those you need server type of cooling, since are blower cards with small light heatsinks, which very noisy or deshroud yourself the card.

Gaming cards will have heavy heatsinks for passive cooling, giving the fans some longevity and to the user low noise.
Plastic or metal? A high quality plastic to act as a structural frame is expensive as a piece of metal and metal can act as a heatsink, plastic if is not quality will become brittle because of heat. Plastic has to be thick to not permit PCB to twist sag.

I'm not for 2% perf. increase for 25 % higher price but, that is a more gullible way of scalping. In top of that add the other scalping.

I'm not my self for big shrouds, specially if those obstruct the airflow but, AIB will go for that for silly marketing even though logos and silly leds will add to the cost.
Support you card in PCIE is no other way, you'll have a dead card otherwise, ripped pads under VRAM and core.

 

[ChosenName]

£650 is $836, add taxes to that.

The £650 sale price includes 20% VAT; using an exchange rate of £1:$1.29 and taking VAT into account the £650 sale price equates to $699 before sales taxes.

I managed to order mine a few days after launch and am very much enjoying its performance - and that the fans are near silent until the card is worked hard.

Even £650 is a joke when the same retailer had it for £578 at release. I don't see how a card gets around 15% more expensive within a couple of weeks other than greed.

One retailer indicated that later batches of cards were being sourced through distributors, with the inference that the early stock was not, and the extra link in the distribution chain will also want its cut.

There's also the point that only *some* of the initial batch of cards were able to be sold "at MSRP" (with either the OEM or AMD directly in some way reimbursing the vendor for the delta between what they should have sold it at [based on what they bought it for, plus profit margin] vs. what the "MSRP" price was - £569 in the case of a small number of "base model" cards [which included the Sapphire Pulse 9070XT]) - after the alloted number of "reimbursed" cards were sold the price reverted to what it would have been without the reimbursement.

After that it's simply supply and demand - and while AMD seems to be backfilling the supply chain to an extent, demand is still high - with one retailer selling 500 cards in less than two hours yesterday.

 

[_roman_]

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,

Regardless when the device is e-waste the price does not matter.
Price is no inidcator for quality. Price should be ignored when you check quality. Maybe 1700 the price was an indicator for quality. These days are long gone.


I managed to break out those counterparts of screws on several laptops over the years from ASUS and MSI. even with slight tightening of the screws or while opening the device.
Barely any plastics. Very bad made. When you open stuff to fix it, change thermal paste, change drive and such you know what I talk about.
I do not see the need to circle the counterparts of the screws. There is only a few parts missing screws in this picture.

I do not have that part in front of me. I'm sure it misses GF or GB in the material or is the wrong choice of injection molding material.

You're doing it wrong. What you wanna limit is the frequency:

You wanna create a game profile for every game. Limit frequency, change DRAM, change fan curve, change powerlimit
Check with the on screen display from the windows amd gpu driver

 

[rusty caterpillar]

Regardless when the device is e-waste the price does not matter.
Price is no inidcator for quality. Price should be ignored when you check quality. Maybe 1700 the price was an indicator for quality. These days are long gone.


I managed to break out those counterparts of screws on several laptops over the years from ASUS and MSI. even with slight tightening of the screws or while opening the device.
Barely any plastics. Very bad made. When you open stuff to fix it, change thermal paste, change drive and such you know what I talk about.
I do not see the need to circle the counterparts of the screws. There is only a few parts missing screws in this picture.

I do not have that part in front of me. I'm sure it misses GF or GB in the material or is the wrong choice of injection molding material.

So GF stands for Glass filled Nylon and GB?
Is this the shroud from Sapphire Pulse 9070 XT?

 

[_roman_]

#44

ABS / PP / POM ... Base material

I worked in the injection molding industry. When you want sturdy car parts you use materials with glassfiber = GF or glassballs = GB. What I remember there was 10 or 20 or maybe 30% of GF or GB in the good materials. I was responsible for the 8d-report quality claims.

I'm not a chemist. I'm sure someone with 5 years chemist education could show you instantly a datasheet for those big bags of injection molding peas. Different datasheets with and without GF / GB.

In my point of view it's obvious why certain ASUS, MSI, HP notebooks break while opening and such. It's not a technical issue, it's a money saving issue.

Is this the shroud from Sapphire Pulse 9070 XT?

that is the picture of the review for the fan mounts. With my opinion it's badly made according to the picture.

 

[WhateverAnotherFreakingID]

No RGB lighting

Why in the hell this is in the CONs????

On the other hand availability price being 1.5x the MSRP deserve a proper Severance Milkchick's "Devour Feculence" moment

 

[rusty caterpillar]

In my point of view it's obvious why certain ASUS, MSI, HP notebooks break while opening and such. It's not a technical issue, it's a money saving issue.



that is the picture of the review for the fan mounts. With my opinion it's badly made according to the picture.

Yes, money saving issue, agree. You can safely add Dell to those breakable plastic molds in Laptops.

All I can see on that shroud is maybe bad centering of the fans in the plastic shroud but, it might be the angle they took the picture.

 

[10tothemin9volts]

I've always had Pulse(es) before, for 600 it looks fine so far, but 900? gg

AMD got closer to NV in ray-tracing with RDNA 4, from the 5070 Ti being 32% faster (1.32 = 115% [5070 Ti]/87% [7900 XTX]) to 15%.
In terms of energy efficiency, it's even better for RDNA 4 (assuming power consumption = TDP):
5070 Ti is 56% more power efficient than the 7900 XTX ((355W/87%)/(300W/115%)).
5070 Ti is only 16.5% more power efficient than the 9070 XT ((304W/100%)/(300W/115%)).

Unfortunately In path-tracing, the 5070 Ti is still over 50% more energy efficient (which also makes it 50% faster because of almost the same 300W vs 304W TDP). For the RDNA 4 successor I'd like AMD to get much closer, like the 15% or better.

 

[rusty caterpillar]

Why in the hell this is in the CONs????

On the other hand availability price being 1.5x the MSRP deserve a proper Severance Milkchick's "Devour Feculence" moment

The perfect example Power Color Red Devil 9070 XT, they covered the gap for the third fan airflow with plastic panel just so they can add some silly leds. WTF&Heat Designs



They complemented their 5 year old Marketing with same grade design both coming from some Dark Abyss mal thinking.

 

[Octopuss]

Seriously, a negative point for "no RGB lighting"? Come one W1z, you can't be serious with that.