Sapphire 7900 XTX Nitro+ Review
Peter Donnell / 2 years ago
How Much Does It Cost?
Overview
So I said at the start that this was the one I was looking forward to, and I think it’s clear to see why. It’s a beast but is also one of the best-looking cards I’ve seen, not just from the RDNA 3 range, but as a whole across AMD and NVIDIA-based cards.
I mentioned that if Apple were to make a 7900 XTX, minus the RGB, I think this is what it would look like. It’s clean and solidly built and that makes it feel like it has so much added worth, which is important as Sapphire inform me that this card will be retailing for £1179 in the UK which by my calculations, would put it at around $1100 in the US. Yes, that puts it closer to an FE 4080, but custom AIB cards of that would push that disparity a little further.
Sure it’s more expensive than MSRP like the AMD reference card and the Hellhound from PowerColor and more towards what’s expected from the Merc 310 from XFX and that’s fine because they are both great cards for very different reasons.
Performance-wise, the Sapphire card does sit at the top, and in one case, beats the RTX 4090, at least in the 1% lows, but considering the price of that card, well, colour me impressed. The other side of performance comes down to cooling and power, and yes, it’s a bit of a power-hungry card, but the wonderful trade-off there is that the fans remain virtually silent and I’d happily have that churning away next to me while I game. Couple that with a card that will look amazing in your system, and you’re onto a winner.
I have to address the issue with overclocking, and it’s definitely something we’ll be looking into it as a whole, as it’s not isolated to Sapphire and talk of updating the driver could lead to a fix, so if you want us to look into that a little, let me know in the comments section below.
Either way, I know this was one card that was heavily sought after, so hopefully, this review has given you an idea as to what you get for your money, as it feels like a lot. A great-looking card, with strong gaming performance, an amazing cooler, and overclocking headroom, and it’s only a little more over MSRP. Admittedly, I’ve made it pretty clear that $1000 is a lot for a GPU, but I have no control over that, so it is what it is, so instead, I’m looking at the price uptake over MSRP, and for me, you get a lot for that extra money.
What do you think? Is the Nitro+ worth the extra cost? What do you think of the design? Do you agree with me, let me know in the comments section below. For me, it’s probably my favourite 7900 XTX so far, but we’ve only looked at 4 so far, so that could all change in the future.