Sapphire RX 7800 XT Nitro+ 16GB Graphics Card Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The Sapphire RX 7800 XT Nitro+ is available for $549, which is $49 more expensive than an MSRP-based card, and honestly, I’m fine with that. The sheer quality of the cooler and the overall design of the card including having a card made by Sapphire frankly ticks all of the right boxes for me for paying a little more money. Also couple that with the fact that the 7800 XT as a GPU outperforms when NVIDIA have to offer for a cheaper price means that even with spending a little extra money, you’ll still saving in comparison to what team green have and that is what AMD have always historically been about. A great product for a cheaper price, and Sapphire have allowed themselves to improve upon that.

Overview

Now I’ll be honest, when we do these launches and look at multiple AIB models of the same GPU, it’s a bit of a spirit breaker. It leaves us with nothing to really talk about in terms of the GPU because they all perform within a margin of error 2% or so of each other so it does make for a boring conclusion, though with cards like the Nitro+, we can focus on what Sapphire have done, and without repeating myself from when I’ve looked at other Nitro+ cards in the past, they really have knocked it out of the park again.

The card is gorgeous and would look great inside any system, especially if you can get it mounted vertically to show off that clean front shroud and that all-important RGB, and while I get that it’s not for everyone, that’s the beauty of it. You can change it to adapt to you and your preference, whether that be changing it to a solid colour or a different pattern, or simply turning it off completely.

I mentioned before that if Apple were to make a GPU, I think this would be it, or an NVIDIA FE card, but with me focussing on AMD today, I’ll stick with that. It’s a big card, don’t get me wrong but that also adds something to the elemental feel of the build quality. If something is big and feels heavy, it’s generally because of the material used and that’s exactly what this feels like. A solidly built product from the ground up and from a brand you know you can trust. That’s why whenever you think of an AMD GPU, you instantly think of Sapphire. They simply are the go-to brand for AMD graphics cards.

So what about the cooling performance? I’m a little torn, but don’t worry, it’s all good. Sapphire have done an amazing job to keep the 7800 XT’s core under control, and if anything they’ve done too good of a job, as the fans may as well have not even powered up. The card was kept cool and quiet, but if you’ve checked out our other 7800 XT content, then you’ll know that they weren’t the coolest, being beaten by XFX, albeit, not by much, though the XFX card came in, still quiet, but noisier and faster in terms of fan speed than the Sapphire, and I want to say that I think there may be a compromise where Sapphire could adjust the fan curve slightly, and possibly be the coolest, while still being the quietest, and I’ve told our Sapphire contact exactly that, so we’ll see what the future holds if they take my line of thinking and adapt it into upcoming new products.

Should I Buy One?

I’m struggling to really find fault with the Sapphire Nitro+, other than the fact that I’ve mentioned in our other reviews that the 7800 XT is a fantastically boring product. It’s not bad, don’t get me wrong, but from the GPU side I was expecting a little more, but… if you are set on a 7800 XT, then the Nitro+ is a version that I think is hard to ignore, and I defy anyone to say that it’s not a stunningly beautiful looking card and for me, it just ticks every single box for what you’d want from a GPU.