Review Sapphire RX 7900 XTX Nitro+ Vapor-X Review: More Is More

[Admin]

Our Sapphire RX 7900 XTX testing shows slightly higher performance and better cooling compared to the reference card, with two large RGB strips to help brighten your day. This also marks the return of the Vapor-X branding, without the reference card's potentially bad batches.

Sapphire RX 7900 XTX Nitro+ Vapor-X Review: More Is More : Read more

 

[zecoeco]

This one narrows the gap even more with the RTX 4090.
It tells me that AMD can offer an RTX 4090 beating card with a lower price tag, but for some reason they're not interested in the beyond $1000 market.

 

[-Fran-]

Thank God Sapphire is actually cheaper in the EU than any other AMD partner XD

Vis a vis, this card is the same price as PowerColor and Asus models.

Such a great performer, but I don't like this design xP

Regards.

 

[DavidLejdar]

Over here, Vapor-X sells for 1,499 Euro, and 7900 XTX for 1,269 Euro (including 19% VAT in both cases). And sure is quite a price difference for such a FPS difference. And then there is the RX 7900 XT, going for less than 1,000 Euro now.

For the time being, I am fine with the RX 6700 XT (OC) though. At 1440p and ultra settings, I do get at least around 70 FPS in a number of games I tried so far.

A better GPU would increase the FPS, but it won't improve the built-in graphical assets of many a game, which are ever so often designed to run on consoles, where even the PS5 comes "only" with a peak performance of 10.3 TFlops. And a PC port usually doesn't redesign all of it, which means that a RX 6700 XT with 12.4 TFlops is not easily falling behind in that regard, especially when alongside a resonable CPU and a Gen4 SSD (which the PS5 and Xbox already have, for the increased transfer rate as well for the lower latency).

 

[cknobman]

IMO Ray Tracing today is like 4k gaming was back in the 1080ti generation.
Its possible but requires too many compromises and should only be used in specific cases.
We need 1-2 more generations before ray tracing will be mainstream.

So right now I could care less about ray tracing, especially at anything above 1080p.

 

[Elusive Ruse]

Good stuff Jarred, thanks. Great card but at anything above $1000 it's criminal. Not like a thousand dollars is a fair price mind you.

 

[redgarl]

So AMD AIBs card are costing more than reference cards and it is a con, but Nvidia ones are as worst but it is fine....

You wonder why we can take you guys seriously?

View: https://youtu.be/OCJYDJXDRHw

 

[redgarl]

You cannot find a 4090 at MSRP. They orbit around 1800$. And in all honesty, the 7900XTX AIB card can OC and be between 10-15% from a 4090.

 

[redgarl]

The performance of this card is impressive, however the aesthetic is horrible. Even if the XFX model perform worst, it is still provide enough headroom for a similar OC, and at least, it is one of the best looking GPU available.

 

[Sleepy_Hollowed]

Damn, if this was at MSRP I'd think about it, but it's a lot.

A little issue I have is that I don't know why game engine companies don't have an option to turn on Ray Tracing on cut scenes only and then none during gameplay, I'd be down for that, not that there's much difference on how games look most games anyways.

 

[Exploding PSU]

Always liked Sapphire cards, and this one is no exception. I personally buy GPUs mostly on aesthetic (after considering pricing obviously), as performance-wise GPUs of the same series from different brands probably aren't really that different between each other, especially for a casual user like me. I mean, maybe a couple degrees difference in temperature or a single-digit percent in FPS, but honestly not enough for me to feel it.

I liked the last year's model better (the Nitro Pure one), albeit I'm extremely impartial to white parts and random geometric shapes. The RGB look tasteful to me, albeit I personally wouldn't set it to rainbow colours and would settle to strictly static colour, kind of elegant.

Hey, that's just my opinion. From my short experience hanging around the forums I know any mention of RGB would invite open combat on the comments so... just to be on the safe side, the "you do you" disclaimer.

If I were in the market for a new GPU, I might consider picking this one up. But nah, I'm waiting for Yeston's turn.

I made fun of the box art on Sapphire's RX 6950 XT Nitro+ Pure, and I'm happy to say the blue and black artwork on the 7900 XTX is less ugly. Not that it really matters once you unpack the card.

Full transparency, the product packaging was part of the reason why I chose my current GPU. Yeah I know, doesn't make sense and all, but hey glad you mentioned the box... Cheers

 

[K1lted1]

The cards are certainly capable, just a shame that neither Sapphire or AMD are responding to the glaring issues concerning HDMI outputs to 3D 1080p monitors/TVs (4 weeks without a response so far) - https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/apparent-driver-issues-with-rx-7900-xt.3790846/

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

So AMD AIBs card are costing more than reference cards and it is a con, but Nvidia ones are as worst but it is fine....

You wonder why we can take you guys seriously?

We've mentioned pricing as a problem on pretty much every recent GPU launch. 4090 at $1,600 actually wouldn't be too bad if you consider it in terms of similarity to 3090 pricing, but it's often $2,000+. Only recently have I seen a 4090 in stock for close to MSRP. From our 4080 review:



No wonder we can't take you seriously! I mean, there it is, as the first con: High price. But reading comprehension is largely dead, I get that. And it's not like we said anything about pricing on the RTX 4070 Ti, right?


Whoa! Mind = blown! There it is, redgarl: "Big jump in generational pricing." Not only that, but the entire conclusion of this article includes several paragraphs talking about pricing, and if you look at retail right now, 4070 Ti and 4080 at actually better deals (relatively speaking) than any of the 7900 XTX cards. 7900 XT is also "okay" — meaning, overpriced but no worse than what we're seeing from Nvidia. I wonder how much we got paid to tell people the pricing isn't great, but that it's also the easiest thing to change in the future? (Hint: Rhymes with "hero" and begins with a Z.)

 

[BeedooX]

I wonder how much we got paid to tell people the pricing isn't great, but that it's also the easiest thing to change in the future? (Hint: Rhymes with "hero" and begins with a Z.)

I like this game, can we get another clue? 😀

 

[Avro Arrow]

Gotta have that RGB lighting, eh? It gives a 10% FPS boost and helps with RT!

At least I hope it does because that's usually the extra amount you pay to get it. I was never impressed by these "higher-end" cards with factory overclocks because the difference between them and a vanilla card is only ever significant when it comes to price.

The only video card that I ever bought for how it looked was my RX 6800 XT and that was just because after decades of using blower coolers, finally there was a Radeon 3-fan reference card. Other than that, I never cared what the cards looked like because I was always watching the screen, not the PC case.

If Powercolor was to charge an extra $200 for a Red Devil over a Challenger, I'd be taking the Challenger every time. I don't care that it looks bland because it's a video card. I don't have RGB RAM either because, sure, it's pretty and I do like RGB, but not enough to have to buy some "top-end" RAM that's already overpriced to begin with and then pay even more on top of that to have little LEDs built into the DIMM coolers. That just strikes me as insane.