Discussion Sapphire vs Powercolor: who takes the crown in 2023?

[Phil_33]

Do we have a winner?
I know for a fact that Sapphire always was the winner up untill now.
But it seems like Powercolor takes the crown now with the latest graphics cards, if we can believe the reviews.
Powercolor is better than Sapphire in temps, noise and power draw.
Really weird to see someone else taking the crown. All my life I have known as Sapphire being the King of AMD.

 

[Colif]

fastest XTX - Liquid devil (Powercolor) (only as it has no power limit)

which cards are you comparing?

I never had a Sapphire so I can't compare. My model has no reviews so I have to assume your opinion based on other cards they make.

 

[Phil_33]

fastest XTX - Liquid devil (Powercolor) (only as it has no power limit)

which cards are you comparing?

I never had a Sapphire so I can't compare. My model has no reviews so I have to assume your opinion based on other cards they make.

Hellhound vs Pulse/pure, hellhound vs nitro, red devil vs nitro.
Also don't know if it has a difference in build quality. Like material wise. Maybe the sapphire has stronger materials then power collor has.
But, noise, temps and power usage are all lower with hellhound compared to pulse/pure

 

[Colif]

Hellhound's are the ones sent out to reviewers. They not best cards they sell or the cheapest, sort of middle of the road. Have rgb but not argb
Top line is Liquid/Red Devil (only xtx gets a Liquid version)
Next is Hellhound
Next is Fighter (not all 7000 series cards have this model)
then the non named ones

7900 XT Hellhounds have same fans and a thinner heatsink to one I have - https://www.powercolor.com/product?id=1668741687 - I rarely hear my fans and they run all day (Afterburner fan curve)

hellhounds can beat nitros? Thats surprising...

 

[Phil_33]

Hellhound's are the ones sent out to reviewers. They not best cards they sell or the cheapest, sort of middle of the road. Have rgb but not argb
Top line is Liquid/Red Devil (only xtx gets a Liquid version)
Next is Hellhound
Next is Fighter (not all 7000 series cards have this model)
then the non named ones

7900 XT Hellhounds have same fans and a thinner heatsink to one I have - https://www.powercolor.com/product?id=1668741687 - I rarely hear my fans and they run all day (Afterburner fan curve)

hellhounds can beat nitros? Thats surprising...

I see. The only advantages sapphire might have is support and being easier to take apart.
Review for temps, noise and power draw (sad part: it doesn't contain the red devil) as you can see the hellhound does beat the nitro+ but only "just". And red devil would beat the nitro+ much more.
Whats even more shocking is that the triple design pure 7700xt is "only" 5 degrees lower then the pulse 7700xt from sapphire: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/sapphire-radeon-rx-7700-xt-pure/37.html

View: https://youtu.be/qNtX4rByAKg?si=8e_aCLWUwY68GYTF

 

[Colif]

The speed difference between red devil and hell hound isn't that big, 40mhz maybe. On the 7800xt models anyway.

You mainly pay for the extra argb on the red devil. The main reason I avoided the hellhound is it only has 2 color choices on the fans, and I didn't like either of them. There was a 3rd choice, which is off.

Hellhound beats nitro in this as well.

not sure about taking them apart, no videos yet of any apart from maybe the reference card. I haven't had any reason to contact support yet so I can't comment.

 

[Phil_33]

The speed difference between red devil and hell hound isn't that big, 40mhz maybe. On the 7800xt models anyway.

You mainly pay for the extra argb on the red devil. The main reason I avoided the hellhound is it only has 2 color choices on the fans, and I didn't like either of them. There was a 3rd choice, which is off.

Hellhound beats nitro in this as well.

not sure about taking them apart, no videos yet of any apart from maybe the reference card. I haven't had any reason to contact support yet so I can't comment.

Taking them apart:
Sapphire 7800xt Nitro+: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/sapphire-radeon-rx-7800-xt-nitro/3.html
Power Collor 7800xt Hellhound: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/powercolor-radeon-rx-7800-xt-hellhound/3.html
As you can see, the Sapphire is simple to take apart because you can take the shroud apart without taking the whole heatsink-card with it.
Hellhound is different, you'll need to seperate the heatsink from the shroud which is more difficult.
This is PURELY something for enthousiasts or people that tend to clean out their cards without touching the heatsink+card.
It is eventually better this way cause you can clean better, but even I don't thrust it fully and just would clean it with compressed air instead of taking the whole shroud off/taking the whole thing apart...

 

[Colif]

I didn't have luxury of choice when I picked my card. I couldn't base it on reviews showing how to take each one apart. As there still aren't any. I bought mine basically blind and its worked out pretty well so far.

It would have been nice when I picked my 7900xt if there had been more choices, like people with 7800xt have in cards. It could be a location thing but you still can't get my card here. Its been rare since release. Only one place locally has any Powercolor and they are who I got mine off. Sapphire appear easier to get. (realises he likely only person in his city with one).

So anyway, more choice might have meant I picked something else. If XTX were available I probably would have bought one of those but they were gone by time I saw my card on website. I can't get my card here at all now, and the XTX costs as much as I paid for the XT... but I doubt they let me swap

 

[Phil_33]

I didn't have luxury of choice when I picked my card. I couldn't base it on reviews showing how to take each one apart. As there still aren't any. I bought mine basically blind and its worked out pretty well so far.

It would have been nice when I picked my 7900xt if there had been more choices, like people with 7800xt have in cards. It could be a location thing but you still can't get my card here. Its been rare since release. Only one place locally has any Powercolor and they are who I got mine off. Sapphire appear easier to get. (realises he likely only person in his city with one).

So anyway, more choice might have meant I picked something else. If XTX were available I probably would have bought one of those but they were gone by time I saw my card on website. I can't get my card here at all now, and the XTX costs as much as I paid for the XT... but I doubt they let me swap

Offtopic: I don't have alot of luxury either. US=>50 dollars between 7700xt (470) and 7800xt (520)
Euro=>100 euro's apart. 7700xt (489 euro's) 7800xt (600 euro's)
This was last month.
Then this month, 7700xt hellhound that I was going for, sold out on the cheapest place. It was going for 489 euro's. Now its 537 euro's at another place.
All was seen on pcpartpicker.
So yea availabilty s*cks but I guess thats everywhere...

 

[Phil_33]

Back ontopic: in terms of performance, temps, noise and power draw, its a really close battle but power color takes the crown by a tiny bit.
The only advantages sapphire has is that their shroud comes off easaly and also their support might be better.

 

[Wuwu]

ASUS, shockingly are very good this time around with Radeon 7K.
Sapphire's base card the PULSE has a bad cooler, which is worse than the XTX's stock cooling configuration on the XT.

Put into perspective the ASUS TUF cooler can handle 380w 24/7 and not exceed 85c on hot spot in standard configuration. No clue if the die's are binned but my 7900 XT can stabilize 3.1-3.2ghz fine, just power limited.

Stock no repaste, no fan tuning.

ASUS TUF OC PCB (Used in both the 7900 XT and XTX variants.)

Sapphire uses the same parts between the PULSE and NITRO+ the only improvement is the cooler and an extra 8-pin power connector.

The XFX cards share the same PCB as the Sapphire's...
Some parts are different as I could not find an XT PCB, this is the XTX PCB, so do note more caps and more chokes for power / better filtering.

Powercolor Liquid Devil PCB.

Just another variant of the Sapphire / XFX PCB's but do note the components are more spread out, Powercolor seem to have opted for a more spacious PCB design. There may be more sensors in addition however. it does seem the board is more occupied.


The ASUS TUF is the only one with a truly different and custom layout / design.

 

[Phil_33]

ASUS, shockingly are very good this time around with Radeon 7K.
Sapphire's base card the PULSE has a bad cooler, which is worse than the XTX's stock cooling configuration on the XT.

Put into perspective the ASUS TUF cooler can handle 380w 24/7 and not exceed 85c on hot spot in standard configuration. No clue if the die's are binned but my 7900 XT can stabilize 3.1-3.2ghz fine, just power limited.

Stock no repaste, no fan tuning.

ASUS TUF OC PCB (Used in both the 7900 XT and XTX variants.)

Sapphire uses the same parts between the PULSE and NITRO+ the only improvement is the cooler and an extra 8-pin power connector.

The XFX cards share the same PCB as the Sapphire's...
Some parts are different as I could not find an XT PCB, this is the XTX PCB, so do note more caps and more chokes for power / better filtering.

Powercolor Liquid Devil PCB.

Just another variant of the Sapphire / XFX PCB's but do note the components are more spread out, Powercolor seem to have opted for a more spacious PCB design. There may be more sensors in addition however. it does seem the board is more occupied.


The ASUS TUF is the only one with a truly different and custom layout / design.

I see, good one. Allthough, as you can see, it's expensive compared to the rest. Only Nitro is equally expensive. Therefor, the hellhound has an edge. It performs really great, according to the reviews, and it (suppose to be) cheap if it is available everywhere.

You surprised me with the Sapphire pulse bit. Sapphire was the best you could get from amd partner cards. Suddenly, this year they made crap coolers... dissapointing.
Seems indeed that ASUS stepped up the game and are challenging the greater ones this year.