Price When Reviewed

$899.99

Best Prices Today: Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT

$869.99

$921.60

While lovers drool over the ultra-premium, no-compromises expertise supplied by Sapphire’s luxurious Nitro+ graphics cards, the corporate delivers the products for PC avid gamers on a price range, too. Rather than loading up on nifty however cost-adding options like RGB and dual-BIOS switches, Sapphire’s Pulse collection of GPUs as an alternative focuses on giving an important, easy gaming expertise with out breaking the financial institution.

Case in level: The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT we’re reviewing right now. Ostensibly priced on the similar $899 as AMD’s reference 7900 XT, we’ve seen it going for as little as $849 on the streets. In alternate for that decrease value, the Pulse presents a light manufacturing facility overclock, quieter fan noise, and a extra compelling show output configuration than the inventory mannequin—plus, by way of April 28, you will get a free copy of Sony’s The Last Of Us Part I for PC in case you purchase the cardboard from a certified vendor.

That’s fairly rad. Let’s dig in.

Note: See our roundup of the best GPUs for gaming to find out about competing merchandise, what to search for in a GPU, and shopping for suggestions.

Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT options, specs, and design

The Sapphire Pulse is constructed utilizing the identical fundamental configuration because the reference GPU. You can wade deeper into that in our unique Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT review, however in a nutshell, it is a nice graphics card for 1440p and 4K/60 gaming alike, loaded with 20GB of GDDR6 VRAM, AMD’s superior Infinity Cache expertise, AV1 encoding, DisplayPort 2.1 (in contrast to Nvidia), and help for game-enhancing Radeon options like Smart Access Memory, Radeon Super Resolution, and FSR 2. And the brand new RDNA 3 graphics structure lastly made Radeon useful for content creators!

Sapphire

Sapphire didn’t change a lot below the hood. The Pulse 7900 XT presents a light overclock, hitting 2,075MHz fairly than 2,025MHz, however that doesn’t virtually change efficiency apart from sipping a bit extra energy (although the Pulse nonetheless solely requires a pair of ordinary 8-pin energy connectors to run).

Brad Chacos/IDG

The most fun technical tweak could also be its port configuration. While the reference mannequin consists of twin DisplayPort 2.1 connections, an HDMI 2.1a port, and USB-C, the Sapphire Pulse 7900 XT as an alternative ditches the USB-C port for a second HDMI providing. That’s helpful for monitor flexibility and VR headset customers alike. It’s additionally a uncommon discover nowadays.

But Sapphire revamped issues over the hood fully, to welcome impact.

Brad Chacos/IDG

The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT’s customized cooling design works in a number of elements and options designed to enhance reliability and thermals. Those embody a steel backplate loaded with thermal pads to assist dissipate warmth, a trio of “angular velocity fan blades” with two-ball bearings that Sapphire claims “results in 44% more downward air pressure and up to 19% more airflow” in comparison with earlier generations, and clever fan management paired with ultra-accurate rotation pace for these blades. Add all of it up and the Pulse delivers a pleasantly quiet gaming expertise.

Sapphire additionally graced the Pulse 7900 XT with beefed-up circuitry and inner components, corresponding to “ultra-high performance conductive polymer aluminum capacitors” to allow a 20-phase energy supply, a high-density PCB with copper blended in, and fuse safety to safeguard your valuable GPU if a element provides up the ghost. Sapphire even tosses a help bracket into the field to fight potential GPU sag whereas this beast lurks in your PC case.

Brad Chacos/IDG

You would possibly want it. While the Sapphire Pulse’s 2.7-slot width seems to be downright cheap subsequent to the 3- and 4-slot behemoths so widespread right now, it’s notably thicker than the svelte 2-slot AMD reference Radeon RX 7900 XT. The further heft and ample cooling {hardware} make the Pulse run noticeably quieter than the reference card, nevertheless.

What you received’t discover with the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT: extras. Look elsewhere in case you’re an fanatic that needs fancy options like RGB, GPU fan headers, and dual-BIOS switches. While definitely welcome, options like these add vital further price, and the Pulse line is laser-focused on strong, easy efficiency that beats what you usually get in budget-priced variations of a GPU. If you need enthusiast-focused extras, strongly consider Sapphire’s premium Nitro+ line as an alternative. It’s at all times improbable however particularly spectacular this technology.

Enough discuss. Let’s dig into efficiency.

Our check system

We check graphics playing cards on an AMD Ryzen 5900X PC used completely for benchmarking GPUs. We now check with PCIe Resizable BAR (also called Smart Access Memory on Ryzen programs) energetic, as most trendy gaming PCs launched within the final 4 years help the performance-boosting function, both natively or by way of a motherboard firmware replace. Nvidia additionally recommends turning on the non-compulsory “Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling” possibility in Windows to let the RTX 40-series stretch its legs to the fullest, so we’ve made that tweak as effectively. Most of the {hardware} was offered by the producers, however we bought the storage ourselves.

We normally check quite a lot of video games spanning varied engines, genres, vendor sponsorships (Nvidia, AMD, and Intel), and graphics APIs (DirectX 9, 11, DX12, and Vulkan), to attempt to signify a full vary of efficiency potential. Since the 7900 XT’s efficiency is already effectively established and the Sapphire Pulse doesn’t include a fierce overclock, we spot-checked a smaller handful of titles spanning these varied APIs to point out the efficiency variations between the Pulse and the reference card.

Spoiler alert: They’re negligible. Check out our unique Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT review for a deeper set of benchmarks and basic AMD RDNA 3 evaluation in case you’re . We’ll be presenting these outcomes with out a lot commentary. 

Each sport is examined utilizing its in-game benchmark, sanity checked by Nvidia’s FrameView tool, on the highest attainable graphics presets until in any other case famous, with VSync, body fee caps, real-time ray tracing or DLSS results, and FreeSync/G-Sync disabled, together with every other vendor-specific applied sciences like FidelityFX instruments or Nvidia Reflex. We’ve additionally enabled temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) when obtainable.

We run every benchmark not less than 3 times and listing the typical consequence for every check. Outside of esports, we’ve restricted our benchmarks to 4K and 1440p resolutions, as these are the pure matches for these juggernaut GPUs.

Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT gaming efficiency

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT energy and thermals

Here’s the place the important thing variations between the AMD reference design and the Sapphire Pulse will really shine. AMD designed the reference Radeon RX 7900 XT to suit right into a tiny two-slot design; Sapphire engineered the Pulse for higher acoustic efficiency.

We check energy draw by looping the F1 22 benchmark at 4K for about 20 minutes after we’ve benchmarked every thing else (to heat up the GPU) and noting the best studying on our Watts Up Pro meter, which measures the facility consumption of our whole check system. The preliminary a part of the race, the place all competing vehicles are onscreen concurrently, tends to be probably the most demanding portion. 

This isn’t a worst-case check; it is a GPU-bound sport operating at a GPU-bound decision to gauge efficiency when the graphics card is sweating arduous. If you’re enjoying a sport that additionally hammers the CPU, you can see increased general system energy attracts. Consider your self warned.

Brad Chacos/IDG

The Sapphire Pulse presents largely the identical efficiency because the reference 7900 XT, so it’s no shock to see it draw roughly related ranges of energy as effectively. All of those high-end GPUs are comparatively voracious, nevertheless. Power requires energy.

We check thermals by leaving GPU-Z open throughout the F1 22 power-draw check, noting the best most temperature on the finish.

Brad Chacos/IDG

The Sapphire Pulse delivers barely increased thermals than the reference 7900 XT, however temperatures stay wonderful, and the rationale these thermals are increased is as a result of the Pulse’s further heatsink bulk and slower-spinning angular velocity followers run a lot quieter than the reference card.

Should you purchase the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT?

When AMD launched its new RNDA 3-powered Radeon 7000-series, the $899 Radeon RX 7900 XT didn’t present compelling sufficient worth to suggest. You’d be higher off spending one other $100 and grabbing the superior Radeon RX 7900 XTX as an alternative.

Now that we’re beginning to see reductions (and an superior Last of Us PC sport bundle) trickle in, the Radeon RX 7900 XT shines a bit brighter. We’ve seen the Sapphire Pulse obtainable as little as $849, and different fashions for even much less. That pits the 7900 XT immediately in opposition to custom GeForce RTX 4070 Ti models, and the Radeon card wins that battle each time with its quicker 1440p/4K efficiency and ample 20GB of reminiscence. Nvidia wins on ray tracing and content material creation, however for pure gaming, the Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers far more bang in your buck.

Brad Chacos/IDG

And in case you’re searching for a strong, easy Radeon RX 7900 XT that received’t break the financial institution, strongly take into account the Sapphire Pulse. The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers a quick, pixel-packed gaming expertise at noticeably decrease noise ranges than the reference 7900 XT—precisely what Sapphire got down to do. Investing in Sapphire’s rock-solid customized cooling for a similar or much less than a reference mannequin makes it a no brainer. It’s a bit thicker in your case, positive, and also you received’t get further options like RGB or dual-BIOS switches, however the Sapphire Pulse is highly effective, pleasantly quiet, and comes with a welcome dual-HDMI port configuration that you simply received’t discover on most different graphics playing cards.

With trendy graphics playing cards costing a lot, nevertheless, you must be capable of get a strong excessive refresh-rate 1440p and 4K/60 gaming for even much less with a last-gen GPU just like the Radeon RX 6800 XT, which will be discovered for as little as $579 nowadays. It’s positively slower than AMD’s newest and biggest choices however shop around if you can—whereas the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT presents compelling worth versus its direct trendy opponents, in right now’s GPU market, last-gen is the place you’ll discover one of the best offers.