Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT review: No-fuss performance

Price When Reviewed

$899.99

Best Prices Today: Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT

$869.99

$921.60

While fans drool over the ultra-premium, no-compromises expertise provided by Sapphire’s luxurious Nitro+ graphics cards, the corporate delivers the products for PC players on a finances, too. Rather than loading up on nifty however cost-adding options like RGB and dual-BIOS switches, Sapphire’s Pulse sequence of GPUs as a substitute focuses on giving an ideal, easy gaming expertise with out breaking the financial institution.

Case in level: The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT we’re reviewing at this time. 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 gentle manufacturing unit overclock, quieter fan noise, and a extra compelling show output configuration than the inventory mannequin—plus, by April 28, you may get a free copy of Sony’s The Last Of Us Part I for PC in the event you purchase the cardboard from a licensed vendor.

That’s fairly rad. Let’s dig in.

Note: See our roundup of the best GPUs for gaming to study 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 primary 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 know-how, AV1 encoding, DisplayPort 2.1 (not like 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 gentle overclock, hitting 2,075MHz quite than 2,025MHz, however that doesn’t virtually change efficiency except for sipping a bit extra energy (although the Pulse nonetheless solely requires a pair of normal 8-pin energy connectors to run).

Brad Chacos/IDG

The most enjoyable technical tweak could also be its port configuration. While the reference mannequin contains twin DisplayPort 2.1 connections, an HDMI 2.1a port, and USB-C, the Sapphire Pulse 7900 XT as a substitute ditches the USB-C port for a second HDMI providing. That’s useful 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, akin 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 offers 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 frequent at this time, it’s notably thicker than the svelte 2-slot AMD reference Radeon RX 7900 XT. The additional 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 the event you’re an fanatic that needs fancy options like RGB, GPU fan headers, and dual-BIOS switches. While definitely welcome, options like these add important additional 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 a substitute. 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 solely for benchmarking GPUs. We now check with PCIe Resizable BAR (also called Smart Access Memory on Ryzen methods) lively, as most trendy gaming PCs launched within the final 4 years help the performance-boosting characteristic, both natively or through a motherboard firmware replace. Nvidia additionally recommends turning on the elective “Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling” choice 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 often check quite a lot of video games spanning numerous engines, genres, vendor sponsorships (Nvidia, AMD, and Intel), and graphics APIs (DirectX 9, 11, DX12, and Vulkan), to attempt to symbolize 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 numerous 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 the event 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 potential graphics presets except in any other case famous, with VSync, body fee caps, real-time ray tracing or DLSS results, and FreeSync/G-Sync disabled, together with some other vendor-specific applied sciences like FidelityFX instruments or Nvidia Reflex. We’ve additionally enabled temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) when out there.

We run every benchmark a minimum of 3 times and listing the common 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 actually 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 all the pieces 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 essentially the most demanding portion. 

This isn’t a worst-case check; it is a GPU-bound sport working at a GPU-bound decision to gauge efficiency when the graphics card is sweating arduous. If you’re taking part in a sport that additionally hammers the CPU, you could possibly see larger 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 through the F1 22 power-draw check, noting the best most temperature on the finish.

Brad Chacos/IDG

The Sapphire Pulse delivers barely larger thermals than the reference 7900 XT, however temperatures stay glorious, and the rationale these thermals are larger is as a result of the Pulse’s additional 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 a substitute.

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 out there as little as $849, and different fashions for even much less. That pits the 7900 XT instantly towards 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 way more bang to your buck.

Brad Chacos/IDG

And in the event you’re on the lookout 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, certain, and also you received’t get additional 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 need to 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 could be discovered for as little as $579 nowadays. It’s undoubtedly 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 rivals, in at this time’s GPU market, last-gen is the place you’ll discover the very best offers.