XFX Speedster Merc 310 7900 XTX review: Silent, frigid, and powerful

Price When Reviewed

$1,099

Best Prices Today: Speedster Merc 310 7900 XTX

Can AMD’s excellent RDNA 3 graphics playing cards be improved upon? The $999 Radeon RX 7900 XTX hits the streets at the moment, providing elegant efficiency that sprints previous Nvidia’s $1,200 GeForce RTX 4080 and challenges the $1,600 RTX 4090 for lots of of {dollars} much less. It’s a rip-roaring winner of a GPU, as our evaluation of AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX reference card confirmed—however AMD’s board design itself isn’t flawless.

With Nvidia’s rival RTX 40-series playing cards universally choosing gargantuan 3- to 4-slot coolers to tame their massive “Ada Lovelace” GPUs, AMD took the other route, trotting out a clear, enticing 2.5-slot reference card that matches into just about any PC. That’s nice for compatibility, however there’s a commerce off: Using a smaller cooler for the power-hungry XTX means the reference card has tremendous, however higher-than-usual temperatures and, extra tangibly, you’ll be able to undoubtedly hear its followers, regardless that we wouldn’t name it loud. Our mannequin additionally suffered from coil whine, a grievance we noticed from different reviewers as nicely.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Enter customized boards just like the $1,099 XFX Speedster Merc 310 7900 XTX we’re reviewing at the moment. The Merc 310 deploys XFX’s normal massive, badass, sleeky industrial design philosophy and it really works to nice impact, providing frigid temperatures and silent operating. XFX additionally added a 3rd 8-pin energy connector and an elective secondary BIOS swap that pumps energy from 327W to 339W, maxing out AMD’s Powerplay suggestions to provide overclocking fans loads of room to work with.

If you’ll be able to match this chonky looker in your case, the XFX Speedster Merc 310’s $100 premium delivers a way more nice general expertise than AMD’s reference card whereas nonetheless blowing previous the RTX 4080’s efficiency for considerably much less cash. Let’s dig in.

XFX Merc 310 7900 XTX specs, value, and options

We dove deep into the baseline Radeon RX 7900 XTX specs in our initial review. Check that out if you wish to rise up to hurry on the architectural modifications AMD made for these debut RDNA 3 GPUs. Our focus right here will probably be on the particular sauce XFX added to the Speedster Merc 310. Here’s its spec sheet:

XFX

The XFX Speedster Merc 310 7900 XTX comes manufacturing unit overclocked out of the field, hitting a rated 2,455MHz Game Clock in comparison with the reference card’s 2,300MHz. Flipping the useful dual-BIOS swap to the suitable unlocks the elective max-power BIOS talked about above, although XFX stresses that mode is not manufacturing unit examined and can possible require handbook tuning by fans for optimum outcomes. If you’re a tinkerer, that’s the place you’ll need to mess around.

Brad Chacos/IDG

We don’t take a look at overclocking prowess as a part of our evaluations, however we’re informed the XFX card may be coaxed near 3GHz in the event you handle to win the Silicon Lottery. The Merc 310 makes use of a full digital 15+2 section design together with these three 8-pin energy connectors to pump as a lot clear energy as doable into the GPU, serving to clock speeds soar.

We’ve been massive followers of XFX’s Speedster design in current generations and that holds true right here. The Speedster Merc 310 7900 XTX is a massive graphics card—measuring 3 slots thick and a loooooong 13.5 inches—however XFX loaded each inch with further cooling prowess, which ends up in the cardboard operating lifeless silent and ultra-cool underneath load.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

In addition to an enormous full-length aluminum heatsink and three massive followers with 13 blades apiece, XFX outfitted the Merc 310 with a nickel-plated copper vapor chamber that cools each the GPU and the reminiscence modules round it. XFX additionally took benefit of all of the metallic within the Merc, embedding a minimum of 20 completely different thermal pads all through its inside to tame temperatures on the GPU, VRAM, energy supply system, and bottom PCB parts alike. The aluminum backplate provides 33 % extra floor space than XFX’s 6950 XT Merc, and several other thermal pads join it to the rear of the PCB to assist hold temps down. Eight 6mm copper warmth pipes snake all through the heatsink’s fin stack to assist cooling endeavors much more. It’s frightfully efficient, as you’ll see in our benchmarks part.

It’s additionally massive and heavy with all that aluminum, nickel, and copper. Fortunately, XFX tosses a helpful “Z support bar” into the field to fight in opposition to potential GPU sag issues. It’s elective, however I’d use it in my very own system. The Speedster Merc 310 7900 XTX is a beefy boi.

XFX

I proceed to like XFX’s trendy aesthetics, which remind me of a muscle automobile and futuristic industrialist vibes smashed collectively. You received’t discover RGB aboard this black-and-silver magnificence, however the XFX brand glows a cool white when powered on. I like that XFX ditched the daring, however divisive “Merc” branding scrawled throughout the backplate in favor of a clear, unfettered look this time round. The Merc 310 additionally dumps the USB-C port discovered on AMD’s reference card in favor of a 3rd DisplayPort 2.1 connection.

All in all, the XFX Speedster Merc 310 7900 XTX is big, however efficient and enticing. Yes please. Now let’s get to the benchmarks.

Our take a look at system

We take a look at graphics playing cards on an AMD Ryzen 5900X PC used solely for benchmarking GPUs. We now take a look at with PCIe Resizable BAR (often known as Smart Access Memory on Ryzen programs) energetic, as most trendy gaming PCs launched within the final 4 years assist the performance-boosting characteristic, both natively or by way of 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 nicely. Most of the {hardware} was offered by the producers, however we bought the storage ourselves.

We’re evaluating XFX’s $1,099 Speedster Merc 310 7900 XTX in opposition to AMD’s personal $999 7900 XTX and $899 7900 XT reference boards, after all, in addition to Nvidia’s accessible RTX 40-series choices. We’ve additionally included outcomes from final era’s most ferocious GPUs as nicely.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

We take a look at a wide range 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 characterize a full vary of efficiency potential. Each sport is examined utilizing its in-game benchmark, sanity checked by Nvidia’s FrameView tool, on the highest doable graphics presets except in any other case famous, with VSync, body price 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) to push these playing cards to their limits.

We run every benchmark at the very least thrice and record the common consequence for every take a look at. Outside of esports, we’ve restricted our benchmarks to 4K and 1440p resolutions, as these are the pure suits for these juggernaut GPUs, most of which value 4 figures or extra at launch. The XFX’s manufacturing unit overclock solely offers a modest enhance over the reference 7900 XT’s efficiency, so we’re going to preset these gaming benchmarks with out commentary. For a deeper dive into gaming outcomes, together with ray tracing and FSR/DLSS efficiency, take a look at our unique Radeon RX 7900 XTX review.

XFX Speedster Merc 310 7900 XTX gaming efficiency benchmarks

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Power and thermals

We take a look at energy draw by looping the F1 22 benchmark at 4K for about 20 minutes after we’ve benchmarked all the things else (to heat up the GPU) and noting the best studying on our Watts Up Pro meter, which measures the ability consumption of our total take a look at 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 take a look at; it is a GPU-bound sport operating at a GPU-bound decision to gauge efficiency when the graphics card is sweating exhausting. If you’re enjoying a sport that additionally hammers the CPU, you might see larger general system energy attracts. Consider your self warned.

Brad Chacos/IDG

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX stunned us with its excessive energy draw. Upping the wattage and cranking clock speeds makes the XFX Speedster Merc 310 suck down much more, placing it roughly on par with Nvidia’s RTX 4090. It’s nonetheless nicely behind the insane energy draw of final era’s customized RTX 3080 Ti GPUs, nevertheless.

We take a look at thermals by leaving GPU-Z open in the course of the F1 22 energy draw take a look at, noting the best most temperature on the finish.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Here is the place the Speedster Merc 310 really shines. XFX full-metal juggernaut manages to remain a full 13 levels cooler than the AMD reference board, giving fans loads of room to muck round with overclocking and different endeavors. Better but, whereas our reference 7900 XTX mannequin consists of undoubtedly audible (however not loud) followers and a few surprisingly constant coil whine, the XFX Merc 310 runs totally silent. It’s a large high quality of life improve over the reference board.

Should you purchase the XFX Speedster Merc 310 7900 XTX?

If you’re looking for a roughly $1,000 to $1,200 new-gen graphics card, however don’t need to splurge $1,600 on the best-in-class GeForce RTX 4090, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers considerably extra efficiency in lots of video games than the $1,200 RTX 4080, whereas even going toe-to-toe with the 4090 at instances. Ray tracing lags nicely behind the RTX 40-series, however you’ll be able to nonetheless play ray traced video games with comparable ranges of efficiency to the last-gen RTX 3090 flagship, so it’s definitely no slouch.

For deeper shopping for recommendation breakdowns, take a look at the conclusion of our unique Radeon RX 7900 XTX review. In common, nevertheless, we think about the XTX to be a significantly better worth than the RTX 4080 except you place a heavy premium on ray tracing efficiency, DLSS 3 Frame Generation, and content material creation workloads, which all favor Nvidia closely. They’re secondary to simply enjoying video games, nevertheless, and the XTX shines on that entrance.

The actual query is whether or not you can purchase XFX’s customized board over AMD’s reference mannequin.

Brad Chacos/IDG

For most individuals, the reply is sure. If you want the reference 7900 XTX’s smaller dimension or USB-C port, it’s more likely to be one of many few choices to incorporate that mixture. The reference board is probably going additionally one of many few choices to stay to AMD’s $999 MSRP for the XTX in case your finances is unyielding.

But in the event you can open your pockets additional, XFX just about perfects the 7900 XTX components right here. Spending an additional $100 will get you a graphics card that’s nicely quicker than the RTX 4080 and may typically rival (and even beat) the vaunted 4090 throughout customary gameplay, in a bundle that’s enticing, ice chilly, and totally silent. XFX additionally threw in a max-power secondary BIOS and an additional energy connector so overclocking fans have loads of headroom to place all that cooling effectivity to work, although it lacks some specialised further options (equivalent to a fan management header and customizable RGB) you’ll little doubt discover in rival customized playing cards.

And, most hanging of all, the worth you’re paying for this kick-ass customized XTX is nonetheless at the very least $100 much less than the most cost effective doable RTX 4080. That’s rad. The XFX Speedster Merc 310 7900 XTX is face-meltingly quick, impressively cool, lifeless silent, and a (relative) worth choice. Most folks shouldn’t be looking for 4 determine GPUs, however in case you are, XFX’s customized card simply earns an Editors’ Choice Award and comes extremely beneficial.