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

Rate When Reviewed

$899.99

Finest Prices Today: Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT

While lovers drool over the ultra-premium, no-compromises experience used by Sapphire’s elegant Nitro+ graphics cards, the business performs for PC players on a budget plan, too. Instead of packing up on clever however cost-adding functions like RGB and dual-BIOS switches, Sapphire’s Pulse series of GPUs rather concentrates on offering a terrific, simple video gaming experience without breaking the bank.

Case in point: The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT we’re evaluating today. Seemingly priced at the very same $899 as AMD’s recommendation 7900 XT, we’ve seen it choosing as low as $849 on the streets. In exchange for that lower cost, the Pulse uses a moderate factory overclock, quieter fan sound, and a more engaging display screen output setup than the stock design– plus, through April 28, you can get a totally free copy of Sony’s The Last Of United States Part I for PC if you purchase the card from a licensed seller.

That’s quite rad. Let’s dig in.

Keep in mind: See our roundup of the very best GPUs for video gaming to find out about completing items, what to search for in a GPU, and purchasing suggestions.

Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT functions, specifications, and style

The Sapphire Pulse is developed utilizing the very same fundamental setup as the recommendation GPU. You can wade much deeper into that in our initial Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT evaluation, however in a nutshell, this is a terrific graphics card for 1440p and 4K/60 video gaming alike, filled with 20GB of GDDR6 VRAM, AMD’s remarkable Infinity Cache innovation, AV1 encoding, DisplayPort 2.1 (unlike Nvidia), and assistance for game-enhancing Radeon functions like Smart Access Memory, Radeon Super Resolution, and FSR 2. And the brand-new RDNA 3 graphics architecture lastly made Radeon helpful for content developers!

Sapphire didn’t alter much under the hood. The Pulse 7900 XT uses a moderate overclock, striking 2,075 MHz instead of 2,025 MHz, however that does not virtually alter efficiency aside from drinking a bit more power (though the Pulse still just needs a set of basic 8-pin power adapters to run).

The most interesting technical tweak might be its port setup. While the recommendation design consists of double DisplayPort 2.1 connections, an HDMI 2.1 a port, and USB-C, the Sapphire Pulse 7900 XT rather dumps the USB-C port for a 2nd HDMI offering. That’s useful for screen versatility and VR headset users alike. It’s likewise an uncommon discover nowadays.

Sapphire revamped things over the hood entirely, to welcome result.

The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT’s customized cooling style operates in a number of elements and functions created to enhance dependability and thermals. Those consist of a metal backplate packed with thermal pads to assist dissipate heat, a trio of “angular speed fan blades” with two-ball bearings that Sapphire declares “lead to 44% more down atmospheric pressure and as much as 19% more air flow” compared to previous generations, and smart fan control coupled with ultra-accurate rotation speed for those blades. Include all of it up and the Pulse provides a happily peaceful video gaming experience.

The Sapphire Pulse provides a quickly, pixel-packed video gaming experience at visibly lower sound levels than the recommendation RX 7900 XT.

Sapphire likewise beautified the Pulse 7900 XT with beefed-up circuitry and internal parts, such as “ultra-high efficiency conductive polymer aluminum capacitors” to allow a 20-phase power shipment, a high-density PCB with copper blended in, and fuse defense to secure your valuable GPU if an element provides up the ghost. Sapphire even tosses an assistance bracket into package to fight prospective GPU droop while this monster prowls in your PC case.

You may require it. While the Sapphire Pulse’s 2.7-slot width looks downright sensible beside the 3- and 4-slot leviathans so typical today, it’s significantly thicker than the svelte 2-slot AMD recommendation Radeon RX 7900 XT. The additional heft and sufficient cooling hardware make the Pulse run significantly quieter than the referral card.

What you will not discover with the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT: additionals. Look somewhere else if you’re a lover that desires expensive functions like RGB, GPU fan headers, and dual-BIOS switches. While definitely welcome, functions like those include substantial additional expense, and the Pulse line is laser-focused on strong, simple efficiency that beats what you usually get in budget-priced variations of a GPU. If you desire enthusiast-focused bonus, highly think about Sapphire’s premium Nitro+ line rather. It’s constantly great however specifically outstanding this generation.

Enough talk. Let’s go into efficiency.

Our test system

We check graphics cards on an AMD Ryzen 5900X PC utilized solely for benchmarking GPUs. We now check with PCIe Resizable BAR (likewise referred to as Smart Access Memory on Ryzen systems) active, as the majority of contemporary video gaming PCs launched in the last 4 years support the performance-boosting function, either natively or by means of a motherboard firmware upgrade. Nvidia likewise suggests turning on the optional “Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling” alternative in Windows to let the RTX 40-series extend its legs to the max, so we’ve made that fine-tune. The majority of the hardware was supplied by the producers, however we bought the storage ourselves.

• AMD Ryzen 5900X, stock settings
• AMD Wraith Max cooler
• MSI Godlike X570 motherboard
• 32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4 3800 memory, XMP active
• Corsair HX1500i power supply (and optional $20 12VHPWR 600 cable television for Nvidia GPUs)
• 1TB SK Hynix Gold S31 SSD x2

We normally test a range of video games covering numerous engines, categories, supplier sponsorships (Nvidia, AMD, and Intel), and graphics APIs (DirectX 9, 11, DX12, and Vulkan), to attempt to represent a complete series of efficiency capacity. Given that the 7900 XT’s efficiency is currently well developed and the Sapphire Pulse does not featured a strong overclock, we spot-checked a smaller sized handful of titles covering those different APIs to reveal the efficiency distinctions in between the Pulse and the recommendation card.

Spoiler alert: They’re minimal. Take a look at our initial Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT evaluation for a much deeper set of criteria and basic AMD RDNA 3 analysis if you’re interested. We’ll exist these outcomes without much commentary.

Each video game is checked utilizing its in-game standard, peace of mind examined by Nvidia’s FrameView toolat the greatest possible graphics presets unless otherwise kept in mind, with VSync, frame rate caps, real-time ray tracing or DLSS results, and FreeSync/G-Sync handicapped, in addition to any other vendor-specific innovations like FidelityFX tools or Nvidia Reflex. We’ve likewise made it possible for temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) when readily available.

We run each criteria a minimum of 3 times and list the typical outcome for each test. Beyond esports, we’ve restricted our standards to 4K and 1440p resolutions, as those are the natural suitable for these juggernaut GPUs.

Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT power and thermals

Here’s where the crucial distinctions in between the AMD recommendation style and the Sapphire Pulse will genuinely shine. AMD created the referral Radeon RX 7900 XT to suit a small two-slot style; Sapphire crafted the Pulse for much better acoustic efficiency.

We evaluate power draw by looping theF1 22criteria at 4K for about 20 minutes after we’ve benchmarked whatever else (to heat up the GPU) and keeping in mind the greatest reading on our Watts Up Pro meter, which determines the power intake of our whole test system. The preliminary part of the race, where all completing automobiles are onscreen concurrently, tends to be the most requiring part.

This isn’t a worst-case test; this is a GPU-bound video game performing at a GPU-bound resolution to assess efficiency when the graphics card is sweating hard. If you’re playing a video game that likewise hammers the CPU, you might see greater general system power draws. Consider yourself alerted.

The Sapphire Pulse provides mostly the exact same efficiency as the referral 7900 XT, so it’s no surprise to see it draw approximately comparable levels of power. All of these high-end GPUs are fairly starved. Power needs power.

We evaluate thermals by leaving GPU-Z open throughout theF1 22power-draw test, keeping in mind the greatest optimum temperature level at the end.

The Sapphire Pulse provides a little greater thermals than the recommendation 7900 XT, however temperature levels stay outstanding, and the factor those thermals are greater is since the Pulse’s additional heatsink bulk and slower-spinning angular speed fans run much quieter than the recommendation card.

Should you purchase the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT?

When AMD introduced its brand-new RNDA 3-powered Radeon 7000-series, the $899 Radeon RX 7900 XT didn’t offer engaging adequate worth to advise. You ‘d be much better off costs another $100 and getting the exceptional Radeon RX 7900 XTX rather.

Now that we’re beginning to see discount rates (and an incredible Last of United States PC video game package) drip in, the Radeon RX 7900 XT shines a bit brighter. We’ve seen the Sapphire Pulse readily available as low as $849, and other designs for even less. That pits the 7900 XT straight versus customized GeForce RTX 4070 Ti designs, and the Radeon card wins that fight whenever with its faster 1440p/4K efficiency and adequate 20GB of memory. Nvidia wins on ray tracing and content production, however for pure video gaming, the Radeon RX 7900 XT provides a lot more value.

And if you’re searching for a strong, simple Radeon RX 7900 XT that will not spend a lot, highly think about the Sapphire Pulse. The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT provides a quickly, pixel-packed video gaming experience at visibly lower sound levels than the recommendation 7900 XT– precisely what Sapphire set out to do. Buying Sapphire’s rock-solid custom-made cooling for the exact same or less than a referral design makes it a no-brainer. It’s a bit thicker in your case, sure, and you will not get additional functions like RGB or dual-BIOS switches, however the Sapphire Pulse is effective, happily peaceful, and includes a welcome dual-HDMI port setup that you will not discover on a lot of other graphics cards.

With modern-day graphics cards costing a lot, nevertheless, you need to have the ability to get a strong high refresh-rate 1440p and 4K/60 video gaming for even less with a last-gen GPU like the Radeon RX 6800 XT, which can be discovered for as low as $579 nowadays. It’s absolutely slower than AMD’s most current and biggest offerings however look around if you can– while the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT provides engaging worth versus its direct contemporary rivals, in today’s GPU market, last-gen is where you’ll discover the very best offers.

Finest Prices Today: Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT

Author: Brad ChacosExecutive editor