If you haven’t checked the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX review yet (opens in new tab), now is a good time to do so. So the 7900 XTX is very competitive with Nvidia’s RTX 4080. (opens in new tab) It works for rasterized games, but runs hot and is a bit limited by AMD’s desire to keep reference cards on tight power budgets.
Enter Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X (opens in new tab)$1,199 (opens in new tab) | | £1,299 (opens in new tab) | | $2,099 AUD (opens in new tab)A pricey proposition, but at the time of writing, it’s still cheaper than the high-end RTX 4080’s asking price. The value advantage AMD promotes dries up, but you get a lot of cards for that price.
The Vapor-X branded Nitro+ is Sapphire’s flagship model, but we can’t rule out higher clocking Toxic models in the future as the underlying technology matures.
Please take a look. It’s clear that the similarities of conservatism that the reference card embodies are thrown out the window in favor of a big, beautiful design that allows the RDNA 3 Navi 31 silicon to unleash its full power.
Sapphire Nitro+ RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X Specs
Just like the reference RX 7900 XTX, at the heart of the Sapphire Nitro+ is a fully-enabled Navi 31 package with all seven chiplets fully unlocked. Up to 96 Graphics Compute Die (GCD) compute units are enabled. This gives us 6,144 stream processors, 96 ray accelerators, and 192 AI processors. All six memory controller dies (MCDs) are also enabled.
The card is equipped with 24GB of 20Gbps GDDR6 memory through a 384-bit memory interface, providing a total memory bandwidth of 960 GB/s.
Nitro+ RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X Specifications
GPUs: Navi 31
Shader unit: 6,144
Boost clock speed: 2,680MHz
Storage capacity: 24GB GDDR6
Memory speed: 20Gbps
output: 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 2x HDMI 2.1
Power connector: 3x 8-pin
price: $1,199 (opens in new tab)| | £1,299 (opens in new tab) | | $2,099 AUD (opens in new tab)
But that’s all the Sapphire flavored RX 7900 XTX has in common with the reference card. It has a boost clock of 2,680 MHz and a TDP of a whopping 420 Watts. That’s 65W more at 180MHz than the reference 7900 XTX. It also comes with three 8-pin power connectors. A card capable of consuming that much power clearly needs a capable cooler to control its temperature. Cooler is effectively a quad-slot behemoth. But is it enough to tame the beast?
The Nitro+ features Sapphire’s stunning 3.5 slot Pantheon cooling solution. The matte gray finish is minimalistic yet beautiful to look and feel. Among its many features are the Vapor-X vapor chamber, wave fins for noise reduction, and a die-cast aluminum front plate for VRM cooling, with much more surface area for heat dissipation compared to the reference model. It’s getting bigger. This is a cooler that looks like it could work perfectly with what’s on his Nvidia side of the fence.
The card has a full-coverage backplate with pads for cooling the PCB components and one of the most spectacular RGB implementations we’ve seen, with full-length light bars along each side of the card. and adds a premium touch. Overall, it feels like a well-designed card.
Video outputs consist of dual DP 2.1 ports and dual HDMI 2.1 ports, with Sapphire opting to drop the USB Type-C connection on the reference card.
The card includes a dual BIOS with a third location for user-defined settings controlled via Sapphire’s Trixx software. Additionally, the card includes an ARGB output for synchronizing the card’s lighting with the rest of the system. There is also a 4-pin fan header that can be used to activate adjacent fans depending on GPU temperature.
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The Sapphire Pantheon cooler is another worth mentioning. It’s hard to compare coolers with different architectures or his TDP, but when compared to reference coolers, the Sapphire is miles ahead in both noise level and temperature.
The PCB is packed in a 17+3 phase design with 70a power stages for both GPU and memory. Over 1000W can be delivered through poor graphics card silicon if needed.
Sapphire Nitro+ RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X Benchmarks and Performance
The battle between the RTX 4080 and RX 7900 XTX is one that will remain relevant for the long term as both cards are still in the early stages of their lifecycles. So how do they stack on top of each other?
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test equipment
CPU: Intel Core i9 12900K
Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Apex
sheep: 2x 16GB G.Skill Trident-Z DDR5-6000 C36
Storage: 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530
cooling: Cooler Master PL360 Flux 360mm AIO
Power supply unit: Corsair AX1000
For such a power-hungry GPU, the highest temperature I’ve seen was a surprisingly low 60°C. And the cooler was always kept effectively quiet without even having to work hard. Well done Sapphire! This is the best AMD cooler I’ve come across so far, but to be fair it’s safe to assume the likes of the MSI Suprim and Asus Strix coolers will also do an excellent job. 4080 is good enough, but not a very demanding chip.
We were not able to run the full benchmark suite before returning the reference RX 7900 XTX, but the temperature results we obtained confirm that the Sapphire is 8°C cooler than the reference model and has a much lower noise level. was showing. that too.
It’s truly amazing to see how good current high-end GPU coolers are. A TDP of 450W is well within capabilities, but that said, you have to consider the size of things.
Synthetic game performance
1440p gaming performance
4K gaming performance
Sapphire Nitro+ RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X Analysis
The Sapphire Nitro+ offers great performance, but as it has for the last three generations, it depends on what games you play and how much you value specific features. You probably know where I’m going with this.
The RTX 40 cards are still much better at ray tracing, but it’s good to see the RX 7000 series catching up to the RTX 30 series.But the RT and DLSS frame generation capabilities of Nvidia’s RTX 40 cards If you value , you should choose them. Keep an eye on AMD’s competing FSR 3.0. (opens in new tab) The technology will come true in 2023. Can we achieve the voodoo we want? Time will tell.
Going back to Sapphire, we can see that the mighty RTX 4090 isn’t too far off. (opens in new tab) Some rasterized games even managed to beat it at 1440p in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. In other titles without ray tracing, such as Far Cry 6 and Warhammer III, Nitro+ trails by a small margin over his RTX 4080, which was overclocked at his Zotac factory. . (opens in new tab)
Overall, the high-end GPU status quo hasn’t really changed. Nvidia has the fastest and most expensive card in the RTX 4090 as well as his 3090/Ti, plus his basically superior 4080 at a premium price. The RX 7900 cards, like the 6800/6900 series, are very competitive in non-ray tracing games.
Can future drivers get more out of the 7900’s chiplet architecture? AMD has definitely learned where its hardware and software bottlenecks lie, and it will be interesting to see where the chiplet journey goes.
Sapphire Nitro+ RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X Verdict
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Sapphire has done a great job with a twisted tongue dubbed the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X. We took the Navi 31 GPU and unleashed it. Faster, cooler, quieter and better looking than reference cards. Depending on the price in your country, I think the premium price Sapphire is asking for is well worth it.
The Sapphire Nitro+ has been masterfully designed from the ground up.
it looks stunning. These dual RGB light bars look great in the dark tinted tempered glass case, but the seemingly unusually placed light bar on the back of the card facing the motherboard adds a nice glow across the black motherboard. .
But not everything is bling. The Sapphire Nitro+ has been brilliantly designed from the ground up, the PCB is more than capable of handling the demanding Navi 31 chiplet GPU, and the cooler does an excellent job, hitting both cooling and quiet goals. I’m here.
The main drawback is the high power consumption. At 420W, it’s much higher than the reference RX 7900 XTX’s 355W. If that bothers you there are better options but it also means overclockers are free to push the card without the power and cooling constraints of the reference card and it reaches its maximum potential may hinder the
That’s what Sapphire is all about. The RX 7900 XTX has been unleashed. It may not be the RTX 4090 slayer the market will welcome, but if you’re an AMD fan and value his raster performance above all else, the Sapphire Nitro+ deserves to be on the shortlist. It’s the fastest AMD card I’ve ever owned.
