Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X overview: Mountainous, badass, pleasing

Price When Reviewed

$1,199.ninety nine

Most efficient Prices This present day: Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X

Mountainous, badass graphics cards don’t derive unheard of bigger or more badass than the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X—the main Sapphire GPU to sport the premium Vapor-X effect in nearly a decade.

Whereas AMD’s reference model of the XTX sticks to a cheap 2.5-slot derive, Sapphire threw restraint out the window with the highly customized Nitro+. This monster swells to a bit quad-slot height, then adds an extra 8-pin vitality connector to fuel even loftier efficiency. It’s the fastest 7900 XTX we’ve examined and it runs wintry and gentle while making an are trying astonishing. This is one amongst the most spectacular custom graphics cards I’ve ever laid hands on.

In case your PC can fit this beast, and your wallet can accept its $1,200 tag—a $200 premium over the reference mannequin—then you definately’ll worship the total lot in regards to the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X. Let’s dig in.

Extra reading: The ideal graphics cards for PC gaming

Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X: Specs, ticket, and substances

There isn’t too unheard of to claim in regards to the Nitro+’s technical facets, because it’s running on the identical spectacular Radeon RX 7900 XTX chip as the reference mannequin, paired with an gigantic 24GB of snappily GDDR6 reminiscence. Sapphire tweaked and tuned it for rather more vitality, nonetheless.

The Nitro+ 7900 Vapor-X screams alongside with a blistering 2,510MHz Sport Clock, a indubitably intensive uplift over the reference 2,300MHz speeds. That suits the equally premium XFX Speedster Merc 7900 XTX, however the Sapphire card’s more ambiance pleasant cooler lets it squeak out certain victories across our gaming take a look at suite, even if handiest to the tune of a pair of extra (and practically unnoticeable) frames per second. The baseline 7900 XTX is already the second-strongest GPU on this planet, trailing handiest the $1,600 GeForce RTX 4090 in uncooked may possibly, and the Nitro+ cranks it to 11.

Doing so requires more literal vitality, nonetheless. The Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X calls for a trio of 8-pin vitality connectors, up from the reference model’s pair, and it’s rated to plan 420 watts of vitality. The reference XTX attracts 355W. Within the steady world, meaning the Nitro+ 7900 XTX consumes more vitality than even the RTX 4090 all the plan in which through gaming classes.

The cardboard incorporates a 3-capacity BIOS swap that changes the cardboard’s behavior, nonetheless. The default space lets you hop between the Nitro+’s dual BIOS recommendations utilizing Sapphire’s Trixx utility, as a substitute of having to manually flip the BIOS swap on the cardboard. Whenever you don’t are looking out to set up that tool, nonetheless, the second space sticks to the default excessive-efficiency BIOS, while the third space is a lower-vitality mode that drops to reference speeds in substitute for shaving 50W off the vitality plan. The default BIOS runs so wintry and gentle that there’s no reason to point out the low-vitality option unless vitality plan is a main plan back—and if it’s, you shouldn’t be looking out to search out a 7900 XTX to open with.

The Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X’s steady plan is its custom derive. There’s so unheard of hardware in right here, Sapphire tossed a GPU toughen bracket into the box to address your graphics card from doubtlessly sagging in its motherboard slot over time!

Let’s commence with aesthetics: The Nitro+ 7900 XTX looks absolutely pleasing, wearing a deliciously orderly all-metal derive, punctuated by raised, corpulent-length RGB bars on every facet of the heatsink. The bars a technique or the opposite shine with pleasing vibrancy, with rounded edges that add to its visible brotherly love. The default sweeping rainbow pattern fills your case with sparkling light since Sapphire slapped the bars on every facet. It’s pleasing, albeit in a totally a selection of capacity than the also-pleasing XFX Speedster Merc 7900 XTX, which went in an RGB-much less direction as a substitute.

The Nitro+ 7900 XTX’s honest secret sauce lies under the hood though. Sapphire absolutely stuffed this behemoth corpulent of cooling technology. Sapphire’s webpage for the Nitro+ goes into some distance deeper ingredient, however at a excessive level, the die-solid aluminum body holds a trio of axial fans with dual ball-bearing designs. They toughen Sapphire’s rad Mercurial Connect characteristic, which lets you immediate and easily disconnect individual fans if they need repair. Better yet, they dwell spinning fully when the GPU isn’t under excessive load. Which implies the Nitro+ 7900 XTX is fully silent whilst you aren’t gaming or performing other GPU-stressing work.

One more key perk: Sapphire slapped a second HDMI 2.1 port on the Nitro+, doubling up on the reference derive. VR users, select demonstrate! It’s joined by a pair of DisplayPort 2.1 connections, though Sapphire eschewed the reference mannequin’s USB-C port to encompass the extra HDMI. It also comprises important ARGB and fan headers within the event you’re going to love to hook it more deeply into the remaining of your system.

Of course, the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X helps all of AMD’s superior Radeon tool substances, like FSR, Radeon Anti-Spin, Tidy Glean admission to Reminiscence, and more. But sufficient chit-chat. Let’s derive to the benchmarks!

Our take a look at system

We take a look at graphics cards on an AMD Ryzen 5900X PC aged exclusively for benchmarking GPUs. We now take a look at with PCIe Resizable BAR (in general identified as Tidy Glean admission to Reminiscence on Ryzen methods) packed with life, as most modern gaming PCs launched within the final four years toughen the efficiency-boosting characteristic, either natively or via a motherboard firmware change. Nvidia also recommends turning on the no longer mandatory “Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling” option in Windows to let the RTX 40-sequence stretch its legs to the fullest, so we’ve made that tweak as properly. Many of the hardware modified into equipped by the producers, however we bought the storage ourselves.

• AMD Ryzen 5900X, stock settings
• AMD Wraith Max cooler
• MSI Godlike X570 motherboard
• 32GB G.Capability Trident Z Neo DDR4 3800 reminiscence, XMP packed with life
• Corsair HX1500i vitality provide (and no longer mandatory $20 12VHPWR 600 cable for Nvidia GPUs)
• 1TB SK Hynix Gold S31 SSD x2

We’re comparing the $1,200 Sapphire Nitro+ in opposition to the $1,000 reference Radeon RX 7900 XTX as properly as XFX’s equally premium $1,100 Speedster Merc custom card, as what we’re indubitably purchasing for right here is the Nitro+’s efficiency as a custom XTX mannequin. We’ve also incorporated other GPUs that are worth focused on whilst you’re purchasing for wonderful 4K and 1440p gaming.

We take a look at a diversity of games spanning varied engines, genres, dealer sponsorships (Nvidia, AMD, and Intel), and graphics APIs (DirectX 9, 11, DX12, and Vulkan), to come to a decision on a glimpse at to suggest a corpulent fluctuate of efficiency doable. Every sport is examined utilizing its in-sport benchmark, then sanity checked by Nvidia’s FrameView device, at the very most practical attainable graphics presets unless in any other case eminent, with VSync, body price caps, steady-time ray tracing or DLSS effects, and FreeSync/G-Sync disabled, alongside with any other dealer-negate applied sciences like FidelityFX tools or Nvidia Reflex. We’ve also enabled temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) to push these cards to their limits. We bustle every benchmark at the least three cases and checklist the neatly-liked result for every take a look at.

In deserve to rolling out our corpulent sorting out suite for this overview, we stuck to a much less advanced lineup that’s representative of a diversity of APIs (DX9, DX11, DX12, Vulkan), to demonstrate the Nitro+’s efficiency across varied scenarios. Assemble certain to verify out our preliminary Radeon RX 7900 XTX overview for a broader, deeper glimpse at the GPU’s long-established efficiency. (Briefly, it beats the $1,200 RTX 4080 in outmoded games for a unheard of much less pricey ticket, and suits the RTX 30-sequence’ ray-tracing efficiency, however lags some distance within the support of the RTX 40-sequence in ray tracing. It also lacks a DLSS 3 Frame gen competitor.)

Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X: Gaming efficiency benchmarks

Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X: Power and thermals

We take a look at vitality plan by looping the F1 22 benchmark at 4K for about 20 minutes after we’ve benchmarked the total lot else (to warmth up the GPU) and noting the very most practical reading on our Watts Up Official meter, which measures the vitality consumption of our total take a look at system. The preliminary portion of the crawl, the effect all competing cars are onscreen simultaneously, tends to be the most stressful fragment. 

This isn’t a worst-case take a look at; right here’s a GPU-mosey sport running at a GPU-mosey resolution to gauge efficiency when the graphics card is sweating onerous. Whenever you’re playing a sport that also hammers the CPU, that you would possibly well detect higher overall system vitality attracts. Withhold in thoughts your self warned.

The Sapphire Nitro+ pushes AMD’s already-vitality hungry Radeon 7900 XTX to fresh heights, however doing so requires even higher top vitality plan than the frightening RTX 4090. That’s a dinky of a bummer, however you in all probability aren’t looking out to search out a hearth-respiratory 7900 XTX for its efficiency.

We take a look at thermals by leaving GPU-Z open all the plan in which throughout the F1 22 vitality plan take a look at, noting the very most practical most temperature at the tip.

The Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX’s superior Vapor-X cooler does stellar work right here. Technically, it runs rather hotter than the XFX Speedster Merc, however every ship absolutely frigid outcomes that overclockers will worship, and the Nitro+’s gentler fan curve indubitably sounds even quieter than the already borderline-silent Merc. These are every illustrious custom designs that some distance outshine the undersized 7900 XTX reference mannequin, though you pay for it in ticket, vitality consumption, and sheer size.

Would possibly well composed you steal the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X?

Whenever you basically stick to outmoded games and wish a barn-burner of a graphics card for a full bunch of bucks lower than the RTX 4080, AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX is an wonderful resolution, as our fashioned overview detailed intensive. And within the event you’re going to love to splurge for a excessive-discontinuance, impeccably designed custom model of the XTX, Sapphire’s Nitro+ is properly worth focused on. It’s blisteringly snappily, wintry, gentle, and utterly wonderful.

It obtained’t be for every person. The Nitro+ is de facto huge and attracts more vitality than even the RTX 4090—however enormous, badass, custom cards are what you search recordsdata from from flagships like this. If that worries you, delight in the reference XTX’s smaller 2.5-slot, 2x 8-pin derive as a substitute. The price may possibly well also honest also give you dwell. Sapphire’s $200 premium feels justifiable for a custom derive this pleasing, however it indubitably also bumps it precise up in opposition to the GeForce RTX 4080’s (terribly excessive) starting ticket. The Nitro+ is faster, and also you obtained’t derive a RTX 4080 equivalent to the Nitro+’s spectacular quality with out spending nearer to $1,400 or $1,500, however within the event you space a higher premium on ray-tracing efficiency and DLSS 3 Frame Gen over card derive and overall quality of existence, that you would be in a position to—may possibly—decide for a “cheap” 4080 over the wonderfully baller Nitro+. (I wouldn’t.)

Staying in AMD-land, within the event you’re selecting a excessive-discontinuance 7900 XTX, the aesthetics and avenue pricing are the largest differentiators between the $1,200 Nitro+ and the $1,100 XFX Speedster Merc 7900 XTX. They’re every face-meltingly snappily, pleasing, and beautifully gentle and wintry. I myself select the Nitro+’s futuristic industrial glimpse and sparkling dual-facet RGB bars, however the Merc is a looker of a truly a selection of diversity. Race the effect your eyes (and wallet) e book you.

Bottom line? The Sapphire Nitro+ looks pleasing, runs frigid and damned-shut to boring silent, and it’s the fastest XTX we’ve examined (albeit by a hair). Whenever you’re within the marketplace for a four-figure graphics card that’s indubitably definitely worth the cash (cough no longer just like the RTX 4080 cough), we highly suggested this option. It’s the ideal Radeon affords.

Most efficient Prices This present day: Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X

Author: Brad Chacos, Government editor