Final Thoughts
The PULSE Radeon RX 7900 XT is an excellent entry in the Sapphire family. It can perform a bit better than a reference card thanks to higher clock speeds and board power, and it is really, really quiet. In fact, though Sapphire offers a NITRO+ variant, I think this PULSE version hits a sweet spot – but you will need to move up to the NITRO+ if you require RGB.
The only area in which our AMD reference card performed better was actually thermals, but this is due to the reference card’s aggressive fan profile vs. the very conservative fan profile that our Sapphire sample shipped with. If you are willing to trade a bit of noise for lower temps, a simple fan curve adjustment (easily done in software) places this right up there with the AMD card.
Pricing Update, 03/22/23:
The value of this card is now a major part of the story, as pricing has dropped – literally overnight – from a $50 premium over the going rate of reference RX 7900 XT cards. It can now be found at an identical $799 street price. As of today (March 22) the PULSE RX 7900 XT is listed for $799.99 USD after a $20 rebate (Newegg link). At this point the only reason NOT to choose this card over reference would be a strict requirement for the smaller dimensions of AMD’s design in your particular build.
