Monday, May 22nd 2023
Sapphire Releases Cheaper Radeon RX 7900 XT Nitro Card, Not Equipped with Vapor Chamber
Sapphire China has introduced a slightly cheaper alternative to its high-end Nitro Vapor-X card, based on AMD's Radeon RX 7900 XT GPU. The new Nitro OC L custom design (also translated as "XT 20G Ultra Platinum L") grants a saving of about $70 when stacked against the XT Nitro+ Vapor-X model. Local prices according to JD.com's listings are 6299 RMB (roughly $895) and 6799 RMB (around $966) respectively. The two cards appear to be very similar in appearance at first glance, but Sapphire has chosen to cut back on advanced cooling features and lighting.
The "Nitro OC L" comes with a more traditional copper base, which presumably helps reduce the unit's material cost, but this choice also lessens its cooling prowess - Sapphire's engineering team has lowered the card's clock speed boost down to 2450 MHz (from the Vapor-X's 2560 MHz), so performance is on-par with their RX 7900 XT PULSE model. The Nitro OC L features a single strip of RGB on the top of its shroud - its more expensive sibling sports a secondary lighting region on its underside (emitting in the direction of the motherboard). The Radeon RX 7900 XT Nitro OC L card has not been announced for launches in western markets yet, but we hope to hear more from Sapphire's international team very soon.
Sources:
Expreview, VideoCardz, Wccftech (image sources)
The "Nitro OC L" comes with a more traditional copper base, which presumably helps reduce the unit's material cost, but this choice also lessens its cooling prowess - Sapphire's engineering team has lowered the card's clock speed boost down to 2450 MHz (from the Vapor-X's 2560 MHz), so performance is on-par with their RX 7900 XT PULSE model. The Nitro OC L features a single strip of RGB on the top of its shroud - its more expensive sibling sports a secondary lighting region on its underside (emitting in the direction of the motherboard). The Radeon RX 7900 XT Nitro OC L card has not been announced for launches in western markets yet, but we hope to hear more from Sapphire's international team very soon.
9 Comments on Sapphire Releases Cheaper Radeon RX 7900 XT Nitro Card, Not Equipped with Vapor Chamber
Pulse is only $779 right now.
4K cost/frame:
If you want an actual high end GPU, 7900XT/X is the most sensible path honestly. Nvidia starts offering similar performance at 0.7 ~ 1.9 USD/frame higher.
This really shows how badly the x70 and x70ti are positioned, and how expensive the 4080 is. The added 1 USD/frame on the 4090 is only really 'worth the halo position' if you compare it to a 4080 - its almost 3 USD away from a 7900 series card. That's some hella pricy RT & DLSS3. This is why I settled on 7900XT. It being on perf/frame parity with a much lower Nvidia card is a pretty serious thing I think people are overlooking far too easily.