INTRODUCTION

   Even though highly anticipated games like GTA 6 and Mass Effect 5 are still far away (especially for PC users in the case of the former) there are always some that clearly warrant the purchase of a new graphics card (Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Citizen for me). Yes, due to inflated prices 2022 and even 2023 weren't the two best years for people looking to get a brand new graphics card (or even a used one) but prices are currently down to almost normal levels (for now at least) so again, it's not a bad time to get one. AMD recently announced the two new members of their Radeon RX family, the Radeon RX 7700 XT and the Radeon RX 7800 XT and with me today i have what is probably the best implementation of the latter, the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB.

   SAPPHIRE Technology continues to be a world leading manufacturer and global supplier of innovative graphics and mainboard products, delivering its AMD Radeon based products to the PC markets addressing gaming, eSports and performance graphics enthusiasts as well as delivering an array of professional graphics products and embedded system solutions. Recently SAPPHIRE has penetrated new markets with a series of GPU Compute server systems targeting the blockchain and commercial cryptocurrency mining businesses.

   Unlike its larger brother the Radeon RX 7900 XT (Navi 31) the Radeon RX 7800 XT (Navi 32) comes wearing 60 RDNA 3 compute units, 3840 stream processors, 96 raster units (or render output units), 60 ray accelerators (or ray tracing cores), 240 TMUs (texture mapping units), 3 shader engines, 64MB of infinity cache and 16GB GDDR6 VRAM (19.5Gbps). In terms of supported technologies again we find AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 2.3 for maximum performance and visuals (Fluid Motion Frames technology), radiance display engine for incredible color accuracy at up to 8K 165Hz (12-bit HDR with full coverage of the REC2020 color space), raytracing for lifelike graphics, HYPR-RX game profiles, image sharpening, noise suppression which helps reduce ambient noise, anti-lag for faster input commands, smart access memory (performance boost when paired with an AMD Ryzen CPU), FreeSync for no image stuttering and tearing and AMD link which allows you to stream your Windows desktop and games to mobile devices, TVs and other Windows PCs. Needless to say the Nitro Plus model by SAPPHIRE sports numerous improvements over the stock model and so aside the obvious increase in game (2254MHz vs 2124MHz reference), boost (2565MHz vs 2430MHz reference) and memory (2438MHz vs 2025MHz reference) they've also used a high density 14-layer 2oz copper & TG PCB, cold rolled steel frame, digital power design, metal backplate, dedicated VRM cooling, dual-BIOS, composite heatpipes, 2 8-pin power connectors (288W power limit), ARGB LED bar, fuse protection and three two-ball bearing quick-connect fans with angular blades (needless to say a GPU holder/supporter is included in the bundle). So, how does the new Radeon RX 7800 XT compare to its larger (and smaller) brothers, let’s find out.