In your opinion, what is the best AIB 7800XT card?

[CashmereThoughts]

The MBA was £499 on OCuk for the last 2 weeks and sold pretty well (over 70 in 10 days sales).

It’s a quiet and cool card and looks up there with the nitro in aesthetics.

I’ve overclocked mine to match a 6950xt on timespy (22000).

Following from my conversation yesterday with @GhostDog1981 (Thanks pal), and his subsequent reply -- it got me thinking, as to what the best AIB card is, and even if the AIB cards are better than the MBA cards, for 7800 XT?

What are your thoughts on this, guys and girls? This would also be massive help personally speaking, as I'm pretty certain that I'll buy one, unless something crazy turns up on Black Friday.

Thanks.

 

[uscool]

can imagine how that would look vertically mounted in my case

 

[CashmereThoughts]

Leaning towards this to be honest.

 

[uscool]

Leaning towards this to be honest.

temps wise yeah it seems better, but I would still go with nitro myself as I really like the look and I do also build for aesthetics and would 100% vertically mounting it

 

[CashmereThoughts]

temps wise yeah it seems better, but I would still go with nitro myself as I really like the look and I do also build for aesthetics and would 100% vertically mounting it

Nitro does look beautiful but I prefer a stealthy look anyway. Though I just read that the hellhound is a bit of hit and miss with coil whine which would instantly make me return the card. I'm building something this time that will work at silent levels.

 

[JediFragger]

Nitro does look beautiful but I prefer a stealthy look anyway. Though I just read that the hellhound is a bit of hit and miss with coil whine which would instantly make me return the card. I'm building something this time that will work at silent levels.

I don't think any of them are perfect tbh, @LtMatt had a 7800XT Nitro briefly and it had insane junction temps so it does really vary card-to-card.

 

[Tetras]

I'm building something this time that will work at silent levels.

Unfortunately the reviews rarely talk about coil whine, but the hellhound does seem to be one of the better coolers (there's a chart at the top of this page).

 

[CashmereThoughts]

Unfortunately the reviews rarely talk about coil whine, but the hellhound does seem to be one of the better coolers (there's a chart at the top of this page).

Agreed, and thus it's my pick over the Nitro +.

 

[Apex]

I'd pick the Nitro+, I like the aesthetic and have had many Sapphire cards and they've all been great.

 

[Morve]

I've got the Nitro, love it

 

[GhostDog1981]

can imagine how that would look vertically mounted in my case

Do it!

 

[GhostDog1981]

Unfortunately the reviews rarely talk about coil whine, but the hellhound does seem to be one of the better coolers (there's a chart at the top of this page).

No coil whine on my MBA sample and pretty quiet

 

[Joxeon]

I’d just get the cheapest version of the card available as they are all pretty much the same anyway, noise and temps vary more by the fan profiles the manufacturers assign rather than the coolers while the clocks can be adjusted on the base models to match or exceed the OC’d models.

A longer warranty maybe something that’s important if you plan to keep the card a long time but if you upgrade every 2 years then it doesn’t really matter.

 

[uscool]

I’d just get the cheapest version of the card available as they are all pretty much the same anyway, noise and temps vary more by the fan profiles the manufacturers assign rather than the coolers while the clocks can be adjusted on the base models to match or exceed the OC’d models.

A longer warranty maybe something that’s important if you plan to keep the card a long time but if you upgrade every 2 years then it doesn’t really matter.

I also enjoy building for aesthetics but doesn't mean I'd over pay for it though

 

[GhostDog1981]

I also enjoy building for aesthetics but doesn't mean I'd over pay for it though

Which is why I went for the MBA (technically it’s a Sapphire AIB card…), it’s beautiful to look at, good overclocker, quiet in my EVO case and saved few ten pound notes over the AIB versions.

 

[0h_no_not_again]

I can see the draw to the hellhound, but it was clocked down to achieve the low noise and power level. They're now really pricey as well...

I ended up with the "hottest" of the lot, being the Gigabyte OC. The reason isn't the cooler IMO, just that it had the highest OC of all variants (similar to the nitro+).

Anecdotally, mine hasn't broken 70C yet and is surprisingly quiet despite the reviews.

Ultimately, I think the 7800 isn't pushing any of the coolers hard enough to warrant the highest spec variants. As for the default clocks, meh. You can change them trivially. I seriously doubt any of the cards are binned, so why bother paying.

Oh and one final note is that I couldn't find more than 1 review for most cards. A great review could just be a golden sample, OR a great design...

 

[JediFragger]

Anecdotally, mine hasn't broken 70C yet and is surprisingly quiet despite the reviews.

I heard it was a good solid card tbf, underrated.

 

[0h_no_not_again]

I heard it was a good solid card tbf, underrated.

I guess what I was trying to say is all the 3 fan variants perform well and are cool and quiet.

I personally wouldn't go too far to get one particular one.

 

[Game]

Which is why I went for the MBA (technically it’s a Sapphire AIB card…), it’s beautiful to look at, good overclocker, quiet in my EVO case and saved few ten pound notes over the AIB versions

thats stunning love how the card is cut at the rear , how long are they btw

 

[GhostDog1981]

thats stunning love how the card is cut at the rear , how long are they btw

Perfect for SFF builds.