5700xt Pulse vs Red Dragon vs stock

[gazref]

Tried googling some head to heads but I guess their still new.Looking for value to performance comparisons.

I think the consensus pick for best is the Red Dragon but its also the most expensive. Price to performance how does it stack up vs the pulse and stock?

Is the Red Dragon worth the premium over the Pulse?
Are both worth the premium over stock 5700xts?

+£25 for the Dragon vs Pulse
+£70 for the Pulse vs stock
+£95 for the Red Dragon vs stock


Opinions welcome. Thanks

 

[LeMson]

It's Red Devil, not dragon

 

[LeMson]

The pulse is in stock and is great, buy that OP!

 

[R3v4n]

Imo pulse and red devil are horribly overpriced right now. Their actual performance is barely increased and the same gains can be had very easily with a reference card.

They will be cooler and a bit quieter but depends what sort of premium you attach to that while I agree it's nice to have; to me its worth a £100 premium, and as I said actual FPS is no better.

To answer your question though - price to performance the reference card wins easy, since it gets the same performance as the other two at a lower price point.

 

[Troezar]

Reference makes sense if you're water cooling but not at this tier of cards. Reference also look good Vs the AIB cards until you push them hard then the heat and noise will become apparent. Over the life of the card the cost for a cooler quieter card seems quite low. I imagine your AIB card will sell better too come upgrade time.

 

[nashathedog]

I'm not sure how the Pulse compares to the Dragon but the it appears to be the clear winner when compared to MSI's two non reference models the Evoke & Mech, The Red Devil currently stands out from the pack partly due to it's size & 3 fan design, The Asus Strix may be an okay option but like MSI & Gigabyte they tend to always drop the ball in one way or another so of the models currently available here & elsewhere the Pulse would be my choice but because of the price I'd pay the extra for the Red Devil even though it means there's a wait for stock to materialize.

 

[nashathedog]

Imo pulse and red devil are horribly overpriced right now. Their actual performance is barely increased and the same gains can be had very easily with a reference card.

They will be cooler and a bit quieter but depends what sort of premium you attach to that while I agree it's nice to have; to me its worth a £100 premium, and as I said actual FPS is no better.

To answer your question though - price to performance the reference card wins easy, since it gets the same performance as the other two at a lower price point.

Like you said AIB's aren't going to offer better frame rates as the reference cards are pretty much balls to walls out of the box, The experience outside of performance is where they should excell.

For me the Red Devil's the current standout card,
I saw a review earlier where the Powercolor Red Devil was compared to the MSI Evoke & after being stripped down they found that the Red Devil heatsink was over 90% heavier than the Evokes & that along with the 3 fan design made it significantly cooler & quieter even though it did little for the performance, at the end of the day it's going to be down to how important those factors are to you.

 

[LeMson]

Like you said AIB's aren't going to offer better frame rates as the reference cards are pretty much balls to walls out of the box, The experience outside of performance is where they should excell.

For me the Red Devil's the current standout card,
I saw a review earlier where the Powercolor Red Devil was compared to the MSI Evoke & after being stripped down they found that the Red Devil heatsink was over 90% heavier than the Evokes & that along with the 3 fan design made it significantly cooler & quieter even though it did little for the performance, at the end of the day it's going to be down to how important those factors are to you.

What review was that Nash? link plx!

 

[nashathedog]

What review was that Nash? link plx!

Pulse to Evoke

Red Devil to Evoke from 2:56

 

[Ross Thomson]

I'm waiting till more are in stock and prices settle. the MSI gaming, gigabyte gaming OC and a couple of other high end 5700XT's are still to be reviewed. I'm buying a card based on sound.

 

[Ross Thomson]

I'm waiting till more are in stock and prices settle. the MSI gaming, gigabyte gaming OC and a couple of other high end 5700XT's are still to be reviewed. I'm buying a card based on sound.

 

[Ross Thomson]

I'm waiting till more are in stock and prices settle. the MSI gaming, gigabyte gaming OC and a couple of other high end 5700XT's are still to be reviewed. I'm buying a card based on sound.

 

[Danny75]

I like that the Pulse has dedicated heatsinks for the memory and VRMs. The cooling design looks lovely. There's no "band-aid" thermal pad just for show, pressing against fins or something and making little contact. Nice amount of thought has been put into it.

 

[lordhawkwind]

Having decided to buy a 5700XT the Red Devil was right at the top of my list. Unfortunately it's lack of availability and rising price meant I bought the Sapphire Pulse for £439. Still over priced but hey ho it was available. TBH I'm very impressed with the sound and heat under load compared to my Vega 64. I usually pass my old hardware to my son but Vega 64 would have meant a new PSU, fan and case so decided to sell it. At the shop the assistant said when did you last use this card it's still hot! Shows you how bad the reference cards were and when I took it out, compared to the Pulse, it looked crap.

Performance wise all of the AIB cards will be within a small difference to the stock card but I'm buying it for it's lower temps and noise first and foremost and the Pulse delivers in spades. I would highly recommend this card TBH.

 

[doody]

Got the pulse 2 days ago just played b/f 4 for one and a half hours silent/ max temperature 65c well happy just used ddu in safe mode to uninstall my gtx. 1660ti drivers working fine

 

[gazref]

It's Red Devil, not dragon

Doh. Not like I repeated that typo like 50 times hahah. Prices just feel anti consumer right now on cards and displays. Everything is just too much.

 

[LeMson]

Wish they would sort out delivery, still waiting for 3900X stock :S