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gpu choice

nerdshack888

nerdshack888

nerdshack888

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Joined
16 Aug 2025
Posts
92
Location
uk
Hi just built my first pc build and seems to work so far but you never know, but i have not bought my gpu yet and need to sort it out, looking at the 9070 xt but unsure which one to go for and pretty much narrowed it down to either:
1. Sapphire pure but 2 pcies only.
2. XFX Mercury OC 3 pcies
3. Powercolor Red Devil OC 3 pcies but minimum spec says 900w psu
4. Powercolor Hellhound OC but a lower class powercolor model.

my thoughts are i need to decide if the pure and the hellhound being only 2 connector pcies makes a difference, if to buy now or wait till closer to black friday, plus i worry about the coil whine possibilities, never paid this much for a gpu so need to get it right.

current pc build spec :
amd 9700x
msi b850 edge ti
corsair 850w psu
64 gb ram

want to game at 1440p at a pretty good standard.
 
AWPC said:
RTX5060Ti 16GB is the best GPU right now!
DLSS4 + Nvidia driver support is a long way ahead of AMD!
Click to expand...
hmmmm, but they really aren't.

Sapphire Pulse or nitro. I always like the form factor of the nitros however this time they have the 12v VHPWR connector so bear that in mind.
 
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welshrat said:
hmmmm, but they really aren't.
Click to expand...
Although the 9070XT is a great card, I'd have to choose Nvidia based on the game catalogue and the ability to have triple figure FPS/better visual clarity/higher settings on past titles.
I know FSR4 has levelled the playing field now, but there's still hundreds of FSR1/2 games that still haven't been updated, and given they never bothered to updated those to FSR3/3.1, I wouldn't hold your breathe with updating them to FSR4!

As of right now:
FSR4 has 85 games supported currently.
FSR3 has 224 games supported currently.
DLSS4 has 125 games supported currently.
DLSS3.X supported 860 games as of January 2025.

If I was buying AMD, it'd be a Sapphire, but be careful which one, the entry level Pulse's tend to have very loud fans, and run pretty hot; so you're better off going for a Pure or Nitro, from past experience.
 
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deviation said:
Although the 9070XT is a great card, I'd have to choose Nvidia based on the game catalogue and the ability to have triple figure FPS/better visual clarity/higher settings on past titles.
I know FSR4 has levelled the playing field now, but there's still hundreds of FSR1/2 games that still haven't been updated, and given they never bothered to updated those to FSR3/3.1, I wouldn't hold your breathe with updating them to FSR4!

As of right now:
FSR4 has 85 games supported currently.
FSR3 has 224 games supported currently.
DLSS4 has 125 games supported currently.
DLSS3.X supported 860 games as of January 2025.

If I was buying AMD, it'd be a Sapphire, but be careful which one, the entry level ones tend to have very loud fans, and run pretty hot!
Click to expand...
I agree DLSS has greater support, but the idea that Nvidia are far better with driver support is the same nonsense that has been spouted for years now and given all the recent NVIDIA driver issues lately I found the above post a little laughable, that's all
 
welshrat said:
I agree DLSS has greater support, but the idea that Nvidia are far better with driver support is the same nonsense that has been spouted for years now and given all the recent NVIDIA driver issues lately I found the above post a little laughable, that's all
Click to expand...

FWIW, I only have a 4070, but I've had zero driver issues since owning it from release.

I have witnessed some hilarious issues with a friends Adrenaline software multiple times, to the point I had to post on here to try and help him - CPU/GPU disappearing in the monitoring tab.
A safe mode DDU briefly fixed it, all for it to fail again with future Adrenaline/driver updates - a total of 3 times.

He's recently got an issue where he gets stutters in games that never stuttered in the past, on mine or his system?
The current one that's causing havok, is the THPS3+4 remake, I have it and it doesn't stutter at all, we can easily replicate the issue on his system everytime we play it, and he has triple figure FPS, so the cards more than capable; no matter what we enable/disable in Adrenaline, it doesn't fix it.

So IMHO, it'd be fair to say both camps have issues, but AMD owners, tend to not admit it as much? Where as I'll happily throw whatever brand I own under the bus if it plays up :cry:

Bang per buck wise, if you don't care about an ever increasing lack of previous title support, and don't care about triple figure FPS+High graphic fidelity+RT/PT, go AMD, bang per buck wise, it's pretty awesome :)
 
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welshrat said:
hmmmm, but they really aren't.

Sapphire Pulse or nitro. I always like the form factor of the nitros however this time they have the 12v VHPWR connector so bear that in mind.
Click to expand...
People waste thousands on GPUs & fancy low latency monitors yet Nvidia 5xxx series with DLSS + RTX FX is almost identical image wise yet far cheaper at lower resolutions with the AI handling the upscaling for you!

AMD are a long way behind on driver support............!!
 
AWPC said:
People waste thousands on GPUs & fancy low latency monitors yet Nvidia 5xxx series with DLSS + RTX FX is almost identical image wise yet far cheaper at lower resolutions with the AI handling the upscaling for you!

AMD are a long way behind on driver support............!!
Click to expand...
Do you mean FG with RTX FX? Because if you do, what you have said isn't really true.
 
deviation said:
If I was buying AMD, it'd be a Sapphire, but be careful which one, the entry level Pulse's tend to have very loud fans, and run pretty hot; so you're better off going for a Pure or Nitro, from past experience.
Click to expand...
Really? How long ago was that?

I've always found the Pulse models to be quiet, but a little hot and reviews suggest Sapphire optimise the fan curve on the Pulse for low noise.

One thing I don't like is that the Pulse 9060 XT uses sleeve bearings, whereas the Pure has ball bearings. I think that's the first time they've done that.
 
Tetras said:
Really? How long ago was that?

I've always found the Pulse models to be quiet, but a little hot and reviews suggest Sapphire optimise the fan curve on the Pulse for low noise.

One thing I don't like is that the Pulse 9060 XT uses sleeve bearings, whereas the Pure has ball bearings. I think that's the first time they've done that.
Click to expand...

My mates GF had a 5700XT Pulse, which was a big card, the fans were rather loud and it ran very hot :P

Years later she upgraded to a 7900XT/XTX - I forget which, sorry :P anyway, she saw mixed opinions on the Pulse, some claiming the fans were too loud, to the point they sent it back and paid the extra for a Pure/Nitro.

Which would make sense, given the Pulse is the value entry level model, so you have to gain something going to the Pure, being that there isn't much difference in price - TLDR, she went for the Pure and still has it :) It's a great card!

If this was a rare/isolated instance with 2 era specific models, then fair enough. I myself would just spend the extra for the Pure, as I'd kick myself if it was louder than it could be :)
 
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deviation said:
Years later she upgraded to a 7900XT/XTX - I forget which, sorry :P anyway, she saw mixed opinions on the Pulse, some claiming the fans were too loud, to the point they sent it back and paid the extra for a Pure/Nitro.
Click to expand...
Reviews look alright, are you sure it wasn't a reference model with a Sapphire logo on the box? They sold a fair chunk of those, even recently.

deviation said:
My mates GF had a 5700XT Pulse, which was a big card, the fans were rather loud and it ran very hot :P
Click to expand...
TPU's review does suggest it wasn't quiet (at least, compared to more modern cards), though they did praise the quiet BIOS option.

deviation said:
If this was a rare/isolated instance with 2 era specific models, then fair enough.
Click to expand...
Not sure, all I can say is that my Pulse models have been fine and they usually perform well (for noise) in reviews.

deviation said:
I myself would just spend the extra for the Pure, as I'd kick myself if it was louder than it could be :)
Click to expand...
Awkward to claim because I haven't seen any tear downs that I can compare the two, but I suspect (from looking at the pics and the last gen) that the 9070 XT's PCB and cooler design are the same for those models.

The 9060 XT is probably the same as well, except the change to ball bearings on the Pure.
 
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