Buying advice
Buying advice
After much thought, I chose to get a RX9070XT but am still unsure which one. The options in the price range I’m open to are PowerColor Reaper, PowerColor Hellhound, Asrock Steel Legend, XFX Gaming Edition, XFX Quicksilver Magnetic Air, and Gigabyte Gaming OC. They all seem to offer similar performance, so if it comes down to build quality, which one do you think is the best?
CPU: Ryzen 7700X
CPU cooler: Thermalright PA 120 SE
Motherboard: MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk wifi (BIOS 7D75v1M)
Ram: Gskill Trident Z neo 6000MHz
Storage: ADATA SX6000LNP, Samsung 850EVO, 860QVO, 970EVO
GPU: PowerColor RX7700XT Hellhound
Power supply: Be Quiet pure power 12M 850W, 14 months old
Chassis: a budget rebranded version of (likely) an older Corsair model with four aftermarket Arctic fans (three intake, one exhaust)
Operating system: Windows 11
Display: DELL G2724D
The maximum GPU length fitting in the case is 330mm, which excludes the two XFX units
The cards I shared fall within a price range up to 750 euros; the rest exceed that limit and I prefer not to include the Sapphire Pulse card due to its 12VHPC requirement
Additionally, nearly all other cards I reviewed are longer than 330mm.
I own the AsRock Steel Legend 9070xt and I’m satisfied with it. However, all the other brands you referenced have a long history as well, making it unlikely to make a mistake with any of them.
On the powercolor cards, I believe the reaper is their basic model, so the hellhound probably offers a slightly superior build.
Regarding xfx, I think the magnetic air unit includes removable fans for cleaning, which suggests it’s a better option there.
In reality, any of<|pad|>’s cards should work fine and the performance should differ by only a few percent. I’d recommend choosing the card that looks best to you, has the beat warranty, and fits your budget.
The Steel Legend is what I was considering too, as it's also the most affordable option. I'm curious about its temperatures, particularly the VRAM. My current Hellhound struggles with low core temps, but the VRAM tends to reach over 85°C. I've also heard that high VRAM temperatures are common in the 9070s PowerColor models.