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Trying to decide between two cards

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Dravenspur

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Joined
Dec 13, 2015
I'm trying to decide between the Sapphire Nitro+ 5700 XT and the MSI Gaming X 5700 XT. Both have received good reviews that I have seen. I know the MSI card isn't available yet, and I can wait, if I can get help with my question. My issue is with recommended PSU for both cards. The Sapphire says it needs a 650W PSU (from the specs on Sapphire's site) and the MSI Gaming X needs a 750W PSU. I have a 750W PSU. I've never gotten a card that needed the maximum of what my PSU can provide before. Will this be a problem? Is it ok to have the exact wattage a card calls for and still have it work? Or am I stuck (not the best word, as the Sapphire card is still good) with getting the Sapphire card because it calls for less power than I have? Thanks for any help that is provided.
 
My preference would be the msi as i think it looks better but that’s just my preference. Other than that check the warranty period and whichever is cheapest as there isn’t much if anything between them.

As for the power supply, 750 seems excessive for that card I cannot imagine why they would have that as a recommendation. All of the 5700xt cards perform pretty much the same. I cannot think of a reason why one card would need an additional 100 watts over the other. Cannot give a definitive answer as tbh I don’t know.


 
You'll be fine with a quality 750W PSU such as the one listed in your sig. They inflate those recommendations because someone is going to toast their system with a cheap unit that can't sustain it's rated wattage and claim, "the package said it would be OK." The BIOS I'm running on my Vega 64 carries a 1000W PSU recommendation, max I've seen from the wall using a kill-a-watt is 660W, and I've never had a problem using a high quality 750W PSU.

Yeah the AIB cards will have a slightly higher power target, but not enough to even make your PSU break a sweat. Personally I would get the Nitro+ anyway because of liking Sapphire. Also because of this statement from Nerd Jesus. I'm also a bit shy on MSI after they botched the Evoke's GDDR6 cooling.
 
Thanks guys. I will wait for the Sapphire card. I’m hoping it drops at some point back to the initial price of $440 that I saw. $470 on Newegg right now is a bit much for me. Hopefully around the holidays it goes down.
 
FYI: in case you didn't purchase yet
. I did not watch the video yet, but judging by the title frame and another Gaming X review I watched, spoiler alert, the cooler doesn't contact the entire surface of all of the GDDR6 modules.

Edit: after watching the video, while the Gaming X does have some missing thermal pad on the GDDR6, the memory temps appear to be acceptable despite this. Likely the temps have more to do with cooler design and airflow considerations (the Evoke OC had a pretty small stainless steel plate to dissipate heat from the GDDR6 and it had poor contact with the cooler itself as well as poor airflow). The Gaming X also has back plate pads, which may help some.

That said, the Nitro+ still gets an edge in noise normalized thermals.
 
Last edited:
Zerileous said:
FYI: in case you didn't purchase yet
. I did not watch the video yet, but judging by the title frame and another Gaming X review I watched, spoiler alert, the cooler doesn't contact the entire surface of all of the GDDR6 modules.

Edit: after watching the video, while the Gaming X does have some missing thermal pad on the GDDR6, the memory temps appear to be acceptable despite this. Likely the temps have more to do with cooler design and airflow considerations (the Evoke OC had a pretty small stainless steel plate to dissipate heat from the GDDR6 and it had poor contact with the cooler itself as well as poor airflow). The Gaming X also has back plate pads, which may help some.

That said, the Nitro+ still gets an edge in noise normalized thermals.
Click to expand...

Thanks Zerileous. I have moved off MSI and was deciding between ASUS and Sapphire. However, the review I saw from Hardware Unboxed for the STRIX card wasn’t great. The overall performance of the card wasn’t worth the price increase.

Now I’m just waiting for the Nitro+ to move back toward around regular price (I know it was 440...even 450 would be good). I’m waiting until around Black Friday. I’ll get it then. Hopefully supply gets better and the price goes down or there is a sale to get it back toward its regular price.
 
Dravenspur said:
...The overall performance of the card wasn’t worth the price increase....
Click to expand...

I feel like this is usually the case for Strix cards. You could also consider the power color red dragon or the 3 fan card from gigabyte if they were more reasonable in your area for availability. For me personally I would be looking for the cheapest card with a good cooler, i.e. something like the Sapphire Pulse, since PCB design doesn't seem to make a huge difference in performance. I believe there are ways to increase the power target of any card as well (loop up powerplay tables) but I'm not sure if you'd encounter limits on set frequency or not, but I think that's just a 5700 vs XT thing.
 
newegg screwed it up...they could not verify my address, called them friday...ended up buy the xfx rx 5700 xt raw 11. ...cost me $60 more
 
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