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The Sapphire RX 7800 XT Nitro+ performs very much like any other RX 7800 XT when it comes to framerates. That's what always happens, so if your purchasing decision starts and ends with how many FPS you can get, there's not much reason to opt for a more expensive custom card instead of a reference card. But if you care about noise are perhaps RGB lighting, the Nitro+ has a lot more going for it.
Throughout our testing, the Sapphire card was barely audible above the noise floor of our testing environment. Depending on the rest of your PC, CPU and case fans can easily drown out the noise from the card. If you're trying to build a quiet but performant system, the Sapphire 7800 XT Nitro+ makes for an excellent choice.
Aesthetics, meanwhile, tend to be very personal. Some people love RGB lighting and others prefer a stealth black system. AMD's reference card caters to the latter, with no lighting and an understated appearance. It's too bad it doesn't have cooling and noise levels to match.
If you're already in the market for an RX 7800 XT graphics card, Sapphire's Nitro+ easily warrants consideration. Besides the top-tier Nitro+, it also has a Pulse model that might be worth a thought. However, the Pulse also cuts the fan count to two, and while the fans are still superior to AMD's reference card, we'd expect higher noise levels and thermals compared to the Nitro+.
Is the Nitro+ worth an extra $60? Again, depending on what you're after, yes. Anyone wanting a compact graphics card will need to look elsewhere, as this one is very large. Spending more for the big and bright RGB bar on top of the card may also be warranted for some folks. But from the pure performance perspective, you'd be better off putting the money into something else.
Street prices on the Nitro+ are also not great right now, currently sitting at $100 over the $559 MSRP. We don't expect them to stay that high, but it may take a few weeks for things to settle down. Otherwise, there are almost certainly better options for under $600.
The Sapphire RX 7800 XT Nitro+ doesn't radically change the story of AMD's Navi 32 lineup. It does fix some of the biggest shortcomings, though, like the relatively weak cooling of the reference card. For that reason, we rank it slightly higher than the reference card, even though we're giving both the same 3.5-stars score — consider this a 3.75-star card if that helps. That the advantage of course is contingent on retail prices coming down to the $559 MSRP or lower.
Ultimately, Sapphire's RX 7800 XT is a great example of a custom card that delivers everything you could want from the core GPU, provided you have a case that can accommodate the card. However, we still wish AMD had been able to create more of a separation between the new 7800 XT and the previous generation 6800 XT.
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