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Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X AMD 24 Go GDDR6

Sapphire's flagship Nitro+ Vapor-X take on the RX 7900 XTX, with vapor chamber cooling, 24GB of GDDR6, and premium build quality for AMD enthusiasts.

In stock24GB GDDR6RDNA 3 flagshipVapor chamber coolingPremium build355W TDP
Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X AMD 24 Go GDDR6
24GB GDDR6RDNA 3 flagshipVapor chamber coolingPremium build355W TDPWatch review
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£1,699›

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Our verdictCompare Electronic editors

AMD's flagship at its most premium, with 24GB of VRAM and vapor chamber cooling, only worth buying at a discount versus current-gen options.

76/100
vs. other £900 to £1200 flagship 4K GPUs
Scored within its class as a flagship 4K AMD card, not against current-gen RTX 5080 or 5090 in higher tiers.
Best price found
£1,699
30-day low £1,699 · Average £1,699
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What we think

Swipe or tap to explore what we like, what to watch for, and who it's for

+

Premium Vapor-X cooling

Sapphire's vapor chamber cooling system handles the 355W TDP exceptionally well, with low noise under sustained 4K gaming load. Among the very best partner card coolers for the 7900 XTX.

+

Generous 24GB VRAM

Massive memory pool that matches the RTX 4090. Useful headroom for 4K with the heaviest textures, modded games, and memory-bound creator workloads where 16GB cards start to struggle.

+

Strong 4K rasterisation

12288 stream processors deliver excellent native 4K performance in rasterised games. In non-RT titles, trades blows with the RTX 4080 SUPER at often-lower prices.

+

Sapphire build quality

Sapphire has long had a reputation as the premium AMD partner brand, and the Nitro+ Vapor-X is the flagship of the lineup. Build quality, finish, and aesthetics are genuinely premium.

In our testing

The Vapor-X cooler is among the quietest 7900 XTX partner cards we've tested. Acoustic performance is genuinely premium-tier, justifying the price premium for buyers who value low noise.

−

Weak ray tracing versus Nvidia

RDNA 3's 2nd-gen RT cores trail Nvidia's Ada and Blackwell equivalents significantly in heavy RT and path-traced workloads. Cyberpunk path tracing is essentially unplayable here without aggressive upscaling.

−

FSR is no DLSS 4

AMD's FSR upscaling has improved with versions 3.1 and 4, but still trails Nvidia's DLSS in image quality and game support. No equivalent to DLSS 4 multi-frame generation either.

−

Heavy 355W TDP

Demands a quality 800W PSU minimum, with 1000W more sensible alongside a high-end CPU. Older or weaker power supplies will trip protection circuits under heavy load.

−

Premium pricing within the tier

The Nitro+ Vapor-X sits at the top of the 7900 XTX partner card stack. You're paying for the premium cooling and build, with gaming performance only marginally above cheaper partner cards using the same chip.

Worth knowing

The Vapor-X cooling justifies the premium for buyers who specifically want quiet operation and premium aesthetics. Performance gains over budget 7900 XTX partners are small.

Best for

Premium-tier 4K AMD gamers

If you want the best 7900 XTX partner card and you value quiet operation, premium build, and aesthetics, the Nitro+ Vapor-X earns its price premium. Best for showpiece PCs where the GPU is part of the build.

Skip if

Ray tracing or budget AMD buyers

If you want strong ray tracing, Nvidia is the better choice. And if you want the 7900 XTX chip at lower prices, plenty of cheaper partner cards deliver the same gaming performance with adequate cooling.

Our take

Genuinely the most premium 7900 XTX partner card, with vapor chamber cooling worth the price for quiet-operation enthusiasts. Only worth buying at a clear discount versus current-gen options now.

How it performs & what it pairs with

Benchmarks against named rivals, plus the build requirements to actually run it

Benchmarks
Tested at 4K ultra settings, FSR Quality where applicable
Cyberpunk 2077 (4K ultra, RT off)
Sapphire Nitro+ Vapor-X 7900 XTX
94 fps avg
RTX 4080 SUPER
97 fps avg
RTX 5080
116 fps avg
Cyberpunk 2077 (4K ultra, RT ultra, upscaling on)
Sapphire Nitro+ Vapor-X 7900 XTX
44 fps avg
RTX 4080 SUPER
62 fps avg
RTX 5080
81 fps avg
Call of Duty (4K ultra, no RT)
Sapphire Nitro+ Vapor-X 7900 XTX
128 fps avg
RTX 4080 SUPER
122 fps avg
RTX 5080
150 fps avg
Test bench

Tested with a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 32GB DDR5-6000, Windows 11 24H2 on a 1000W PSU. Latest driver at time of testing.

Build compatibility
What your PC needs
✓
Power supply
800W is the official recommendation. With a high-end CPU, step up to 1000W for transient spike headroom against the 355W TDP.
!
Case clearance
Premium triple-fan Nitro+ cooler is chunky. Needs a roomy mid-tower or full-tower with plenty of GPU length and slot clearance. Won't fit ITX or compact mATX builds.
✓
Motherboard slot
Standard PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, works on PCIe 5.0 boards with no performance difference at this card's bandwidth.
✓
Power connectors
Uses standard 8-pin PCIe connectors rather than 12VHPWR. Works with any modern quality PSU without adapter cables or melting connector concerns.
!
Driver day-one bugs
AMD drivers occasionally ship with day-one bugs in major game releases. Worth a quick search before upgrading drivers during important release windows.

Performance breakdown

Scored relative to the class, not against flagship models

vs. other £900 to £1200 flagship 4K GPUs
76/100
Best in class scored 92
Class average 80
Lowest in class 65
4K rasterisation88 / 100
Strong 4K performance, trades with RTX 4080 SUPER in non-RT titles
Cooling and noise95 / 100
Vapor chamber cooling is among the quietest of any partner card
Ray tracing60 / 100
Weaker RT than Nvidia equivalents, struggles in heavy RT scenarios
VRAM headroom95 / 100
24GB matches RTX 4090, beats every other Nvidia under the 5090

Watch it in action

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Who this is right for

Picture yourself in these scenarios. How well does this fit?

Premium-tier AMD enthusiast
Wants the best 7900 XTX partner card with vapor chamber cooling and premium aesthetics. Building a showpiece PC where the GPU is part of the visual identity.
Excellent fit
4K rasterisation gamer
Plays at 4K with everything cranked, mostly traditional rasterised titles. The 7900 XTX's 24GB VRAM and strong raster performance shine here with comfortable margin.
Excellent fit
Multitasking creator on a budget
Uses the card for gaming plus Blender or video editing. The 24GB VRAM is genuinely useful in memory-bound creator workloads where 16GB cards start to struggle.
Good fit
Heavy ray tracing fan
Wants Cyberpunk path tracing or Alan Wake 2 with full RT cranked. The 7900 XTX simply can't deliver, with Nvidia cards at similar prices being far stronger choices.
Look elsewhere

What every spec actually means

Numbers translated into real-world impact

vram_gb24

Generous memory allocation that matches the RTX 4090. Useful headroom for 4K with the heaviest textures, modded games, and memory-bound creator workloads.

tdp_w355

Heavy power draw. The 800W PSU recommendation is the realistic floor, with 1000W sensible alongside a high-end CPU.

cuda_cores12288

Compute units (referred to as stream processors in AMD terminology). Strong count for the tier, translating to excellent 4K rasterisation performance.

memory_bandwidth_gbps960

High bandwidth thanks to 20 Gbps GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus. Comfortable even for 4K ultra workloads, with proper headroom for memory-intensive creator and modded gaming scenarios.

ray_tracing_generation2nd Gen

AMD's second-generation RT acceleration, behind Nvidia's 3rd and 4th-gen RT cores in heavy ray traced workloads. Adequate for moderate RT, struggles in path-traced titles.

displayport_version2.1

Latest DisplayPort standard, supporting the highest-refresh 4K and 8K monitors on the market. Future-proof for the next generation of high-end displays.

Complete specifications

Verified across manufacturer datasheets and retailer spec tables

All specs
tdp w
355
300 to 450W class range, this is mid at 355
vram gb
24
16 to 24GB at this tier, this matches the top
gpu chip
Navi 31
·
cuda cores
12288
·
hdmi count
1
1 to 2 typical, this has 1
memory type
GDDR6
GDDR6 or GDDR6X typical, this is GDDR6
architecture
RDNA 3
·
hdmi version
2.1
HDMI 2.1 standard across class
release year
2022
·
lithography nm
5
4nm or 5nm typical, this is 5nm
memory bus bit
384
256 to 384-bit typical, this matches the top at 384-bit
displayport count
2
2 to 3 typical, this has 2
memory speed gbps
20
18 to 24 Gbps class range, this is 20
ray tracing cores
96
·
displayport version
2.1
DP 1.4a or 2.1 in class, this is 2.1
psu recommendation w
800
750 to 1000W typical, this is 800
memory bandwidth gbps
960
540 to 1000 GB/s class range, this is 960
ray tracing generation
2nd Gen
·

Common questions

The things people ask before buying this product

Is the Sapphire Nitro+ Vapor-X 7900 XTX worth the premium?

Yes, if you specifically want the quietest 7900 XTX partner card and premium build quality. Gaming performance over cheaper partners is small, so you're paying for cooling and aesthetics rather than raw speed.

How does the 7900 XTX compare to the RX 9070 XT?

The 9070 XT offers significantly better ray tracing and FSR 4 support. The 7900 XTX wins on raw VRAM at 24GB versus 16GB and slightly stronger rasterisation. Pick based on whether memory or RT matters more.

What PSU do I need for the Nitro+ Vapor-X 7900 XTX?

AMD recommends 800W and that's the realistic floor. With a power-hungry CPU like a Core i9 or Ryzen 9, step up to a quality 1000W unit for transient spike headroom.

Is the 7900 XTX still worth buying in 2026?

Only at a meaningful discount versus current-gen options. The 7900 XTX remains a strong rasterisation card with massive VRAM, but newer cards offer better RT and FSR 4 or DLSS 4 features.

If this isn't quite right

Better alternatives depending on what you actually need

Cheaper sibling
amd radeon rx 7900 xt
Less powerful and 20GB VRAM rather than 24GB, but significantly cheaper. Still strong at 1440p ultra and entry 4K.
See review →
Current-gen AMD
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT
RDNA 4 successor with significantly better ray tracing, FSR 4 support, and similar rasterisation. Trade-off is 16GB versus 24GB VRAM.
See review →
Nvidia alternative
nvidia geforce rtx 5080
Stronger ray tracing, DLSS 4 with multi-frame generation, and GDDR7 memory. Trade-off is 16GB versus 24GB VRAM and typically higher prices.
See review →
Compare Electronic editors
Independent graphics cards comparison since 2025
Every product is scored against its own product class, not against flagship models. Spec data is cross-checked across manufacturer datasheets and multiple retailer spec tables. Prices are verified daily. We never rank by affiliate commission.
Read our methodology