Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 stars7900 XTX Red Devil is a nice card, but the stock cooler is kinda meh
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2024
Honestly with this card being one of the cheaper models my expectations weren't exactly high and yet I'm still somewhat disappointed. I'll summarize my experience with this card with a list of Pros and Cons.
Pros:
-Cheaper than the other models and matches the price of the GTX 1080 Ti when it first launched (price adjusted for inflation)
-Handles just about every game I have played on my 240hz 1440p monitor without running into crashes or timeout issues. The issues I did have were patched by the time I decided to leave a more detailed review
-Supports newer DisplayPort versions if you care about that
-VR functions fine (running HP Reverb G2 using WMR)
-Adrenaline software is insanely user friendly with all of the tuning settings for the hardware coming with it. Although you will have to download the DevilZone software seperately if you want to control the RGB lighting of this card which isn't exactly a huge issue.
Cons:
-Stock cooler is S Tier Mediocrity with hotspot temps reaching or exceeding 105C and occasionally causing thermal shutdowns when under load.
-Stock settings can almost immediately cause a thermal shutdown when under load. Noisy fan curve, reduced clock speed and undervolting is almost mandatory in some cases. Best case scenario you will be at an 89-95C hotspot when turning a lot of settings in games off when only utilizing 80% of the GPU.
Side Note: I did try repasting this card as regularly reaching 105C temps were apparently not high enough to have the RMA accepted. Whenever I buy anything now I treat it as though the word "warranty" has no real meaning and that I should be prepared to fix and modify things myself.
Conclusion:
This card is great and functions perfectly fine, however when the card is put under load outside the 1080p range things can become a bit hectic. I highly recommend either getting the Liquid Devil whenever it's back in stock or ordering a custom waterblock for this. The total price of the card after installing the water loop is roughly the same as the other high-end 7900 XTX models that are out there on the market with the most expensive part being the waterblock itself. If you were already planning on doing a custom water loop then this shouldn't pose a problem for you, however if you have no interest in installing a custom water loop then I recommend looking for a different card or skipping this generation of GPUs altogether. At the end of the day this card is either a hit or a miss and may not be capable of safely meeting the capabilities it advertises on the box.