Much like a tree falling in the woods, recommended retail pricing poses a similar philosophical thought experiment in that if nobody can buy a graphics card at RRP, does it truly exist? Perhaps not, but the silver lining in these times of high demand is that overclocked models like Sapphire Pulse Nitro+ Radeon RX 9070 XT are now back in stock and cheaper than they were earlier this month.
Given the flurry of Amazon’s Spring Sale and Sapphire not explicitly listing this as a deal, it’d be easy for this discount to fall through the cracks. Currently priced at £685 in the UK, it’s actually notably less than the £699 it orignally debuted for in the first week of March. While I can’t tell you why it’s down in price, I can say it offers more value, putting it in line with MSRP models.
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 9070 XT
Sapphire Nitro+ is designed for those who demand a truly premium pixel pusher that blurs the line between midrange and high-end. Read our review.
Touting a brand-new RDNA 4 chip under the hood, AMD wiggles a lot of performance out of the midranger, placing it mostly on par with GeForce RTX 4080 Super at a lower price. Of course, your frame rate entirely depends on the game you’re playing, but you’ll generally see ample QHD frame rates with the occasional title welcoming 4K at max settings.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage, for example, runs at a comfortable 103fps with the resolution cranked right up. However, you’ll want to stick with FHD or QHD for more demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077, all while leveraging upscalers like FSR and its accompanying Frame Generation feature.
Speaking of which, AMD has overhauled its FidelityFX Super Resolution suite with the fourth generation, bringing with it better clarity with fewer visual artifacts. You can bump any existing game that has FSR 3.1 to FSR 4 with the click of a few buttons, but games like Cyberpunk 2077 that cap out at FSR 3 are bound to the previous iteration.
Sam found FSR 4 to be a feather in Radeon RX 9070 XT’s cap, praising its ability to improve ghosting, anti-aliasing, particle effects, and transparency effects. It does come with the smallest of frame rate penalties over 3.1, but you’ll notice finer details such as falling confetti, hair, blades of grass, and the likes all become much sharper with a more native look. A worthy trade-off, if you ask us.
My recommendation is that you give AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT a shot. If push comes to shove, Amazon allows you to return it within 30 days of receipt for a full refund. And in the meantime, make sure you’re following Club386 on Google News because we’ll unearth new deals each and every day.
