9070 XT: Red Devil LE versus Reaper

[sk3tch]

Got lucky enough to score a Reaper for $600 on the day after launch day at Micro Center - love the card. Got me curious about PowerColor's Red Devil - so I found a guy selling a Red Devil Limited Edition (#738 of 1500) a couple of days ago ($875 open box...not great but it still had the plastic on it). I have been putting them through their paces.

Main thing - undervolt. It does seem like the Red Devil is a "luckier" chip - it undervolts more and clocks higher. It also helps that it is absolutely massive compared to the Reaper.

This is both cards with -110 mV voltage offset in AMD Adrenalin and Fortnite gameplay; Reaper on the left - Red Devil on the right:

They're in different rigs - but both rigs have X670E mobos and a 9800X3D processor. Just thought it was interesting - definitely do not fear the Reaper. Awesome little card.

I had the Reaper at -115 mV last run and it got very close to the frequency limit (3,450 MHz) - but wanted an even playing field.

 

[piratepress]

Interesting. I had a chance to buy a Red Devil yesterday for $749 but decided to pass since I really want a standard $599 model. I've been in the GPU game for 30 years and have learned patience is a virtue. I feel that my odds of getting a regular 9070 XT will increase exponentially in the next couple months.

 

[sk3tch]

Interesting. I had a chance to buy a Red Devil yesterday for $749 but decided to pass since I really want a standard $599 model. I've been in the GPU game for 30 years and have learned patience is a virtue. I feel that my odds of getting a regular 9070 XT will increase exponentially in the next couple months.

Yeah - any OC card is BS and not worth it. But if it’s fun - go for it.

I don’t think $600 cards will be around any more.

 

[learners permit]

I'm skeptical of this as well but Lisa Su has pulled many rabbits out of her hat so far and I don't bet against her on anything.

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

Yeah - any OC card is BS and not worth it. But if it’s fun - go for it.

I don’t think $600 cards will be around any more.

The longer nvidia keeps this pricing model, the more amd will sell again at the right price. I predict quantity from amd if they are smart ….

 

[sk3tch]

The longer nvidia keeps this pricing model, the more amd will sell again at the right price. I predict quantity from amd if they are smart ….

It's greedy AIBs and then the "tariff" scam all combined into a perfect storm. Doesn't help that a lot of people put off builds for a year+ hoping for a major bump with NVIDIA's Blackwell 50 series - turns out AMD and NVIDIA are a lot more alike - just NVIDIA put gas on their top end model and cranked the wattage from 450W to 600W to show "gains" lol.

Really excited about the 9070 XT. I just hope more people give it a try. I see no reason for any NVIDIA card outside of a 5090 if you're a gamer.

 

[Dan_D]

I don’t think $600 cards will be around any more.

Pretty much. Most of the standard overclocked cards have pathetic OC's that only yield the smallest gains which you'd only really see in a benchmark. 1 or 2 FPS in a lot of cases if you are lucky. The cards with more meaningful overclocks are often excessively expensive and in my opinion rarely justify their cost either. I've owned FE type cards, reference boards and highly overclocked cards. In my experience I can get the majority of the same performance out of any other card type. If not, I can at least get close and in a lot of cases exceed the factory overclock of the high end cards. Rarely have I seen the higher end factory overclocked cards be able to do a whole lot more than any other card. You are generally either limited by power or the GPU silicon itself.

So at the end of the day for me, the value of the nicer cards often comes down to their aesthetic qualities. However, as I've done custom watercooling on my last few builds that's not really been a consideration either.

 

[nanaki]

Pretty much. Most of the standard overclocked cards have pathetic OC's that only yield the smallest gains which you'd only really see in a benchmark. 1 or 2 FPS in a lot of cases if you are lucky. The cards with more meaningful overclocks are often excessively expensive and in my opinion rarely justify their cost either. I've owned FE type cards, reference boards and highly overclocked cards. In my experience I can get the majority of the same performance out of any other card type. If not, I can at least get close and in a lot of cases exceed the factory overclock of the high end cards. Rarely have I seen the higher end factory overclocked cards be able to do a whole lot more than any other card. You are generally either limited by power or the GPU silicon itself.

So at the end of the day for me, the value of the nicer cards often comes down to their aesthetic qualities. However, as I've done custom watercooling on my last few builds that's not really been a consideration either.

Me when it comes to gpus i want performance bang for buck and im quite fine with the black slab gpu vs fancy logos and fancy looks i do not need more rgb in my case i have enough rgb. with ram my aio and my case fans kb muse etc all red rgb in a nice black corsair 4000d with a msi mag b650 thomahawk mother board i always liked red and black and with my kechron c3 pro kb and m1 mouse im damn sid lol
Now if i can find a 70000 series radeon or 9000 series at a good price to replace my elcheapo sub 100 buck rtx 2060 ill be good LOl

BTW
ryzen 9 7900x
64 gb ddr5 corsiar vengeance rgb (in black of course)
samsun 990 pro 4tb ssd
and the elcheapo $80 rtx 2060 lucky find lol
aio is a msi mag 240mm
basically sitting idle at the moment

I also have a xeon e5 2640 v4 with 32gb ddr and a machinist mother board 256gb wd m.2ssd a cheap 1tb hdd and some old junk but never fails gt710 or some such that i have not even booted up to do any thing with other than make sure it works it i am trying to get rid of for the right price it is still a serviceable machine

I want to get a radeon 9070 or at least a 7000 series and meh im partial to msi at the moment maybe ill get lucky LOL