XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT Black Edition, 16GB GDDR6, HDMI, 3x DP

Schon AMDs Referenzdesign (MBA) der Radeon RX 7800 XT wusste zu überzeugen, doch die Custom-Designs Asus TUF Gaming OC, PowerColor Hellhound, Sapphire Nitro+ und Merc 319 kühlen noch einmal besser und bleiben trotzdem leiser. Welches Modell im Vergleich die beste Vorstellung abliefert, klärt der Test.

With my review of the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT reference card we learned a lot about where the new RX 7800 XT GPU fits in with the competition. But while the reference design is still my favorite overall with its all-metal construction, its compact size does put limitations on its cooling performance, and being a reference design it isn’t overclocked. Getting to check out the XFX Merc 319 7800 XT Black helps us complete the picture, especially when our only RX 6800 XT was also an XFX Merc 319 Black. The Merc 319 7800 XT Black hasn’t changed its styling at all but the similar black and silver styling with no unneeded “gamer” shapes or lighting in the card design has kept XFX’s design relevant. It is a lot like a tuxedo, staying simple, clean, and always in style. The thick dia-cast aluminum backplate was a nice addition as well, I would still love to see the shroud also be metal to match but the backplate helps give the big card the strength needed to not sag. Of course, like with most cards these days and especially when compared to the reference 7800 XT the Merc 319 7800 XT Black is a huge card so you do have to keep that in mind. That size played a big role in its cooling performance in our testing. The fans when cranked up to 50% and 100% fan speed were loud, but with a real load on the card the Merc 319 7800 XT Black ran extremely cool and the fans were quiet. It also improved the GPU Hotspot temps which were an issue in the reference 7800 XT testing. The Merc 319 7800 XT Black also uses standard PCIe power plugs, so you don’t have to worry about running an adapter or having to upgrade your power supply just yet which will help keep build costs down. As for performance, the Merc 319 7800 XT Black impressed with a higher than average performance improvement. Normally 3% is what you can expect from overclocked cards but in a lot of my tests, I saw 4.5%. This just reinforced what I saw previously on the 7800 XT, It has solid 1440p performance that will handle the sweat spot high refresh rate 1440p monitors and is capable at 4K as well if needed. While using more power the Merc 319 7800 XT Black improved on the score-watt efficiency which is rare for an overclocked card, which is normally sacrificed. The Merc 319 7800 XT Black outperformed the RTX 4070 across the board of course and did make strides in matching the RX 6800 XT but was still just slightly behind in our tests. I spoke a lot about it in our reference card review, but while it is clear that AMD has the 7800 XT positioned to replace the 6800 not the 6800 XT, the optics of the 6800 XT matching and sometimes outperforming the new card is still a tough one. Blender performance, like with all of the AMD cards compared to Nvidia’s current performance was rough, if that is what you are mainly going to be using the card for it isn’t a good match. AMD has made big improvements in ray tracing and FSR performance but Nvidia is still ahead there as well. As always pricing will make or break things and I’m told that the Merc 319 7800 XT Black is expected to hit stores at 529.99 to 539.99 which isn’t too much more than the MSRP of the reference 7800 XT. The value compared to the RTX 4070 looks promising. But that will only become clear once the stock of older RX 6800 XT cards clears out. Those are currently selling around the price of the reference 7800 XT which makes it even harder to look at an overclocked 7800 XT like the Merc 319 7800 XT Black. That said if you know you are shopping for an RX 7800 XT then the XFX Merc 319 7800 XT Black is looking great. Its performance over the stock card was impressive especially when it came to cooling performance where it dominated and even helped its under-load noise testing noise levels to be among the quietest that we have tested. Of course, all of that cooling does mean you have to deal with a huge card. AMD has also bundled Starfield Premium with these which runs $99, so if you were planning on picking that up that could sweeten the deal.

The XFX RX 7800 XT Merc 319 is the company's flagship card for this release. It comes with an upgraded triple-slot, triple-fan cooler that has a full-metal shroud, dual BIOS, and a large factory overclock. Compared to AMD reference speeds, the Merc 319 ticks at a gaming clock frequency of 2254 MHz, which is a 6% increase over the 2124 MHz baseline value set by AMD. Averaged over the 25 games in our test suite, at 1440p resolution, this leads to a 4% performance improvement over the AMD reference card—not much, but that's how factory overclocks work these days. Actually, all RX 7800 XT custom designs tested today reach virtually the same performance levels, which can be a good thing, because it really doesn't matter which one you pick, at least when it comes to gaming performance.

Both the Radeon RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT graphics cards are recent introductions specifically for my favourite monitor resolution, the WQHD monitor range. Both cards feature a notable shader count and VRAM buffers when evaluating their specifications. They are strategically positioned between the GeForce 4060 Ti and RTX 4070, aiming to blend performance and cost-effectiveness. The tested 7800 Xt I do seem to like a notch better overall, and it's just $50 more, so that would be an easy choice for men. The extra VRAM, wider memory bus and 13%-14% extra performance pretty much make the choice a no-brainer. The 7800 XT series does not present groundbreaking technological advancements but brings incremental improvements in raw performance. What I am saying, here is AMD is still a step behind in Raytracing performance and efficient adaptive supersampling techniques with the help of an AI assist. However, most people still do not care about the latter one and as such crave faster shader performance. And here these graphics cards definitely deliver. Notable features include AV1 compatibility, incorporation of the rDNA3 architecture, and updated monitor connectors, all of which enhance the overall user experience but really might not be compelling enough to switch away from NVIDIA. In terms of performance, the RX 7800 XT closely mirrors its 6800XT/6900 XT predecessors within this competitive market segment. Alternatives might offer distinct benefits, so potential buyers should assess their options carefully.

So let’s break down really, what we already know. The 7800 XT is a good GPU and is arguably the best graphics card that has launched since the 6000 series or 30 series from NVIDIA. It did seem with the likes of the 7900 XT, RX 7600 and the whole of the NVIDIA 40 series lineup that both brands had lost touch a little with what consumers wanted but it feels like the 7800 XT has clawed things back for them a bit. Compared to the 6800 XT, it’s…well… okay and that’s all I can really say about it. I was honestly expecting a little more, and to a consumer’s eyes, I fear they may look at it as AMD doing “enough” and in 2023, is that really enough? A small uplift with some improved Ray Tracing and upscaling performance? What’s happened to the days of having the wow factor where we see huge performance increases from the previous generation to the latest product being released? It just seems like things have slowed down somewhat and there’s just a lack of innovation, and I’m hoping I’m not alone on this one.

Like any discussion about which model to buy there are some considerations to make. Firstly the partner cards such as the XFX Merc 319 here and the Sapphire Nitro+ we have also reviewed today have a price tag which is above that of the vanilla cards. Understandably so as it would be impossible to move from a small heatsink and a couple of fans to a setup such as the one we find here on the Merc 319, boasting a super thick backplate that forms part of the whole cooling arrangement. There are three fans, a vapour chamber, 14 thermal pads, 15 phase digital PWM with a DrMOS chip supplying 70A per phase and a meaty factory overclock. By any metric it's all a graphics card could hope to be, and the price is a bit above the reference card - £479.99 for the AMD, £529.99 for the XFX.