PowerColor RX 9070 XT Hellhound Review
Conclusion
Conclusion
There is no denying that the PowerColor RX 9070 XT Hellhound is a gorgeous card. As we’ve scrolled through today’s review it’s been there at the top of the page. The closer you look, the more you see. Attention to detail is king. PowerColor have ensured that the Spectral White Hellhound is deserving of their famous name. White PCB, white plastics, white heatsink, white heatpipes. It’s glorious. So often we see white hardware that only the outer shell has been turned white. No such problems with the Hellhound. It’s beautiful.
Looking at our power draw graph it was clear that the PowerColor Hellhound is significantly more frugal than the other two XTs. 70W fewer than the XFX and 120W below the Sapphire. It caused us a few moments of head-scratching when we first saw it. After all, power draw is usually related to performance. The average clock speed reflected this. The Hellhound being 100MHz on average below those two cards. If we had to guess we’d think that PowerColor have been overly cautious with the BIOS on the Hellhound. To be 30W or a similar MHz below other cards is to be expected. To be 120W and 100MHz below the Sapphire Nitro+ is almost shocking.
This deficit was reflected in some of our performance tests. At 1440 the differences are, generally, less because that is a less demanding resolution. 4K has more than double the number of pixels and is as demanding as that would have you expect. Here the PowerColor’s relatively low clock speed was shown in certain titles. It just isn’t quite as nippy as we’d expect from such a famous name.
We have to say we’re almost certain that it’s just PowerColor being cautious with the clock speed. AMD Radeon chips are built incredibly consistently. That shouldn’t be an issue. The cooler on the Hellhound kept things frosty so we know temperature isn’t a problem. We know the GPU can push much higher speeds, and thermals aren’t an issue. With 100W of headroom at a minimum, if you’re willing to put in the work there is no reason why the newest PowerColor card can’t be a match for either the XFX or Sapphire cards we reviewed at launch.
With a huge commitment to the aesthetics, going above and beyond what most companies would, the PowerColor RX 9070 XT Hellhound Spectral White wins our OC3D Aesthetic Award.
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