Sapphire Nitro+ RX 9070 XT PhantomLink Review

Conclusion

Conclusion

One thing we really love is how Sapphire give you both power options on the Nitro+ PhantomLink. Often cards like this assume you’ve no reason to want the regular power connector so remove it. With graphics cards costing a significant amount of money, giving us flexibility is lovely. After all, you might buy the card for a regular rig and then move to a BTF design. Or perhaps this is the only one in stock. Or on offer. Either way, but letting us use whichever power method we prefer, it’s a big tick in the user-friendliness box for Sapphire.

Regular readers will know that the 12VHPWR cable hasn’t been without its problems. When Sapphire moved the power connector to the back and let us fix it in place with the backplate that helped tremendously. Utilising a BTF motherboard setup the cable can be fixed on your motherboard, alleviating any possible difficulties with cables bending or stretching to fit in the GPU. Additionally the Nitro+ PhantomLink has a sensor in the power interface that is monitored by the Sapphire TriXX software, giving real-time updates on status and warnings about any issues. Including instant shutdown to save your hardware. Fantastic.

The cooler performs exceptionally well, as we saw on the previous page. A 0.3mm Graphene Thermal Pad lowers hot spot temperatures by up to 10%. Clearly the triple slot, triple fan cooler and that thermal pad work miracles. 58°C peak temperature gives us plenty of overhead for overclocking, or lovely quiet use if you leave things as is.

Lastly this PhantomLink is available in both the gunmetal grey finish we’ve shown off today, and a new Polar edition with a redesigned grill for those who like things both white and different.

With great performance, connection flexibility, and outstanding temperatures, the Sapphire Nitro+ RX 9070 XT PhantomLink wins out OC3D Gamers Choice Award.

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