Gigabyte RX 7800 XT Gaming OC Review

Gigabyte's Gaming OC is the second RX 7800 XT partner card we have reviewed in recent days, hot on the heels of the excellent PowerColor Hellhound. It's a solid card and makes some good strides compared to the reference design, but there are a few other areas to consider.

The first thing you need to know about the Gaming OC is that it has cranked up the power draw by a fair amount. I measured the card pulling almost 300W in Cyberpunk, so that's about a 50W increase over reference. The good news is that the extra power budget translates into higher clock speeds, so this is the fastest 7800 XT we've tested, coming in 4-5% ahead of the reference model.

There is a downside to this approach though, being the GPU consuming more power also equates to it dumping more heat into the cooler. The Gaming OC didn't run hot, but the fans did spin up noticeably louder than the likes of the PowerColor Hellhound to compensate. The OC BIOS, for instance, hit 41dBa of noise, compared to just 33dBa for the Hellhound.

Likewise, when we ran our noise-normalised thermal performance, the Gaming OC ran the hottest of the three partner cards tested so far. It was still cooler than the AMD reference design, but the extra power draw does mean the cooler has to work that bit harder.

Overclocking proved fruitful however, as we gained an extra 9-10% performance once we undervolted the GPU. This is well worth doing if you have picked up an RDNA 3 GPU, though it will increase power draw further, up to about 340W in my testing with the Gaming OC.

With a UK MSRP of £529, the Gigabyte RX 7800 XT Gaming OC is £50, or 10%, more expensive than the reference model. It certainly offers a decent improvement over AMD's reference, and I think it will particularly appeal to those who want to extract every last drop of performance from the Navi 32 silicon. That said, I can't help but feel the PowerColor Hellhound is the smarter choice for £10 less, as it offers noticeably lower noise levels and superior noise-normalised cooling performance. The Gaming OC certainly isn't bad, but it's just that bit hotter and louder than I'd like for a card at this price point.

That being said, there is a curveball that applies if you happen to be reading this from the US. I found the Gaming OC on sale for $499.99 from both Newegg and Best Buy, so it's an MSRP card in the States. If you can get one for that price, it's a clear win over the reference model and looks to be $20 cheaper than the PowerColor Hellhound. I'd just recommend running a custom fan curve to bring down the noise levels!

We don't yet have a buy link but Gigabyte has informed us the UK MSRP is £529. We found it listed for $499.99 in the USA from both Newegg and Best Buy.

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Pros

• Fastest RX 7800 XT out of the box.
• Colour-neutral design.
• Runs cool (though with higher fan speed).
• Dual-BIOS.
• Priced at the $499 MSRP for US buyers.

Cons

• Loudest RX 7800 XT tested.
• High power limit reduces efficiency.
• PowerColor Hellhound runs 9C cooler when noise-normalised.
• Price puts it within £40 of the RTX 4070.

KitGuru says: The Gaming OC is a decent offering but it definitely runs louder than I'd like. Prospective customers in the UK are likely better served by the PowerColor Hellhound, but at $499, this is a compelling option for those in the US.

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