Sapphire Pulse Radeon Rx 5700: A Stunning Value Supercharged By Clever Software Tricks

Nine. Dollars

- Brad Chacos

AMD promised that custom Radeon RX 5700 graphics cards (go.pcworld.com/cstm) would arrive in mid-August, and they are here. The wait was worth it. Sapphire’s kicking things off with its budget-friendly Pulse lineup. Like its predecessors (go.pcworld.com/pred), it offers some nice features and solid cooler designs at prices that won’t break the bank. But one of Sapphire’s most intriguing additions has nothing to do with hardware. We’re highly impressed by the new performance-enhancing, resolution-tweaking “Trixx Boost” feature in the company’s Trixx software suite, which leverages AMD’s Radeon Image Sharpening technology to great effect for everyday gamers.

Both the $359 Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5700 and $409 Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 XT go on sale today, with each commanding a mere nine dollar price premium over AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 series reference models. Now that’s some killer value. This is no paper launch either; Sapphire representatives told me that the cards will be “on shelf in good quantity” on August 12.

We received the more affordable Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 for testing, and to give away the ending, it delivers a whole lot of bang for your buck. This is a superb 1440p gaming option. Let’s take it for a whirl!

SPECS AND FEATURES

The Pulse is powered by the same core GPU found in AMD’s reference models, Check out our original Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT review (go.pcworld.com/0rig) for a deep dive on its technical details, like ROP and transistor counts, and an overview of AMD’s new RDNA graphics architecture.

Here’s a more practical breakdown of the Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 and 5700 XT’s capabilities for gamers:

A blowout render of the Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 cooler.