1. Introduction2. Meet the PowerColor RX 9070 XT Red Devil3. Testing Methodology4. Game Benchmarks5. Clock Speed6. GPU Temperatures7. Acoustics8. Noise-Normalised Temperatures9. Power Draw and Efficiency10. Overclocking11. Closing Thoughts12. View All Pages

It's been some time since I last reviewed a Red Devil card – we mostly focused on the more value-oriented Hellhound models for the RX 7000 series – but it has been great to check out what PowerColor has to offer those interested in its flagship RX 9070 XT.

The Red Devil design has stayed fairly consistent over the years, with a fairly aggressive shroud design and the classic black and red colour combination, and I'd say it still works to great effect. It doesn't appeal to me in the same way as something like the Sapphire Nitro+, but each to their own.

The main thing is clearly that the cooler itself works well, and we saw excellent thermal performance from the Red Devil – it offers the joint-best thermals when noise-normalised, while fan speed is so low out of the box I hit the noise floor of my testing environment.

PowerColor has one clear advantage over the Nitro+, too, given it does offer a dual-BIOS switch with a choice of the OC and Silent modes – both of which I tested today. I think you are going to spend £700+ on a graphics card, dual-BIOS is a feature I value highly – not just for offering slightly different power and clock speed targets, but it also offers extra redundancy if something went wrong while updating the VBIOS, for instance.

Pricing also requires some decision, given AMD set the baseline MSRP at £575. This is a premium model however, currently listed for £720 from both Scan and Overclockers UK – a 25% increase over the £575 baseline. That does mean things are creeping much closer to the RTX 5070 Ti than I would like, given the cheapest model is listed for £830 at Scan.

Of course, the Red Devil will have more features – such as dual-BIOS and ARGB lighting – and likely a more sophisticated cooler than an entry-level 5070 Ti, but the fact remains, the closer the 9070 XT gets to the 5070 Ti's price tag, the harder things become for AMD and its partners.

Still, if you are in the market for an RX 9070 XT, the PowerColor Red Devil is an excellent option – I can see why Leo bought this one himself!

Pros

• Quietest 9070 XT we have tested yet, effectively silent.
• Joint-leader for noise-normalised thermals.
• Solid build quality, plus it has three ARGB zones.
• Healthy factory overclock.
• Gains of 6-8% when overclocked and undervolted.

Cons

• Hefty premium over the baseline MSRP brings pricing closer to the RTX 5070 Ti.
• Design may not appeal in the same way as the Sapphire Nitro+.

KitGuru says: The Red Devil is a highly capable RX 9070 XT partner card that ticks a lot of boxes.

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