Sapphire RX 7600 Pulse Review

We've reviewed plenty of Sapphire Pulse graphics cards over the years, and to be honest, today's review of the RX 7600 Pulse has gone pretty much as expected.

That's because we would always expect to see a good improvement to the thermals and noise levels when compared against AMD's reference design. While out of the box thermals are similar between both cards, that's only because the Pulse runs its fans noticeably slower. With noise normalised at 40dBa, the Pulse is clearly the more efficient cooler, with an 8C improvement to temperatures.

Gaming performance is very similar between the two cards, but we'd never recommended buying one card over another purely due to the factory overclock, as the real-world difference this makes is incredibly small. The Pulse did overclock slightly better though, netting an extra 7% performance.

I was concerned to see the amount of wobble on show from the plastic shroud, however. This is best shown off in the video, but the way the plastic shroud mounts into the backplate is fairly loose, resulting in the shroud moving around if any pressure is applied. Thankfully, Sapphire has mounted the actual heatsink separately from the shroud, so the contact between GPU and heatsink is not affected – it's literally just the plastic that can move about. Still, this is a definite area for improvement as it's not the best first impression for the card.

Ultimately, if you're in the market for a new 1080p gaming GPU, you may be considering the RX 7600. Just as with our day 1 review, I don't think it's the greatest GPU ever released, and AMD's own RDNA 2 cards like the 6600, 6600 XT and even 6700 XT pose strong competition considering their hefty price cuts. If you are set on a new RX 7600 though, the Pulse is a clear improvement over AMD's reference design in the areas where it counts. Hopefully Sapphire can tighten up the shroud mounting mechanism for any future models.

You can buy the Sapphire RX 7600 Pulse for £259.99 from Overclockers UK HERE.

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Pros

• Noticeably quieter than the reference card out of the box.
• Noise-normalised thermals are 8C better than the reference card.
• Shroud is removed separately from the heatsink, making it very easy to swap out a fan should one fail.
• Overclocked reasonably well.
• No coil-whine.

Cons

• The shroud feels quite loose and wobbly due to the way it is mounted (though this does not affect the contact between GPU and heatsink).
• RX 7600 isn't an overly exciting product to begin with.
• AMD reference design has a metal shroud.

KitGuru says: If you're definitely buying an RX 7600, the Pulse is a good option that is a clear improvement over the reference card in almost every way. Sapphire definitely needs to look into the shroud mounting mechanism however, as it doesn't give the best first impression.

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