Sapphire RX 7700 XT Pure Frostpunk 2 Edition Review

The Sapphire RX 7700 XT Pure Frostpunk 2 Edition ships in an eye-catching dark box, complete with Frostpunk 2 promo art and prominent branding on the left-hand side. On the back, Sapphire highlights some system specs and key features of the RDNA 3 architecture.

Inside, there's a variety of unique accessories that make this a limited edition Frostpunk 2 card, including three enamel pins – one of a mini version of the graphics card itself, one showing a pair of keys, and another showing what I assume is an in-game character. We also find a set of three Cherry profile keycaps – F, P and 2 – along with a keycap puller.

There's also a small card which gives you the deluxe edition Frostpunk 2 game code, and Sapphire includes a GPU support bracket as well.

As mentioned at the start of this review, the graphics card itself is fundamentally the same as the RX 7700 XT Pure that we've already reviewed. That means we get a white plastic shroud, with a few grey accents, along with the triple fan cooler, using Sapphire's Angular Velocity Fan Blades in white, while each fan measures in at just under 100mm in diameter.

The star of the show is of course the unique aesthetic however, which isn't immediately apparent if you only look at the fan area, but the backplate has been entirely taken oven with a massive Frostpunk 2 logo and a game-inspired design. Even if you've never played the games, I do think it looks pretty cool and is certainly something different to what we are used to seeing!

The sides of the card have also been touched up, looking like the plastic has been burnt or rusted away which ties nicely in with the overall design. As for dimensions, the card comes in at 320 x 128.75 x 52.57mm.

The Frostpunk 2 edition makes one other key changes versus the original Pure card, and that's with the LEDs. The vanilla model is red-only, whereas the Frostpunk 2 card actually moves to an ARGB system. It defaults to a warm orange colour to tie into the overall aesthetic, but you can adjust this in Sapphire's TriXX software, or connect an ARGB cable to the card itself and control the lighting from your motherboard.

Just like the original Pure, power is delivered by two 8-pin connectors. Display outputs also consist of 2x HDMI 2.1 and 2x DisplayPort 2.1.

We also opened up the card to take a closer look at the cooler, and we can see Sapphire is using two separate fin stacks that are connected by 5x 6mm heatpipes. The GPU and memory contact with one baseplate, and there's two smaller baseplates for the MOSFETs as well.

In terms of the PCB, Sapphire has opted for a 10-phase VRM for the GPU, controlled by a Monolithic Power Systems MP2856. Memory VRM is 2-phase, also using a MP2856 controller. Monolithic MP87997 MOSFETs are used for both GPU and memory, rated at 70A.

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