PowerColor Liquid Devil is ‘the best RX 7900XTX’ you can buy
Der8auer tests the newest PowerColor GPU.
PowerColor has recently launched its liquid cooled graphics card based on the RDNA3 architecture. The RX 7900 XTX Liquid Devil is the flagship model accompanying the air-cooled Red Devil series. Both cards feature the same board design with 12+3+2 phase VRM design for GPU and 2+2 phase dedicated to the VRAM. This highly customized model is powered by three 8-pin power connectors, and has shown by Roman’s tests, it really needs more power than 2 connectors.
The Liquid Devil comes with a preinstalled waterblock designed by European company EK. This is a full cover block with translucent elements illuminated up by RGB diodes. What is important is that this card is for gamers who already have a liquid loop and simply want to upgrade their GPU, without going through the trouble of buying the block separately. But since custom liquid cooling systems are still a niche, the popularity of this card will likely be limited.
RX 7900 XTX Liquid Devil, Source: Der8auer
The Devil offers two BIOS settings, either OC or Unleash mode. The latter is set to 2680 MHz boost while the OC mode is 2615 MHz. That said, both settings deliver at least 115 MHz higher clocks out of the box. The maximum frequency that can be set in the BIOS is 3940 MHz and up to 15% power limit. The card ships with Unleash mode by default.
Liquid Devil consumes 60W more than the AMD reference card at same temperature
With OC BIOS, the card pulls around 355 watts through three power connectors during Time Spy testing and clocks to 2.65 to 2.7 GHz. The Unleash mode increases this to 375 watts and boosts the clocks by 30 to 40 MHz, reports Der8auer. He reports power consumption at 410W (measured by GPUZ), which is more than the ASRock Phantom custom design which pulls around 380W.
What is worth noting is that under load the Liquid Devil has the same temperature as the MBA (Made by AMD/reference) design, despite consuming 60W more. The straight line in power draw graph indicates that there is no thermal throttling, only a power cap forced by the BIOS.
RX 7900 XTX Liquid Devil power consumption and clocks (Unleash mode), Source: Der8auer
Overclocking increases the power consumption to 440W (power connectors) and 463W as measures by GPU-Z. The frequency boosted to around 2.8 GHz in the 3DMark Time Spy test. With OC, the card delivers 7% better performance than the AMD reference design.
OC/Unleash/Overclocking power consumption, Source: Der8auer
Performance aside, the card has only one major problem, which is coil whine. The high-end card like this should not have this problem, or at least not to the point where it is worth mentioning. Technically speaking, all cards have coil whine, but some workloads and design compromises may be a catalyst for increased noise coming from the chokes. The Liquid Devil has an audible coil whine, but still within the acceptable limit, says Der8auer. He says this is the best Radeon GPU one can buy, although it is expensive (around €1700).
This review focused on power, clocks and overclocking, but if you want more gaming tests, there is also a review from French site Overclocking.
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