9070XT; Red Devil VS Hellhound?

[PAPO1990]

So I'm umm-ing and ah-ing about this, the price difference was only $100 (AUD) but the cheaper "non special" edition Red Devil is out of stock, so the price difference is up to $150 now, and now I'm unsure.

For one, I plan on watercooling it either way, so while this would suggest "don't pay more for a better cooler" the Red Devil also has a slightly higher power budget, and with 3 8pin power connectors, maybe a special BIOS somewhere I can get more out of.

Also considering the cost of a water block included in this equasion, as a percentage, the difference in price is pretty minimal ($1349 + $399). Heck when considering the cost of the whole build (along with CPU waterblock yet to be ordered) the percentage difference in price is even less.

I guess the $50 extra just for a special keycap, GPU anti sag leg and maybe some stickers or something is bugging me, but also I want to play some RT games like Doom The Dark Ages, which I just can't do with my 5700XT, so the time is now, but I think I need some help deciding if I spend the "extra" $50, or "save" $100. I also want to make sure I secure a waterblock, but want to make sure I order the right one AFTER I have the GPU in hand (yes both appropriate blocks are available for pre-order at the moment, where I will ALSO be ordering my CPU block (I can not WAIT to have propper cooling for my CPU, the stock AM5 cooler is kind of loud).

[Poinkachu]

14 minutes ago, PAPO1990 said:

but I think I need some help deciding if I spend the "extra" $50, or "save" $100

Me : If I need it asap, I need it asap.

Price difference be damned.

 

How worthy $50 is for you, only you can decide.

[PAPO1990]

3 hours ago, Poinkachu said:

Me : If I need it asap, I need it asap.

Price difference be damned.

 

How worthy $50 is for you, only you can decide.

I mean if the cheper Red Devil was in stock I'd settle on that, the issue for me is aside from "right now" the extra $50 only gets me crap I'll never use. Which is where the "save" $100 comes in, the Hellhound is also in stock right now, hence the dillema.

[Poinkachu]

12 minutes ago, PAPO1990 said:

I mean if the cheper Red Devil was in stock I'd settle on that, the issue for me is aside from "right now" the extra $50 only gets me crap I'll never use. Which is where the "save" $100 comes in, the Hellhound is also in stock right now, hence the dillema.

IMO the only answer I can give is : Only you can decide that buddy.

That answer holds true for some margin of performance difference, even more so for vanity stuffs

[DoctorNick]

4 hours ago, PAPO1990 said:

So I'm umm-ing and ah-ing about this, the price difference was only $100 (AUD) but the cheaper "non special" edition Red Devil is out of stock, so the price difference is up to $150 now, and now I'm unsure.

For one, I plan on watercooling it either way, so while this would suggest "don't pay more for a better cooler" the Red Devil also has a slightly higher power budget, and with 3 8pin power connectors, maybe a special BIOS somewhere I can get more out of.

Also considering the cost of a water block included in this equasion, as a percentage, the difference in price is pretty minimal ($1349 + $399). Heck when considering the cost of the whole build (along with CPU waterblock yet to be ordered) the percentage difference in price is even less.

I guess the $50 extra just for a special keycap, GPU anti sag leg and maybe some stickers or something is bugging me, but also I want to play some RT games like Doom The Dark Ages, which I just can't do with my 5700XT, so the time is now, but I think I need some help deciding if I spend the "extra" $50, or "save" $100. I also want to make sure I secure a waterblock, but want to make sure I order the right one AFTER I have the GPU in hand (yes both appropriate blocks are available for pre-order at the moment, where I will ALSO be ordering my CPU block (I can not WAIT to have propper cooling for my CPU, the stock AM5 cooler is kind of loud).

As s guy owning the last generation Red Devil card may I suggest buying a different brand all together? Quality wise if the cooler is like on 7000 series its very badly designed. PCB is fine. I have mine under water. When I check PCPartPicker, Asus prime is much better priced. May even be easier to get a waterblock for.

[PAPO1990]

2 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

As s guy owning the last generation Red Devil card may I suggest buying a different brand all together? Quality wise if the cooler is like on 7000 series its very badly designed. PCB is fine. I have mine under water. When I check PCPartPicker, Asus prime is much better priced. May even be easier to get a waterblock for.

I mean I've had a 5700XT liquid devil, and it's been ok. only issue was some cosmetic trim I had to destroy to disasemble the block for cleaning after my loop clogged up. Between the 2 Powercolor options waterblock availability isn't an issue, I am just waiting to have the card in hand before placing the order for the block. Alphacool has a decent selection of 9070XT blocks on their way to an online store here, it's just a small shame the Red Devil and Hellhound board layouts seem too different to share a block, so until I'm holding it, I don't want to order the block.

As for price, the ASUS prime sits in between the Red Devil and Hellhound, but I actually don't see a block for it on the store I plan to order from.

[Eigenvektor]

Unfortunately, the Reaper isn't included, since it's apparently no longer being made. But the Hellhound seems to compare pretty favorably

 

[PAPO1990]

15 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Unfortunately, the Reaper isn't included, since it's apparently no longer being made. But the Hellhound seems to compare pretty favorably

 

thanks, unfortunately with no notes on overclocking potential, it doesn't really give me anything to go on. If I was leaving the card air cooled that video would have convinced me to get the Red Devil though, I guess what I'm left wondering is if the slightly higher power limit will net me much benefit once I watercool it. Or if there might be a fancy vBIOS I can dig up somewhere that will let me push even more power and actually make use of that 3rd 8pin power connection with all the extra cooling I'll give it.

[Eigenvektor]

1 hour ago, PAPO1990 said:

thanks, unfortunately with no notes on overclocking potential, it doesn't really give me anything to go on.

I would assume it has none or very little headroom on top of the factory overclock it already comes with. The Hellhound's 2x 8-pin + PCIe gives you a theoretical maximum of 375 W, which is more than the Red Devil's default 330 W power limit.

 

Now, I'd rather draw all power straight from the PSU than some of it through the motherboard's PCIe bus, but I doubt overclocking gets you close to that theoretical maximum nor do I think it worthwhile. Cards like the XFX Mercury or ASRock Taichi which are rated for 340 W are maybe 1% faster out of the box.

 

Right now I could order the Hellhound for 679€, while the Red Devil would be 764€. That's a 12% increase in price for maybe 1–2% more performance? And, given the dual BIOS, you should be able to flash it to the Red Devil's BIOS more or less risk free.

 

The store I'm looking at even still has the Reaper on offer for 659€. Though the lack of reviews for that card makes me doubt wether 20€ savings here would be worth it. My takeaway from the video would be that the Hellhound is the one to go with. Cheaper while still being a solid card.

[DNooby]

I have the 9070 XT Hellhound and am pretty happy with it, honestly I don't think it's worth water cooling since it already has a beefy cooler on its own, you just need to tweak the fan curve on it since it's default one is meant to be on the quieter side. Though if water cooling is just what you want to do it'll work fine

[PAPO1990]

7 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

Right now I could order the Hellhound for 679€, while the Red Devil would be 764€. That's a 12% increase in price for maybe 1–2% more performance? And, given the dual BIOS, you should be able to flash it to the Red Devil's BIOS more or less risk free.

That's a solid point actually. As for headroom of the extra power connector though I was pondering if a more extreme BIOS may be availablew somewhere to use some of that extra power... but maybe the RD bios is the solution here. Thanks.

2 hours ago, DNooby said:

I have the 9070 XT Hellhound and am pretty happy with it, honestly I don't think it's worth water cooling since it already has a beefy cooler on its own, you just need to tweak the fan curve on it since it's default one is meant to be on the quieter side. Though if water cooling is just what you want to do it'll work fine

If I was not water cooling, there'd be no question I'd get the Red Devil for the bigger better cooler, but I already have a LOT of radiator, from my previous build, and am an absolute noise fiend, what most people call "silent" I call too noisy. So watercooling was a foregone conclusion from the start. I'm also lucky enough to have an exceptionally quiet room; I swear I must have a lower noise floor than some people who do accoustic testing  (obviously excluding people who have actual accustic chambers these days).

 

For the record, I have 2 dual-140 rads at 45mm thick, and a 360mm that's 80mm thick, my previous CPU and GPU (i7 6850k & 5700XT) basically never went over 60C with a flat, and SUPER quiet fan curve. Even right now, with the stock AM5 cooler annoying me at idle, my room noise is only 28dB, but it's also winter so I'll need a bunch more cooling when the Australian summer actually hits.

[DNooby]

1 hour ago, PAPO1990 said:

For the record, I have 2 dual-140 rads at 45mm thick, and a 360mm that's 80mm thick, my previous CPU and GPU (i7 6850k & 5700XT) basically never went over 60C with a flat, and SUPER quiet fan curve. Even right now, with the stock AM5 cooler annoying me at idle, my room noise is only 28dB, but it's also winter so I'll need a bunch more cooling when the Australian summer actually hits.

Out of curiosity, what CPU do you have now and what are its idle temps?

[PAPO1990]

7 minutes ago, DNooby said:

Out of curiosity, what CPU do you have now and what are its idle temps?

Just a 7600, but it's a brand new AM5 build and I plan to put something like a 10800X3D in it later, which will actually justify the watercooling, but the waterblock is as cheap or cheaper than a good air cooler that would be quiet on the 7600, so why buy 2 seperate coolers when I can water cool it now. Plus, swapping CPU won't be much tougher, I only use soft tubing anyway.

 

Current temp is 53-54C pulling between 2 and 5 watts, with lots of chrome tabs open, steam and discord in the background. Remember, it's just the stock cooler than came with the 7600, if I could be bothered sourcing mounting hardware for my OOOOLD tower cooler from when I was running a first gen i7, it would probably run passive  but again, lots of rads already, I might as well put them to use. Just need to order my blocks, which I plan on combining in a single order once I have my 9070XT in hand

[DNooby]

6 minutes ago, PAPO1990 said:

Current temp is 53-54C pulling between 2 and 5 watts, with lots of chrome tabs open, steam and discord in the background. Remember, it's just the stock cooler than came with the 7600, if I could be bothered sourcing mounting hardware for my OOOOLD tower cooler from when I was running a first gen i7, it would probably run passive  but again, lots of rads already, I might as well put them to use. Just need to order my blocks, which I plan on combining in a single order once I have my 9070XT in hand

Sounds like you're set once you get your parts! I considered water cooling my build but ended up with an AIO for now ( seemed a bit daunting ngl ) once it gives out I might give it an official shot

[PAPO1990]

1 minute ago, DNooby said:

Sounds like you're set once you get your parts! I considered water cooling my build but ended up with an AIO for now ( seemed a bit daunting ngl ) once it gives out I might give it an official shot

Yeah, it was certainly daunting the first time, and I have spilled water in ways that have ended badly... but I was also dumb, luckily the ONLY thing damaged was the PSU... that was a stressful day. It was also pretty expensive to get the parts the first time 'rouond, but now that I have everything but the blocks it's not too bad to watercool the new build, even if the GPU block is a little expensive, but in the scheme of things it's not too bad for great temps and near silence at the same time.

[PAPO1990]

After chatting to the store clerk, and checking the boxes to see the Red Devil only has 2 extra power phases, I decided to settle for the Hellhound, but maybe try and flash the Red Devil vBIOS at some point after I get the water blocks. I've been pleasently surprised how quiet it is though, and while a few extra FPS might be nice in a couple of things I've tested so far, I think it will be fine once I've got it running extra cool, and with the power limit turned up.