gpu final decision

[fudgecakes999]

hi recently built my first pc:

amd 9700x
msi b850 edge ti
64 gb ram
2tb m.2 drive
850w psu

currently stuck until i buy a gpu, i am looking at getting a 9070 xt(dont want the 16 pin connector so avoiding them), as its black friday seems the best time to buy, these are the ones i am looking at : 

Sapphire PURE £589
XFX Mercury OC Magnetic Air RGB £620
PowerColor Hellhound OC £605
Sapphire PULSE £540
Asus PRIME OC £565

just want a reliable one and quiet if possible and avoid coil whine, was looking at the xfx mercury oc magnetic air rgb but the price is from a company called awd-it.co.uk and a bit worried about spending so much from a company i have never used. really need to decide nowish as i expect the prices will increase after black friday/cyber monday. 

[DNooby]

I've seen various threads on the sapphire card having bad coil whine ( can't remember which )

 

I have the PowerColor Hellhound and am very happy with it, it's a pretty solid card though it did come with a pretty conservative fan curve out of the box

I've heard good things about the XFX cards but I don't have one myself and haven't done any research on it so take it with a grain of salt ( magnetic fans are supposed to be quieter )

 

I'm fairly certain all of the cards will have a measure of coil whine when under full load, and I've not seen any videos comparing models by coil whine sadly so it's hard to say

On 11/27/2025 at 8:37 PM, fudgecakes999 said:

currently stuck until i buy a gpu

Overall the general consensus is they're all fairly good, some will say go with the cheapest available, others will opt for beefier coolers... really it's up to you what you want and what you think merits a small premium

[fudgecakes999]

i have checked a german website where people have shared if there 9070 xt has coil whine or not and a lot of them seem to have it, the pulse seem to be the one that most people have it with but that could just be the fact that it is one of the cheapest so more people have bought it, so looks like if i go for the 9070 xt i will have to take a chance and expect the possibility of it and be prepared to live with it or send it back and try again, as ever the only other option i have is to get the 5060 ti and make do with it and hope it will play the games i want to at a good level. but i do need to decide now as gpu prices are expected to go up in price.

[thisisderpy]

I'd recommend watching the Hardware Unboxed video that compares all the 9070 xt variants it's pretty comprehensive. 

 

[fudgecakes999]

thanks i have watched a video and made a spreadsheet, the ones that are my first choice are the red devil and the mercury oc but both are about £120-£140 more than the cheapest one which i think is too much of a gap.i think at the moment i have ruled out the pulse as it just seems to always be at the bottom of the various benchmarks but dont be you never know, so my options are the pure at £600(gone up £10 since yesterday),the asus prime oc at £570, hellhound at £600 and i think thats it, the only other choices are getting a 5060 ti or getting second hand older nvide high end card. spent all day(more than 12 hours) watching videos and reading reviews but not really any further on,

[fudgecakes999]

i have another question but i might sound a bit complicated here it goes, my motherboard is the msi b850 edge ti and it has the additional pcie power connector on it that some people say is not needed unless you are using more power eg more than one gpu but then some people say they have been having crashes and after plugging a pcie connector into the slot they system is working, at the moment i have not connected any pcies to the motherboard so i have 3 connectors spare from my corsair 850w psu, so my question is do i get a 2xpcie gpu and then have the option of connecting the spare connector to the motherboard incase of any problems with the gpu as at the moment i have no problems but i am using the integrated gpu or do i get a 3x8 pin connector card with the presumption that the power will distributed better between the psu and the gpu but will then not be able to connect the additional pcie to the motherboard to test if that fixes any problems that may occur, just been on my mind so thought it was worth asking.

[DNooby]

I have the MSI B850 tomhawk max wifi and it also has that extra pcie power slot, I've tried both with and without it and have not noticed any difference ( tested + ran with it for a while )

 

You could also just get a card with 2 8pins, the OC has diminishing returns ( up to you find it worthwhile though )