The card has a serious problem... it has a lot of coil whine. I have installed it with the EKWB block and while its temperatures are around 25 degrees when idle or playing YouTube, Netflix, etc., the coil whine is louder than the 12 fans that the case has (4 on each radiator, 1 at the back, and 3 at the front). Especially when under load, you can clearly notice it.
Inside the box, there are some stickers and a small folding metal stand to hold the card so it doesn't sag due to its weight.
Now that we got the nonsense out of the way, the card has several positives.
- First of all, the temperature it reaches is very reasonable, both with air cooling and even more so with water cooling. With the stock cooler, when idle, the card is around 36 degrees, and when running games or other demanding applications, it reaches around 65 degrees. If someone plays around with the fan settings, they can lower the temperature and gain a few more FPS. With water cooling, the card stays at around 25 degrees when idle and reaches around 34 degrees under load.
- The size is reasonable. It can fit in most Mid cases, worst-case scenario, you have to remove the drive cages (if it has any).
- The card maintains its frequency quite well, both with air cooling and even better with the EKWB block. With 144Hz monitors, games don't stutter or lose FPS.
- Ray tracing is meh. It's behind Nvidia, so if someone wants RTS, they don't look at this card.
Compared to the RTX 4090, if someone wants to get the best that AMD can offer and the best from Nvidia, the difference is not that big. Compared to two Nvidia fanatics who have the 4090, the FPS are at most 20-30 FPS lower, depending on the title.
For a price difference of around 1400€, with the 7900XTX and RTX 4090 and a 30 FPS difference, you can get a motherboard, RAM, storage, and processor. YES, the RTX 4090 is the best there is right now, the 7900 XTX cannot be compared, but the extra 30 FPS from Nvidia are overpriced without much impact. So, while I get around 110 FPS with the 7900, the 4090 gets 140 FPS. In general, the difference is not noticeable in demanding titles.