Introduction
At Gamescom 2023, AMD announced the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT video cards, based on the RDNA 3 architecture, to fulfill the Radeon RX 7000 lineup. The Radeon RX 7800 XT has an MSRP of $499, and the Radeon RX 7700 XT has an MSRP of $449. We published the specs announcement on August 25th, read that for the full press presentation and information about these new video cards, and also check out our full Radeon RX 7800 XT made-by-AMD reference video card review.
In today’s review, we will be looking at the brand new XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT BLACK Edition video card, which XFX has set with an MSRP of $539. The XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT BLACK Edition represents the pinnacle, highest-end enthusiast-class brand in XFX’s Radeon RX 7800 XT lineup. The Speedster MERC 319 RX 7800 XT BLACK has the highest factory overclock, and XFX GHOST THERMAL cooling design. XFX also offers a Speedster QICK 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT Core Edition, with reference AMD clock speeds, but still has a custom three-fan cooling design for better cooling than the made-by-AMD video card.
The MSRP for the made-by-AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is $499. The XFX SPEEDSTER MERC319 RADEON RX 7800 XT BLACK Gaming Graphics Card with 16GB GDDR6 HDMI 3xDP, AMD RDNA 3 is $539. The warranty period for the card is 3 years if registered with XFX. Also as of this writing date, there is a promotion which includes the new game Starfield. This is provided through a coupon included with qualifying video cards. Please read our AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT review for reference and comparisons to the made-by-AMD video card.
The Radeon RX 7800 XT has 60 Compute Units, 3840 Shader Units, 60 RT Accelerators (2nd Gen), 120 AI Accelerators, and 96 ROPs. It uses 64MB of 2nd Gen AMD Infinity Cache. It has a Game Clock of 2124MHz and a Boost Clock of 2430MHz. It has 16GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus at 19.5Gbps which gives it 624GB/s of memory bandwidth, and it uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface with a TDP of 263W. It also supports AV1 encoding, and DisplayPort 2.1.
XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT BLACK Edition Specs
The XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT BLACK Edition has a factory overclocked game clock of 2254MHz and a factory overclocked boost clock of up to 2565MHz. This is a very high factory overclocked card, and compares to the made-by-AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT reference spec which has a 2124MHz game clock and boost clock of 2430MHz. That gives the XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT BLACK Edition a pretty hefty overclock out-of-the-box. It has a dual BIOS, but right now both positions do the same thing, so you have a backup BIOS. The TGP is 236W, which is not the same as the board power. The 16GB GDDR6 runs at 19.5GHz for plenty of bandwidth.
XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT BLACK Edition Pictures
The XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT BLACK Edition arrived to us in the usual black and white XFX “tall box”. Our sample was well packaged and protected by formed foam. There is a large cover sheet that has information regarding warranty and other necessary information. The front of the box displays the VRAM capacity, and requirements are on the back.
The XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT BLACK Edition uses XFX’s GHOST THERMAL Solution, which consists of a nickel-plated copper vapor chamber that transfers heat to five 6mm heatpipes and a triple fan design with lots of thermal pads. There is an aluminum cooling plate used to cool the GDDR6 modules, and thermal pads across GDDR and VRMs along the front and back of the video card. The fans are a 13-blade design and are sized 100mm + 90mm + 100mm and support fan stop below 50c. There is a new solid ridged backplate heat spreader using die-cast aluminum with thermal pads to aid in cooling and it is also thicker at 2.4mm than standard backplates.
The XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT BLACK Edition has a fully digital power design, using 15-phase power and the BLACK edition is tuned for an additional 24W over the reference specification. It uses DrMOS chips MP87997 which supports a maximum working current of 70A per phase.
The XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT BLACK Edition weighs in at 3 pounds 3.5 ounces and is a 2.75-slot video card. It measures 12.83″ in length, 4.96″ inches in width, and 2.28″ inches in height. This is larger than the made-by-AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT, which measures 10.5″ in length, 4.25″ inches in width and 2″ inches in height, therefore the XFX MERC 7800 XT is bigger in every dimension, it’s a chonky video card.
It is decked out in black and silver, with an XFX LED logo on the top outside corner. You will note it has a BIOS switch near the I/O plate. The XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 7800 XT BLACK Edition video card uses two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. It has a recessed notch cut out of the backplate so you can more easily reach in and plug the power connectors in, or remove them without pinching your fingers. It made the clips easier to get to, but the heatsink itself still catches your finger. For display outputs, it has three DisplayPort 2.1 ports and one HDMI 2.1 port. XFX recommends a 700W power supply. It supports AV1 encoding as well.
