Gigabyte has added new Radeon models to its lineup. That’s good news for anyone tired of all-black components. Alongside the budget-friendly Radeon RX 9060 XT Gaming OC and RX 9070 XT Gaming OC, the company is introducing “Ice” variants that pair a white shroud with gray and silver accents. As long as pricing doesn’t stray far from the standard black versions, they should rank among the best-value white cards on the market.
Final thoughts
The Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC in classic black is currently one of the most affordable RX 9070 XT models on the market. The white version, the Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC Ice, has already been released but is not yet available in local stores, so its final price is still unknown. It will depend on Gigabyte’s recommended pricing and on how much retailers consider the white edition to be more appealing.
It can be expected that its price will initially be higher by a few dozen euros. It would be a pleasant surprise if it launched at the same price as the black version. Even with a small surcharge, however, it will likely remain one of the most affordable white models and an appealing choice for anyone building a white-themed setup on a budget. For example, Sapphire reserved its white design for the more expensive Pure series, and Asus’s Prime cards or PowerColor’s models are in a similar position.
Increasing the power limit to 330 W for overclocking tends to affect the card’s thermals due to the compact cooler. The average GPU temperature is low; the impact shows mainly in the hotspot and memory temperatures. The tested unit used Hynix memory chips, which run hotter under load than Samsung’s GDDR6. For that reason, I’d prefer shaving off a few tenths of a frame per second and lowering the power limit—something you can easily set in AMD Software.
In Silent mode, noise levels are modest, but the card can’t be described as silent. Compared to the Nitro+ RX 9070 XT, the card was 1 dBA better, but it lagged behind the cheaper Pure RX 9070 XT or Pulse RX 9070 XT models by 1–3 dBA. That’s not a big difference; you won’t notice it unless you try both cards right after each other. Coil whine was similar to other models, and under heavy load with high frame rates it was clearly audible even over the fans.
In Performance mode, the main change is lower temperatures. The difference is only a few degrees, and you’ll likely care less about that than the higher noise—especially since the performance gain is only a few tenths of an fps. That’s hard to measure precisely, let alone notice, so I’d stick with Silent mode.
If you want a card with a larger, more capable cooler, Gigabyte also offers the Aorus RX 9070 XT Elite, about 100 EUR more—but only in black version.
| Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC Ice 16G (GV-R907XGAMINGOCICE-16GD) |
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+ Slightly higher performance thanks to factory overclocking − Higher hotspot and memory temperatures |
| Estimated retail price (incl. VAT): 680 EUR |
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
