At $399, it would compete with reference XT. Quite a dilemma for buyers.

This is the first non-XT review I've seen of MSI's Gaming X, and just like the XT version, it performs all around as the best in the cooling & noise department; but ofc at a $50 price premium (for both models). ...For that extra $50, you might as well get an XT card such as the $409 Sapphire Pulse which has extremely competitive cooling performance both for the GFX chip and the DDR6 VRAM at an astonishingly low price.

The XT AIB cards have come down a bit in the UK but the 5700 standard AIB not really, so agree with the comments above. One AIB card with twin fan setup is only £10 more than the reference XT card. Rather odd.

I really like gaming X series, very silent compare to others

At first I was going to say "wtf is up with the excessive heatsink" until I saw the temperature and noise level. I still think it's overkill, and I personally would not be fond of a 3-slot mid-range GPU, but, it proved it's effectiveness.

alanm:

At $399, it would compete with reference XT. Quite a dilemma for buyers.

Just flash it to an XT...apparently the new rage in the months to come...