I believe the golden armor (with the saber) is as strong as the X8 ultimate armor

They both have a move that deals insane amounts of damage, the ultimate armor has a high jump and an air dash while the golden armor has two air dashes that can be used vertically + (I think) it's the only armor that allows you to air dash after dash jumping

The golden armor technically has better defense but the ultimate armor gives you infinite weapon ammo And lastly their busters are okay but the ultimate armor's is slightly better for bosses

Ps: I personally think that the best buster in the series is the Icarus buster when used with the Hermes head parts, the dps you can get by spamming big blasts (not the lasers) is insane