Saturday, January 11th 2025
XFX Radeon RX 9070 Series Graphics Cards at 2025 International CES
XFX at the 2025 International CES showed off a pair of Radeon RX 9070 series custom-design graphics cards. The company will keep these designs common to both the flagship RX 9070 XT, and the RX 9070. Both board designs were shown off at AMD's RX 9070 series booth. The premium custom design is being referred to as "Black." There are actually two sub-variants of this card, one called Black, which lacks any RGB LED lighting, but a second more premium one where the top of the card has an RGB LED diffuser spanning the entire top-front edge, including the triangular ends with the XFX and Radeon logos. This card wasn't shown to use, but is part of AMD's CES pre-brief.
The premium Black card features a large aluminium fin-stack heatsink, along with a trio of what look like 100 mm and 90 mm axial airflow fans. The metal backplate has a ridged pattern. The PCB underneath appears to be about three quarters the length of the card, with a large cutout in the backplate letting much of the airflow from the third fan go through the heatsink and out the back. This card draws power from three 8-pin PCIe power connectors, for a total power input configuration of 525 W, which is obviously high for what is expected to be a 300 W-class GPU, but this isn't the only card with an over-the-top power input configuration. The ASUS TUF Gaming has three 8-pin PCIe power, while the ASRock Taichi uses a 16-pin 12V2x6. Most RX 9070 series cards we've seen have just two 8-pin power connectors.
The presence of these high-power input configurations could hint that the RX 9070 XT likes to overclock, and since it is the top SKU in the RX 9000 series, AMD will allow board partners to go to town overclocking it, even if it takes dialing up the power limits by a fair bit. This way they get to justify pricing these cards north of $600, given that we're hearing that custom-design RX 9070 XT typically starts at $550, and the baseline price for this SKU could be as little as $480.
Back to XFX, and we spotted their second custom-design. This card will be fairly premium although not as over the top as the Black. It is built around a white color scheme, and featuers a triple-slot cooling solution, compared to the 4-slot cooler of the Black. The PCB is less than 2/3 the length of the card, so all the airflow from its third fan goes through a large cutout. The card draws power from two 8-pin power connectors.
The premium Black card features a large aluminium fin-stack heatsink, along with a trio of what look like 100 mm and 90 mm axial airflow fans. The metal backplate has a ridged pattern. The PCB underneath appears to be about three quarters the length of the card, with a large cutout in the backplate letting much of the airflow from the third fan go through the heatsink and out the back. This card draws power from three 8-pin PCIe power connectors, for a total power input configuration of 525 W, which is obviously high for what is expected to be a 300 W-class GPU, but this isn't the only card with an over-the-top power input configuration. The ASUS TUF Gaming has three 8-pin PCIe power, while the ASRock Taichi uses a 16-pin 12V2x6. Most RX 9070 series cards we've seen have just two 8-pin power connectors.
61 Comments on XFX Radeon RX 9070 Series Graphics Cards at 2025 International CES
If I have sound card or whatever other card down there I’d like to know if a GPU is 2.2 or 2.8 slots thick. Can I be ok 0.8 slots clearance?
Dang looking it wrong
Yes that’s a 4slot card
Did not realize this is the side of the fan shroud
Particularly the Nitro+ design, was comparably consistent/similar since Vega 64, up until RX 7900 series. The same goes to XFX MERC/Speedster, which was introduced since RX 5700 XT/RDNA1.
As of 5090... I doubt any of AIBs would be able to keep their 5090 solutions as "compact" as nVidia's own one. Simply because the AIB's are unable to afford this complex and expensive cooler design, for the amount of cards AIBs sell. This is just a luxury, limited number exclusive FE premium design by nVidia, that emphasizes their luxury "Apple"-ish $3.5B status.
You want something ugly ? Go look at Yeston's Sakura girly models... the cringe is real with these ones.
I.e. PCIe-300 to channel 300W of power. Manufacturers would be free to implement it or not. Typically, they wouldn't on their most budget cards, so the additional cost wouldn't passed onto cost-conscious buyers.
Not seeing it happening soon IMO
For what? Less connectors and cables?
Eventually if power keeps growing for AMD past 550W it will be a single nvidia type connector, or a better version of the existing that could carry tones of current to support 600~800W
And by 2035-2040 it will be both what you're saying + external power for 1+KW GPUs, unless they come up with a different type of home PCs... lol... that few will afford
I don't see it happening soon either, but if BTF hardware's minuscule market share continues to grow, the prospect of a beefed-up PCIe spec would be increasingly plausible.