ASRock and XFX Radeon RX 7900-series Custom Design Cards Leak

[TheLostSwede]

As we're getting closer to the official launch date, pictures of AMD Radeon RX 7900-series cards from both ASRock and XFX have tipped up online. The ASRock cards are part of its Phantom Gaming and Taichi series of cards, whereas the XFX card is part of the MERC line. Sadly none of the cards appear to sport a USB-C port, suggesting that it's not a feature that any of the OEM's have thought worthwhile to include in their custom board designs.

The ASRock Phantom Gaming cards appear to be 2.5-slot cards, whereas the Taichi cards are triple slot. The Phantom Gaming cards seem to be equipped with a short backplate that only covers the rear of the PCB, rather than the full length of the card, with the Taichi cards seemingly having a full-length backplate. The XFX MERC 310 also appears to be a 2.5-slot design, but it has a very different backplate design which appears to act much more as a heatsink than most backplate designs we've seen to date. The fact that it appears to be made of a large chunk of aluminium that wraps around the back edge of the card is also rather unusual. XFX also appears to have gone with the same size for its RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX cards. We can also see that XFX has gone for three 8-pin power connectors for their cards.







View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[DeeJay1001]

Big fan of the minimalistic, utilitarian look of the XFX cards.

 

[AsRock]

Oh my

 

[Chaitanya]

Oh my

View attachment 273381

Hopefully there are thermal pads between rearside and backplate to aid cooling.

 

[Kirederf]

Hopefully there are thermal pads between rearside and backplate to aid cooling.

Their RX 6800 series had lot's of thermal pads. You can see it in TPU's review of the XFX Radeon RX 6800 XT Speedster Merc 319 Black Review.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

3 8pin connectors? Hope that means we’ll see some bigger factory OC variations. That or the cards have a lot of OCing headroom.

 

[AsRock]

Problem will be $$$$ as i bet it added at least $100 to the price, how ever i hope they do a standard one with the same cooler.

 

[DeeJay1001]

3 8pin connectors? Hope that means we’ll see some bigger factory OC variations. That or the cards have a lot of OCing headroom.

Hopefully the Reference cards aren't the only models with 2 connectors. I expect these cards to be alot like nvidias latest, power usage will go through the roof to squeeze out that last 5% of performance.

 

[Assimilator]

Sadly none of the cards appear to sport a USB-C port, suggesting that it's not a feature that any of the OEM's have thought worthwhile to include in their custom board designs.

FFS.

 

[Hofnaerrchen]

3 8pin connectors? Hope that means we’ll see some bigger factory OC variations. That or the cards have a lot of OCing headroom.

What for? Wasting a lot of energy for small performance gains? When RDNA3 is nearly as optimized in terms of clock speeds most products come these days you probably will have to replace the cooler to get a positive effect of having 3 8-pin connecters, like water cooling or even LN OC. I personally doubt it will have any noteable effect on performance though - especially when it is true that the current chip revision has a bug that keeps it from hitting high clock speeds.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Hopefully the Reference cards aren't the only models with 2 connectors. I expect these cards to be alot like nvidias latest, power usage will go through the roof to squeeze out that last 5% of performance.

One would hope that these vendors would figure out that not everyone wants a massive brick. Not every case can handle these behemoths, and AMD sorta presented these as more practical, drop-in upgrades. 3-plug skateboards sorta blow that out of the water. I get offering a model that allows the user to push the card to the limit, but yeah, I hope you are right that this isn’t all they produce.

 

[maxfly]

One would hope that these vendors would figure out that not everyone wants a massive brick. Not every case can handle these behemoths, and AMD sorta presented these as more practical, drop-in upgrades. 3-plug skateboards sorta blow that out of the water. I get offering a model that allows the user to push the card to the limit, but yeah, I hope you are right that this isn’t all they produce.

The AIBs will do AIB things like they always do. If chips are limited like the rumors suggest, they will try to tag on as many ocing monikers as possible to increase per card profits. The 2 pluggers will be AMD.com only and nearly impossible to snag.

 

[krisna159]

Xfx are minimalistic beauty, but they use cheap components like zotac, about ASRock,they good quality but the aesthetic not for everyone (look cheap) But for radeon first brand for me are sapphire,good build quality,(the components, the 14 layers pcb etc)

 

[Neo_Morpheus]

I really love the design of these XFX cards.

 

[Veseleil]

XFX Merc model of the previous generation had the best look IMO. Now that backplate... yuck.
Yes, I like the clean minimalist industrial look of the Radeon 7, and most of the AMD professional cards.

 

[Vayra86]

One would hope that these vendors would figure out that not everyone wants a massive brick. Not every case can handle these behemoths, and AMD sorta presented these as more practical, drop-in upgrades. 3-plug skateboards sorta blow that out of the water. I get offering a model that allows the user to push the card to the limit, but yeah, I hope you are right that this isn’t all they produce.

Well, there are 2,5 slot ones there, at least they seem to be trying, instead of just abusing 3 slots with half a pcb.

The fact is these could draw north of or just under 300W.

What we really need is single slot cards in the 150W range and 2 slot at 200-250W. That would be damn sweet, instead of just going lazy and massive.

 

[Space Lynx]

I am def going to try to get the reference model. Since my monitor supports type c, I think that will be fun as hell using type C for my monitor connection. lol

 

[shovenose]

Bummer, it seems nobody is offering dual slot

 

[Space Lynx]

Bummer, it seems nobody is offering dual slot

i thought the reference models were dual slot? are they not? i don't care either way, just curious

 

[Chane]

i thought the reference models were dual slot? are they not? i don't care either way, just curious

They are 2.5. They're anchored in 2, but the cooling assembly sticks out further than 2.

 

[Space Lynx]

They are 2.5. They're anchored in 2, but the cooling assembly sticks out further than 2.

I wish they were 4 slot, I have no need for all that extra room on my mobo, give me 40 celsius max temps!!!!

 

[Steevo]

Let’s rebreathe hot air for cooling…..

Air cooling is so 2000s, water or blower style

 

[AsRock]

i thought the reference models were dual slot? are they not? i don't care either way, just curious

This looks like it's XFX's top model and knowing them their will be a bunch more to come.

 

[1d10t]

ASRock keep that odd weird middle fan RGB only tradition alive. As for XFX they ruin it with white backplate.

 

[Arkz]

Let’s rebreathe hot air for cooling…..

Air cooling is so 2000s, water or blower style

Have you heard of intake fans? There's a reason my GPU stays at a steady temp when gaming.