PowerColor to Debut the Reaper Line of Graphics Cards with Radeon RX 8000 Series

[btarunr]

PowerColor is planning to introduce a new line of custom-design graphics cards called "Reaper." This fits into the scheme of PowerColor's naming that include Red Devil, Red Dragon, HellHound, and Fighter. The company is planning to debut Reaper with AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 8000 series based on the RDNA 4 graphics architecture. It remains to be seen if Reaper is positioned above the flagship Red Devil series, or something lower, replacing Fighter.

Things are moving rather quickly with the AMD Radeon RX 8000 series, with the company reportedly planning to debut at least two new performance-segment SKUs along the sidelines of the 2025 CES. The two SKUs are rumored to be based on the "Navi 48" silicon, and AMD is gunning for sales volumes and market share by targeting the most bulky market segments, going after the GeForce RTX 5070 series and RTX 5060 series. The RDNA 4 graphics architecture is expected to make big strides in reducing the performance cost of ray tracing, through a more specialized ray tracing hardware setup, besides generational improvements in performance and performance-per-Watt.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[wNotyarD]

I have no issues with the color scheme, but the backplate looks hideous. Worse still if it sticks out occupying the slot above the graphics card.

(In time: isn't the smudged logo on the backplate Red Devil's?)

 

[Daven]

5090
5090D
5080
5070 Ti
5070
5060 Ti
5060

8800XT
8800
8700XT
8600

B770
B750
B580
B570
B350
B310

Soooooo many GPUs are releasing between now and March.

 

[The Quim Reaper]

Wow, Powercolor...that's a blast from the past for me.

..The last AMD card I owned was one of their X850XT PE in 2005, paired with a 2.4Ghz Pentium 4!

 

[f0ssile]

I have no issues with the color scheme, but the backplate looks hideous. Worse still if it sticks out occupying the slot above the graphics card.

(In time: isn't the smudged logo on the backplate Red Devil's?)

That looks like the 7800XT with the additional plate:
https://www.powercolor.com/Upload/202407/product_2024073009395910.webp

 

[wNotyarD]

That looks like the 7800XT with the additional plate:
View attachment 376051

Yeah, after mentioning it I looked at Powercolor's website and the backplate is the same (although I looked at the 7900 XT page and the backplate had red accents there).

 

[Daven]

Wow, Powercolor...that's a blast from the past for me.

..The last AMD card I owned was one of their X850XT PE in 2005, paired with a 2.4Ghz Pentium 4!

I avoided brand loyalty as much as possible with my GPUs:

Voodoo 3 - 1999
Geforce 4 Ti 4200 - 2002
Radeon 9800 Pro (flashed into 9800XT) - 2003
Radeon X850XT - 2005
Radeon HD 3850 - 2007
Geforce 9600 - 2008
Radeon HD 7850 - 2012
Geforce 750 Ti - 2014
Geforce 1050 Ti - 2016
Radeon 5600XT - 2020
Radeon 7900XT - 2022

Can't quite remember my CPUs in that time period but I know they included a couple of Pentium III's, a couple of K8's, Phenom II X6, Haswell, Coffee Lake and Zen 4.

 

[f0ssile]

Yeah, after mentioning it I looked at Powercolor's website and the backplate is the same (although I looked at the 7900 XT page and the backplate had red accents there).

I edited the link to the image above. The 7900XT-X's heatsink is much thicker:
7900XT

The thickness of the 7800XT without the plate seems identical to the news photo:
7800XT

I think it goes without saying... If PowerColor had shown the real photo of the new card it would have caused more of a stir, and it would have been underlined.
It's an image put like that in a generic way.

 

[AcE]

It sounds pretty good, let’s see.

 

[lukart]

I wonder where this Reaper will sit in their lineup. And speaking of backplate, I wish they continue with the swappable backplates that was cool from them, obviously the designs might not be everyone's taste but personally I loved the idea and I never got the chance to buy one, but this gen I'm planning on getting a new card, would be great to see them available.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Wow, Powercolor...that's a blast from the past for me.

..The last AMD card I owned was one of their X850XT PE in 2005, paired with a 2.4Ghz Pentium 4!

I had two of their vega 64s.

Awful decision. both destroyed themselves with the failure of a PCB design. first GPUs I've had fail since the BFG 7600gs.

 

[HairyLobsters]

What's with Powercolor and edgelord GPU names?

 

[DaemonForce]

Looks like a successor to Hellhound. A little strange that they're doing this so soon.
It's only been two generations but I see why we're getting this after retiring Fighter.
PowerColor likes to have a full stack lineup for each generation and this fills the gap.
Fighter is typically the lowest tier product that performs like reference or slightly better.
Since enthusiast cards are taking off again I'm guessing this is more cherry picked silicon for AHOC.

I'm not excited about it but it does give me a shot at playing with branding again.

 

[TechLurker]

What's with Powercolor and edgelord GPU names?

They started out their branding that way in the first place, IIRC. Made them stand out, especially in the early gamer days where anything went. And given that it's still more memorable than most other GPU names, I'd say they succeeded. Heck, they also made fun of how hot some old cards got, like the Devil 13 with its massive triple or quad slot heatsink (though they later retired the name due to political sensitivities). Even their old marketing stuff embraced the edge. "Bring hell to your enemies." "Stay cold as hell with our massive cooler." "The hottest card out there; nothing else can compete."

 

[DaemonForce]

Devil 13

The most important chonky boi:

PowerColor Devil 13 Dual Core R9 290X​

580W. Yeah.

So Red Devil took over at some point and after nearly a year of production even I managed to pick one up in the form of a RX 580.
An immediate 10% performance drop compared to the 2014 era Devil 13. Absolutely insane design and it sticks around but terrible.
These days I look at a 3x slotter if it lasts a decade. Most of the Red Devil stuff are 4x slotter. It used to be for me, not anymore.

 

[TechLurker]

The most important chonky boi:

PowerColor Devil 13 Dual Core R9 290X​

580W. Yeah.

So Red Devil took over at some point and after nearly a year of production even I managed to pick one up in the form of a RX 580.
An immediate 10% performance drop compared to the 2014 era Devil 13. Absolutely insane design and it sticks around but terrible.
These days I look at a 3x slotter if it lasts a decade. Most of the Red Devil stuff are 4x slotter. It used to be for me, not anymore.

I do wish PowerColor would push the bounds again. Get out a successor to the Devil 13 with a maxed out card pushed to its limit, and needs 4 full slots for an extra beefy cooler. Basically a flagship tuned to the limit from the factory, akin to the ridiculous KUDANs made for NVIDIA's top end. But that also requires AMD put out a card that can be pushed hard too (or hell, Intel, as ironic as that'd be in regards to having the hottest CPUs and now here comes the hottest GPU in the name of performance).

 

[BlaezaLite]

Need some pics damn it.