ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 9070 XT Comes with Three 8-pin Power Connectors

[btarunr]

At the 2025 International CES, ASUS showed off its Radeon RX 9070 XT TUF Gaming graphics card. This card was part of a multi-brand showcase AMD set up in its booth. The card features the latest generation of TUF Gaming board design that the company is debuting with the GeForce RTX 50-series and Radeon RX 90-series. The card features a triple slot cooling solution, with its Axial-Tech fans taking up an entire slot (thicker fans mean lower RPM). The PCB is 2/3 the length of the card, so all airflow from the third fan is vented through the heatsink and out a large cutout on the backplate.

Perhaps the most striking feature of the ASUS TUF Gaming RX 9070 XT is its power connectors. The card calls for three 8-pin PCIe power connectors. We've only seen one other custom RX 9070 XT come with three connectors, and that is the XFX RX 9070 XT Merc 319 Black. The question then arises, what is a small performance-segment GPU going to do with 525 W of power on tap? Most other cards, including the PowerColor Red Devil, come with just two 8-pin connectors (375 W), so does the presence of three connectors mean that the board power of overclocked RX 7090 XT exceed 300 W, and board partners are trying to reduce the load on the 75 W put out by the PCIe slot, by sneaking in a third 8-pin input? This isn't the only oddball power connector configuration we've seen at CES for the RX 9070 series. The ASRock RX 9070 XT Taichi comes with a 16-pin 12V2x6 power connector, although there's no way of telling yet if this is configured for 600 W—it could even be keyed for 300 W.



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[GodisanAtheist]

Third connector is just a dummy to make people feel like they have a premium card.

Shoulda painted the shroud red, cuz red wunz go fasta

 

[Dr. Dro]

Third connector is just a dummy to make people feel like they have a premium card.

Shoulda painted the shroud red, cuz red wunz go fasta

Or it's there because it needs it when the card is juiced to its fullest potential. Basic models have the 2 connectors and will likely suffer from power limit issues on such base models when overclocked (since I apparently forgot to mention this), same situation the RTX 3090 had. That's why NV adopted the 2x6 connector, it eliminates that problem and ensures an ample power supply regardless of model.

 

[Macro Device]

Basic models have the 2 connectors and will likely suffer from power limit issues on such base models

It's a tiny chip that's smaller than Navi 21 and even Navi 22. We had tested a dozen 6900 XTs and the third connector, on average, only allowed +50 MHz. All these GPUs suffered from voltage deficite rather than the overall power insufficiency.

I can't see how it's any necessary on Navi 48, unless it's built like Rocket Lake to support basically whatever overclocking as far as you got wares to fuel and cool it. Doubt it tho. Smells like it's gonna peak at 320ish watts, ultimately providing the absolute diminishing returns thereafter because the power density is too ridiculously high.

Should've been a single 8-pin card with ~180 W limitation anyway.

 

[hsew]

Never gonna complain about spreading the power load among more, lower gauge connectors after seeing the 12V debacle of the 40 series…

 

[oxrufiioxo]

I like how most the 9070s are bigger than the 5090FE lol.... Although people love them some BFGs....

 

[Frick]

Or it's there because it needs it when the card is juiced to its fullest potential. Basic models have the 2 connectors and will likely suffer from power limit issues on such base models, same situation the RTX 3090 had. That's why NV adopted the 2x6 connector, it eliminates that problem and ensures an ample power supply regardless of model.

The XFX 6950XT Merc 319 Black only has two, and if the 9070XT needs it ... well that would be really quite insane.

 

[theglaze]

As God intended.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

The XFX 6950XT Merc 319 Black only has two, and if the 9070XT needs it ... well that would be really quite insane.

People just love big powerful looking cards...

both 4060ti....

 

[Macro Device]

Yeah, they forgot what the sane size is (R9 Nano).

 

[_roman_]

... big powerful looking cards ....

I paid more for a modell with three fans which was much quieter in several different tests.
My assumption is that a three fan design sometimes is quieter than a two fan design.
My assumption is that a visual bigger cooler sometimes is quieter.

Of course I can not judge from outside how the card is build. If the thermal resistance was ever calculated or considered. When the build quality is lacking like from the msi radeon 6800 z trio - a bigger cooler with three fans will not benefit at all. Most graphic cards advertise how fabulous their cooling is.

--

On topic three power supply connectors.

Some power supplies come with only two gpu cables. Those have two gpu connectors on it and one connector on the power supply side. Therefore the same current runs over just a single cable. Basically two cables for three connectors on the graphic card.
I do not have schematics and board view of those graphic cards. I assume those three power supply connectors will be connected in parallel anyway on the graphic card side

--

That card has not 4 dp connectors

 

[Outback Bronze]

I like how most the 9070s are bigger than the 5090FE

Yeah, been noticing this. These 9070's supposed to be semi midranged cards? They are looking like beefier top end cards to me...

 

[Chaitanya]

People just love big powerful looking cards...

both 4060ti....

View attachment 378927

Its actually case of AIB makers saving money by reusing coolers(and even PCBs in some cases) from their higher end SKUs. Plus it doesnt hurt with marketting push the size of cards for e-peen contest.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Yeah, been noticing this. These 9070's supposed to be semi midranged cards? They are looking like beefier top end cards to me...

Don't get me wrong I really want to see actual thermals on the 575w 5090 in that small by todays standards card but the reason they make these ridiculous coolers is to upcharge 10-15% over MSRP also if they are making these ridiculous coolers AMD likely gave them a high ish price range and was like shit at the Nvidia announcement

Its actually case of AIB makers saving money by reusing coolers(and even PCBs in some cases) from their higher end SKUs. Plus it doesnt hurt with marketting push the size of cards for e-peen contest.

100% this as well.

 

[walxala]

FYI, Gigabyte AORUS RX 9070 XT also has 3 8-pin power connectors

 

[Vayra86]

I like how most the 9070s are bigger than the 5090FE lol.... Although people love them some BFGs....

We have seriously entered the land of utter stupidity here. I guess its a reflection of the customerbase at this point. After all these companies cater to markets and target audience. Between this and Nvidias DLSS4 sell I just want Musk to shoot me off to Mars now.

 

[JustBenching]

We have seriously entered the land of utter stupidity here. I guess its a reflection of the customerbase at this point. After all these companies cater to markets and target audience. Between this and Nvidias DLSS4 sell I just want Musk to shoot me off to Mars now.

DLSS 4 is good, it's people's perception (and I guess nvidias push) of how it should be used that's problematic. Sure you might argue "who needs 240 fps" but I'd say, why not? We have the monitors capable of doing that, we don't have CPUs or GPUs, MFG fixes that.

 

[Vayra86]

DLSS 4 is good, it's people's perception (and I guess nvidias push) of how it should be used that's problematic. Sure you might argue "who needs 240 fps" but I'd say, why not? We have the monitors capable of doing that, we don't have CPUs or GPUs, MFG fixes that.

Its in diminishing returns territory and completely irrelevant for the overwhelming majority of games and gamers. It shouldn't even be a talking point, but its all they've got. Maybe you are the 10% that benefits. Great, but not quite relevant in the grand scheme of things. The reality is, Nvidia is selling a DLSS4 technology, not a new gen of GPUs. This is just Ada refresh with a heavily inflated power budget. Absolutely NOTHING to cheer about imho. In the meantime, once again, the perf/$ metric hasn't moved by any meaningful margin yet again.

But I see we're in the wrong topic talking about green

 

[walxala]

And PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT Red Devil also has 3 8-pin power connectors, so all the top tier cards have them

 

[Vya Domus]

Or it's there because it needs it when the card is juiced to its fullest potential.

No, it's just idiocy, making giant 3-4 slot cards with a gazillion power connectors for marketing purposes, reference 7900XTX ran fine with 2x8pin and that card has 450W spikes.

 

[Visible Noise]

We’re AMD. We juice our GPUs to the moon.

To the MOON BABY!

 

[Dr. Dro]

No, it's just idiocy, making giant 3-4 slot cards with a gazillion power connectors for marketing purposes, reference 7900XTX ran fine with 2x8pin and that card has 450W spikes.

The XFX 6950XT Merc 319 Black only has two, and if the 9070XT needs it ... well that would be really quite insane.

I mean, if you're running them bone stock. Who knows what the v/f curve on this looks like at the high end.

It's a tiny chip that's smaller than Navi 21 and even Navi 22. We had tested a dozen 6900 XTs and the third connector, on average, only allowed +50 MHz. All these GPUs suffered from voltage deficite rather than the overall power insufficiency.

I can't see how it's any necessary on Navi 48, unless it's built like Rocket Lake to support basically whatever overclocking as far as you got wares to fuel and cool it. Doubt it tho. Smells like it's gonna peak at 320ish watts, ultimately providing the absolute diminishing returns thereafter because the power density is too ridiculously high.

Should've been a single 8-pin card with ~180 W limitation anyway.

Sure, until you realize the clock speeds here are exceeding 3 GHz out of the box and it may perhaps overclock to near 4-ish? At least 3.5. The TUF and Aorus don't seem to be the only 3x 8 pin models either. Could get toasty. Who knows, I guess when reviews come about. The fact so many have these 3 connectors and not just the super extreme designs may tell us something.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Specs

AMD Navi 48, 2970 MHz, 4096 Cores, 256 TMUs, 128 ROPs, 16384 MB GDDR6, 2518 MHz, 256 bit

www.techpowerup.com

Nominal boost is 2970 MHz according to the data we have so far. But no doubt it runs 3+ without any tweaking

Yeah, been noticing this. These 9070's supposed to be semi midranged cards? They are looking like beefier top end cards to me...

I mean, these are positioned as midrangers... but perhaps they've been high end cards all along and we got just spoiled by absurdities like the 4090 and 5090

 

[Macro Device]

until you realize the clock speeds here are exceeding 3 GHz out of the box

228 W's enough to drive 7600 XT to over 3 GHZ. Navi 48 is more efficient...

it may perhaps overclock to near 4-ish? At least 3.5.

...but there was no proof that it can do that. Might be firmware limitations, just like with 7900 GRE (can't OC beyond 2.8 GHz despite architecture physically allowing for that), or physical limitations á-la i7-3770K which gets stuck at 4.7ish GHz because more voltage means less stability at this point. This chip's tiny, no idea why one should expect it to handle more than 1.8 W per sqmm just fine. Imagine dialing a whole kilowatt into a 7900 XTX. It'll burn right away.

 

[Dr. Dro]

228 W's enough to drive 7600 XT to over 3 GHZ. Navi 48 is more efficient...

...but there was no proof that it can do that. Might be firmware limitations, just like with 7900 GRE (can't OC beyond 2.8 GHz despite architecture physically allowing for that), or physical limitations á-la i7-3770K which gets stuck at 4.7ish GHz because more voltage means less stability at this point. This chip's tiny, no idea why one should expect it to handle more than 1.8 W per sqmm just fine. Imagine dialing a whole kilowatt into a 7900 XTX. It'll burn right away.

If they pull this 9070 XT with AD103 performance at 7600 XT footprint, I mean, I'll be the first to get up and applaud them. That's just insane gains, especially considering that it's still using some variant of TSMC N4 presumably (given 4nm marketing).

But something tells me it won't be that pretty or they'd have no doubt gloated about it just a little during CES, especially when they know NV hasn't shied on adding very large, blown up TGP numbers to their cards (arguably their biggest weakness right now). Instead, they almost seemed evasive about them, with a basic acknowledgment of "yes, it exists, yes, we are launching it, here is what they look like" as they have. We'll see.

 

[Macro Device]

AD103

It's a long shot. I don't expect it to meaningfully outclass AD104. If ever. I'd place stock 3.1ish GHz 9070 XT right'wixt 4070 Super and 4070 Ti, closer to the former. 3.7ish GHz, if possible, might crawl into 4070 Ti to Ti Super territory but pulling an AD103 seems impossible.

My point stands. This die doesn't need 3 8-pins. It needs good pricing. 2x8 at 400 USD will do wonders, 3x8 at 500... not that great.