Sapphire Announces the Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900-series GPUs with Vapor-X Cooling

[AusWolf]

I mentioned it before in the forums and got shit on, but these cards are all 3+ slots already, they might as well design the video cards (and to some extent the mainboards) to use all the PCIe slots at least physically, if not electronically as well. Don't mount it with just ONE, mount it with 2, 3 even four PCIe slots at once. Might even save an 8 pin cable being used if they do it right. (draw 75w from each PCIe slot)

That would complicate motherboard + GPU choices. Imagine if your GPU had a second x16 bus where your motherboard had nothing, or vice versa. Not to mention all the wiring that would have to go through the cooler. Other than that, I like the idea mainly for structural rigidity reasons.

 

[AsRock]

No, was expecting four slot!

Me too i wanted a cooler on my vcard to make my D15 look tiny.

They can be 5 slot for all i care , cannot have enough cooling when the ambient can hit 34c.

 

[Operandi]

I mentioned it before in the forums and got shit on, but these cards are all 3+ slots already, they might as well design the video cards (and to some extent the mainboards) to use all the PCIe slots at least physically, if not electronically as well. Don't mount it with just ONE, mount it with 2, 3 even four PCIe slots at once. Might even save an 8 pin cable being used if they do it right. (draw 75w from each PCIe slot)

I got the same reaction when I said ATX 12VO was the future. Fact is pretty much everything about ATX decapitated and barely works at all, from cooling to layout. High-end GPUs needs tacked on support brackets otherwise the succumb to the force of gravity while being stationary let alone try shipping a system with a card of this class installed. Its really far past time to throw off all the legacy cruft and start innovating on the design front and not just tacking more RGB shit on everything.

 

[eidairaman1]

I'd like to see AsRock's Formula too. My 6900 XT Formula is one of the best looking cards of the previous generation.

I wasnt a fan of the green

 

[Minus Infinity]

I'm confused is this a new small form factor case or a gpu!

 

[Deleted member 185088]

If the cooling is so efficient why is the clock boost so conservative?

Curious to know if someone will dare to launch a 3Ghz version or AMD will end up launching it as 7970XTX 3Ghz with even faster memories from Samsung.

No idea why, the 7900XTX needs a bump in frequency to make it look less silly.

What is surprising is, CPUs don't suddenly cost that much while using the latest nodes, GPUs on the other hand offer modest gains are 100% more expensive than previous generation. Wouldn't surprise me if nVidia and AMD are doing something shady.

 

[AusWolf]

No idea why, the 7900XTX needs a bump in frequency to make it look less silly.

What is surprising is, CPUs don't suddenly cost that much while using the latest nodes, GPUs on the other hand offer modest gains are 100% more expensive than previous generation. Wouldn't surprise me if nVidia and AMD are doing something shady.

The 7900 XTX costs exactly the same as the 6900 XT did at launch.

 

[kapone32]

The 7900 XTX costs exactly the same as the 6900 XT did at launch.

There are 6950XTs more expensive than some 7900XTX cards. Unfortunately everyone wants that card and it makes the ability to actually get one not that simple yet. I even saw 4 different XT variants still available on Newegg which actually makes sense.

 

[AusWolf]

There are 6950XTs more expensive than some 7900XTX cards. Unfortunately everyone wants that card and it makes the ability to actually get one not that simple yet. I even saw 4 different XT variants still available on Newegg which actually makes sense.

For only $100 difference at this performance level, I'd want the XTX as well.

 

[kapone32]

For only $100 difference at this performance level, I'd want the XTX as well.

You got it. Until they release a 16GB 7700Xt (pure speculation) the XTX will be the card to get.

 

[AusWolf]

You got it. Until they release a 16GB 7700Xt (pure speculation) the XTX will be the card to get.

Agreed. That's more like my target performance level anyway (the x700-level, I mean). If it ends up being decent with an OK price, maybe I'll buy one. If not, I'll just keep being happy with my 6750 XT.

 

[Nkd]

This is the best looking so far. Too bad they didn't release it on launch looks like sapphire is little late. Newegg even had red devil and BB had XFX merc on launch. They went a little faster. May this design took longer due to them bad ass looking LEDs LMAO.

 

[eidairaman1]

The 7900 XTX costs exactly the same as the 6900 XT did at launch.

Which makes it a better deal, makes sense considering price/performance/power. Nv went retard

You got it. Until they release a 16GB 7700Xt (pure speculation) the XTX will be the card to get.

I have a feeling the 7900XT will be more popular due to sizing (atleast from gigabyte) the only bs i disagree with is the lack of 4G of ram on the XT model, it should be 24G like XTX.

 

[Arkz]

Woof.

Only looks good from the backplate.

 

[eidairaman1]

Clean design

 

[kapone32]

I have a feeling the 7900XT will be more popular due to sizing (atleast from gigabyte) the only bs i disagree with is the lack of 4G of ram on the XT model, it should be 24G like XTX.

Once the price comes down. They had to separate them somehow. I don't mind but for me (6800XT) that would feel more like a side grade than the XTX for 4GB of VRAM.

 

[Deleted member 185088]

The 7900 XTX costs exactly the same as the 6900 XT did at launch.

From what I've seen so far it is more expensive than the 6900XT, the best 6900XT were slightly cheaper than the cheapest 7900XTX.
But not as ridiculous as nVidia where the prices have basically doubled.

 

[AusWolf]

From what I've seen so far it is more expensive than the 6900XT, the best 6900XT were slightly cheaper than the cheapest 7900XTX.
But not as ridiculous as nVidia where the prices have basically doubled.

Are you talking about launch prices? They both have exactly the same MSRP.

 

[Chomiq]

Another chunky boy.

 

[btk2k2]

Well at least the body of the card is alot more stylish than the other brands that I've seen so far.... but the fact that it has only 2 DP + 2 HDMI (instead of 3+1) and NO USB-C makes it an automatic NO BUY for me....

Funnily enough this is the opposite for me. Since I plan to use 2x S95Bs (or the 2023 version) 2x HDMI makes it a lot easier.

 

[Deleted member 185088]

Are you talking about launch prices? They both have exactly the same MSRP.

MSRP is fake price only valid for the US without tax, I'm talking about real prices we actually buy them for.

 

[AusWolf]

MSRP is fake price only valid for the US without tax, I'm talking about real prices we actually buy them for.

Tax on a $1,000 card is the same as the tax on another $1,000 card, isn't it?

 

[kapone32]

MSRP is fake price only valid for the US without tax, I'm talking about real prices we actually buy them for.

That is the narrative. Yet every single reference card had the exact same price on Newegg. There was even one on Canada Computers where a Gigabyte reference 7900XTX was $20 cheaper than the Gaming OC 7900XT. I live in Canada where we pay a serious premium (just like every one else) and can say that all reference cards have the same retail price which is about $10 over the MSRP when you do the conversion.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

This is getting out of hand, somebody needs to pull ATX out of the stone age. ATX just wasn't designed to accommodate cards this big and heavy and the cooling is also very inefficient. Case, motheboard, and graphics card manufactures need to get on the same page and start making some revisions to ATX and really ultimately start transiting to some completely new thats built around the concept of the GPU being the most power hungry component in a modern gaming PC (or workstation).

As a stop-gap to a ground up new design put some standoffs on the case (on the motherboard panel), through holes on the motherboard, and add on structural supports on the graphics card that can physically mount to the standoffs on the case so the card is physically supported along more of its axis and not just at one point.

I was thinking this the other day, largely with the concept of the supplementary power cables and how and where they are connected. These cards are thick, huge, heavy, and the cable connector gets to hang out right at a place where, not only does it look ugly, but it has the potential to impede airflow and even add to the stress on the PCIe slot. The ATX design is certainly not ideal for premium hardware. GPUs are one thing, but let’s not forget CPUs needing either a massive, heavy air cooler or a water loop.

If I were to take a stab at this, the board design needs to move the CPU and GPU to the floor of the case, and the supplementary GPU power could ideally be routed through the motherboard through a standardized connection, perhaps through a revised PCIe spec for GPUs. If we must stay vertical, then a standardized GPU support system needs to be laid out.

The 2019 Mac Pro actually does this, where their custom GPU options use an extension slot for powering the card, and there is a support mount on the end of the card to reduce connector stress. The problem is that only their custom cards can take advantage of these changes, but you can still install traditional cards and power them with additional cables. Such a concept would allow for a transition period, but it does mean massive motherboards.

 

[Operandi]

Yeah, there are so many ways you could design this from scratch if you didn't have any legacy restrictions, people don't want to throw out everything they have all at once for a new unproven standard. It would be fun to do some 3D concepts of what is possible and in my opinion something has to happen but I think they key is amending current standards that move in the direction of some sort end goal new standard layout.

I think the quick and dirty solution to these huge GPUs is amending current graphics cards, ATX cases and motherboard with places to secure the card structurally along the axis of the card. There could be 2-3 different points on the case and motherboard sort of like how there is different size M2 SSDs.

Thinking bigger new standards wise I really like the front to back dedicated graphics cooling concept of the Mac Pro and I think most people like towers for gaming PCs and workstations so it makes sense to look at that for inspiration. The graphics card PCB could remain exactly the same as traditional graphics cards just the heatsink would change from the open air concept everything uses now to a card with a huge heatsink that would fit into dedicated graphics section of the case and get fresh cool air from the front intakes and push the hot air directly out of the back of the case. If you give the card 5-6 slots worth of real estate for enthusiast class GPU you could have a fan mounted at the rear (could be part of the case or card) that would be exhaust and maybe one mounted in the middle of the card for a true push / pull configuration. The rear and mid mounted dedicated GPU fan would only have to run when its under load and the GPU would otherwise be kept cool with the front cases intake fan/s. There would also be a similar dedicated cooling section / chamber for CPU and motherboard VRM components.

That would all require coordination with case, motherboard, cooling and graphics card manufactures to support the standard of course but there could be transitional components that could work in both new and legacy formats that would make the transition to a new format easier.