XFX found itself in hot water over false marketing of its Radeon RX 9070 XT Mercury non-OC edition (part number: RX-97TMERCB9). This particular SKU is a slightly toned down version of the RX 9070 XT Mercury OC Gaming Edition (RX-97TRGBBB9), with a few obvious differences such as the lack of a factory overclock, and a fixed white LED lighting strip replacing RGB; but it turns out that XFX didn't highlight a few crucial differences in the product page and marketing materials of the non-OC card. Apparently, this card lacks the vapor chamber baseplate that the Mercury OC Gaming Edition card has. That's not all, while the OC version comes with a triple 8-pin PCIe power input configuration, the non-OC card has just two 8-pin PCIe power inputs. These two specs were part of the marketing and packaging materials of the card. The RX 9070 XT on its own is within the power spec of dual 8-pin + slot power (375 W), but the third 8-pin connector is found on many overclocked custom design cards by AMD board partners, increasing overclocking headroom of these cards.

XFX responded to angry owners of the non-OC cards on Reddit. In its first response, it admitted its mistake of advertising the card as coming with three 8-pin power inputs when it only came with two. In its next response, it admitted that the card comes with a vapor chamber-based cooling solution, and mentioned that the card instead has a solid nickel-plated copper baseplate for its cooler, paired with Honeywell PTM7950 thermal interface material—something that's very popular with AMD board partners. Besides the apology, XFX presented customers with a recourse—that they could reach out to the company's distributor NRInfo for help.

Shortly after participating in AMD's special RDNA 4 launch event, XFX presented its custom Radeon RX 9070 Series graphics card models to Chinese media outlets. The board partner's "QUICKSILVER class" customizable shroud design was highlighted by global PC hardware news sites—a demonstration unit was showcased with attached "racing car red and white" sections. At the time, XFX's web presences teased this intriguing modular system: "the RX 9000 Series QUICKSILVER Class GPUs features customizable magnetic wings which can be easily removed and replaced to match your style and needs." Select models also sport the manufacturer's impressive "Magnetic Air" triple-fan system—as explored in W1zzard's review of a related (higher-end) MERCURY model; worth a read!

Very recently, XFX's RDNA 4 QUICKSILVER splash page was updated with additional information: "3D Printer Required—3D files available in the downloads section on the product pages." A fresh VideoCardz report covered the availability of 3D print files for compatible card models, via official download pages. Owners can print out their own interpretations, but "magnets are required for assembly." XFX has not yet indicated whether it will sell aftermarket magnetic wing parts. The company's general mentioning of "RX 9000 Series" could imply that forthcoming QUICKSILVER models—e.g. Radeon RX 9060 XT—will be similarly provisioned with modular shroud designs.

Bitspower, KRAMBU, and XFX have joined forces to bring advanced liquid-cooling solutions to AMD's cutting-edge RDNA 4.0 architecture. As AI workloads demand ever-increasing processing power, efficient thermal management is crucial to unlocking peak performance and long-term reliability. By integrating Bitspower's industry-leading cooling technology with KRAMBU's expertise in high-performance computing and XFX's GPU innovation, this partnership delivers a powerful, scalable solution for data centers and enterprise applications.

Designed for maximum efficiency, these liquid-cooled servers support up to 20 GPUs per system, significantly increasing computing density and accelerating AI, machine learning, and data analytics workloads. At the heart of these systems is AMD's Radeon RX 9070 XT, built on the 5 nm RDNA 4 Navi 48 architecture, which boasts 25% greater transistor density than NVIDIA's Blackwell GPUs—packing 53.9 billion transistors into a die smaller than GB203. By maintaining lower temperatures under heavy workloads, Bitspower's cooling solutions allow these high-density servers to operate at peak performance while reducing thermal throttling and energy consumption.

XFX appears to be lining up separate tranches of Radeon RX 9070 Series graphics cards for different markets; Chinese media outlets have reported a wide-spanning lineup of "domestic" and "overseas" edition SKUs. VideoCardz has spotted another potential China-exclusive model—their past weekend investigative piece put the spotlight on a Radeon RX 9070 XT dual-fan SWIFT design. This variant was found on XFX's Tmall e-tail store. The manufacturer's Chinese language official site does not list this curiosity, and recent press material has focused on a lineup of triple-fan cooled solutions. XFX's Western web presences do not allude to any twin-fan variants within the MERCURY, QUICKSILVER, or SWIFT classes.

AMD's recent full-fledged introduction of RDNA 4 included promotional renders of reference card designs, but the launch of Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 involves an entirely board partner-manufactured pool of SKUs. The XFX Radeon RX 9070 XT SWIFT dual-fan model is priced exactly at the level of Team Red's regional guide MSRP: 4999 RMB (including VAT). It likely serves as a direct alternative to an absent AMD-built dual-fan reference card. According to a comparative table of XFX model specifications (see below), the dual-fan variant shares identical data points—excluding physical measurements—with its longer siblings.

XFX is introducing a wide selection of Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 SKUs at launch (March 6), with updated naming schemes and new shroud/backplate designs. Chinese press outlets were invited to inspect the manufacturer's brand-new offerings post-conclusion of AMD's regional introductory event for RDNA 4. Expreview gathered five samples (from a total of ten reported launch units) for their recent article—local nomenclature is highly confusing (e.g. "Phoenix Nirvana"), so we will be using XFX's Western terminology. Unlike other board partners, the company has not released a comprehensive press release for its new product families (at the time of writing). Over the past weekend, VideoCardz highlighted the QUICKSILVER Radeon RX 9070 XT model. They reckon that this a special "Esport" edition, but the situation is unclear—their report repeatedly mentions new Radeon RX 7900 XT cards.

TechPowerUp returned to official sources, in order to get clarification regarding the new "red and black" QUICKSILVER design. According to a sparse XFX Radeon RX 9000 series splash page: "Customizable Shroud—the RX 9000 Series QUICKSILVER Class GPUs features customizable magnetic wings which can be easily removed and replaced to match your style and needs. Details coming soon!" We hope that an upcoming official PR piece will provide a clear rundown of SKUs and feature sets. Expreview took a look at two "Overseas Edition" QUICKSILVER RX 9070 series graphics cards; in XT and non-XT forms. They noted the presence of XFX's signature "Magnetic Air" modular fan system, as well as optional shroud pieces. Their detailed description stated: "the upper and lower sides of the graphics card radiator have detachable magnetic inscriptions and phantom wings, which are inspired by sports cars and support personalized customization, and the logo can be changed at will. It uses three 10 cm ring-blade fans, and the radiator is equipped with five 6 mm heat pipes, a metal backplate and a hidden bracket to reduce PCB deformation." Chinese market pricing for the XFX QUICKSILVER Radeon RX 9070 XT card is reported as 5799 RMB (including VAT)—AMD set a regional baseline MSRP of 4999 RMB (~$686 USD) last week.

International corporate entities have to deal with global time differences; causing uncountable logistical headaches. As evidenced by local reports; AMD and board partner representatives decided to debut their next-gen Radeon RX 9070 Series in front of a (mostly) Chinese audience. The much earlier than anticipated presentation took place well in advance of the "main event," with Jack Huynh and other Team Red big brass showcasing brand-new products to regional distributors and media outlets. VideoCardz believes that this "surprise" press mini-junket occurred—roughly—twelve hours ahead of the officially scheduled international "special broacast."

Baseline price points—VAT included—of 4999 RMB (~$686 USD) and 4499 RMB (~$617 USD) were announced, for the incoming Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 models (respectively). We now know that North American MSRPs (excluding tax) are $599 and $549 (respectively). AMD's presentation slides included more shots of their reference designs (MBA), in triple or dual-fan configurations. Earlier in the week, industry watchdogs proposed that the Radeon RX 9070 Series would launch with an all-custom card lineup; with no AMD-built options. Attendees noted several on-stage board partner company reps, including Jack Yu (ASUS China). ASRock, GIGABYTE, PowerColor, VASTARMOR, XFX and Yeston were the other participants; with demonstration hardware in their hands.

XFX has not generated much official RDNA 4 noise, ahead of this Friday's special event. The long-term AMD board partner unveiled a pair of mysterious Radeon RX 9070 series cards at CES 2025, but no marketing/hype campaign was launched in the interim. VideoCardz and its insider networks have kept tabs on XFX activities; mostly from retail sources. Their latest report concentrates on custom Radeon RX 9070 XT options; claiming that a grand total of nine SKUs are destined for launch next month. Around mid-February, a Canadian e-tailer inadvertently published a comprehensive selection of unannounced XFX MERCURY, SWIFT, and QUICKSILVER models. Days later, the South Korean and Canadian branches of Amazon uploaded packaging imagery.

VideoCardz has gathered product renders and basic spec information from various retail leaks, as well as inside sources. They believe that XFX has (wisely) dropped its old/odd naming schemes—e.g.: SWFT and QICK—in favor of traditional spellings. The high-end MERCURY population count is (allegedly) four; consisting of two Magnetic Air variants, and two normal editions (sporting non-modular fans). Reportedly, an "M" tag adorns Magnetic Air model retail boxes (refer to images below)—VideoCardz believes that XFX's red-ringed fans indicate detachable functionality, but this color coding is only visible on the black version. As previously reported, XFX's upper-tier Radeon RX 9070 XT custom options are touted to sport the "greatest" factory-set overclock: 3.1 GHz. Press outlets have noted the presence of three 8-pin power connectors in leaked MERCURY renders.

It appears as if US computer hardware retailer MicroCenter jumped the gun and posted the pricing of AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 9070-series graphics cards. This includes both the RX 9070 and the RX 9070 XT and the company posted pricing for no less than eight different cards from ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire and XFX. The listings have since been removed, but VideoCardz posted a screenshot of the pricing for the various cards and it's not looking for AMD, at least not based on its statement that "85% of gamers buy cards below $700", since only two out of the eight cards manages to meet AMD's statement. Admittedly, some pricing appears to be placeholders, but it's clear that AMD's partners want more than AMD's MSRP pricing for their cards.

Starting with the RX 9070 cards, ASRock comes in at US$649.99 for its Radeon RX 9070 CL Triple Fan, whereas the only other RX 9070 is the Sapphire Reaper Triple Fan which is listed at US$1,099.99, which this card quite obviously won't sell for. The cheapest RX 9070 XT is again from ASRock in the shape of the RX 9070 XT SL Triple Fan for US$699.99, which is followed by the XFX RX 9070 XT Swift Triple Fan for US$729.99. The Gigabyte and Sapphire cards are listed at US$899.99 followed by ASUS and PowerColor at US$1,049.99 and US$1,100,00 respectively, all of which appear to be placeholder pricing. Even so, at over US$700, AMD is really going to have to deliver some unexpected performance figures to be able to compete with NVIDIA this time.

Amazon Canada has listed two new XFX Magnetic Air Edition designs, within the last day or so—as discovered by the VideoCardz overwatch. Mid-way through last week, the first signs of these premium customized AMD RDNA 4 graphics cards appeared online; courtesy of another Canadian leak. Within the same timeframe, XFX registered its "XFX Radeon RX 9070 XT QUICKSILVER Magnetic Air D6 16 GB" SKU at South Korea's National Radio Agency. Amazon.ca's two pre-order listings—likely prematurely published by accident—provide a first look at XFX's revised "Magnetic Air" modular fan system. The MERCURY Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Magnetic Air Black and White Editions appear to sport plenty of loud RGB lighting zones—contrasting greatly, when compared to understated sibling designs.

XFX's standard MERCURY Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Magnetic Air Edition seems to visually match with the manufacturer's "premium black" CES 2025 demonstration sample. TechPowerUp handled this powered-off unit at last month's trade event, alongside a "premium white" sample. Based on a leak—from two days ago—the pale candidate could be an XFX SWIFT model. Product and packaging imagery for Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT) SWIFT and QUICKSILVER emerged online, allegedly sourced from Amazon South Korea. Returning to XFX's highly-anticipated top-tier Magnetic Air options; price points of CAD$1438.03 (black) and CAD$1277.51 (white) are presently displayed on Amazon Canada. VideoCardz reckons that fluctuations will occur up until release day—both third-party listings (Fennec, Inc) mention the exact same release date: March 6. Base GPU clock speed is set at 1870 GHz, while the card's boost capability takes matters up to 3100 MHz—possibly aligning with numbers generated by an unnamed test sample. An expected VRAM assignment—of 16 GB—is described by Amazon's Canuck branch. Three 8-pin power connectors are present in XFX's Magnetic Air product renders.

Last week, graphics card industry watchdogs alerted the wider hardware public to a registration of XFX Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 custom design SKUs in South Korea. The recent leak points to an upcoming release of unannounced RDNA 4 -based SWIFT and QUICKSILVER models; XFX's official website does not list anything newer than its current Radeon RX 7000 series offerings. Based on a fresh momomo_us social media post, Amazon's South Korean branch has accidentally published product pages for Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT) 16 GB SWIFT and QUICKSILVER cards. Related imagery and a single screenshot were preserved and then shared online; we are looking at very minimal black shroud and backplate designs.

TechPowerUp handled a similarly dark-tinted XFX demonstration sample at CES 2025, but the latest leaked models do not visually match with this "premium black" preview unit. The Radeon RX 9070 QUICKSILVER's backplate appears to utilize the exact same backplate design, but its shroud's aesthetic setup is more elaborate (lots of angular surfaces). The CES "premium white" sample's overall shape and profile align with the leaked SWIFT model. XFX's black and white options were listed by a Canadian e-tailer, a week ago. momomo_us's single screen capture points to alleged XFX Radeon RX 9070 SWIFT SKU clock speeds—apparently, its Amazon page was adorned with the following info points: 1400 MHz (base), 2210 MHz (game), and 2700 MHz (boost). As interpreted by VideoCardz, this is a factory-overclocked unit—PowerColor's Red Devil RX 9070 card shares the exact same clock settings.

We live in crazy times, that's for sure. We have already witnessed a plethora of listings for AMD's RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT GPUs - both set to hit shelves early next month - indicating a decent value proposition compared to NVIDIA's RTX 5070 family, if the leaks and rumors are anything to go by. More recently, as spotted by @momomo_us, Amazon briefly listed a bunch of RX 9070 and 9070 XT cards from XFX. The pricing details are as follows:

• XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9070 OC - $649.99
• XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT - $749.99
• XFX Quicksilver AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT - $769.99
• XFX Mercury AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT OC - $819.99
• XFX Mercury AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Magnetic Air Edition - $849.99

AMD will be launching its new generation of "RDNA 4" Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 graphics cards next month, but we will likely hear more about technical details and price points from official sources around late February. Team Red had scheduled a special "launch event," but Radeon RX 9070 series leaks continue to flow online. Earlier today, reports alluded to an XT variant that allegedly sports a generous VRAM pool of 32 GB. VideoCardz has received another RDNA 4 tip-off, courtesy of Tomasz Gawroński and the AnandTech forums. Based on screenshots, Canada Computers has inadvertently revealed regional prices (minus tax) for PowerColor and XFX's opening round of custom Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 models.

Team Red is reportedly lining up an aggressive price strategy; industry insiders reckon that that baseline MSRP for the Radeon RX 9070 XT will be $599. Its non-XT sibling is expected to launch at a minimum point of $499. The Canada Computers leak seems to contain a small selection of models that hover closer to AMD's guidelines, but the majority of listed cards seemingly demand a premium upcharge. PowerColor's barebones models appear to conform closest to Team Red's recommended baseline—according to VideoCardz's conversion-crunching, the Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper will cost $999 CAD (~$697 USD). The RX 9070 (non-XT) Reaper will come in at $839 CAD (~$586 USD). We spotted no surprises when looking up and down the list of leaked PowerColor RDNA 4 SKUs; TechPowerUp staffers handled Red Devil, Hellhound and Reaper samples at CES 2025. In sharp contrast, XFX appears to have all sorts of options lined up for launch (refer to VideoCardz's chart, below). Two unnamed demonstration units—in black or white—were on display at AMD's recent partner roundup.

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.

AMD at the 2025 International CES announced the Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 desktop performance-segment graphics cards. These will be the face of AMD's next generation of gaming graphics products, and will be powered by the new RDNA 4 graphics architecture. AMD hopes to launch both cards within Q1 2025. AMD changed the nomenclature of its gaming GPUs mainly because it has made a tactical retreat from the enthusiast graphics segment, its fastest products will compete in the performance segment. From the way AMD arranged the Radeon RX 9070 series and 9060 series product stack against the backdrop of the Radeon RX 7000 series, the GeForce RTX 4000 series, and the anticipated GeForce RTX 5000 series, the RX 9070 XT will offer performance roughly similar to the Radeon RX 7900 XT in raster, with the RX 9070 being slightly faster than the RX 7800 XT. The RX 9060 XT will beat the RX 7700 XT, while the RX 9060 beats the RX 7600 XT.

With RDNA 4, AMD claims generational SIMD performance increase on the RDNA 4 compute units. The 2nd Gen AI accelerators will boast of generational performance increase, and AMD will debut a locally-accelerated generative AI application down the line, called the AMD Adrenalin AI, which can generate images, summarize documents, and perform some linguistic/grammar tasks (rewriting), and serve as a chatbot for answering AMD-related queries. This is basically AMD's answer to NVIDIA Chat RTX. AMD's 3rd Gen Ray accelerator is expected to reduce the performance cost of ray tracing, by putting more of the ray tracing workload through dedicated hardware, offloading the SIMD engine. Lastly, AMD is expected to significantly upgrade the media acceleration and display I/O of its GPUs.

XFX has prepared its newest "Magnetic Air" series of Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs with hot-swappable fans for the US market, where they were only exclusive to the Chinese region. The company has informed us that the series will be called "Magnetic Air," instead of the previously believed "MagAir." Comprising the XFX Qicksilver Radeon RX 7800 XT Magnetic Air and the XFX Mercury Radeon RX 7900 XTX Magnetic Air, these GPUs are now available for purchase in the US, with an official launch date set for June 18. What sets the Magnetic Air series apart is its unique cooling design, featuring Honeywell PTM 7950 phase-changing thermal pads that offer superior thermal conductivity. The cooling system boasts 216 ultra-thin matrix fins strategically arranged in a high and low structure to optimize airflow, while the heatsink is attached to a vapor chamber for efficient heat dissipation. Additionally, the backplate is crafted from durable aluminium die-cast, ensuring long-lasting performance.

The XFX Qicksilver Radeon RX 7800 XT Magnetic Air is available in both white and black variants, priced at $529.99, while the XFX Mercury Radeon RX 7900 XTX Magnetic Air carries a price tag of $979.99. The most innovative feature of the Magnetic Air series is its swappable fan design, allowing users to customize their cooling setup to suit their specific needs. This level of flexibility is sure to appeal to enthusiasts and overclockers seeking optimal performance from their rigs. Currently, only the black variants of the 7900XTX and 7800XT are in stock, but all Magnetic Air models are expected to be available on the official launch date of June 18 for PC enthusiasts in the United States.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the RX 7900 XTX Magnetic Air is now live]

XFX earlier this month debuted the Phoenix Nirvana line of premium custom-design Radeon RX 7900 series graphics cards with the China-exclusive RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana. The company is expanding this lineup with two new models, both of which are draped in white. These are the company's first white-themed graphics cards. The lineup now includes the Radeon RX 7800 XT Phoenix Nirvana White, and the RX 7900 GRE Phoenix Nirvana White. Both cards appear to share a common board design, because the compacted "Navi 31" ASIC powering the RX 7900 GRE is pin-compatible with the "Navi 32" ASIC that the RX 7800 XT is based on. Since both GPUs feature a 256-bit GDDR6 memory interface, and a nearly identical typical board power value of around 260 W, AMD's board partners get to use their RX 7800 XT custom board designs for RX 7900 GRE products.

The XFX RX 7900 GRE Phoenix Nirvana White features a significantly different board design to the company's Merc 319 product that's available in the west. The heatsink is noticeably larger, the cooler shroud appears better ventilated, and XFX is using thicker 100 mm fans for higher static pressure than from the ones you find in the global Merc 319 card. The most striking design element of course is its color trim. White makes up the cooler shroud, the fan impellers, and the backplate. The heatsink protrudes out of the edges of the black PCB that's barely noticeable. The card is 33.7 cm long, and 5.9 cm-thick, with a 13.2 cm height. The RX 7900 GRE Phoenix Nirvana White comes with a hearty 6.7% factory overclock, with a 2394 MHz boost clock (vs. 2245 MHz reference); while the RX 7800 XT Phoenix Nirvana White ticks AMD reference 2430 MHz boost. Both these cards, unfortunately, are China-exclusive products, just like the RX 7900 XTX card XFX launched earlier this month.

XFX over the weekend rolled out the Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana graphics card, the company's new flagship custom-design product based on fastest AMD Radeon GPU you can buy. From the looks of it, the card is China-exclusive, as we haven't seen any updates from the European or North American arms of XFX showcase this card. The Phoenix Nirvana is noticeably larger than the company's current MERC 310, and features a 4-slot design, with a significantly heavier heatsink. The card is 34.6 cm long, 13 cm tall, and is 4 slots thick.

The star attraction with this card is its large aluminium fin-stack heatsink, which features 216 aluminium fins for a total of 62.586 mm² of surface area for heat dissipation; six copper heatpipes, a vapor-chamber base, and 15,000 W/mK Honeywell PTM 7950 phase-changing thermal pad between the vapor-chamber and the GPU. Each of the three 100 mm fans of the XFX RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana features a fluid-dynamic bearing, turns at speeds of up to 3,200 RPM, pushing 70.08 CFM of airflow, at 4.88 mm H₂O, each. The card is priced at ¥7,899 in China, which converts to roughly $1,090.

George Hotz and his startup operation (Tiny Corporation) appeared ready to completely abandon AMD Radeon GPUs last week, after experiencing a period of firmware-related headaches. The original plan involved the development of a pre-orderable $15,000 TinyBox AI compute cluster that housed six XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900 XTX graphics cards, but software/driver issues prompted experimentation via alternative hardware routes. A lot of media coverage has focused on the unusual adoption of consumer-grade GPUs—Tiny Corp.'s struggles with RDNA 3 (rather than CDNA 3) were maneuvered further into public view, after top AMD brass pitched in.

The startup's social media feed is very transparent about showcasing everyday tasks, problem-solving and important decision-making. Several Acer Predator BiFrost Arc A770 OC cards were purchased and promptly integrated into a colorfully-lit TinyBox prototype, but Hotz & Co. swiftly moved onto Team Green pastures. Tiny Corp. has begrudgingly adopted NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs. Earlier today, it was announced that work on the AMD-based system has resumed—although customers were forewarned about anticipated teething problems. The surprising message arrived in the early hours: "a hard to find 'umr' repo has turned around the feasibility of the AMD TinyBox. It will be a journey, but it gives us an ability to debug. We're going to sell both, red for $15,000 and green for $25,000. When you realize your pre-order you'll choose your color. Website has been updated. If you like to tinker and feel pain, buy red. The driver still crashes the GPU and hangs sometimes, but we can work together to improve it."

George Hotz and his Tiny Corporation colleagues were pinning their hopes on AMD delivering some good news earlier this month. The development of a "TinyBox" AI compute cluster project hit some major roadblocks a couple of weeks ago—at the time, Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU firmware was not gelling with Tiny Corp.'s setup. Hotz expressed "70% confidence" in AMD approving open-sourcing certain bits of firmware. At the time of writing this has not transpired—this week the Tiny Corp. social media account has, once again, switched to an "all guns blazing" mode. Hotz and Co. have publicly disclosed that they were dabbling with Intel Arc graphics cards, as of a few weeks ago. NVIDIA hardware is another possible route, according to freshly posted open thoughts.

Yesterday, it was confirmed that the young startup organization had paused its utilization of XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900 XTX graphics cards: "the driver is still very unstable, and when it crashes or hangs we have no way of debugging it. We have no way of dumping the state of a GPU. Apparently it isn't just the MES causing these issues, it's also the Command Processor (CP). After seeing how open Tenstorrent is, it's hard to deal with this. With Tenstorrent, I feel confident that if there's an issue, I can debug and fix it. With AMD, I don't." The $15,000 TinyBox system relies on "cheaper" gaming-oriented GPUs, rather than traditional enterprise solutions—this oddball approach has attracted a number of customers, but the latest announcements likely signal another delay. Yesterday's tweet continued to state: "we are exploring Intel, working on adding Level Zero support to tinygrad. We also added a $400 bounty for XMX support. We are also (sadly) exploring a 6x GeForce RTX 4090 GPU box. At least we know the software is good there. We will revisit AMD once we have an open and reproducible build process for the driver and firmware. We are willing to dive really deep into hardware to make it amazing. But without access, we can't."

The TinyBox AI server system attracted plenty of media attention last week—its creator, George Hotz, decided to build with AMD RDNA 3.0 GPU hardware rather than the expected/traditional choice of CDNA 3.0. Tiny Corp. is a startup firm dealing in neural network frameworks—they currently "write and maintain tinygrad." Hotz & Co. are in the process of assembling rack-mounted 12U TinyBox systems for customers—an individual server houses an AMD EPYC 7532 processor and six XFX Speedster MERC310 Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards. The Tiny Corp. social media account has engaged in numerous NVIDIA vs. AMD AI hardware debates/tirades—Hotz appears to favor the latter, as evidenced in his latest choice of components. ROCm support on Team Red AI Instinct accelerators is fairly mature at this point in time, but a much newer prospect on gaming-oriented graphics cards.

Tiny Corporation's unusual leveraging of Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPUs in a data center configuration has already hit a developmental roadblock. Yesterday, the company's social media account expressed driver-related frustrations in a public forum: "If AMD open sources their firmware, I'll fix their LLVM spilling bug and write a fuzzer for HSA. Otherwise, it's not worth putting tons of effort into fixing bugs on a platform you don't own." Hotz's latest complaint was taken onboard by AMD's top brass—Dr. Lisa Su responded with the following message: "Thanks for the collaboration and feedback. We are all in to get you a good solution. Team is on it." Her software engineers—within a few hours—managed to fling out a set of fixes in Tiny Corporation's direction. Hotz appreciated the quick turnaround, and proceeded to run a model without encountering major stability issues: "AMD sent me an updated set of firmware blobs to try. They are responsive, and there have been big strides in the driver in the last year. It will be good! This training run is almost 5 hours in, hasn't crashed yet." Tiny Corp. drummed up speculation about AMD open sourcing GPU MES firmware—Hotz disclosed that he will be talking (on the phone) to Team Red leadership.

Tiny Corp., a neural network framework specialist, has revealed intimate details about the ongoing development and building of its "tinybox" system: "I don't think there's much value in secrecy. We have the parts to build 12 boxes and a case that's pretty close to final. Beating back all the PCI-E AER errors was hard, as anyone knows who has tried to build a system like this. Our BOM cost is around $10k, and we are selling them for $15k. We've put a year of engineering into this, it's a lot harder than it first seemed. You are welcome to believe me or not, but unless you are building in huge quantity, you are getting a great deal for $15k." The startup has taken the unusual step of integrating Team Red's current flagship gaming GPU into its AI-crunching platform. Tiny Corp. founder—George Hotz—has documented his past rejections of NVIDIA AI hardware on social media, but TinyBox will not be running AMD's latest Instinct MI300X accelerators. RDNA 3.0 is seemingly favored over CDNA 3.0—perhaps due to growing industry demand for enterprise-grade GPUs.

The rack-mounted 12U TinyBox build houses an AMD EPYC 7532 processor with 128 GB of system memory. Five 1 TB SN850X SSDs take care of storage duties (4 in raid, 1 for boot), and an unoccupied 16x OCP 3.0 slot is designated for networking tasks Two 1600 W PSUs provide necessary electrical juice. The Tiny Corp. social media picture feed indicates that they have acquired a pile of XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900 XTX graphics cards—six units are hooked up inside of each TinyBox system. Hotz's young startup has ambitious plans: "The system image shipping with the box will be Ubuntu 22.04. It will only include tinygrad out of the box, but PyTorch and JAX support on AMD have come a long way, and your hardware is your hardware. We make money either way, you are welcome to buy it for any purpose. The goal of the tiny corp is to commoditize the petaflop, and we believe tinygrad is the best way to do it. Solving problems in software is cheaper than in hardware. tinygrad will elucidate the deep structure of what neural networks are. We have 583 preorders, and next week we'll place an order for 100 sets of parts. This is $1M in outlay. We will also ship five of the 12 boxes we have to a few early people who I've communicated with. For everyone else, they start shipping in April. The production line started running yesterday."

XFX today launched its Radeon RX 7900 GRE graphics card. Although the custom-design card sticks with the company's RX 7000 series Speedster MERC board design, XFX did not assign a brand extension to this card. The card's styling appears identical to the RX 7800 XT Speedster QICK 319 Core Edition, a card it very likely shares most of its board design with. The RX 7900 GRE is based on a compact "Navi 31" package that's rumored to be pin-compatible with the "Navi 32," which is why most custom RX 7900 GRE cards appear to have board designs closer to their RX 7800 XT counterparts, than to custom RX 7900 XT cards.

The XFX RX 7900 GRE is 33.5 cm long, 13 cm tall, and is 3 slots thick. It features an aluminium fin-stack heatsink that appears identical to that of the RX 7800 XT QICK 319, ventilated by a trio of fans. XFX has given the RX 7900 GRE factory overclocked speeds of 2052 MHz Game clocks, compared to 1880 MHz reference Game clocks; while leaving the memory untouched at 18 Gbps. The card draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 2.1 and one HDMI 2.1. The company didn't reveal pricing.

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16 GB reference model has reached UK shores, albeit very briefly and with a very low stock count—e-tailer AWD-IT Gaming PC (ADMI Ltd.) was the first shop in the region to offer XFX's Navi 31 XL partner card. Team Red's formerly Chinese market-exclusive Radeon RDNA 3 GPU has made its way West—as of late last year—but retail presence in Europe is less than inspiring. Circumstances could change—recent rumblings indicate that more custom options are incoming—GIGABYTE is readying a Gaming OC variant, possibly paving the way for a wider release through mainstream channels. PowerColor's Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC model has also been spotted on European price comparison engines.

UK buyers were treated to an initial batch of a dozen (or fewer) XFX Radeon RX 7900 GRE Reference graphics card, at £659.99 (~$832) including VAT and free delivery. AWD-IT's listing is inactive at the time of writing, but the SKU remains as a searchable asset on their web store. It appears that curious UK hardware enthusiasts have snapped up the first round of Golden Rabbit Edition (GRE) curiosities, although the price point was nowhere near as attractive when lined up against past offerings within EU mainlands. For example, Italy's PSK Mega Store had reference stock priced at €542.66 (~$585) a piece, with a digital copy of AVATAR: Frontiers of Pandora bundled in. The XFX Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB SPEEDSTER MERC 310 model is currently discounted—£699.99 via Ebuyer UK—representing a very tempting higher-specced custom design prospect (going for only £40 more than the RX 7900 GRE) .

XFX is reported to be updating its existing Speedster QICK 319 RX 7800 XT Core Edition model—VideoCardz has discovered a pale variant, imaginatively dubbed as the "White Edition." The article does not disclose their source of information and photos, but a quick Google search reveals that Bermor Techzone (BTZ), a Philippines-based e-tailer, has the white version in stock—their listing indicates a price of ₱30,900 (~$552), with no added premium over the existing black model. VideoCardz believes that this is XFX's first foray into white RDNA 3 territories, perhaps in reaction to rival graphics card manufacturers offering a growing pool of almost colorless options.

A SNOW WOLF variant of the Radeon RX 6750 GRE 10 GB card was added to XFX's Chinese product lineup last October, marking the release of their first ever white design deployed on an AMD GPU. We hope to see alternative color options rolled out further up in XFX Radeon RX 7000-series hierarchy, but the QICK 319's treatment does not extend to its PCB (judging from the leaked photos)—fellow Team Red Navi hardware-specialist PowerColor has this market segment cornered it seems. VideoCardz reckons that an official unveiling of XFX's Radeon RX 7800 XT Speedster QICK 319 "white subvariant" is "imminent."

New Eiswolf 2 AiO - now also for custom designs of the RX 7900XT/XTX GPUs! Alphacool expands its product range and enables the cooling of AMD's RX 7900XT/XTX graphics cards with the innovative Fullcover GPU AIO water cooler. The enormous waste heat from the new generation of graphics cards is dissipated excellently with these coolers. The very good water flow and the large cooling surface are the result of the particularly filigree fin structure. The jet plate with revised inflow engine also distributes the water perfectly over the cooling fins. The full-surface chrome plating of the cooler not only offers resistant protection against acids, scratches and damage, but also achieves a beautiful homogeneity and exceptional shine. The Aurora design of the cooler impresses with its visually calm and simple design as well as the wonderfully uniform lighting, which is achieved via digitally addressable RGB LEDs.

The expandable Eiswolf 2 delivers an all-round carefree package and ensures that its user can easily access a performance-oriented GPU water cooling system out-of-the-box. Also included are the NexXxos ST30 360 mm radiator, the Rise Aurora 120 mm fans, DC-LT 2 pump and TPV hoses with quick-release coupling.
The Eiswolf 2 AiO - 360 mm for RX 7900XT Reference and RX 7900XTX Merc 310 are now available in the Alphacool online store.