Packaging

The Card

ASRock created a new design for their RX 7900 Series Taichi cooler. They kept the blocky, industrial design of previous Taichi products, but the cogwheel iconography is now only present on the center fan hub. The fan frames are now solid, which helps make the card look less busy. On the metal backplate we get to meet the cogwheel design again, ASRock has added more white highlights here compared to previous generations.


ASRock has placed two RGB zones in the front cooler, one along the top edge, the second near the middle fan. On the back you get a third RGB element that illuminates the Taichi logo.


Dimensions of the card are 35.0 x 14.0 cm, and it weighs 1772 g.


Installation requires three slots in your system.


Display connectivity includes two standard DisplayPort 2.1 ports (RDNA 2 had 1.4a) and two HDMI 2.1a (same as RDNA 2).

AMD has upgraded their encode/decode setup. It now comes with two independent hardware units that can encode and decode two streams of video in parallel, or one stream at double the FPS rate. There's support for VP9, H.264, H.265 and AV1 decode, and encoding is supported for H.264, H.265 and AV1.


The card uses a classic triple 8-pin power input config, rated for 525 W maximum power. NVIDIA on the other hand uses the new 12+4 pin ATX 12VHPWR connector, which is rated for up to 600 W of power draw.


Near the power connectors you'll find a 3-pin ARGB header, which lets you sync the graphics card lighting effects to the rest of your system.


I love this! A dedicated switch lets you turn off the RGB lighting—no software needed.


The dual BIOS feature lets you switch between the default "Performance" BIOS and a "Quiet" BIOS. While other vendors reduce the fan speed and allow higher temperatures, ASRock has decided to reduce clocks and voltages instead, which lowers heat output, which makes it easier for the fans to cool the card. This means that both Performance and Quiet mode are running at the same temperatures. Quiet mode is roughly 4% slower, but considerably quieter.

Teardown

ASRock has engineered an excellent thermal solution that uses eight heatpipes to move heat away quickly from the GPU. The main cooler also provides cooling for the VRM and memory chips.


Once the main cooler is removed, a metal reinforcement brace appears, which helps strengthen the card, to protect against warping and sagging.


The backplate is made of metal and protects the card against damage during installation and handling.