Alleged AMD Radeon RX 7900 Reference Design Pictured
Handsome triple fan board design isn’t a huge departure from the RX 6900 XT.
What may be the first clear photos of an AMD Radeon RX 7000 series graphics card have been shared online. Usually reliable Twitter-based leaker HXL uploaded some images with credit to ‘QQ’, a Chinese social media portal and instant messaging platform owned by Tencent. It is exciting to see what may be the first proper glance at one of AMD’s upcoming top-end RDNA3 chiplet-based desktop graphics cards, but please add a pinch of salt to what at best is an engineering sample design.
In the first image shared, above, the next gen Radeon is pictured above what looks like a Radeon RX 6900 XT reference design from AMD. Immediately you can see the new card, probably either an RX 7900 XT or XTX, is only slightly larger than a previous gen equivalent. It could feature a larger cooler due to a higher TDP, but it isn’t really possible to draw that conclusion from such an image.
Looking at the fans, we know the reference RX 6900 XT fans are 78mm in diameter. (That's based on our own measurements.) The fans on the 7900 card, whatever it's called, appear to be slightly larger. Scaling relative to the 6900 XT suggests a fan size of 82–83mm. That's still not particularly large, compared to non-reference cards that we've reviewed. The Asus RTX 4090 ROG Strix as an example uses 104mm fans, and the previous gen Asus RTX 3090 Ti TUF Gaming has 97mm fans. Both cards have 450W TBP ratings, though, so larger fans might be warranted.
Moving along to a top-down image comparison, where the purported new Radeon RX 7000 graphics card is the lower of the two pictured, there are some more interesting morsels to digest, if these images are genuine. Firstly, the new card (with the red stripe), is still powered by two 8-pin power connectors. No change where none is needed. This is an indication that rumors of an approx 350W TDP may not be a long way off.
The max draw for such a configuration should be 150W per 8-pin connector plus 75W via the PCIe socket (375W). A manufacturer will want to safely undershoot this value. Additionally, RDNA 3’s purported power efficiency means that it doesn’t need to litter the design with 8-pin ports or move to the troublesome 16-pin solution Nvidia and partners have shifted over to with the GeForce RTX 4090.
Other things we can see from the top-down image are that the RX 7900 XT/XTX features a development PCB. The PCB isn’t covered by a backplate, like a premium consumer design, and there are a number of protruding pins which developers can use for tasks like direct monitoring, diagnostics, and programming of the hardware.
AMD has lined up a live streamed RDNA 3 launch event for this Thursday. We should get plenty of further details about launch models, the upcoming range of RX 7000 cards, and rollout. The latest info from rumorville regarding availability suggest it will be approximately a month between Thursday’s event and third party reviews / retail.
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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-Fran- I've read in other places (TPU, for one) that some don't like the design, but I have to say I like it. Maybe I'm looking fondly at desgns that escape, even slightly, to the "brick" type.Reply
I find that "black on black" colour scheme really elegant as well.
EDIT: I forgot to mention: RED PCB!
Regards. -
Makaveli Reply-Fran- said:I've read in other places (TPU, for one) that some don't like the design, but I have to say I like it. Maybe I'm looking fondly at desgns that escape, even slightly, to the "brick" type.
I find that "black on black" colour scheme really elegant as well.
EDIT: I forgot to mention: RED PCB!
Regards.
The design is almost idential to reference RDNA2 so i'm sure why they don't like it. -
artk2219 Reply
Oh i didnt even notice the PCB, they havent had a red PCB since the HD 7000 series now that i think of it. Thats a nice callback on their part, hopefully the performance matches up.-Fran- said:I've read in other places (TPU, for one) that some don't like the design, but I have to say I like it. Maybe I'm looking fondly at desgns that escape, even slightly, to the "brick" type.
I find that "black on black" colour scheme really elegant as well.
EDIT: I forgot to mention: RED PCB!
Regards. -
helper800 Reply
My first real GPU was a XFX 7950. It was a great card that only recently died. That harkens back to when AMD was actually very competitive with Nvidia for a generation performance wise. The 7970 Ghz edition was a beast.artk2219 said:Oh i didnt even notice the PCB, they havent had a red PCB since the HD 7000 series now that i think of it. Thats a nice callback on their part, hopefully the performance matches up. -
Neilbob I'm not sure why the appearance of these things matters in the slightest - but I'm of the antiquated mindset that RGB/LED (except for the power and disk drive lights) are superfluous, and snazzy embellishments are completely and utterly and totally and wholly and thoroughly pointless.Reply
They're behind a closed case made of metal. Why would I care what the insides look like, even if it wasn't stood under my desk on the floor? 👨🦳 -
-Fran- Reply
Because... And sorry this may come as a shocker to you... Some people out there actually assemble their PCs to have them on display, so the look and feel becomes part of the buying decision.Neilbob said:I'm not sure why the appearance of these things matters in the slightest - but I'm of the antiquated mindset that RGB/LED (except for the power and disk drive lights) are superfluous, and snazzy embellishments are completely and utterly and totally and wholly and thoroughly pointless.
They're behind a closed case made of metal. Why would I care what the insides look like, even if it wasn't stood under my desk on the floor? 👨🦳
Don't get me wrong, as I'm on your same boat, but thinking your (our?) way of doing it is the only one (or the correct one) is shortsighted. I hope I'm not reading too much into what you said, but it comes off as that.
Regards. -
Neilbob Reply-Fran- said:Because... And sorry this may come as a shocker to you... Some people out there actually assemble their PCs to have them on display, so the look and feel becomes part of the buying decision.
Don't get me wrong, as I'm on your same boat, but thinking your (our?) way of doing it is the only one (or the correct one) is shortsighted. I hope I'm not reading too much into what you said, but it comes off as that.
Regards.
Don't worry, it's hard for me to be shocked by anything any more. On the contrary, I don't think my preference is the only/correct one - but I do think the obsession with how things look is just outright silly. And because I've appointed myself the job of being a grumpy old fart, I'm sticking by it :)
...
I expect they'll be putting windows and RGB in the side of refrigerators and other household appliances soon. -
Exploding PSU I like the design, reminds me of old Gigabyte Maxwell-series card at a glance for some reason. It looks like a serious piece of kit instead of a "plasticky-toyish" design (like my 6800XT). Also, it looked smaller than the fabled 4090, or is i t just me?Reply
Neilbob said:Don't worry, it's hard for me to be shocked by anything any more. On the contrary, I don't think my preference is the only/correct one - but I do think the obsession with how things look is just outright silly. And because I've appointed myself the job of being a grumpy old fart, I'm sticking by it :)
Looks like I'm part of a different generation. I'm OK with RGB lights, especially when they're tastefully done (e.g. single colour LEDs as an accent to supplement the design). I'm absolutely allergic to those rapid-flashing, rainbow-vomit, eye searing lightshow that looked like its hellbent on triggering my seizure.
But hey, I'm more of a "you do you" guy so if it's your style, at the risk of sounding like my late uncle, go for it.