PowerColor Japan has published the first picture of what is believed to be the company's upcoming Hellhound Radeon RX 7900-series graphics card. The board will complement PowerColor's Red Devil-branded Radeon RX 7900 boards that the company teased a while ago, though the products will likely be positioned differently.
There are three things that immediately stand out in the photo of PowerColor's new Hellhound add-in board (AIB). There's a very sophisticated three slot cooling system with two radiators and multiple heat pipes, two eight-pin PCIe auxiliary power connectors, and blue LEDs (or RGB LEDs set to blue).
Huge coolers will likely be common for AMD's Radeon RX 7900-based graphics cards, so we are not surprised to see the one here. Meanwhile, considering the fact that PowerColor equipped its Radeon RX 6900 XT and RX 6950 XT graphics cards with three eight-pin PCIe power connectors, it is a bit unexpected to see a Hellhound Radeon RX 7900-series graphics card with two eight-pin connectors. There is, though, a possible explanation for this.
"A Hellhound is born with fur as tough as armor and claws as sharp as a razor," the tweet by PowerColor reads. "Its eyes burn in the dark and track prey with precision. It was once a fighting dog owned by a hero. But your bravery did not go unnoticed by the Red Devil, and it gave you an opportunity to become Hell's Keeper."
Typically, PowerColor uses Red Devil and Liquid Devil brands for its range-topping graphics cards, whereas the Hellhound brand is reserved for performance mainstream boards as well as for products aimed at modders looking for stylish AIBs. Without any doubt, the PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900-series card looks impressive. But to distinguish between its top-of-the-range Devil-branded graphics cards and Hellhound-branded offerings, PowerColor may have limited the number of power connectors on the latter. This will of course limit the power budget and overclocking potential of the product, but that should also ensure that its cooling system is enough for this part.
What remains to be seen is whether PowerColor will offer Radeon RX 7900 XTX under its Hellhound brand, or will it sell the top-of-the-range card solely under Red Devil and Liquid Devil trademarks and limit the Hellhound brand for lesser Radeon RX 7900 XT offerings.
AMD plans to start selling its reference AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT and Radeon RX 7900 XTX products, which are set to compete in the ranks of the best graphics cards for gaming, on December 13. At this point, it's unclear whether all of AMD's AIB partners will be able to roll out their custom Radeon RX 7900-series products by that date. But considering companies like Asus and PowerColor are already testing their new Radeons, we will likely see at least some custom offerings by mid-December.
