AMD Radeon RX 7900 "RDNA 3" Engineering Sample Pictured, Massive Triple

Sep 15, 2023

An engineering sample of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 series "RDNA 3" graphics card has been pictured which features a massive cooler.

In the latest leak published by HXL (@9550pro), we get to see AMD's next-generation reference cooler. The card can be seen sitting next to the Radeon RX 6950 XT reference model which we'll compare it against. There are no clear labels as to whether this is the XT or the XTX variant but this card is definitely part of the high-end Navi 3x "Radeon RX 7900" family which will feature the MCM architecture.

So starting with the details, we get to see the similar card that was teased by AMD a while back. The card comes with a 2.5-slot cooler which is slightly thicker and incorporates triple dual-axial fans, each with 9 fan blades. These fans push air towards a massive aluminum heatsink that is featured underneath the shroud and over the vital components such as the GPU, VRAM, and VRMs. The shroud extends just a tad bit beyond the PCB and should measure around 30cm since the 6950 XT reference model itself features 27cm.

The card also packs a really futuristic shroud design which looks absolutely great. There are two RGB accent bars on the front around the middle fan and two metallic frames in the center too. The "Radeon" logo can be seen on the side and once again, this should illuminate with RGB LEDs. The sides of the card show that the card is much longer than the previous RDNA 2 flagship. The Radeon RX 7000 series have more heatsink real estate and also has a distinct 3-red stripe design. There is also more room on the sides for the air to pass through.

The most interesting aspect of this AMD Radeon RX 7900 "RDNA 3" graphics card is that it comes with just two 8-pin connectors which is something that AMD itself confirmed a few days ago when Scott Herkelman stated that they won't be using the 16-Pin connector which is utilized by NVIDIA. The card also features no backplate and since this is an engineering board with a red PCB, it makes sense. We don't expect the power delivery to change a lot in the final PCB design but we know that AMD had prepared multiple PCB boards for their RDNA 3 family as detailed here.

A dual 8-pin connector design would suggest that the card features a peak TDP of 375W which is 125W lower than the max TDP of the reference RTX 4090. You can also notice several headers and connectors on the back of the PCB which are used for real-time diagnostics by engineers working on these samples.

AMD confirmed that its RDNA 3 GPUs will be coming later this year with a huge performance uplift. The company's Senior Vice President of Engineering, Radeon Technologies Group, David Wang, said that the next-gen GPUs for Radeon RX 7000 series will offer over 50% performance per watt uplift vs the existing RDNA 2 GPUs. Some of the key features of the RDNA 3 GPUs highlighted by AMD will include:

The two graphics cards that are expected to be unveiled this week would include the Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24 GB and the RX 7900 XT 20 GB. AMD will be unveiling its RDNA 3 GPU architecture and the Radeon RX 7000 graphics cards on the 3rd of November. They have a full Livestream planned which you can read more details about here.