Looking at the back we already guess that the box opens in the shape of a chest; In this area we can see how AMD talks about its drivers, stability and performance, but we can’t find any other important information.
Inside, we find the graphics card integrated into a protective structure, and a message on the top welcomes us to the “red team”.
Estamos ante una tarjeta gráfica bastante grande y pesada (aunque desde ya os podemos confirmar que es bastante más pequeña y ligera que las RTX 40 de NVIDIA, pero BASTANTE), totally de color negro y dominada por tres grandes ventiladores que girarán allos en la misma address.
In the lower area, in addition to the PCI-Express connector, we can see that the aluminum foil heat sink that AMD has used in this graphic is not divided into two sections as usual, but in this case it is a compact and almost homogeneous block: its size is only slightly reduced at the back to make room for the fan connector. This, as AMD’s graphics experts already assume, means it may be using vapor chamber technology for cooling. We can also see here that the PCB pretty much goes all the way to its full length.
The fans are relatively large and there are three units, all rotating in the same direction. They have 9 small blades but inclined enough to generate a high static pressure and thus promote good heat dissipation.
In this last area, in addition to the fan connector, we also see that there is an empty two-pin connector. Maybe so assemblers can use it in their custom models.
On the back we found nothing noteworthy except for four perforations which in all likelihood will be used to anchor a bracket like those we’ve seen in other long and heavy graphics cards, and which serve to anchor the graphics card to the base plate and thus prevent its weight from damaging it.
At the top, we see the graphic’s huge seamless heatsink again, in this case with three of its black aluminum sheets painted red to give it a pop of color. Here too we can see, as we expected from looking at the packaging, the two 8-pin PCIe connectors each and, in this case, also the Radeon logo which will surely light up with the graphics card connected.
Here we can see the connectors up close. In this case, AMD continues to use the standard PCIe connectors for the power supplies, it is not necessary to use special cables or anything that we do not already have on the PC. From the number of pins, if each pin provides 12.5W and we add what the PCIe socket provides, we can guess that its maximum consumption will be 275W.
We go outside, where we have the video outputs, in this case composed of two DisplayPort, one HDMI and one USB-C. Let’s remember that for some reason NVIDIA decided to do away with USB-C in the last two generations of graphics, which we can’t figure out, so we’re glad to see AMD include it. By the way, contrary to what is usual, there is no ventilation grille here, but AMD has screen-printed the graphics information in this area. Moreover, this is the first place where AMD tells us that we are dealing with a Radeon RX 7900 XT, since it did not say so on the packaging.
The rear of this Radeon RX 7900 XT is completely dominated by a black painted aluminum back plate adorned with various shapes and a few red accents. By simply removing four screws, we could remove it to see the PCB and the bracket to hold the heatsink to the GPU.
How big is this graphics card?
One of the big downsides to this generation’s TOP graphics cards is undoubtedly their size, and that’s something we saw when we reviewed both the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 on this website, graphics cards they will certainly compete with in terms of performance – at least in theory – this is AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XT. So let’s see its measured physical size.
This AMD RX 7900 XT is only 27 centimeters long, which contrasts greatly with the more than 35 cm of the RTX 4090/80 of the competition. It is also interesting to see that it occupies only 2 PCI slots with its 51.4 mm thickness, which again contrasts with the three slots and 75.1 mm of the competition. As for the height, we have 98.4 mm against 132.8 mm for the NVIDIA counterpart.
What all of these dimensions tell us is that AMD has created a graphics card that’s already cheaper than NVIDIA’s RTX 4080 and RTX 4090, which (again on paper) consumes significantly less power, which doesn’t doesn’t need any special power cables, and it’s a fairly standard size, taking up only two PCI sockets and measuring 27cm long.
At first glance, these are all advantages and this RX 7900 XT looks very, very good, but how will it perform in the end? Can it really compete with NVIDIA’s RTX 40? That’s something we’ll have to wait a while to find out for sure, but we’ll do that shortly in our own analysis which we’ll post as soon as AMD lifts the embargo on it. Stay tuned.