Radeon RX 9070 XT reference design purportedly revealed — RDNA 4 GPU emerges with black and a triple fan cooler design

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AMD's RX 9070 XT reference cooler seemingly takes inspiration from its RX 7900 XTX/XT triple fan cooler but features several major changes.

Upscaled render of alleged Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU
(Image credit: AMD)

AMD has purportedly revealed renders of the Radeon RX 9070 XT. Videocardz reports that AMD accidentally showed off the GPU's reference design in a Reddit ad featuring an undisclosed graphics card.

The rendered RX 9070 XT reference cooler features a black color scheme comprising several shades of black and a triple-fan cooler design with an apparently illuminated Radeon logo pointing downwards at the top left of the shroud. A grill-like pattern flanks the central fan, with silver accents in the middle that make the appearance of an "X."

The design takes direct inspiration from AMD's current-gen RX 7000 series reference coolers but differs significantly in several areas. The biggest differences are the fans and the shroud architecture itself. The fans are more circular and significantly less angular, potentially providing higher static pressure performance compared to the RX 7000 series. The shroud has four perfectly linear sides with rounded edges. By comparison, the RX 7900 XTX/XT reference cooler's shroud was broken up with angular tidbits around the top and bottom of the central fan.

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The triple-fan cooler design also signals a higher potential power draw for the RX 9070 XT compared to mid-range RX 7000 variants. Its potential predecessor, the RX 7800 XT, functioned on a dual-fan cooler design for the reference design rather than a triple-fan design. The RX 7700 XT never received a reference variant. Still, logically, the card would have received a dual-fan cooler design if it did (given the RX 7600 also offered a dual-fan design, albeit much more compact compared to the 7800 XT's version.)

That said, AMD is apparently changing its nomenclature for its next-generation GPUs, so we cannot officially confirm if the RX 9070 XT will be the official successor to the RX 7800 XT and/or RX 7700 XT.

Rumors suggest that the RX 9070 XT might be the flagship SKU for AMD's next-gen GPUs, with previous rumors stating that AMD won't be making a flagship Navi 31esque successor on the RDNA 4 architecture similar to the RX 5000 series. Along with this big change, AMD is rumored to significantly alter its nomenclature, skipping the RX 8000 series altogether and using the RX 9000 moniker for its RDNA 4-based GPUs. As you might have already figured out, AMD is also rumored to be changing the very way it names its GPUs, going to a numbering system that is identical to Nvidia (save for the "RX" and "XT" branding).

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Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • oofdragon
    All I care is a 7900XT level card at $500 launch! They may call it whatever they want and I'm good at that price. Already have a 7900XT but don't need 20GB vran, I can trade both and profit. Bet it's going to be less power hungry too.

    On Nvidia side only the RXT 5060 TI 16GB will be worth anything next gen as 12GB already showing signs of not being enough. Indiana is chewing 15GB at max settings even at 1080p
    Reply
  • subspruce
    oofdragon said:
    Wasn't it supposed to be a 9700XT?
    welcome to AMD's baffling product names, Ryzen AI Max+ 395 included
    Reply
  • systemBuilder_49
    I learned very early to add the first 2 digits of AMD cards to get the speed level. So 7700 = 7+7 = 14 card. 6800 = ⁶+8=14 card, rtc.

    Now they adopt the crazy NVidia scheme to add the 1st and third digit so 1080 = 1+8 = 2070 = 2+7 = 3060 = 3+6 = a 9 series card.
    Reply
  • subspruce
    systemBuilder_49 said:
    I learned very early to add the first 2 digits of AMD cards to get the speed level. So 7700 = 7+7 = 14 card. 6800 = ⁶+8=14 card, rtc.

    Now they adopt the crazy NVidia scheme to add the 1st and third digit so 1080 = 1+8 = 2070 = 2+7 = 3060 = 3+6 = a 9 series card.
    except that doesn't really work.
    7800 XT = 6800 XT despite the difference between 14 and 15. 7900 XTX and 8800 XT won't be similar in performance, despite both being in 15. The RX 5600 XT and RX 6500 XT are in different leagues, despite both being in 11.
    Reply
  • gg83
    systemBuilder_49 said:
    I learned very early to add the first 2 digits of AMD cards to get the speed level. So 7700 = 7+7 = 14 card. 6800 = ⁶+8=14 card, rtc.

    Now they adopt the crazy NVidia scheme to add the 1st and third digit so 1080 = 1+8 = 2070 = 2+7 = 3060 = 3+6 = a 9 series card.
    Nailed it!
    Reply
  • UnforcedERROR
    oofdragon said:
    All I care is a 7900XT level card at $500 launch! They may call it whatever they want and I'm good at that price. Already have a 7900XT but don't need 20GB vran, I can trade both and profit. Bet it's going to be less power hungry too.

    On Nvidia side only the RXT 5060 TI 16GB will be worth anything next gen as 12GB already showing signs of not being enough. Indiana is chewing 15GB at max settings even at 1080p
    We'll see. I anticipate cards getting more expensive, not less, so a 7900XT equivalent will likely still be pushing that boundary.

    As for NVidia, I doubt the only card in the portfolio worth anything will be the 5060. We can all hope a decent 5070 happens without a year long gap before we get the actual product and not an in-name-only version.
    Reply
  • dave.rara66
    oofdragon said:
    All I care is a 7900XT level card at $500 launch! They may call it whatever they want and I'm good at that price. Already have a 7900XT but don't need 20GB vran, I can trade both and profit. Bet it's going to be less power hungry too.

    On Nvidia side only the RXT 5060 TI 16GB will be worth anything next gen as 12GB already showing signs of not being enough. Indiana is chewing 15GB at max settings even at 1080p
    Using 15GB or allocating 15GB? A lot of games will allocate as much Vram as they can see, just because. Doesn't mean they are actually using it all.
    Reply
  • usertests
    UnforcedERROR said:
    We'll see. I anticipate cards getting more expensive, not less, so a 7900XT equivalent will likely still be pushing that boundary.
    For as much doom and gloom as there is in the GPU market, that doesn't make sense. Perf/$ is rising. AMD's performance is falling or not changing much this gen (depends how you weight raytracing), so the price is going down.

    As bad as the new 9070 name is, using '7' instead of '8' as in 8800 XT or the '9' of 7900 XT(X) is an indicator that AMD is aiming for cheaper cards this time around, like the RDNA1 generation led by the 5700 XT. Could be as high as $599, but hopefully less.
    Reply
  • Pigpig
    no more 8800xt?
    Reply
  • ilukey77
    The 9070 needs 20gb and GDDR7 at the very least !!

    It needs to be a top spec 5070 competitor/beater !!

    Any thing below that will be food for Nvidia's low end crap and Intel's b770 cards !!
    Reply