Thoroughly cleaning your graphics card is a tricky task, but an essential one. However, an innovation spearheaded by XFX could make doing so much easier and faster. Should its design catch on, we may soon live in a world with removable fans atop our GPUs.
XFX has already used swappable fans on some of the best graphics cards in the Radeon RX 7000 stack. However, it’s only appeared as part of the company’s China-exclusive Phoenix Nirvana series. As such, this tease could indicate plans for a wider global release.
These fancy blowers attached to a graphics card’s heatsink using magnets instead of screws. Naturally, this makes them easy to remove for cleaning or replacement. XFX has released Phoenix Nirvana designs for Radeon RX 7900 XTX, 7900 GRE, and 7800 XT. There’s no word on whether the company plans to expand the line but there is potential.
As someone that regularly cleans their case filters, I approve of this fan-tastic design from XFX. Now, I shouldn’t need to uncomfortably contort my fingers to remove any dust underneath my graphics card’s fan blades. Not to mention the greater repairability this brings. Ordering a single replacement fan rather than shipping off your whole graphics card seems less of a stress. Looks as easy as clicking two Lego bricks together.
Better still, removable fans create room for new forms of graphics card customisation. Assuming XFX uses a similar format on all its cards, you can bet someone will offer custom-painted options. If nothing else, I imagine the company welcomes a new way to differentiate itself from its competition.
XFX hasn’t revealed any details on availability or pricing yet. However, you can expect to pay a premium for this design, with special colour variants naturally pushing costs up further.