If you’ve yet to upgrade to an RDNA 3 graphics card, the upcoming XFX Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana could be the one for you. Be warned, though, it’s a hulking behemoth. The new AIB comes in as a quad-slot GPU, making it one of the largest models on the market to date, dwarfing everything in AMD’s arsenal.
The dimensions for the XFX Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana are an unsubtle 13.6 x 5.11 x 2.5 inches (LxWxH), which is as much as a heckin’ chonker as we’ve seen. For context, the Reference model AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX was praised for its dual-slot design and respectable power draw, measuring just 11.3 x 4.3 x 2in. Speaking of power draw, XFX’s new version will require a total of 3x PCIe power connectors, demanding at least an 850W PSU.
It’s rumoured that the quad-slot cooler, as found on the Phoenix Nirvana AIB, could have been originally reserved for the allegedly cancelled RX 8900 XTX, which would have led the charge on RDNA 4. We’ve previously reported on the next generation of GPU cooling featuring enhanced thermal capacity, more copper heat pipes, and larger heat spreaders. It’s alleged that the new XFX variant will retail around the £900 mark, considering the reported ¥7,950 pre-order price in China.
Then we get onto the advanced cooling and functionality of the XFX Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana, which has a vapour chamber cooling system, magnetically attached modular fans, and enhanced thermal pads geared towards overclocking. Simply put, with a larger heatsink, you can push the GPU significantly harder because it expels generated heat more easily. Considering the stock boost clock is believed to be 2615 MHz, you’ll need to crank up a manual OC mode to squeeze the highest framerates possible.
While the Phoenix Nirvana certainly sounds excessive for the hardware, it makes sense that the cooler and the power requirements were originally supposed to be reserved for the RDNA 4 generation. Considering the allegedly cancelled AMD 4C die would have required serious cooling to match the RTX 4090 level of performance. RDNA 4 is also rumoured to run GDDR6 video memory, meaning Team Red could have backtracked in the power race, instead preferring to keep the pricing competitive.