XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XTX review

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Introduction

MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XTX review
XFX Speedster Series

It is XFX time again, and this time we will unleash the full power of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX (in the MERC 310 flavour). The product has been fine-tuned and individualised at the factory, and it shows. XFX is taking no chances with their design, opting to mimic the successful RX 6000 series instead. The favoured THICC triple-fan layout returns in this updated version of a stylish black and silver cooling system. Several years back, XFX unveiled their Speedster line, which now includes the RX 7900 Merc 310. The backplate of these cards has been updated significantly, with silver theming being used for the first time. As a bonus, the RX 7900 XTX Merc 310 uses a three-connector 8-pin power system, whereas the RX 7900 XT only uses two. No custom SKU has been released with a USB Type-C port, and the XFX Merc 310 series is no exception. Instead of three HDMI ports, gamers will get three DisplayPort ports. A secondary BIOS mode is very interesting, though XFX says it's unsupported; with some manual tweaking, you can get this board running 8% faster than reference. We'll address that in our tweaking segment of the article -- we have the flagship Radeon RX 7900 GPU inside the XTX, which uses the latest rDNA3 GPU architecture and has 24 GB of graphics memory. When tested against the GeForce RTX 4080, the card holds its own. You get a massive 24GB of GDDR6 memory, the same as the RTX 4090 at far lower cost. The clock speed, however, is a bit convoluted, as we will explore in more detail below. Right now, memory capacity is the most crucial metric to highlight. Despite employing 24GB of memory like Nvidia's current flagship, the RTX 4090, AMD's RX 7900 XTX employs slower GDDR6 memory. Memory rates that are faster are generally better. However, this is not always the case. Because of the RX 7900 XTX's huge 384-bit memory bus, the card's memory is not as quick as other options is has more bandwidth thanks to an infinity cache. Two cards are launched for the initial launch: the 7900XT and 7900 XTX. Both are based on the Navi 31 GPU, which has RDNA3 architecture and is based on a new chiplet design. Yeah, chiplets man, and it's a big GPU, alright. The die area of the Navi 31 graphics processor chip is 300 mm2. AMD confirmed that its RDNA 3 graphics processing units (GPUs) have a huge performance boost. AMD will highlight some of the essential parts of the RDNA 3 GPUs, such as:


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Radeon RX 7900 XTXRadeon RX 7900 XT
Architecture 5nm RDNA3 5nm RDNA3
GPU Navi 31 XTX Navi 31 XT
Shader Processors 12288/6144SP 10752/5376SP
Memory 24GB G6 20GB G6
Memory Bus 384-bit 320-bit
Memory Speed 20 Gbps 20 Gbps
Infinity Cache 96 MB 80 MB
Bandwidth 960 GB/s 800 GB/s
TBP 355W 300W
Price $999 $899

AMD promotes game clock of 2.3GHz for the RX 7900 XTX, which is the speed at which you can anticipate the card to operate at while actually playing games. However, XFX defaults that value towards 2.45 GHz, with 2615MHz for the boost clock.  The default BIOS is set to provide an extra 36W over reference cards. The card also has a full power BIOS mode, which comes with some big disclaimers. You should not expect any support from the manufacturer for this BIOS. It is a max power BIOS per AMD’s Powerplay recommendations. XFX makes no assurances regarding the reliability of your system while running this BIOS. Dependency on Silicon Fortune and ASIC Quality Means Manual Tuning of AMD Radeon Software May Be Necessary for Stability. Only serious overclockers should use this. However, the default TGP here is 339W, with 15% more available. Full digital PWM power (15+2) and three 8-pin PCIE-E connectors allow for more GPU power delivery. Cooling sees a return of a vapor chamber; when compared to a cold plate alone, phase vacuum heat transfer significantly boosted heat transmission. Nickel-plated copper construction. Both GPU and DDR modules use the nickel-plated copper vapour chamber. XFX employs extensive thermal pad placement throughout all GDDR, VRM, and other essential components, including the PCB's backside (a total of 20 thermal pads).  Join us in the might of the XFX XTX review.

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