A prototype AMD graphics card has been noticed – purportedly a Navi 31 mannequin, presumably the RX 7900 (we’ll come again to that time) – and it reveals that the GPU will run with a pair of 8-pin energy connectors.

The picture was aired on Twitter by {hardware} leaker HXL, who’s a daily contributor to GPU spillage, and supposedly it comes from a QQ chat group (over in China). So, hefty seasoning is required right here, however that mentioned, the pic does seem like real (if faked, it’s a superb effort with some consideration to element).

🤫Supply: QQ pic.twitter.com/FhYix70RXPOctober 31, 2022

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The graphics card is clearly an engineering (pre-release) pattern because it sports activities a purple board design (the completed product received’t), in addition to voltage contact factors (for engineers to make use of for debugging and so forth) as VideoCardz (opens in new tab), which noticed the tweet, factors out.

As you possibly can see, it’s a triple fan card, barely greater than its Navi 21 predecessor, and with purple stripes on the heat-sink as seen on AMD teasers for its next-gen GPUs in current occasions.

Evaluation: That is good to see, however triple 8-pin might nonetheless occur

We already knew AMD wasn’t going the identical route as Nvidia’s RTX 4090 when it comes to utilizing the 16-pin energy connector (and subsequently 12VHPWR energy adapter to be used with conventional ATX 2.zero energy provides) with the RDNA Three flagship, as the corporate has not too long ago confirmed that.

The rationale that announcement was greeted with a sigh of reduction was twofold: as a result of cable melting incidents we’ve seen with the 4090, and likewise as a result of it signifies energy wants received’t be as nice as Nvidia’s (in case you had been in any doubt of that).

So, it’s nice to see a Navi 31 graphics card with only a pair of 8-pin connectors required for energy. Particularly as not too long ago, we’d been chewing over hypothesis of whether or not this could be the case, or whether or not we might see Three x 8-pin connectors for the RDNA Three flagship. That mentioned, there’s one other rumor that there could be a turbocharged model of AMD’s next-gen flagship, an XTX variant, which confuses issues barely – and that might have a trio of energy connectors as talked about.

To interrupt this down a bit, 2 x 8-pin connectors equates to a 350W graphics card almost certainly, or thereabouts (every connector provides 150W, which makes 300W, plus 75W fed through the PCIe slot for a most of 375W). Based mostly on churnings from the rumor mill, the 7900 XT – rumored to be one of many first graphics playing cards to reach for AMD’s RDNA Three vary for ages now – is about to be a 350W card, therefore the cheap conclusion that that is what we’re taking a look at right here.

If there’s a extra highly effective RX 7900 XTX spin, that might demand significantly extra wattage (400W to 450W maybe) and would subsequently want the three x 8-pin connectors to produce sufficient juice, so we might nonetheless see such a board alongside the vanilla 7900 XT.

In all honesty, although, we’re not satisfied about that XTX hypothesis, and it appears extra probably that such a GPU, whether or not it’s a 7900 XTX or a 7950 XT, would come additional down the road with its triple 8-pin energy setup. Nevertheless, that is clearly all guesswork at this level.

What we do know is that we’re about to seek out out what AMD has up its sleeve for the preliminary launch of RDNA Three at a giant occasion later this week (November 3). However these pictures exhibiting a 2 x 8-pin Navi 31 board – assuming no fakery – are a superb signal when it comes to pointing to that energy setup being employed moderately than a trio of 8-pin connectors. (Though as we simply mentioned above, that configuration might nonetheless present up in a extra highly effective Navi 31 mannequin).

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