The blower-style reference cooler on AMD’s new Navi GPUs – the Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT – may look and behave marginally better than on earlier generations, but it’s still a blower-style reference cooler that nobody wants if they have another choice. Custom partner boards have been in short supply so far, but this is about to change.
MSI was relatively quick to release the dual-fan 5700 XT Evoke. Too quick, perhaps, as several users and testers have found a serious manufacturing flaw that affects VRAM temperatures:
According to an MSI representative, they are working with the factory to fix this issue in future versions of the card. But in the meantime, you might want to look at other options.
ASRock Taichi OC+
One of those options will be the ASRock Taichi OC+, pictures of which were first unearthed by Videocardz. Being a PCIe 4.0 card, it will go well with your new Ryzen 3000 build, and thanks to ASRock’s Polychrome Sync RGB it should look particularly stunning in combination with the X570 Taichi.
The Taichi OC+ takes up 2.5 PCI slots and comes equipped with three axial fans. The middle fan is RGB-lit and the model’s general theme is in black and gold. You also get no less than four DisplayPort connections and two HDMI.
Details on VRM components, clock frequencies, and pricing are still absent. The pictures do show that the model is powered by two 8-pin connectors. This and the OC+ naming indicates that Asrock might ship the RX 5700 XT Taichi OC with a healthy boost to the clock frequencies compared to AMD’s reference model.
Sapphire RX 5700 XT Nitro
In other Navi-related news, the Chinese division of AMD’s partner manufacturer Sapphire has revealed a small sliver of what the manufacturer’s new custom version of the RX 5700 XT looks like.
This is the Sapphire RX 5700 XT Nitro, which is most likely based on the tried-and-tested design found on e.g. the RX 590 Nitro (plus previous Polaris generations and Vega).
The above low-res picture is all the information that’s available on the upcoming model. Again, judging from previous versions of Sapphire’s Nitro graphics cards – and the fact that this one also requires two 8-pin connectors – we expect it to use higher clocks than the reference board out of the box. In terms of design, we are looking at a color scheme in silver and black, with an RGB-illuminated logo as well as RGB-lit edges of the PCB.
At the time of writing, no MSRP or release date has been announced by Sapphire.
