[Hardware] Sapphire Releases Cheaper, Slower RX 7900 XT Without Vapor Chamber

[Mr.Hacker]

 

Sapphire added a new Radeon RX 7900 XT, one of the best graphics cards, to the company's lineup. The Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G Ultra Platinum L arrives with a somewhat revamped exterior and cooling system.

The Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G Ultra Platinum L features a similar design to the Radeon RX 7900 XTX Nitro+ Vapor-X available in the U.S. market. However, there are some significant changes with the former. The Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G Ultra Platinum L lacks the Vapor-X moniker, meaning the graphics card doesn't leverage Sapphire's vapor chamber to cool the GPU and memory. Instead, the Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G Ultra Platinum L utilizes a standard copper base plate. As a result, it doesn't provide the same thermal performance, but it's cheaper, so Sapphire can reduce the overall product cost.

The different cooling system doesn't affect the dimensions of the Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G Ultra Platinum L. It's still a 3.5-slot monster that measures 320 mm long, just like the flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX Nitro+ Vapor-X

 

Sapphire has also cut some corners with the RGB design. For example, the Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G Ultra Platinum L only has one RGB strip on the shroud, whereas the Radeon RX 7900 XTX Nitro+ Vapor-X has two. However, it doesn't affect the appeal of the graphics card since the Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G Ultra Platinum L still looks very attractive, even without the extra RGB lighting.

 

The Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G Ultra Platinum L has the same 2,450 MHz boost clock speed as the Pulse Radeon RX 7900 XT. The new cut-down variant offers marginally lower performance than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX Nitro+ Vapor-X. The margin isn't that significant, though, since the Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G Ultra Platinum L only has a 4% lower boost clock than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX Nitro+ Vapor-X.

The variation in the cooler and clock speeds are the only aspects that separate the Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G Ultra Platinum L from Sapphire's other models. The graphics card still depends on three 8-pin PCIe power connectors for external power and offers three DisplayPort 2.1 outputs and one HDMI 2.1 port for connecting displays.

Sapphire's cost-cutting measures allow the vendor to bring the Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G Ultra Platinum L's pricing down to the $899 MSRP. Chinese news outlet Expreview spotted the Radeon RX 7900 XT 20G Ultra Platinum L for $898.88 on JD.com. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX Nitro+ Vapor-X sells for $970.23 in China. That's a $71.35 difference, which essentially tells us that it's what the extra RGB strip and vapor chamber cost.

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/sapphire-releases-cheaper-slower-rx-7900-xt-without-vapor-chamber