Non-OC XFX Radeon RX 9070 XT Mercury Lacks Vapor Chamber, Just Two 8-pin Inputs

[btarunr]

XFX found itself in hot water over false marketing of its Radeon RX 9070 XT Mercury non-OC edition (part number: RX-97TMERCB9). This particular SKU is a slightly toned down version of the RX 9070 XT Mercury OC Gaming Edition (RX-97TRGBBB9), with a few obvious differences such as the lack of a factory overclock, and a fixed white LED lighting strip replacing RGB; but it turns out that XFX didn't highlight a few crucial differences in the product page and marketing materials of the non-OC card. Apparently, this card lacks the vapor chamber baseplate that the Mercury OC Gaming Edition card has. That's not all, while the OC version comes with a triple 8-pin PCIe power input configuration, the non-OC card has just two 8-pin PCIe power inputs. These two specs were part of the marketing and packaging materials of the card. The RX 9070 XT on its own is within the power spec of dual 8-pin + slot power (375 W), but the third 8-pin connector is found on many overclocked custom design cards by AMD board partners, increasing overclocking headroom of these cards.

XFX responded to angry owners of the non-OC cards on Reddit. In its first response, it admitted its mistake of advertising the card as coming with three 8-pin power inputs when it only came with two. In its next response, it admitted that the card comes with a vapor chamber-based cooling solution, and mentioned that the card instead has a solid nickel-plated copper baseplate for its cooler, paired with Honeywell PTM7950 thermal interface material—something that's very popular with AMD board partners. Besides the apology, XFX presented customers with a recourse—that they could reach out to the company's distributor NRInfo for help.



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[kimbentsen]

It is always better to hold off to a few months after launch to see where the skeletons are. New GPUs are full of them.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Whether or not the act was deliberate or not. At least they are trying to make things right and not trying to hide from it.

Im assuming this issue is global as I can find NRinfo on AmazonUK as well. What a major slip up that was.

 

[tpa-pr]

it admitted that the card comes with a vapor chamber-based cooling solution, and mentioned that the card instead has a solid nickel-plated copper baseplate for its cooler,

Typo perhaps? It does not come with a vapor chamber-based cooling solution and is instead the nickel-plated copper baseplate?

Anyway, this is a pretty serious screw-up. At least as Freedom said they're offering recourse to fix it.

 

[JustBenching]

As if they can release any card without amd knowing...

 

[FreedomEclipse]

As if they can release any card without amd knowing...

Maybe the graphics card is as intended but the marketing department got it all wrong by overspec'ing the card? Sometimes mistakes do happen and the left hand doesnt always know what the right hand is doing,

It does sound shady but Im willing to give XFX the benefit of the doubt because they are XFX. It would be real dumb of them to attempt something stupid like this and try to get away with it. They didnt run away from Nvidia just so they can do something stupid like this with AMD. They have their reputation on the line.

 

[LittleBro]

These RX 9070 (XT) cards from XFX are ugly as f*ck. Noisy as well.
Previous Merc 319 design was elegant, cool & quiet.

 

[Nostras]

Well this just pisses me off. The entire purpose of a name for the consumer is knowing what quality cooler you're going to get and what you need to look for to compare.
Now the two letters "OC" have a very important meaning.

These RX 9070 (XT) cards from XFX are ugly as f*ck. Noisy as well.
Previous Merc 319 design was elegant, cool & quiet.

Elegant maybe, definitely don't like the design of the current gen, but the actual performance wasn't that great.
The Steel Legend, a card that typically went for less, outperformed it in the cooler comparison.

ASRock Radeon RX 7800 XT Steel Legend Review

The ASRock RX 7800 XT Steel Legend offers a great-looking white color theme that's paired with nice RGB illumination, a triple-slot, triple-fan cooling solution, and a medium-sized factory overclock. Temperatures and noise levels are good, and pricing is reasonable with $520.

www.techpowerup.com

XFX has been very "meh" the last generations. Sapphire too, but I get shot if I say that.
Not the worst by a long shot, but you can typically get better from other vendors.

Whether or not the act was deliberate or not. At least they are trying to make things right and not trying to hide from it.

Im assuming this issue is global as I can find NRinfo on AmazonUK as well. What a major slip up that was.

I'm not sure if "trying to make things right" exactly fits with "fight it out with your seller".
If they really try to make things right they offer to replace the card by themselves and clarify in the naming scheme.
Anything less is not the best intentions and this just sounds like an XFX rep who just has his heart in the right place.

 

[Chaitanya]

These RX 9070 (XT) cards from XFX are ugly as f*ck. Noisy as well.
Previous Merc 319 design was elegant, cool & quiet.

Previous Gen also had backplates that were heatsinks for components on board and were not there just for "aesthetics".

 

[_roman_]

Radeon RX 9070 XT: XFX muss Falschangaben einräumen

XFX musste jetzt offiziell gleich mehrere Falschangaben hinsichtlich seiner Custom-Designs auf Basis der Radeon RX 9070 XT einräumen und korrigieren.

www.pcgameshardware.de

Wie sich jetzt herausgestellt hat, hat AMDs Exklusivpartner XFX bei der Deklarierung seiner Custom-Designs basierend auf der Radeon RX 9070 XT mit RDNA-4-Architektur gleich mehrere Falschangaben gemacht, wie das US-Unternehmen offiziell einräumen musste. Während sowohl die XFX Mercury Radeon RX 9070 XT OC als auch die XFX Quicksilver Radeon RX 9070 XT sowie XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 XT entsprechend ihrer Datenblätter eine Vapor Chamber besitzen sollen, ist diese "Verdampferkammer" ausschließlich dem OC-Spitzenmodell vorbehalten.

Are you really, really, really sure it's only one graphic card modell?

... although the datasheet for XFX Quicksilver Radeon RX 9070 XT and XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 XT claims to have a vabour chamber .... only the OC modell should have the vabour chamber. I think they refer to only the XFX Mercury Radeon RX 9070 XT OC.
They really wrote it too complicated in a german "schachtelsatz" this time for unknown reasons.

what I remember from reading that article yesterday, the cheap XFX crap with the wrong cooler only has two Power supply units connectors. the good ones with the vabour chamber have three power supply connectors. Their homepages are still wrong according to pcgh.

the initial posts also claims that

That's not all, while the OC version comes with a triple 8-pin PCIe power input configuration, the non-OC card has just two 8-pin PCIe power inputs.

Summary: most likely xfx + oc in name + 8-pin PCIe power input configuration = should be a proper card with vabour chamber

 

[BMfan80]

Just maybe if you(XFX) didn't have 20 different models of the same Die, you wouldn't have such an idiotic problem.

 

[CounterZeus]

Maybe the graphics card is as intended but the marketing department got it all wrong by overspec'ing the card? Sometimes mistakes do happen and the left hand doesnt always know what the right hand is doing,

It does sound shady but Im willing to give XFX the benefit of the doubt because they are XFX. It would be real dumb of them to attempt something stupid like this and try to get away with it. They didnt run away from Nvidia just so they can do something stupid like this with AMD. They have their reputation on the line.

I made 2 XFX purchases in the distant past. Both bad. 1 video card with lower specs (lower amount of shaders, a lower tier card than the branding) and a rattling PSU. I don't trust them.

Seems like they still do the same shady stuff.

 

[Daven]

It’s increasingly becoming obvious to me that the widespread attention that GPUs are getting today is bringing added scrutiny to the market. That’s what these manufacturers deserve for raising prices to the point of criminality. Now they actually have to justify these lubricous prices with better quality control and business practices. The market will only bear price increases to a point so the added cost of being better might start to hurt margins. Good!

 

[Rjc31]

I've always had good luck with XFX GPU's and when I can find the 9070 XT Mercury Magnetic Fan Ed. I'll be giving them another sale. Over the years I've purchased GPU's from XFX, MSI, Visiontek, EVGA, Diamond, Zotac, Nvidia, ATI, and 3DFX. Only issue I've ever had is with the EVGA card(1070). To be fair the Zotac is a 5070 that's sitting here unopened at the moment so I don't have hands-on experience with them yet.

All that explanation to say I'm giving XFX the benefit of the doubt on this one. /Lol

 

[Dr. Dro]

I've always had good luck with XFX GPU's and when I can find the 9070 XT Mercury Magnetic Fan Ed. I'll be giving them another sale. Over the years I've purchased GPU's from XFX, MSI, Visiontek, EVGA, Diamond, Zotac, Nvidia, ATI, and 3DFX. Only issue I've ever had is with the EVGA card(1070). To be fair the Zotac is a 5070 that's sitting here unopened at the moment so I don't have hands-on experience with them yet.

All that explanation to say I'm giving XFX the benefit of the doubt on this one. /Lol

May I suggest the ASUS TUF or the Sapphire Nitro lol, the XFXs are heeella ugly

But same, even back when they made Nvidia GPUs. Always a clean track record. XFX's biggest issue for me is their propensity for marketing overload. They really fly off the handle there, gives a shady vibe even though they are legit.

I'm not sure if "trying to make things right" exactly fits with "fight it out with your seller".
If they really try to make things right they offer to replace the card by themselves and clarify in the naming scheme.
Anything less is not the best intentions and this just sounds like an XFX rep who just has his heart in the right place.

Yeeep, this right here. Sellers will be like "ok and". I would expect them to accept return and replacements directly.

 

[Rjc31]

May I suggest the ASUS TUF or the Sapphire Nitro lol, the XFXs are heeella ugly

Yeahhhh... They don't look great but that is the last thing I worry about when buying a GPU. I can't even see in my case where it sits either. On the Asus or Sapphire part... I've never used a GPU from either company. I hear mostly good things about Sapphire and the opposite about "$hitsus", especially on these forums. I myself have used other Asus products with no issues (multiple mobos and the og Ally). Honestly I'll take any 9070 XT I can find, the magnetic XFX is just the preference.

 

[ajcardiac]

I have unfortunately had a bad experience with NRInfo via Amazon UK, so I am not confident that they will sort out problems to the satisfaction of customers.

I returned a defective RX 6800XT, which they claimed was working properly.
A GPU that the defect followed to my reserve system when I transplanted it for trouble-shooting.
They would only give me a 80% refund, which I had to dispute with Amazon UK.

I generally like the way XFX cards look, but this does seem like a case of false advertising.