Packaging

The Card

Sapphire introduced a new design theme for the Nitro series of this generation. The main color is gray, but there are several highlights. The metal backplate has a large cutout for air to flow through.


Dimensions of the card are 30.5 x 13.5 cm, and it weighs 989 g.


Installation requires three slots in your system. We measured the card's width to be 50 mm.


Display connectivity includes one standard DisplayPort 2.1b and two HDMI 2.1b.

AMD put in some extra work for creative professionals, particularly those into video editing, by giving Navi 44 its latest video engine. The video engine supports concurrent hardware-accelerated encode and decode for AV1, HEVC, and H.264 video codecs. With RDNA 4, AMD has improved the image quality of H.264 encoding at lower bitrates, which should make AMD appeal to content creators. The AV1 encoder and decoder support B-frames, a technology with which there can be a significant reduction in bitrates without a loss in image quality. While the RX 9070 Series has a dual encoder setup, the GPU of the RX 9060 XT comes with just a single encoder.


The card uses a single 8-pin connector, which allows a maximum power draw of 150 W, plus 75 W from the slot, but the actual board power limit is set much lower of course.


Sapphire has installed an RGB lighting zone along the top edge of the card.


This connector is used to synchronize the lighting of your system with the graphics card.

Teardown

The fan assembly can be removed easily, which makes it easy to replace a broken fan in a couple of years—no need to touch the thermal paste of the card.


Sapphire has installed four heatpipes on their thermal solution, the main heatsink also provides cooling for the memory chips and VRM circuitry.


The backplate protects the card against damage during installation and handling. Note the thermal pads, which provide cooling for the memory chips on the back-side of the PCB.