AMD's Massive Prototype Cooler for Unreleased Radeon RX 7000 Series GPU Spotted Online, Features Triple 8-Pin Connectors

A massive prototype cooler from AMD’s Radeon RX 7000 series has been spotted on Chinese online marketplaces, suggesting that AMD may have once considered a high-end, RTX 4090-class GPU during the RDNA 3 era. The leak originated from a user named FP32 on the Korean forum Quasarzone, who shared detailed images of the prototype shroud, which was purchased from Xianyu, a popular Chinese marketplace. At first glance, the cooler resembles the standard RX 7900 XTX reference cooler, but closer inspection reveals significant differences. The prototype measures almost 34 cm in length—nearly 5 cm longer than the retail RX 7900 XTX—and is 5.5 cm thick, spanning three slots with a triple-fan configuration. The most striking difference is its power design, which features three 8-pin PCIe power connectors, compared to the two found on the RX 7900 XTX. This suggests a total board power well beyond 450W, aligning it more closely with the power demands of Nvidia’s RTX 4090. The heatsink itself is substantially larger, with three red-finished fins marking the “RDNA 3” generation, and it extends a full centimeter beyond the standard RX 7900 XTX reference cooler. Upon opening the shroud, users found a copper baseplate and a dense array of heatpipes, indicating its capability to handle significantly higher thermal loads and more demanding workloads. However, the prototype lacked a printed circuit board (PCB) and any I/O connections, limiting its potential for further testing or use in a PC setup. Serial numbers on the cooler did not yield any useful information when reverse-searched, adding to the mystery of its origin and purpose. Despite this, the physical characteristics of the cooler point toward a more powerful configuration, possibly one designed to bridge the performance gap between mid-range and high-end GPUs. Speculations include the possibility that it was intended for a model like the RX 7950 XTX or RX 7990 XTX, which have been rumored since 2022 but were never officially released. The RX 7900 XTX already runs a fully unlocked Navi 31 die with 96 Compute Units and delivers impressive performance, but this prototype suggests AMD may have aimed for even higher clock speeds or faster memory configurations. The cooler’s unique mounting pattern and internal design indicate it was never meant to be compatible with retail cards, reinforcing the idea that it was part of an internal experiment that did not progress beyond the testing phase. AMD’s decision to shift focus away from ultra-enthusiast segments and instead prioritize efficiency and price-to-performance ratios is evident in the final lineup of the RX 7000 series. This prototype serves as a fascinating glimpse into the company’s development processes and the possibilities that were explored but ultimately discarded in favor of a different market strategy. Industry insiders suggest that the cooler's design and the absence of the final card reveal a strategic decision by AMD to avoid a direct confrontation with Nvidia’s top-tier offerings. Instead, AMD chose to target a broader range of users, focusing on delivering value and performance across various price points. This approach has been successful in capturing a significant share of the graphics card market, albeit with some performance trade-offs compared to the RTX 4090. While the prototype never made it to production, its existence highlights the iterative and sometimes challenging nature of hardware development in the tech industry. Companies like AMD often explore multiple paths before settling on a final product, and such prototypes are valuable insights into the cutting-edge technology that might have been. The discovery of this cooler underscores AMD’s ambition and its willingness to push the boundaries of GPU design, even if those efforts did not materialize in consumer products.