First Radeon RX 7900 with 12V-2×6 connector announced

ASRock has a graphics card for AI workstations.

ASRock has announced new Radeon RX 7900 XTX WS and RX 7900 XT WS graphics cards, designed as dual-slot workstation GPUs powered by RDNA3 architecture. These cards are aimed at workstations, with ASRock promoting them in anticipation of the AI era.

The ASRock WS series features a blower-style cooler with a vapor chamber f or improved cooling. ASRock is the first board partner to use the 12V-2×6 (updated 16-pin power connector) on a Radeon GPU. AMD has shown little interest in this power standard, mainly because of the overheating and melting issues with the RTX 4090 series. However, the Navi 31-based models, which require up to 355W of power, are expected to be safer from overheating.

ASRock Launches AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX WS 24 GB and Radeon RX 7900 XT WS 20 GB

In anticipation of the arrival of the AI era, ASRock launches the ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XTX WS 24 GB and ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XT WS 20 GB, supporting multi-GPU collaborative computing. ASRock Radeon RX 7900 WS series graphics cards are powered by the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX7900 XT GPU. Designed for multi-card parallel computing and artificial intelligence acceleration, Radeon RX 7900 WS series graphics cards are featuring a VAPOR-CHAMBER heatsink, efficiency blower fan and 2-slot thickness. Furthermore, thanks to the single horizontal 12V-2×6 power connector, to install couple of ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XT WS series graphics cards become much easily due to less power cords.

These cards have limited use for gaming and likely limited or locked overclocking capabilities. The blower-style cooler has never been used on a Radeon RX 7900 model before. In fact, there is only one design featuring two fans , while all known models have at least three fans or use liquid cooling.

This is an interesting choice by ASRock and could indicate that AMD and its partners may adopt the new connector on a broader scale. The upcoming Navi 44/48 GPU based models may not require more than 225W, which is within the standard 8-pin power specifications. However, almost all new power supplies now come equipped with the new connector, so this move makes sense.

Source: ASRock