ASRock introduces passively cooled RX 7900 XT & XTX with vapor chamber heatsink
When you think of a high-end GPU, its likely to feature three fans or an all-in-one liquid cooler so managed the extreme heat they put out. This is not the case for ASRock’s newest GPU additions, the passively cooled (no fans) RX 7900 XTX Passive 24GB and RX 7900 XT Passive 20GB.
These passively cooled cards feature a vapor chamber heatsink to efficiently transfer heat from the GPU core to the aluminium cooling fins, which rely on case airflow to cool down. The cards also use an aluminium back plate to provide more physical strength and mitigate GPU sag. The passively cooled variants do have slightly lower clock speeds compared to their active cooled counterparts, outlined below.
| Model | Cooling | Boost Clock (MHz) | Game Clock (MHz) | Dimensions (mm) | Weight (grams) |
| ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Passive 24GB | Passive | 2500 | 2270 | 261 x 111 x 40 | 863 |
| ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB | Three Fans | 2500 | 2300 | 287 (length) / 2.5 slot | |
| ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Taichi 24GB OC | Three Fans | 2680 | 2510 | 345 x 140 x 61 | 1900 |
| ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT Passive 20GB | Passive | 2395 | 2025 | 261 x 111 x 40 | 863 |
| ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB | Three Fans | 2400 | 2000 | 276 (length) / 2.5 slot | |
| ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT Taichi 20GB OC | Three Fans | 2560 | 2220 | 345 x 140 x 61 | 1835 |
Notably, the passively cooled cards are substantially lighter than ASRock’s overclocked triple-fan Taichi models. While it does make sense to have larger cooling systems on cards being pushed to their limits, you would expect a passively cooled GPU to have a larger heatsink to compensate for the lack of cooling fans, as has been the case for many passive CPU cooler designs. But, according to ASRock, the passive GPUs have a slightly shorter length and lighter coolers.
