In many ways, graphics cards are the final frontier of customization when it comes to PCs. Most other components, you can choose the combination of cooling, style, and performance you want, but with GPUs, generally the whole packaging is fixed. XFX is looking to change that, though, with its new customizable AMD GPU designs seemingly coming to a range of Radeon RX 7000 graphics cards.
The new cards will have a swappable fan that means users can, in theory, chop and change the color combination and possibly even the performance of their fans. It might not push these AMD GPU variants to the top of our best graphic card chart but it could make these XFX options even more tempting compared to rivals.
For now, we don’t actually have details of what the new cards and fans will be. Instead, XFX has simply tweeted an image of a fan being pulled from a graphics card with the words “Something Cool is coming.” However, just a few weeks ago the company released a new lineup of China-exclusive Phoenix Nirvana cards that feature seemingly the same swappable fan design, so XFX now appears to be bringing this idea to the wider world.
The currently-available Phoenix Nirvana cards include variants of the RX 7900 XTX, RX 7900 GRE, and RX 7800 XT. The RX 7900 XTX model of these cards is a high-end solution that includes the use of a fancy phase-change Honeywell PTM 7950 thermal pad instead of thermal paste and has a red and black color scheme.
The subsequent RX 7900 GRE and RX 7800 XT versions are available in a very slick-looking all white color scheme but appear to lack the phase-change thermal pad of the 7900 XTX. All three versions, though, ship with the magnetically-attached fans stored separately so you have to go through the ceremony of attaching them yourself – we quite like the idea of there being an extra bit of theater to installing your graphics card.
What’s really the point of swappable fans? Well, aside from the potential for playing around with the styling of your GPU – assuming XFX releases other color variants – there’s also the potential for users to be able to manually swap out fans with different performance characteristics. So, you could in theory opt for a more silenced-optimized design or one meant for higher performance, though in all honesty, we suspect there’s very little margin for such variation – good fan speed control should cover nearly all bases.
Perhaps the biggest benefit that won’t require any extra purchase, though, is easier maintenance. By being able to remove the fans, you’ll get better access to clean away dust and untangle any hairs or other detritus that might have caught in the fan or the heatsink fins below.
What do you think of the idea, though? Could XFX expand the customization idea into swappable faceplates, for instance? Or are you happy with the cohesive design of most graphics cards? Let us know your thoughts on the PCGamesN Facebook and X/Twitter pages.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a way to add a dash of color or customization to your existing GPU, check out our how to add a vinyl warp to your graphics card guide.