Radeon RX 9070 XT – Sapphire, ASUS and XFX Review

ASUS RX 9070 Prime OC Up Close

ASUS RX 9070 Prime OC Up Close

It always makes us chuckle when ASUS launch a product under a banner other than their ROG and TUF ranges. We feel like we’re on the road not taken. There is an alternate dimension in which ASUS still produce box art like it’s 2002. We know nobody cares what the box looks like, but it’s so different to a ROG one you can’t help but grin.

Normally ASUS Prime designs are only noticeable for their understatement. Any of the motherboards we’ve seen, and that’s loads, barely mention what they are. Clearly with the RX 9070 Prime ASUS are taking a different approach. We don’t know about you, but we’re aching to paint within the grooves and really make that Prime brand stick out.

Around the back things are simpler with the huge airflow cutout being the only standout element.

The Prime sticks with the tried and tested 8pin PCIe power connectors. We’re quite surprised to see so much shrouding. Normally on products at this end of the ASUS range the fan surround is pared back, letting the hot air dissipate from the heatsink in all directions. The Prime goes for slightly rounded looks and endplates instead. As we’ll see later this has zero effect upon the cooling prowess. The Prime is frosty.

Performance or Quiet is never a choice at this end of the price spectrum. Performance above all things.

Only because we’ve seen the Sapphire solution can we now look at the totally standard ASUS Prime power arrangement and think it looks old fashioned. After all, every other card on the planet looks like this too.

Lastly around the back we have the standard single HDMI and triple DisplayPort outputs that are such a feature of graphics cards in the last umpteen years. The Prime doesn’t offer up an extra HDMI unlike a lot of ASUS cards, including the RTX 5070 TUF we’re also reviewing today.