XFX RX 7900 XTX Merc 310 Review
Up Close
When you’ve seen as many boxes as we have, anything that is different is good, and the XFX Merc 310 comes in their familiar vertical box design. It’s eye-catching if nothing else.
Although the shroud on the Merc 310 isn’t quite as black and forbidding as the one on the Merc 319, it’s still curvaceous and lovely to hold. Within the shroud are 100mm fan cutouts containing and 13 96mm blade dual bearing fans helping push air across the aluminium heatsink and vapor chamber. In case you doubt how many fins there are squeezed beneath this cooler, the total surface area is 1m2!
The all aluminium heat spreader backplate is 33% larger than the one we saw on the Merc 319, an impressive upgrade. There are thermal pads to help transfer heat from the PCB to the backplate too.
With a 15+2 power design it is no surprise that XFX have gone with three 8 pin PCIe power inputs to ensure smooth and constant power delivery to the GPU and to support your overclocking efforts.
The side on view gives a close look at some of the 20 thermal pads that ensure every component has a connection to the cooler and therefore every chance to be as cool as it can be.
The business end of the Merc 310 dispenses with the Type-C socket we saw on the AMD cards, replacing it with another of the 8K165 DisplayPort 2.1 sockets, alongside the HDMI 2.1a output.
On the left hand edge of the PCB is the BIOS switch that swaps between an OC BIOS and a full power BIOS. By default it limits the GPU to 327W, but the secondary BIOS ups this to 339W. It isn’t a given that opening the taps will bring immediate gains. The silicon lottery is still in full effect and you’ll need to delve in to the overclocking software of your choice. It’s nice to have the option though.
