Card Layout and Photos
The ASRock RX 9070 XT Steel Legend is available in both a black model and a white, we received the white model and it is split between a light grey and white for the fan shroud design. The shroud is all plastic and with that, they are able to mold in a lot of intricate designs. The left portion is light grey and at the middle fan the white starts at an angle. There are grey accents on the white as well as at the top and bottom of the fans. The RX 9070 XT Steel Legend is 298 mm long, 131mm tall, and 58 mm thick. That puts it just under 3 slots at 2.9 slots which is the normal these days, same with its length and height. I would consider them to be large, but it is in line with all cards. It sits 26mm over the top of the PCI bracket which can be an issue in some cases, but they do have the power connection recess down into the card which means that height isn’t an issue.
The RX 9070 XT Steel Legend has a triple fan design with three 90 mm matching fans. Each of the fans has 9 fan blades which have a curve to them. They have a few lines on the blades themselves and then an outer ring that helps give them more strength and also helps direct the airflow down into the heatsink below. They are all also translucent which you don’t see very often, most white cards have matching white fans and black cards have black fans. The translucent plastic used here is paired up with addressable RGB lighting in the center section to light the fans up. Two of the fans have the Steel Legend logo on them and the center fan has the ASRock logo, all three have some white as well to match everything.
The top edge of the card has a few things going on of note. There are two places with branding. At the end of the card on the fan shroud, they have the Radeon logo printed in grey. Then between the first two fans, they have the Steel Legend logo which is backlit with addressable RGB LEDs. That logo has the logo and text with a honeycomb design behind it in grey, it's all inside of a raised section that is attached with two screws. Last up are the power connections. The RX 9070 XT Steel Legend has two 8-pin PCIe power plugs to power everything and they are sitting at the top of the PCB but that is recessed down into the card 20mm. This means the cooler itself is using space that the plugs would need to take up which is efficient and it also hides the plugs somewhat. They have the connections flipped around backward with the PCB notches for the clips, this means that the heatsink doesn’t need a big space around the plugs for your fingers to get down in there.
Looking at the top and bottom edge of the RX 9070 XT Steel Legend as well as the end of the card we can get a better idea of what ASRock has going on for its cooling. We can see the horizontal aluminum fin heatsink layout and that it is split into two sections. The side closest to the PCI bracket sits over the GPU and in that section, there is a heatplate down at the bottom over the GPU and memory. That spreads the heat out some then the heatpipes are right on top of that. They have the heatpipes loop back around and run through that same section again near the top as well. Then in between the two sections of the cooler, there is a gap where the heatpipes shift up higher and run the length of the larger heatsink section. That heatsink sits over the components on the PCB but does drop down some at the PCB. I am surprised that they didn’t take advantage of that space more and drop all the way down to the PCB level, there is a gap between the cooler and the backplate which could all be more cooling capacity. The heatsink attaches to the PCB and then to the backplate at the end. All of the cooling from the fans blows down into the heatsink and the heatsink pushes it up or down and out the large open areas in the shroud. The end of the card does have an open area as well and we can even see the 7 heatpipe ends. But air doesn’t run in this direction. The end does have a bracket that has three screw holes in it for use with GPU supports.
The back of the RX 9070 XT Steel Legend has a full-length metal backplate with a matching white finish. Unlike the the front of the card though the backplate has a whole variety of designs printed on it in two different shades of grey. That includes the Steel Legend logo in the middle and AMD Radeon branding. The support bracket for the GPU is cut around perfectly. They also have three large cutouts on the end for the blow-through section. Up on the top, the backplate extends up to the full height of the card at the end of the card but they do have it notched down where the power plugs in and right next to the power cables for a small switch that turns the lighting on or off.
For display connections, the RX 9070 XT Steel Legend has the standard three DisplayPort and one HDMI layout that almost all cards have these days. They all run along the PCB with the HDMI at the bottom of the PCI bracket leaving a lot of room for ventilation above them. ASRock has a whole bunch of slots cut into the bracket but because they are thin there isn’t too much airflow. It isn’t a concern though, the RX 9070 XT Steel Legend vents up and down on the cooler, not out this direction.
Before getting into testing I did want to also get a look at the RX 9070 XT Steel Legend’s lighting which they control with Polychrome Sync. All three of the clear fans have addressable RGBs built into the center hub and by default, the lighting does a variety of colors. With the white shroud and the clear fans, the lighting goes a long way and looks great. There are also addressable RGB LEDs behind the Steel Legend branding at the top as well. This has a honeycomb grill set behind it which looks good.
