This is what AMD's first Big Navi graphics card looks like
Fans galore.
AMD weren't kidding when they said "something big" was coming to their Fortnite multiplayer island, as they've just revealed the design of their first Big Navi graphics card there. Featuring a "brand new cooler design", this is likely the first RX 6000 card that will be revealed during AMD's big RDNA 2 event on October 28th. Details about the card itself are still pretty scarce, but you can go and take a closer look at the card yourself by hopping over to AMD's special Fortnite island.
AMD revealed the design on Twitter last night, along with the invitation for players to "study every angle yourself on our Fortnite Creative Island," which you can get to at the following address: 8651-9841-1639. Go there, and you'll find a giant graphics card floating in the sky above a vast ocean. The card appears to have a regular 2x 8-pin power connector, proving that only Nvidia's RTX 3000 series Founders Editions will likely use their special 12-pin connector this generation, as well as single HDMI and USB-C outputs along with two DisplayPort outputs.
Trundle round to the rear of the card, though, and it would appear to have a regular shroud like AMD's existing RX 5000 graphics cards. No dual-axial fans for Big Navi, it would appear. Again, this isn't wholly surprising. After all, just like it's only the Nvidia Founders Editions of the RTX 3070, RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 getting 12-pin power connectors, so too is it only the Founders Editions of those cards that are getting dual-sided fans. Third party versions of Nvidia's new RTX 3000 series will have traditional, single-sided fans just like previous generations.
Either way, the new design confirms previous reports that the reference models of AMD's Big Navi GPUs won't have a single, blower fan like the RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT did when they first launched last year. Instead, the first RX 6000 looks like it will follow in the Radeon 7's footsteps when it comes to design, although let's hope it doesn't also follow it into complete irrelevance when it goes head to head with its Nvidia competition.
AMD have said multiple times that their Big Navi cards will be "top-of-stack GPUs with uncompromising 4K gaming" chops, and I really hope this statement holds up when they come out sometime later this year. It's been too long since Nvidia had some proper competition in the high-end graphics card arena, and we'll hopefully find out more on October 28th.