El Chapuza Informatico has obtained information on Sapphire’s crypto-mining graphics cards based on the AMD RDNA 2 Navi 22 & Navi 23 GPUs. The Sapphire GPRO X080 and GPRO X060 graphics cards have both been leaked. Both cards use the AMD RDNA 2 architecture, with the X080 using the Navi 22 GPU core and the X060 using the Navi 23 GPU core.
Sapphire GPRO X080 With AMD Navi 22 GPU
The X080 has an AMD Navi 22 GPU with 2304 cores (36 CUs), a clock speed of up to 2132 MHz, and 10 GB of GDDR6 memory working on a 160-bit bus interface at 16 Gbps pin rates. This provides a total effective bandwidth of 320 GB/s. The card is powered by a single 8-pin connection and has a PCIe Gen 4.0 x16 interface. In terms of performance, the card provides roughly 38 MH/s at its normal 165W TGP, with improved settings reaching 41.6 MH/s at around 93W.
- Sapphire GPRO X080 Default (165W TGP) – 38.05 MH/s
- Sapphire GPRO X080 Tuned (93W TGP) – 41.6 MH/s
The card is designed in a typical dual-slot and dual-fan layout, so you get an active cooling system with a nice heatsink below. The card has no head and measures 242×119.85×41 (L/W/H) mm. According to Sapphire, it is supposed to be sold in bulk for roughly 750 Euros and only operates on Linux.
Sapphire GPRO X060 With AMD Navi 23 GPU
Moving on, the AMD Navi 23 XL GPU in the Sapphire GPRO X060 has 1792 cores (28 SMs), a clock speed of up to 2044 MHz, and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory working on a 128-bit bus interface at 14 Gbps speeds. This gives the card a total bandwidth of 224 GB/s. A single 8-pin connection also powers the card. The card provides roughly 28 MH/s at 100W default TGP and up to 30 MH/s with adjusted settings at 60W.
- Sapphire GPRO X060 Default (100W TGP) – 27.8 MH/s
- Sapphire GPRO X060 Tuned (60W TGP) – 29.4 MH/s
At this level of performance, the card is still unable to compete with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 Non-XT, which can generate up to 30 MH/s with adjusted settings while drawing only 50W. This results in a performance per watt rating of 0.49 for the X060, compared to 0.61 for the RX 6600 based on the Navi 23 GPU architecture.
The card is similarly dual-slot and dual-fan, although it is smaller than the Sapphire GPRO X080, measuring 193×120.05×40.05 (L/W/H) mm. The card is designed to be sold in bulk and works with both Windows and Linux operating systems. The X060 retails for roughly 550 Euros, which is 200 Euros less than AMD’s Navi 22 offering.
What’s notable here is that this isn’t the first time AIBs have given AMD RDNA 2 GPUs to crypto miners. We’ve already seen XFX offer Navi 21 and Navi 22 offerings in the past few months, so it’s not a surprise, but given the availability issues right now, it’s not a great idea to offer gaming chips directly to a segment for which they were not designed. On the other hand, AMD has never said no to GPU mining on their gaming cards, unlike NVIDIA, which has taken actions in the form of crypto mining-specific variants (CMP) and LHR, with the latter being less.
Both designs are purely meant for mining and serve no other use. It’s a shame that AMD GPUs designed for gaming are being sold to miners through AMD exclusive AIBs at a time when we’re experiencing the biggest GPU scarcity and pricing crisis in history. According to a recent source, AMD increased the pricing of its GPU portfolio, and considering that RDNA 2 is being sold in mass to crypto miners, it will be difficult for true gamers to obtain a gaming GPU for some time now.
