Question Sapphire 9070 XT BTF (PhantomLink) and motherboard ?

[John Nemesh]

Back at Computex, Sapphire showed off a new 9070 XT with "BTF", the new standard (which I THOUGHT was proprietary ASUS tech) that allows the power for the graphics card to route through the motherboard. And they showed off a new matching "BTF" compatible motherboard to go with it...but I cant find ANY news about it other than what was announced at Computex back in May! Does anyone know anything about when these products are going to hit the market and be available to purchase?

 

[Lutfij]

Sapphire expects both the GPU and motherboard to arrive in September 2025, though plans may change. Pricing is also to be determined, but you can already expect a slight premium over its non-BTF sibling.

^

Sapphire makes cables optional with Radeon RX 9070 XT PhantomLink | Club386

Sapphire unveils its BTF-ready RX 9070 XT PhantomLink graphics card, compatible with both Asus’ GC-HPWR connector and 12V-2x6.

www.club386.com

 

[dwd999]

There's a new ASUS TUF GAMING B850-BTF motherboard that looks good to me. I'm planning on getting one during the 4th of July sales. Along with an MSI MAG PANO 100R PZ White Project Zero Mid Tower ATX Gaming Case. Hopefully there'll be a video card ready for the Labor Day sales.

Oh bleep. I thought about it so much that I got up at 3am and ordered it. Good thing I didn't wait since Newegg says apparently that MSI case was the last one they had in stock. At least there are still plenty of ASUS motherboards in stock.

 

[John Nemesh]

There's a new ASUS TUF GAMING B850-BTF motherboard that looks good to me. I'm planning on getting one during the 4th of July sales. Along with an MSI MAG PANO 100R PZ White Project Zero Mid Tower ATX Gaming Case. Hopefully there'll be a video card ready for the Labor Day sales.

Oh bleep. I thought about it so much that I got up at 3am and ordered it. Good thing I didn't wait since Newegg says apparently that MSI case was the last one they had in stock. At least there are still plenty of ASUS motherboards in stock.

Yeah, I saw the ASUS TUF...and was seriously considering it...but all of the ASUS BTF video cards are Nvidia, and I DO NOT WANT an overpriced Nvidia card. Sapphire seems to be the only other company supporting BTF and they announced a BTF AMD RX 9070XT, I just cant find anything other than the original reveal at Computex on it.

 

[dwd999]

Yeah, I saw the ASUS TUF...and was seriously considering it...but all of the ASUS BTF video cards are Nvidia, and I DO NOT WANT an overpriced Nvidia card. Sapphire seems to be the only other company supporting BTF and they announced a BTF AMD RX 9070XT, I just cant find anything other than the original reveal at Computex on it.

I certainly agree with that; a gpu shouldn't be more expensive than a cpu. So I'll also be waiting to see if Sapphire delivers in September, hopefully for the same current $800 price. The problem is the basic BTF motherboard layout design has become a sort of standard that around 25 companies will be supporting. So we'll see other motherboards that follow the basic design like the Ice model from Gigabyte. But ASUS was smart enough to patent the specific graphics card high power slot connector, and other gpu companies have to license it from ASUS to include it on their card. So we'll see how many companies are willing to pay for that. At least if all goes well next weekend I'll have a cleaner looking build without any ugly 24 and 8 pin cables cluttering it up. Even with builds using all kinds of strimers I've never seen one that really does a good job of covering the cables. Even the cables for the 2 usb ports are annoying to look at.

 

[dwd999]

Yeah, I saw the ASUS TUF...and was seriously considering it...but all of the ASUS BTF video cards are Nvidia, and I DO NOT WANT an overpriced Nvidia card. Sapphire seems to be the only other company supporting BTF and they announced a BTF AMD RX 9070XT, I just cant find anything other than the original reveal at Computex on it.

So I decided go ahead with the ASUS motherboard. I assembled these:

added:
ASUS TUF GAMING B850-BTF WIFI White
LIAN LI UNI CL Fans 6xReverse 1xNormal White
MSI MAG PANO 100R PZ White

had these:
AMD 9950X3D
G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 ROYAL NEO Silver
LIAN LI HYDROSHIFT II LCD-C 360CL White
LianLi Edge 1200 psu

and it came out looking like this:

https://imgur.com/a/wEH231E

View: https://imgur.com/a/wEH231E


which looks a lot cleaner without all of the wires and tubes. Now I'm taking off the rest of the summer from building computers and I'll be waiting for the labor day sales to make a final decision on a gpu. I suspect I'll stick with a Sapphire 9070 Nitro+ either the plain version or maybe the XT version depending on cost. Looking at the layout of the case even if I get the cabled version its not that far for the wires to go from the back bottom of the gpu to the nearest rubber grommets going into the back of the case. So it will still be mostly clean looking even without a BTF connection gpu.

 

[John Nemesh]

So I decided go ahead with the ASUS motherboard. I assembled these:

added:
ASUS TUF GAMING B850-BTF WIFI White
LIAN LI UNI CL Fans 6xReverse 1xNormal White
MSI MAG PANO 100R PZ White

had these:
AMD 9950X3D
G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 ROYAL NEO Silver
LIAN LI HYDROSHIFT II LCD-C 360CL White
LianLi Edge 1200 psu

and it came out looking like this:

https://imgur.com/a/wEH231E

View: https://imgur.com/a/wEH231E


which looks a lot cleaner without all of the wires and tubes. Now I'm taking off the rest of the summer from building computers and I'll be waiting for the labor day sales to make a final decision on a gpu. I suspect I'll stick with a Sapphire 9070 Nitro+ either the plain version or maybe the XT version depending on cost. Looking at the layout of the case even if I get the cabled version its not that far for the wires to go from the back bottom of the gpu to the nearest rubber grommets going into the back of the case. So it will still be mostly clean looking even without a BTF connection gpu.

That looks incredible! Hopefully the Sapphire 9700XT BTF card comes out in time for you! Love the color scheme on the LEDs too!