290 Vapor-X was a beast and one of the best cards I ever owned, but honestly they were louder, heavier, and over engineered compared to my R9 Fury Nitro's. However, the Vapor plate makes the cooler more expensive and probably doesn't add much to the cooling when they have the huge heatsink already, and pretty thick heatpipes going through the cooler. It was fantastic no doubt- loved my 7970, and also my 270X Vapor-X.
Even on the packaging for my R9 Fury Nitro, it says pretty clearly 'Tri-X fan design'.Īs far as Vapor-X, this was just the Vapor plate cooler used on that series of cards. The 7970 Vapor-X was still a 2 fan design. When the 290 came out, it ran so hot and power hungry that previous cooler designs wouldn't cut it and couldn't effectively cool the cards. The 'Tri-X' fan design is still present on the Nitro+ cards. 'Tri-X' refers to the 3 fan design, as well as the custom fans used on their cards. Having had the Tri-X 290 in Crossfire, Vapor-X 290 in Crossfire, and 7970 Vapor-X.
