A Reddit user has acquired a pre-production Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card meant to be used only for AMD's internal testing. The enthusiast acquired the card on the second-hand market with a huge discount (via VideoCardz). The board looks like a reference AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX board, but it may have some features not available on the retail version or lack certain capabilities that are typically enabled on the commercial version of the board.
"Bought a [Radeon RX] 7900 XTX that says 'internal testing only,'" wrote the user who calls himself 'clumsyhotdog.' "Is there anything I should be aware of?"
The user did not clarify where they bought the card, but it is reasonable to think it was at an internet auction. The buyer indicated that the board was sold as used with a $300 - $400 discount compared to the price of a retail reference Radeon RX 7900 XTX, one of the best graphics cards available today.
"Bought as used," clumsyhotdog wrote. "Price was quite cheap. […] Like $300 - $400 difference."
Bought a 7900 xtx that says internal testing only. Is there anything I should be aware of? from r/PcBuild
Before graphics cards reach retail, they undergo extensive internal testing. Such samples may require special drivers and might not be supported by official drivers. As such, they might have higher or lower performance than the retail versions and may even come enabled with capabilities not supported by commercial products.
For example, AMD's Radeon RX 7900 XTX only supports DisplayPort 2.1 with UHBR 13.5 outputs, whereas the Radeon Pro W7900 and Radeon Pro W7800, which are based on the same GPU, feature DP 2.1 with UHBR 20 output and can drive 8Kp60 with 12bpc HDR displays without using compression. A pre-production Radeon RX 7900 XTX could come with UHBR 20 enabled, allowing testing of the capability.
In general, it is not recommended to use pre-production hardware as such graphics boards might suffer from various teething problems, may not support certain features, and may not work with official drivers. That said, some hardware enthusiasts would probably love to try out pre-production hardware to find more details about AMD's internal test hardware.
