Some Sapphire RX 9070/9070 XT graphics cards have hard-to-spot foam inside that must be removed or it ‘may result in a decrease in cooling capacity or product failure’

If you’ve been lucky enough to get your hands on a new AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT or non-XT, you might want to give it a quick check to make sure there’s no foam tucked between the shroud and heatsink fins. At least, you should do so if you have a Sapphire Pure Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC, Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming, or Pure Radeon RX 9070 Gaming OC.

Sapphire Japan has posted on X linking out to an Ask Corporation support information post about the issue (Ask Corp is a hardware distributor). Sapphire says: “We apologize for the inconvenience, but we would like to inform you about the cushioning material for the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT.”

The information post (machine translated) explains: “We would like to inform you that the protective cushioning material (sponge) that is attached to the product at the time of shipment must be removed before using the product.

“Using the product without removing the cushioning material may result in a decrease in cooling capacity or product failure, so please be sure to remove the cushioning material before installing it in your PC.”

Of course, having to remove some cushioning is no biggie, and this cushioning presumably has a purpose—to help prevent any of the thin metal from warping or getting damaged during transit, for instance—but the problem is that some might miss it. It’s packed under the shroud, and judging by the Ask Corp picture, it’s a plain gray colour… just like the heatsink and shroud surrounding it.

One would hope and assume the cushioning isn’t a material that will go up in flames when the fins reach a certain temperature—presumably Sapphire and Ask Corporation would be making more noise about it if so—but decreasing cooling capacity or even “product failure” isn’t nothing, either.

On the plus side, if you’ve been noticing high temps on your Pure or Pulse RX 9070/XT cards, maybe all you need to do is pull out the foam to improve its cooling. Silver linings, eh?

Ask Corporation explains how to remove the foam as follows: “There is protective cushioning material sandwiched in the heat sink part on the back of the product, so please remove it from the red frame part in the image or by pushing it in the direction of the arrow. Please be careful not to try to cut it with a cutter or screwdriver, as this may damage the product.

“If you are unable to remove it, peel off the sticker on top and remove it through the gap made by removing the screw in yellow in the image.”

And don’t worry about removing that sticker potentially voiding your warranty because when asked about this Sapphire Japan responded by saying that the warranty “won’t go away.”

It is worth noting that it’s not the only sponge material attached to Sapphire cards, though not all need removing. “A thin sponge is also glued to the heat sink of the NITRO+ model, but this is used for cable protection, so please do not remove it as it is.”

So, a bit of a spongey minefield then, but I suppose this is still a good reminder to check your graphics card—outside and in—for packaging. You never know.