A few of AMD’s RX 6000 graphics playing cards are giving up the ghost utterly, with a bunch of damaged GPUs instantly being delivered to our consideration by a German restore store.

That store, KrisFix, highlighted this drawback on YouTube (opens in new tab) (by way of Wccftech (opens in new tab), with Buildzoid additionally flagging on Twitter), and the visible proof supplied is worrying certainly.

RX 6800/6900 collection playing cards appear to be struggling core failures for some cause: https://t.co/NScb6rQbkrJanuary 10, 2023

See extra

We’re speaking cracked GPUs, no much less, and when that occurs to the chip, the entire graphics card is a right away write-off, after all.

KrisFix informs us that during the last three weeks, he has obtained 61 AMD graphics playing cards for restore – that’s RX 6900 and 6800 fashions – and that 48 of these boards had this very same drawback, a cracked GPU.

That’s nearly 80% of all these fashions despatched in for restore, a startlingly excessive share it have to be stated; and all of these he additional observes had a shorted SOC rail, shorted reminiscence rail, and a shorted reminiscence controller rail (indicative of a GPU disaster). Usually, he would anticipate to see 10% or so of the graphics playing cards despatched in to be affected by one thing as dangerous as a cracked chip – not 80%.

There was one frequent factor with the issue boards, although – KrisFix notes that they have been all working the identical graphics driver, the newest one from AMD.

We’ve reached out to AMD for a touch upon what could be happening right here, and can replace this story if we obtain a response.

Evaluation: Is mining mayhem a chance?

As KrisFix factors out, it’s tough to say what could be happening right here with any certainty, however given the commonality with the motive force, he theorizes that perhaps the newest Adrenalin model (launched a month in the past) is pushing efficiency a bit tougher, and maybe some RX 6000 GPUs can’t deal with this.

On the similar time, he makes it very clear that he doesn’t but have sufficient info to make that judgement, and it’s fairly apparent we will’t leap to any agency conclusions but on whether or not the graphics driver is de facto at fault right here.

In the meanwhile, we simply have the phrase of 1 German restore outfit, with KrisFix admitting himself that we have to be very cautious, and we’d like additional proof. Certainly, if there actually was a difficulty with RX 6800 and 6900 GPUs, certainly we’d be listening to much more about this by now, a month after the motive force got here out?

Then again, you possibly can argue about what number of of us replace their graphics driver often. Definitely there are a superb many individuals who keep on with the identical GPU driver for some time, and positively don’t tackle each single model launched.

One other chance is that the issue is restricted to sure graphics playing cards, and never all of them. Right here’s the place one other suggestion comes into play – that the affected fashions are ex-mining GPUs. As mining operations threw within the towel final 12 months, they bought off the graphics playing cards of their farms, and these are GPUs which have actually been flogged nearly to loss of life 24/7.

So, it’s not a stretch to assume {that a} good many avid gamers have picked up second-hand inventory of those ex-mining AMD GPUs – fairly probably with out understanding they’re ex-mining fashions, as sellers typically cover this for apparent causes – and these have change into problematic.

Maybe the difficulty is with these ex-mining playing cards and the brand new driver. If the latter does certainly push for extra efficiency – which anecdotally, some homeowners have talked about getting slight body fee boosts – perhaps that is tipping some GPUs, which have been nearly useless anyway, over the sting. All of that is simply hypothesis, naturally.

It’s additionally value noting that there are scattered experiences of coil whine after updating to the newest AMD driver, and of upper hotspot temperatures, which may once more level to the GPU being pushed a bit tougher. However we actually want to attend and see if extra experiences of this drawback with RX 6000 playing cards are available, now that the purported subject is out within the open.

If there does transform an issue with the graphics driver itself, that gained’t be a superb search for AMD, contemplating that 2023 is hardly underway, and Workforce Purple has already undergone a GPU disaster with its new RX 7900 XTX flagship and an issue with the cooling. A second disaster this early within the 12 months can be fairly embarrassing, after all.

At present’s finest Graphics Card offersPresent Extra OffersWe test over 250 million merchandise daily for one of the best costs