AMD’s RX 7900 XTX flagship GPU might have an issue with its vapor chamber, and this could be the reason for worrying reviews of critically excessive hotspot temperatures plaguing the graphics card.

Tom’s {Hardware} (opens in new tab) reviews that overclocking skilled Der8auer purchased 4 RX 7900 XTX graphics playing cards (with the reference design) and ran a bunch of checks (in a video (opens in new tab) on his YouTube channel) to find out what’s behind the overheating points which have been pinpointed in some circumstances (which see temperatures hitting 110C or so).

Der8auer did discover that mounting the RX 7900 XTX vertically made for cooler operating in comparison with horizontally, a minimum of with these 4 graphics playing cards, however this wasn’t the total story – there have been complaints from individuals operating a vertically mounted 7900 XTX about excessive hotspot temperatures, too (and in a single case for Der8auer, a vertically mounted card noticed fairly excessive spiking temps).

The query then was whereas the mounting configuration appeared to have an effect, what was the precise underlying trigger of those hotspots?

Der8auer examined numerous theories, like whether or not the sheer weight of the cooler was problematic, pulling it away from the cardboard, or whether or not the mounting strain was inadequate – or certainly if there was a difficulty with the thermal paste. Nonetheless, after some very thorough testing, he eradicated all these facets as potential causes.

In Der8auer’s thoughts, that left just one perpetrator as the basis trigger: the vapor chamber. He prompt that the strain inside vapor chamber might be improper, or the improper quantity of liquid might have been used contained in the chamber – or there may merely be a plain design fault with the best way the chamber has been constructed.

In a follow-up video (opens in new tab) which has simply been launched, Der8auer says that there doesn’t look like a bodily design flaw with the vapor chamber, however fairly that AMD has not used fairly sufficient liquid inside. Whereas admitting he isn’t an skilled on this matter by any means, that conclusion was reached along with Igor’s Lab and a vapor chamber producer – however it’s nonetheless an assumption, thoughts you, so we should tread very rigorously right here.

Evaluation: An even bigger potential meltdown than Nvidia’s RTX 4090?

Naturally, we don’t wish to leap to any conclusions primarily based off a few YouTube movies involving taking a look at simply 4 7900 XTX graphics playing cards, and we have to see additional exploration of this problem – ideally from AMD, in fact, which has an investigation underway. That stated, Der8auer could be very agency together with his assertion of the difficulty right here, and he believes AMD might be in “huge bother” over this matter.

Primarily as a result of in comparison with Nvidia’s melting adapter drawback with the RTX 4090, which had round 50 or so incidents recorded, there are much more reviews of this overheating flaw with AMD’s new flagship.

Due to this, Der8auer means that AMD can’t actually have interaction in an RMA (returning and changing) affected graphics playing cards, with there being so many; and fairly, that Staff Purple may need to problem a recall of affected RX 7900 XTX fashions (these with the reference design and cooler – third-party customized designs are, in fact, completely different).

As to what’s going to really occur, we’ll simply have to look at this house. However proper now, these are critically worrying rumblings for AMD, with the corporate presently investigating these points as we talked about.

The final assertion we heard from AMD on the topic was: “We’re investigating reviews that some AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics playing cards (reference fashions made by AMD) are reaching the 110C temperature and throttling. Thermal throttling might affect the efficiency of the cardboard by lowering clock charges, however the graphics card can proceed for use.”

Staff Purple then suggested affected events to contact AMD assist, however with the e-ticket system down for upkeep (till January 5), you possibly can solely achieve this by telephone proper now, which hasn’t gone down that effectively with the group both. None of it is a nice search for AMD, significantly not when you think about Staff Purple’s jibes directed at Nvidia for the melting adapter fracas as a part of the build-up to the RDNA three GPU launch.

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