In context: It seems that the recent product releases of both video card giants have not been entirely smooth. Nvidia had to deal with melting power adapters on its RTX 4090, and some Radeon RX 7900 XTX MBA (Made By AMD) reference cards experienced an access point temperature of 110C. In the case of the latter, Team Red gave an official answer: the company is aware of the problem and advises those who have encountered it to contact support.
Last week, news broke that some AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX reference models are experiencing overheating problems related to the temperature of the GPU access point or the maximum temperature read by the sensor reaching 110°C.
A Reddit user who wrote that his Radeon RX 7900 XTX is experiencing a transition temperature of 110C while playing Modern Warfare II contacted AMD with an RMA request, but was refused because the company stated that this is the normal transition temperature for the card. Other RX 7900 XTX users facing the same problem that occurs even when the cooling fans are running at full capacity have also been denied RMA.
AMD has now responded with an official statement from Tom’s Hardware: “We are aware that a limited number of users are experiencing unexpected thermal throttling on AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards (reference models produced by AMD). Users experiencing unexpected thermal throttling of AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX should contact AMD support.”
It is assumed that high temperatures are caused by the fact that the base plate of the reference cooler does not fully touch the GPU chip, and the memory controller fails, which leads to heat capture and a sharp increase in the levels of hot spots.
It seems that only the reference and AMD-made Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPUs sold by AMD and its partners are affected. Aftermarket cards with an individual cooler design seem safe.
The problem is not present in all MBA Radeon RX 7900 XTX. In our review of the reference model of the AMD graphics card tested in a room with a temperature of 21°C, the peak temperature of the hotspot was 80°C after an hour of play at a maximum average crystal temperature of 67 °C. This was achieved at a fan speed of 1900 rpm.
One of the technical heads of software development for the Radeon RX 7900 XTX wrote on Reddit that AMD is investigating this issue and is “comparing steps to reproduce and collect serial numbers.” They add that the ongoing situation with Covid abroad does not help matters, since some factory representatives are out of the office on sick leave. It is hoped that a firmware update may solve the problem in some cases. Elsewhere, PowerColor collects user reports on this issue.
Stay safe this holiday season. @amdradeon pic.twitter.com/DOpg0f2qaP
— Sasa Marinkovic (@SasaMarinkovic) November 17, 2022
High temperatures will be especially undesirable for AMD after it cast a shadow over Nvidia due to the melting of its competitor’s 16-pin 12VHPWR adapters by posting a tweet showing a dual 8-pin Radeon RX 7900 series connector.
