Monday, January 2nd 2023
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX May Feature Faulty Coolers, Causing Overheating
AMD's latest GPUs have been reported to be experiencing overheating issues, with many users claiming that the vapor chamber cooler works better in a vertical rather than a horizontal position. Regardless of orientation, vapor chamber coolers should equal roughly the same heat dissipation performance and move the heat away from the source; however, testing showed that some reference AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPUs feature defect coolers. According to the testing conducted by Roman "der8auer" Hartung, AMD's Radeon RX 7900 XTX RDNA3 GPUs are experiencing problems with overheating caused by a faulty vapor chamber design.
What der8auer found is that these coolers could have a defect in the manufacturing process, where the liquid inside the vapor chamber faces problems in circulation after condensation. It could relate to manufacturing issues of the cooler itself, with an inadequate amount of fluid or insufficient pressure inside the chamber. For more in-depth testing and performance benchmarks, see the video below. It is important to note that we didn't see other reports that replicate this behavior, so always take these reports with a dash of salt.
What der8auer found is that these coolers could have a defect in the manufacturing process, where the liquid inside the vapor chamber faces problems in circulation after condensation. It could relate to manufacturing issues of the cooler itself, with an inadequate amount of fluid or insufficient pressure inside the chamber. For more in-depth testing and performance benchmarks, see the video below. It is important to note that we didn't see other reports that replicate this behavior, so always take these reports with a dash of salt.
https://www.techpowerup.com/
286 Comments on AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX May Feature Faulty Coolers, Causing Overheating
At the moment I would not buy a reference design card unless you want to watercool it or you are fine with sending it back if you get one with a bad cooler.
If you can get your hands on a reasonably priced custom design model you should also be fine.
www.newegg.com/asrock-radeon-rx-7900-xtx-radeon-rx7900xtx-24g/p/N82E16814930084
www.newegg.com/gigabyte-radeon-rx-7900-xtx-gv-r79xtx-24gc-b/p/N82E16814932589
I also noticed price cut on the 7900 XT
again if it turns out that they need to do a recall then thats what they need to do, but i dont see anything in debauers video that shows that is the case. again this would be like if someone sent him four 4090s that had melted connections and after testing and seeing that they would in fact melt, he then thinks nvidia should do a recall. This just doesn't feel scientific at all how he has come to the conclusion he did.
I wish I could put use my words as nicely as you did, but it infuriates me how many people get hyped up on pseudo-scientific sensationalist drivel. Thanks for the explanation, I really appreciate it. :)
I'm just wondering, if that was the case here, wouldn't we see junction temperature rise to high heavens together with the hotspot?
Debauer did another video where he cracked the cooler open. It's definitely worth a watch.
A little bit gutted about Sapphire, as a company and Powercolor are the ones I would always recommend and buy from.
www.computerbase.de/2023-01/amd-radeon-rx-7900-xtx-temperaturprobleme-hotspot/#update-2023-01-03T21:49
Anyway..I've got a MBA Powercolor 7900XT and i'm going by memory/experience so far since ownership, I've not really done any long session of gaming yet as i've been busy with work and other personal commitments.
I have done a sprint of half hour-2 hours of game time and my hotspot/junction temp on the default settings with Adrenelin 22.12.1&22.12.2(currently the latest public driver) the junction temp has always been at 75c at its highest playing NFS Unbound and COD MW2 remake.
I have been testing and experimenting undervolting, I've only tweaked the core voltage, fan control and power limit set to 15%. So far i've reduced the junction temp down by 4-6c underload depending on the game scenario and the power consumption down to around 280-300w, so a tiny 20-40w drop underload(based on W1zz review).
Edit: The junction temp actually hovers around 65c so roughly a 10c drop.
I did have a slight bug though with NFS Unbound when I did initially undervolted the first time round, the GPU utilisation was like going at 60% instead of the usual 95-99% utilisation and I was getting 60-70fps. A restart with the undervolt seemed to have fixed that issue.
The game did crash after 2 rounds of races online as well on 22.12.1, haven't really had any issues with COD on either drivers.
The best "stable" undervolt I was able to get without any game crash so far(i've not run any benchmarks to test stability as I think its not fully realistic to playing an actual game where the GPU load fluctuates):
Edit:
I am running 3xCorsair Sp140mm fans as intake and 1 Noctua AF-14 140mm as exhaust for cooling in the Define R4, so the card will be mounted in the default horizontal position.
I have seen a few people on OCUK forum having reported 110c junction temp with their XTX, so there are batches in the UK as well that are having issues.
Edit: He also claims that Steve from Gamer's Nexus also reported on the issue, but I've just checked: he hasn't.
videocardz.com/newz/thousands-of-amd-radeon-rx-7900-xtx-reference-cards-could-be-affected-by-110c-gpu-hotspot-issue
TL,DR from the end of the article:
"AMD has issued a short statement, finally admitting that there is a problem with reference cooling design:
We are working to determine the cause of the unexpected performance limitation of AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards. Based on our observations to date we believe the issue is related to the thermal solution used in AMD’s reference design and is occurring in a limited number of cards sold. We are working to resolve this issue for the affected cards. Customers experiencing this unexpected limitation should contact AMD support."