AMD Confirms: RX 7600 Reference Cards in Retail will Not Have Power Connector Flaw

[btarunr]

In the course of our testing of the reference-design AMD Radeon RX 7600 graphics card, we noticed a flaw in the physical design that could impede certain kinds of 6+2 pin PCIe power cables, causing improper power connector contact, posing a potential fire hazard, theoretically. The flaw centers on the design of the card's backplate. The cutout near the power connector is designed such that certain kinds of 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors don't properly insert. Most if not all power supply units (PSUs) have their 150 W, 8-pin PCIe power connectors designed to be 6+2 pin, where you can split two of their pins away, turning them into 6-pin PCIe. While some PSU brands use a passive hook-type tail-end bridge that ensures the 2-pin portion inserts along with the 6-pin portion, some brands use more elaborate stubs that hold the two portions together. The AMD RX 7600 reference backplate design impedes these kinds of connectors.

We reached out to AMD with our findings before the May 24 review NDA, and the company got back to us with a statement:

We are very pleased with the volume of Radeon RX 7600 cards available globally from our AIB partners. We expect RX 7600 reference design cards to be available over the coming weeks with a design that accommodates all power supply cables.

Here's our analysis of the AMD statement.

AMD states that there are plenty of Radeon RX 7600 graphics cards that you can buy right now. These are custom-design (non-reference design) graphics cards from AMD's board partners, such as Sapphire, PowerColor, XFX, ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI. These cards are currently available for purchase, and none of them have the flaw. As for the reference-design (made by AMD) graphics card, AMD says that these cards are not available in retail, but should be over the coming weeks, and will have a revised design without the flaw. AMD didn't spell out a definite timeline, and so "the coming weeks" could even mean months (the company isn't sure). The way we interpret the statement is that the current batch with the bad backplate design will not make it to market, not now, not in the coming weeks or after that.

If you'll notice, none of AMD's AIB partners have published product pages of reference-design RX 7600 cards on their websites, which confirms that AMD has placed a block on the sales and marketing of the reference-design RX 7600, giving them time to work on the revision—which really just needs to be a new backplate, the rest of the card isn't affected. Unlike NVIDIA, which has a de facto reference-design in the form of the Founders Edition graphics card that it directly markets without partner branding; AMD retains a classical marketing approach to its reference graphics card designs—these are sold by its add-in board partners with minimal re-branding (brand-specific retail packaging, stickers, inclusions, extended warranty incentives, etc).

In conclusion, AMD has ensured that none of the cards with the power connector design flaw make it to customers, while it works on a revision that comes out "over the coming weeks." Good job!

Be sure to catch our detailed review of the reference-design AMD Radeon RX 7600, in which we discussed a few workarounds under the assumption that cards with the flaw would make it to retail—which we now know they won't.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[dj-electric]

Huh, I haven't noticed that with my setup. It all went completely smooth for me (THOR 1200 PSU). Interesting.

 

[ZoneDymo]

I genuinely dont know why anyone would be interested in a card that preforms worse then a 3060ti

 

[Fluffmeister]

Stay safe this summer.

 

[ymdhis]

Well it was a feature on the RTX 4090, I guess they tried to make sure they are on par with the competition.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

I genuinely dont know why anyone would be interested in a card that preforms worse then a 3060ti

Can people not pc game on a budget? It provides considerably better value than the 3060 Ti at launch.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Can people not pc game on a budget? It provides considerably better value than the 3060 Ti at launch.

its not a matter of cost, its about performance, this is not an upgrade, this is just pathetic.

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

its not a matter of cost, its about performance, this is not an upgrade, this is just pathetic.

There is a dirty reality that high end PC gamers forget or just deny. Most PC gamers run potato PCs that get smoked by modern consoles. The dirty reality of PC gaming is it's largely 1060, 2060, 3060, or even 1660 nvidia stuff that will get upgraded to another mid range card later and people are running at 1080p 60hz with lower details and frame rates than a console would spit out. But it's worth it because piracy and game sales make it the poor mans gaming option and the ability to cheat like crazy is the draw when it comes to gameplay.

For how most people game on the PC this card is just fine and a good deal. That those of us here wouldn't touch it doesn't change that.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

its not a matter of cost, its about performance, this is not an upgrade, this is just pathetic.

It is aimed at a lower market - hence it is cheaper. The fact that performance is similar to a last gen card a tier or two above speaks of progress.

Yeas, it is not an upgrade from a 3060 Ti. But not everyone has a 3060 Ti.

I am currently running an AMD R7 450, so almost anything is an upgrade.

 

[Lew Zealand]

its not a matter of cost, its about performance, this is not an upgrade, this is just pathetic.

This card is an performance upgrade for the top 6 most used cards in the Steam survey. 28% of all respondents in the survey. 23% if you choose to ignore the 3060 laptop. And there are loads of other cards just in the top 20 that this replaces as well.

Just because it isn't high enough performance for you doesn't mean it isn't for a huge number of other people.

 

[phanbuey]

This card is an performance upgrade for top 6 most used cards in the Steam survey. 28% of all respondents in the survey. 23% if you choose to ignore the 3060 laptop.

Just because it isn't high enough performance for you doesn't mean it isn't for a lot of other people.

I think those people could have bought a new 6700 / 6650xt for years at nearly the same price as the 7600 now - It's not a performance upgrade for the $$ from products that were already existing.

But also it's an AMD card - so it will adjust in price to less than $250 in a few months and be a great buy for those 28%.

 

[Denver]

its not a matter of cost, its about performance, this is not an upgrade, this is just pathetic.

There must be hundreds of thousands running GPUs at 1060/1050ti/1650/580/570 and below. I wish it had at least 10GB of vram, despite the VRAM, the RX7600 is quite a decent upgrade for a lot of people.

 

[Steevo]

There is a dirty reality that high end PC gamers forget or just deny. Most PC gamers run potato PCs that get smoked by modern consoles. The dirty reality of PC gaming is it's largely 1060, 2060, 3060, or even 1660 nvidia stuff that will get upgraded to another mid range card later and people are running at 1080p 60hz with lower details and frame rates than a console would spit out. But it's worth it because piracy and game sales make it the poor mans gaming option and the ability to cheat like crazy is the draw when it comes to gameplay.

For how most people game on the PC this card is just fine and a good deal. That those of us here wouldn't touch it doesn't change that.

Still running my almost 30% overclocked 7970 and until I get the time to put a computer together and swap everything.....

 

[MarsM4N]

Cutting down on quality control staff is really paying off. Replacing backplates on 100.000 thousands of cards, that's gonna put a dent in AMD's revenue slides.

But it's not just AMD. You can see such nonsense across the board since the Covid era.

 

[Bomby569]

it's just like game development, these idiots design and release a product without the minimum testing and QC.

 

[Marcus L]

it's just like game development, these idiots design and release a product without the minimum testing and QC.

This is not an AMD design fault, if you buy a shit 500w PSU that is really 300w on the 12v rail with shit connectors or can't ensure you plug them in correctly then it might be an issue, running my 6700xt with dual 1x6pin/1x8pin PCIE cables which are both as described (6+2) "flaw" with 0 issues for years, what a nonsensical thread, but hey let's give the 4060 (shi)Ti a recommended badge, that went well....

Fact is the 7600 is 100% more price performance value than that other shit show of a supposed 60 class card, seems like desperately trying to find a stick to beat AMD with to level up the playing field considering that other shit show GPU release....

 

[wolf]

AMD should really stop taking jabs at nvidia in the media, there's a surprising correlation with issues on their side popping up after they do it and leaving that whole "egg on face" appearance.

I am glad this won't affect retail cards however.

 

[Marcus L]

AMD should really stop taking jabs at nvidia in the media, there's a surprising correlation with issues on their side popping up after they do it and leaving that whole "egg on face" appearance.

I am glad this won't affect retail cards however.

it won't affect any cards as it's a non-issue but suppose TPU have to throw some shit at AMD's way considering they released a better price/performance GPU than the "recommended" 4060 (sh)Ti

 

[dj-electric]

Huh, I haven't noticed that with my setup. It all went completely smooth for me (THOR 1200 PSU). Interesting.

Adding that with my unit (AMD reference) there are also 0 issues connecting Corsair Type 4 PCIE 8PIN connectors. Perfectly smooth.

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

Cutting down on quality control staff is really paying off. Replacing backplates on 100.000 thousands of cards, that's gonna put a dent in AMD's revenue slides.

But it's not just AMD. You can see such nonsense across the board since the Covid era.

That nonsense has always existed on the PC. Stuff has NEVER been well made unless you were buying custom stuff massively over MSRP or buying workstation grade stuff. As the cost of designing and making stuff has gone up it's actually gotten a bit better due to the need for tighter controls.

But crap is so expensive and complex now that the glory days of all sorts off stuff that was massively over MSRP but pulled crazy stunts with cooling and design (think 6800gt DX9.0C era) are long gone.

It's not COVID, the issue is the PC itself as a platform and always has been.

 

[Arco]

That nonsense has always existed on the PC. Stuff has NEVER been well made unless you were buying custom stuff massively over MSRP or buying workstation grade stuff. As the cost of designing and making stuff has gone up it's actually gotten a bit better due to the need for tighter controls.

But crap is so expensive and complex now that the glory days of all sorts off stuff that was massively over MSRP but pulled crazy stunts with cooling and design (think 6800gt DX9.0C era) are long gone.

It's not COVID, the issue is the PC itself as a platform and always has been.

Damn you really like to rail the PC community as a whole. Anybody remember the Xbox 360 RROD?

Also, PCs do more than just game. If all you do is game game game then go with a console. But other than being gaming centered device. It can't do much else.

 

[freeagent]

Gamers ruined computing

I kid.. sorta

 

[MarsM4N]

This is not an AMD design fault, if you buy a shit 500w PSU that is really 300w on the 12v rail with shit connectors or can't ensure you plug them in correctly then it might be an issue, running my 6700xt with dual 1x6pin/1x8pin PCIE cables which are both as described (6+2) "flaw" with 0 issues for years, what a nonsensical thread, but hey let's give the 4060 (shi)Ti a recommended badge, that went well....

Fact is the 7600 is 100% more price performance value than that other shit show of a supposed 60 class card, seems like desperately trying to find a stick to beat AMD with to level up the playing field considering that other shit show GPU release....

If you release a PC component you usually test for compatibility with existing parts. Which AMD here obviously did not. Custom design partner cards do not have the issue, because they did their homework.

 

[Marcus L]

If you release a PC component you usually test for compatibility with existing parts. Which AMD here obviously did not. Custom design partner cards do not have the issue, because they did their homework.

This is the case with ALL 8pin PCIE cables that have the 6+2 snap-on config, its a BS non-issue to distract away from the fact that it is a better value proposition than the 4060 Ti which this website accoladed with a recommended badge for no real reason then had to backtrack on, if you can't plug in a bloody PCIE cable you really shouldnt be installing a GPU and is not even in the same league as the NV 12v cable bollocks which had actually destroyed PC's, the level of bias is unfuckinbelievable

 

[Ruru]

I genuinely dont know why anyone would be interested in a card that preforms worse then a 3060ti

Ever heard a thing called "budget gaming"? Being only a little slower, 7600 is noticeably cheaper.

Anyway, nice that it's been resolved.