AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards based on AMD’s reference design may not be entirely trouble-free, according to a lengthy post on r/AMD titled “Do not buy a 7900 XTX, or anything else for that matter, directly from AMD.”
According to the thread creator and various other posters, AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards may get uncomfortably hot, with some users reporting that hotspots of the new flagship GPU from AMD can reach temperatures as high as 110-degrees Celsius.
Some publications have pointed out that this isn’t necessarily new, with AMD sharing the following about their GPUs some years ago…
Instead of setting a conservative, ‘worst case’ throttling temperature for the entire die, the Radeon RX 5700 series GPUs will continue opportunistically and aggressively ramp clocks until any of the many available sensors hits the ‘hotspot’ or ‘Junction’ temperature of 110 degrees Celsius. Operating at up to 110C Junction Temperature during typical gaming usage is expected and within spec.
…but that hasn’t stopped the thread from gaining a lot of traction and comments.
“I’ve been told that throttling performance, massive frame drops, and maxing out its fans is apparently in-spec for AMD and is acceptable,” said the thread creator, who claims that AMD is refusing to accept a return on their Radeon RX 7900 XTX because it’s been opened already.
At least one manufacturer is taking action, however, with PowerColor’s Steven Sun (PowerColorSteven) advising affected users to send their serial numbers and other informatino to get a better idea of how big this issue might really be.
“Its def more than a handful, so now i need to show some sort of backing for my fat mouth,” Sun said.
Sun can be reached at steven.sun@powercolor.com, according to this post.
PowerColor offers a number of Radeon RX 7900 Series graphics cards, including the Red Devil AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB GDDR6 Limited Edition, which features a swappable backplate and Red Devil design luminous magnet.
Discussion (5 replies)
Join Discussion →With how much data we want these things to crunch in as little time as possible something needs to change or issues with power connectors, hot spots, and other waste heat issues, will continue and get worse. IMHO.
We need a disruptive tech that recycles energy or doesn't need to short out memory cells to reset them.
Since you can't buy one anyways is it really an issue? lol
I used to have a Titan X Pascal that would slowly run up to 93C before the blower fan would freak out and boost itself to 100% to cool it down. As you can imagine, that screaming squirrel cage would drown out any game audio, voice chat, or sanity I might have left. After a few seconds it would settle back to 85C-ish and the fan would return to normal. It would do it over and over during gaming, around once every 5 minutes or so as it would creep back up to 93C.
I can say for certain if my new 7900XTX did that, I would not be happy. In fact, I would probably want to send it back to AMD with a nice note that said, "Thanks, but no thanks." Mine has so far stabilized at 75C w/90C hotspot during 99% rasterization utilization. Not the best, but I can tell the fans running at 1700rpm are controlling it at that temp, as it'll fluctuate between 88-90C. The fans aren't bothersome at that rpm.
BTW, I fixed the Titan by swapping the blower with an EVGA hybrid cooler. It never went over 70C afterwards and it clocked itself higher as a bonus.
So - 110 is a bit alarming, but … if the card is still cranking full performance and it’s under warranty, is it still a big issue?
...and this is why ALL reviews' metrics matters, not only the cherry-picked gloating ones.
I'm sure that if these alarming issues were presented day-0 (to be fair, some reviews did expose these serious issues, though but who am I to debate with "years" of experienced reviewers ?) Su would've had a soft Christmas.