Towards the end of October, just a few days before AMD was set to announce its RX 7000 series, we published a report regarding the leaked cooler design of those RDNA 3-based cards. While it was good to see the traditional 8-pin power connectors instead of the new 12-pins that are on Nvidia"s cards, due to reports of melting and even burning, we did not however account for a possible failure in designing the coolers on AMD"s parts.
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However, soon after the launch of the reference RX 7900 XTX, users began reporting very high hotspot temperatures reaching 110°C. These reference cards are called "MBA" or "Made By AMD" and aftermarket partner models from AIBs like Sapphire, PowerColor, are unaffected. However, any MBA card sold by such partners will be affected.
AMD adds, however, that not all users will be seeing this problem as it is limited. AMD recently issued a statement to Tom"s Hardware saying it was aware of the thermal throttling issues:
We are aware that a limited number of users are experiencing unexpected thermal throttling on AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards (reference models made by AMD). Users experiencing unexpected thermal throttling of an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX should contact AMD Support.
Following this and some more testing by overclocking guru and popular YouTuber der8auer, AMD has confirmed that the issue is indeed associated with its cooler design, possibly with the vapor chamber. In a statement to Hardwareluxx"s Andreas Schilling, AMD said:
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.
AMD has once again stated that the issue is limited and that not all RX 7900 XTX cards should be affected. Still, it is good to keep an eye on your hotspot temperatures while gaming using utilities like MSI Afterburner. In case you are seeing high temperatures reaching close to 110°C or thermal throttling issues, AMD is encouraging users to contact its support team. You can find such information on this page on AMD"s official website.
While Nvidia"s 12-pin issue was partly due to user fault and a new inconvenient design, the 7900 XTX hotspot heating issue is entirely on AMD as it is the reference card that is affected. Overall, the latest generation of cards from both AMD and Nvidia has underwhelmed in terms of both pricing as well as quality.
Source: Andreas Schilling (Twitter)