Recently, a Reddit user posted that his AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX reference graphics card hit 110C Junction time while playing the new Modern Warfare II. However, when contact AMD with an RMA request, it was denied, with the company stating that “Temperatures are normal. If there are any issues, please contact us.” Another user made a successful request but was denied a refund for the previously opened box. The company has since received quite a bit of backlash over the matter, especially with the growing number of cases that have arisen.
More cases of high temperatures on AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards continue to rise, with companies like PowerColor stepping in to help consumers
Prior to this new AMD development, NVIDIA received negative feedback for overheating and melting of the 12VHPWR connectors on the flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, which has passed its 30s and reported instances of glitches after the graphics card was launched.
What is unique about AMD’s situation is that it currently affects AMD-made Radeon RX 7900 series reference and GPUs. It covers all cards sold by AMD partners or the company, but not custom-built GPUs using the same graphics architecture. It’s speculated that a flaw could be in a few coolers or mounting designs, as De8auer points out in the video below:
Three years ago, AMD posted an article on the company’s blog titled “AMD Radeon Community Update: More Control Over GPU Power and Performance, Improved Thermal Monitoring, Maximized Performance”. When discussing junction temperatures in the AMD Radeon VII GPU Enhanced Thermal Monitoring, they released this statement:
…Instead of setting a conservative, “worst case” throttling temperature for the entire die, RadeonTM RX 5700 Series GPUs will continue to opportunistically and aggressively increase clocks up to that one of the many sensors available reaches the “hot spot” or “junction”. ‘ temperature of 110 degrees Celsius. Operation at a junction temperature of up to 110°C during typical gaming use is expected and within specification. This allows RadeonTM RX 5700 series GPUs to deliver much higher performance and clocks, while maintaining acoustic and reliability goals.
One of the responsible for technical engineering on the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, “Kevin”, says that as of yesterday the company is aware of the hotspot issue and is actively investigating and developing an action plan “to reproduce and collect serial numbers”. He further explains that the current COVID situation overseas is slowing down the process, but agrees that a mechanical issue would fall under the creation and execution of an RMA for consumers. Yet they also investigate firmware updates to address isolated incidents where a software fix would be needed instead of a hardware replacement. “Kevin” also discusses edge heating, the temperature near the edge of silicon on a GPU, stating that 90° edge temperatures are anomalous, but 70° edge temperatures are nominal.
Reddit user and PowerColor representative on the platform, “PowerColorSteven”, is doing its part to help consumers solve this current issue regarding AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards. For those who may not remember Steven, we mentioned in This article that the company had a previous issue where the AMD RX 6700 XT series GPUs shipped with the thermal shield covers still attached, which at the time caused high graphics card temperatures. The sales rep has been following this issue closely for the past two days and recently posted it as a pinned thread on Reddit:
uh…just add this here in case someone hasn’t seen my other posts.
if you are dealing with problem 110c and no one else is helping you. It doesn’t matter which (AIB you bought it) you bought it from. email or direct message me (since my email isn’t working properly today) (don’t use chat either, that shit isn’t working properly). I am compiling a list for my AMD contacts of the number of issues we are having. they asked if there were only a few users. I said it was definitely more than a handful, so now I have to show some kind of support for my big mouth. send me the serial numbers. I email the guys at AMD with the number of units affected. powercolor. sapphire. gigabyte. and direct. whatever. send me the serial numbers. I hope AMD has some news for all of us, but regardless, when I hear anything substantial I will post to provide advice on how to fix this issue.
– User “PowerColorSteven”, aka “vendor or something” on Reddit
However, it is unclear which companies accept RMAs and fulfill them, as the number of recorded cases indicated that some are allowed while others are denied, even when it is from the same manufacturer. Several other theories are also cropping up about the problem, from uneven cold plates to using a graphite thermal pad to solve the problem. As the number of cases increases during initial reports, it is not recommended to mitigate the issue but to wait until an official statement or acceptance of a series-wide RMA is authorized by AMD.
News sources: Tom’s gear, Reddit, AMD Blog, Reddit (PowerColor)
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