{"id":28285,"date":"2023-01-06T19:17:29","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T19:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/06\/amd-confirms-vapor-chamber-to-blame-for-radeon-7900-xtx-overheating\/"},"modified":"2023-01-06T19:17:29","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T19:17:29","slug":"amd-confirms-vapor-chamber-to-blame-for-radeon-7900-xtx-overheating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/06\/amd-confirms-vapor-chamber-to-blame-for-radeon-7900-xtx-overheating\/","title":{"rendered":"AMD Confirms Vapor Chamber to Blame for Radeon 7900 XTX Overheating"},"content":{"rendered":"

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(Photo: AMD)<\/small><\/center>This year\u2019s high-end GPU launches have been a bit rocky. First, there was cable-gate on the Nvidia side of the fence. That was followed by junction-gate for AMD, where some of its new flagship GPUs were hitting the 110C junction temperature. This resulted in thermal throttling, increased fan speed, and some angry early adopters. Various internet sleuths dug into the issue over the holiday break, but we\u2019ve been waiting for confirmation from AMD on the exact cause. Along with that, we\u2019ve also been curious to hear about a possible remedy. AMD has finally confirmed what we expected: It\u2019s an issue with the vapor chamber.<\/p>\n

AMD SVP and General Manager of the Radeon group spoke<\/a> with PCWorld\u2019s Gordon Mah Ung at CES about the ongoing controversy. Though the video is not heavy on details, he confirms that the company has spent two weeks investigating the issue. He says AMD was focused on three aspects: safety, performance, and the root cause. For safety, he says there is no issue there at all. That\u2019s seemingly a reference to Nvidia\u2019s issues with melting 12VHPWR adapter cables<\/a>. In other words, even if the Radeons get to 110C, nothing will catch on fire. For performance, he confirmed it did impact performance. That\u2019s pretty obvious, as that\u2019s the definition of thermal throttling after all. He described it as \u201ca small delta,\u201d which seems pretty charitable.<\/p>\n

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Reported GPU and hotspot temperatures on Radeon 7900 XTX cards as gathered by Hardwareluxx.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He said the company needed to \u201croot cause\u201d the issue. For that, he confirmed it is a \u201csmall batch\u201d of XTX cards designed by AMD that don\u2019t have enough water in the vapor chamber. This is the exact outcome De8auer predicted<\/a> after his most recent testing. He came to that conclusion after tilting the GPU from vertical to horizontal and then back to vertical during testing. Once the GPU was rotated horizontally, it experienced 110C temperatures, and rotating it back did not resolve it. This pointed to a malfunction in the design of the vapor chamber, which shouldn\u2019t depend on orientation to function normally.<\/p>\n

As far as the next steps go, Herkelman says anyone affected can contact the company they bought it from to get a replacement. That includes both AMD and its partners who make reference cards. However, a Redditor posted<\/a> that they tried this and were told no inventory was available. Even worse, there might not be any for \u201cseveral weeks.\u201d We emailed AMD asking for clarification on this, but as of press time we have not heard back.<\/p>\n

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Finally, Herkelman also apologized to Radeon fans for the company\u2019s marketing for the 7900 series. The company has received some negative feedback on Reddit<\/a>\u00a0and in reviews for using the phrase \u201cup to\u201d in several slides. Herkelman says the company has heard the criticism and will no longer do that. He said for the next launch it will provide accurate numbers and not raise expectations beyond reality.<\/p>\n

Overall, despite AMD\u2019s assurances that it is an issue that only affects a small number of users, it\u2019s still a black eye for the company. It\u2019s long been the underdog in the GPU world compared to Nvidia. The latest figures<\/a> show AMD with just 10% market share compared to Nvidia\u2019s 86%. As Herkelman says in the video, AMD has to do better if it wants to change that.<\/p>\n

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