During an interview with PCWorld’s Gordon Mah Ung, AMD confirmed that the thermal issues on their Radeon RX 7900 XTX reference graphics cards are caused by vapour chamber coolant.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Reference Graphics Cards Have A Faulty Vapor Chamber With Low Coolant, Causing Overheating, Confirms Manufacturer
The interview was conducted with AMD’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Graphics Unit, Scott Herkleman, who confirms that the Radeon RX 7900 XTX reference graphics cards do, in fact, have a faulty vapour chamber on a small batch of cards that were not filled with enough coolant, which is the primary cause of the overheating issues that cause GPUs to run at up to 110C Junction temps and cause thermal throttling.
Der8auer advanced the same theory on his YouTube channel, dissecting an entire Radeon RX 7900 XTX reference graphics card and drilling apart its vapour chamber to demonstrate that the level of fluid within the vapour chamber could be a potential issue. AMD has now confirmed this to a large extent. Scott has the following to say about the matter:
It all boils down to a small batch of vapour chambers having an issue, not enough water, and it is a very small percentage, as we stated as the root cause.
We have identified this, you spent a lot of money if you purchased this AMD XTX, we want to fix it for you, we have the fix, we are ready to fix it for you, just call tech support if you purchased it from AMD.com or an AMD AIB Partner. They have units, and we know how to identify which units are good and which should be shipped to you. We want you to have a great product and to be confident in it.
Scott Herkleman (AMD SVP of GPU Buisness) via PCWorld
According to reports based on emails from AMD, the company does not have enough Radeon RX 7900 XTX reference graphics cards for RMA purposes. According to two emails from Igors Lab, consumers may have to wait more than two weeks to receive a replacement unit. That is all speculation for the time being, but the emails appeared to be genuine, so it will be interesting to see how the RMA process unfolds in the coming weeks. Just a few weeks ago, AMD was turning down RMA requests!
Scott also criticised the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card, claiming that their Radeon RX 7900 XT is the fastest GPU under $900 US. The card is now being compared to the 4070 Ti in a variety of games at 4K Max Settings, and it appears that AMD is comparing native (no RT/FSR) performance here. However, AMD claims that they learned from overpromising for the Radeon RX 7000 lineup and will try to tone it down and be more direct with consumers in the future.
