KrisFix-Germany, a German Techtuber and repair shop, posted a video detailing how his shop received several AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards for repair. The shop received 61 cards in total, a mix of Radeon RX 6900 and RX 6800 series flavours, 48 of which had a dead GPU. Kris claims that this is the first time he has seen so many GPUs with dead GPUs arrive at his shop.
However, it is not only the GPU that has failed; all 48 cards have a shorted SOC rail, a shorted memory rail, and a shorted memory controller rail. When asked what they were doing with the cards, the majority of users gave different answers. Some claimed to be gaming normally, while others claimed to be watching YouTube or even sitting idle when their GPU died. The driver version, however, was consistent across all affected GPUs. It is stated that all GPUs were using the most recent drivers, Adrenalin 22.11.2, which were released last December (WHQL).
Also, KrisFix does not specify which AIBs were included with the dead GPUs, but the one shown in the video is an AMD MBA design used by the reference Radeon RX 6900 / RX 6800 graphics cards. We can’t yet blame it on the drivers or this specific variant because we need to look into it further, but it should be taken seriously.
KrisFix also shares some close-up shots of the cracked GPUs, which appear to have suffered significant damage.
For the time being, we can advise users not to use the most recent drivers for their cards, as Buildzoid claims that it will not be the first time a GPU manufacturer accidentally disables thermal protection in a new driver release. Some users have also reported aggressive coil whine on the newer drivers, which was not present previously.
