Is AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX male version subject to recall? AMD could be facing this nightmare scenario after legendary overclocker Roman ‘der8auer’ Hartung discovered the potential cause of the graphics card’s overheating problem: a faulty heat pipe.
To recap, a few weeks ago we heard that some AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX MBA (Made By AMD) reference models (public versions) were experiencing thermal issues involving the GPU heating up, with sensors reading up to 110 degrees Celsius.
der8auer wanted to discover the cause of the high temperatures, so he purchased four Radeon RX 7900 XTX cards to perform some tests. It turned out that the mounting orientation had an effect on the test results, with horizontal mounting increasing the temperature by 20 degrees, but the overheating problem reappeared only a minute after the burn-in test began.
The overclocker also investigated factors such as the heatsink’s weight and gravity to see if they affected the high temperatures. He used a specially designed brace to confirm that these factors were not part of the problem. Mounting pressure was also ruled out by removing the radiator, removing the support bracket and shortening the standoffs by 1.5mm.
That leaves one theory: a problem with the heat pipe, which could be related to the material choice or a design flaw, might be preventing water from returning to the other end after condensation. He didn’t have time to disassemble the cavity for further investigation but may do so in a future video.
Overheating didn’t affect every single Radeon RX 7900 XTX reference card. However, a defect within the heat pipe could mean the problem is more widespread than initially realized, and could affect more users than NVIDIA’s melted 16-pin 12VHPWR adapter issue.
AMD said last week that it was aware of an issue with its RX 7900 XTX reference cards. It advises users who experience accidental bumps into temperature walls to contact AMD support services.
