Recently, a Reddit user posted that his reference AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card was reaching 110C Junction temps while playing the new Modern Warfare II. However, when contacting AMD with an RMA request, he was denied, with the company stating that "The temperatures are normal. If there is any issue, please, contact us back." Another user made a successful request but was denied a refund for the previously opened box. The company has since received a bit of backlash for the issue, especially with the growing number of cases arising.
More cases of high temperatures on AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards continue to rise, with companies like PowerColor stepping up to help consumers
Before this new AMD development, NVIDIA received backlash for overheating and melting 12VHPWR connectors on the flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, which surpassed thirty individuals and reported cases of issues after the graphics card launched.
What is unique about the AMD situation is that it is currently affecting the reference and AMD-manufactured Radeon RX 7900 series GPUs. It covers any cards sold by AMD partners or the company but not custom-created GPUs utilizing the same graphics architecture. It is speculated that a flaw could be in a few coolers or mounting designs as indicated by De8auer in the video below:
Three years ago, AMD posted in the company's blog an article titled, "AMD Radeon Community Update: More Control Over GPU Power and Performance, Enhanced Thermal Monitoring, Maximized Performance." When discussing junction temperatures in the enhanced thermal monitoring of the AMD Radeon VII GPU, they posted this statement:
... Instead of setting a conservative, ‘worst case’ throttling temperature for the entire die, the RadeonTM RX 5700 series GPUs will continue to opportunistically and aggressively ramp clocks until any one of the many available sensors hits the ‘hotspot’ or ‘Junction’ temperature of 110 degrees Celsius. Operating at up to 110C Junction Temperature during typical gaming usage is expected and within spec. This enables the RadeonTM RX 5700 series GPUs to offer much higher performance and clocks out of the box, while maintaining acoustic and reliability targets.
One of the technical engineering leads on the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, "Kevin," does state that as of yesterday, the company is aware of the hotspot issue and is actively investigating and putting together a plan of action "to repro and collect serial numbers." He further explains that the current COVID situation overseas is slowing the process but agrees that a mechanical issue would fall under creating and fulfilling an RMA for consumers. Still, they are also looking into firmware updates to fix isolated incidents where a software fix would be necessary instead of a hardware replacement. "Kevin" also discusses edge heating, the temperature near the edge of the silicon on a GPU, stating that 90° edge temperatures are abnormal, but 70° edge temperatures are nominal.
Reddit user and PowerColor representative on the platform, "PowerColorSteven," is doing his part to assist consumers with this current issue about the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards. For those who may not remember Steven, we mentioned in this article that the company had a prior issue where the AMD RX 6700 XT series GPUs were shipping with the thermal pad covers still attached, which, at the time, would cause high temperatures from the graphics card. The sales representative has been closely monitoring this issue for the last couple of days and recently posted this as a pinned thread on Reddit:
uh... just adding this in here in case anybody has not seen my other posts.
if you are dealing with the 110c issue and nobody else is helping you out. doenst matter which (AIB you bought this from) you bought it from. send me an email or direct message (since my emails are not working right today) (also, please dont use chat, that shit dont work right). i am putting together a list for my AMD contacts of how many issues we are seeing. they asked if it was just a few users. i said its def more than a handful, so now i need to show some sort of backing for my fat mouth. send me serial numbers. i am sending an email to the AMD guys with how many units are affect. powercolor. sapphire. gigabyte. amd direct. whatever. send me serial numbers. hopefully amd will get some news for all of us, but regardless, when i hear something of substance, i'll make a post to provide some level of guidance on how to go about getting this sorted out.
— User "PowerColorSteven," aka "sales guy or something" on Reddit
However, it is hard to find out which companies accept RMAs and fulfill them, as the number of recorded cases have stated that some are allowed while others are denied, even when it is the same manufacturer. Several other theories are also arising about the problem, from uneven cold plates to using a graphite thermal pad to fix the issue. With the number of cases rising during the initial reports, it is not recommended to alleviate the problem but to hold on until an official statement or acceptance of a series-wide RMA is allowed by AMD.
News Sources: Tom's Hardware, Reddit (AMD), AMD blog, Reddit (PowerColor)
