AMD Releases Response to RX 7900 XTX Hotspot Issue
An official statement by AMD has been released in response to users reporting 110C hotspot issues with their Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU’s (graphics processing unit).
The Radeon RX 7900 XTX is one of AMD’s top performing graphics cards currently. Competing with Nvidia’s high end GPU’s, falling between the RTX 3090 Ti and RTX 4080 in benchmarks. Despite this, uses have reported their reference (in house) cards. Reportedly this reference design shows hotspots peaking at 110 degrees Celsius. Feedback from users suffering from this issue find that it’s persistent even with the reference cooling fans at 100% speed.
In a response from AMD, they stated: “We are aware that a limited number of users are experiencing unexpected thermal throttling on AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards (reference models made by AMD). Users experiencing unexpected thermal throttling of an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX should contact AMD Support”.
Thermal throttling, as AMD mentioned in the above statement to Toms Hardware, is a feature that underclocks (reduces the clock speed of the GPU) to reduce heat output and prevent permanent damage to hardware.
According to AMD’s specifications for the RX 7900 XTX on their website, 110 degrees Celsius is the designed junction temperature (max operating temperature for the graphics cards chip). Currently we suspect uneven contact/mounting pressure from the cold plate (the part of the graphics card cooler that physically touches the GPU chip) could be causing the hotspot issue. This is because uneven mounting pressure reduces the effectiveness of the thermal interface (heat transfer) between the GPU and cooler. Some users claim that changing the thermal paste and TIM (thermal interface material) or thermal pads is a viable solution. That is if you can do this without damaging the graphics cards, we only recommend attempting this if you are experienced and following a reputable guide (also be aware this usually voids one’s warranty).
AMD’s team of engineers is currently looking into the direct cause for the issue. AMD hasn’t given a date on when users will receive an official solution to the issue. While we wait, AMD has advised all affected users to contacted AMD’s Support team. Reportedly, many users affected by the issue have returned their Radeon RX 7900 XTX cards to AMD or the retailer they purchased the card from.
