5 ms·

110-degree junction temperatures are indeed nothing to worry about, it's just the card shouldn't be throttling and reach these temperatures at these frequencies

110-degree junction temperatures are indeed nothing to worry about, it's just the card shouldn't be throttling and reach these temperatures at these frequencies and power draw. When a new product is released, it is common for there to be a learning curve for support in terms of what is normal and what is not. They are not engineers. This is just an unfortunate coincidence - batches were tested in vertical orientation, which is normal for test benches, but most users use the card in horizontal orientation. Orientation affecting temperatures is unexpected and unintuitive, so this was missed. Cause is rumoured to be insufficient coolant in vapor chamber for affected batches. Please don't read too much into this low-effort rant. I don't blame the author, it's okay to be frustrated when a big purchase doesn't go their way, but if you have a large following you should be more mindful of your words.

Sweepi 4y ago
The cause is no longer a Rumor, there has been an official statement by AMD: “It all comes down to a small batch of our vapor chamber acually have an issue - not enough water.”
jjulius 4y ago
>This is just an unfortunate coincidence - batches were tested in vertical orientation, which is normal for test benches, but most users use the card in horizontal orientation. Why would you choose to test your product in a manner that is completely opposite from how most people would use it? Granted, I'm asking from a place of ignorance, but that just seems... dumb. I'd be curious to learn why my perspective might be wrong.
- geerlingguy 4y ago
  Practically all the reviewers test these cards on test benches too, which masks the problem with the horizontal card orientation (thus nobody uncovered the issue in the initial reviews). Test benches are way more convenient than minitowers when you need to regularly swap components.
- dhruvdh 4y ago
  Test benches are used for convenience. A proper case is too much effort to work with. Vapor chambers also rarely show up on GPUs, until recently.
  - lightedman 4y ago
    "A proper case is too much effort to work with." So a proper "closer-to-real-world-conditions" test environment is too much effort for all of these tech enthusiasts? "Vapor chambers also rarely show up on GPUs, until recently. " Anything with a heat pipe going through it is a vapor chamber cooler design. My still-used 9800GTX+ has one. That card will be 15 years old in three months. These are not new things in GPUs, by any means. That's how you get so many prior gens of top-end cards in a two-slot design despite hitting nearly 300W+ in power draw.
    - runnerup 4y ago
      Heat pipes from the previous decade don't have a wicking matrix, they're hollow, and even often smooth-walled. Vapor chambers have sponge-like structures inside of them to re-condense water closer to the heat source and assist its movement back to the hotspot via capillary action.
      - lightedman 4y ago
        "Heat pipes from the previous decade don't have a wicking matrix" Yes, they do. If they're not flat pipes, they've likely got a wicking material inside them. This isn't really new tech, it's been around for cooling LASER and LED arrays for quite some time.
        runnerup 4y ago
        Thank you for correcting me. I thought I remembered photos of heat pipes from popular CPU coolers c. 2010 with smooth inner faces, but on reviewing some old photos from across the internet I found I was mistaken.
- aidenn0 4y ago
  It is physically easier to push down than to push sideways. Pushing down means the card is in a vertical position. It would be 2 extra steps to rotate the bench to a vertical (and therefore horizontal card) position.
- fomine3 4y ago
  Nowadays some cases supports to put video card in vertical orientation by using riser cable, for cosmetic reason.
  - simoncion 4y ago
    It's not just for cosmetics. Many video cards block two expansion slots. Some block three, and I think a few block four. If you can use a cable to make it possible mount that card away from your motherboard in a place where it blocks exactly one slot, then you've freed up several-to-many expansion slots. Source: I did this in my PC. I actually bought a large case so that I could do things like this.
spuz 4y ago
I'm more inclined to believe AMD are fully aware of the effect that gravity can have on a cooler and thoroughly tested it during the design phase in all orientations. The ball was probably dropped later when testing samples were returned by the manufacturer where they either only tested them in the vertical orientation or they didn't sample enough of them to catch the issue. After all, this is apparently not a design bug but a manufacturing one.
causality0 4y ago
What are you on about? Some of the cards don't have enough coolant in their vapor chambers. The ones that do are perfectly fine. It has nothing to do with "pushing the limits of design". Simple manufacturing defect.

Sweepi 4y ago

The cause is no longer a Rumor, there has been an official statement by AMD: “It all comes down to a small batch of our vapor chamber acually have an issue - not enough water.”

jjulius 4y ago

>This is just an unfortunate coincidence - batches were tested in vertical orientation, which is normal for test benches, but most users use the card in horizontal orientation. Why would you choose to test your product in a manner that is completely opposite from how most people would use it? Granted, I'm asking from a place of ignorance, but that just seems... dumb. I'd be curious to learn why my perspective might be wrong.

geerlingguy 4y ago
Practically all the reviewers test these cards on test benches too, which masks the problem with the horizontal card orientation (thus nobody uncovered the issue in the initial reviews). Test benches are way more convenient than minitowers when you need to regularly swap components.
dhruvdh 4y ago
Test benches are used for convenience. A proper case is too much effort to work with. Vapor chambers also rarely show up on GPUs, until recently.
- lightedman 4y ago
  "A proper case is too much effort to work with." So a proper "closer-to-real-world-conditions" test environment is too much effort for all of these tech enthusiasts? "Vapor chambers also rarely show up on GPUs, until recently. " Anything with a heat pipe going through it is a vapor chamber cooler design. My still-used 9800GTX+ has one. That card will be 15 years old in three months. These are not new things in GPUs, by any means. That's how you get so many prior gens of top-end cards in a two-slot design despite hitting nearly 300W+ in power draw.
  - runnerup 4y ago
    Heat pipes from the previous decade don't have a wicking matrix, they're hollow, and even often smooth-walled. Vapor chambers have sponge-like structures inside of them to re-condense water closer to the heat source and assist its movement back to the hotspot via capillary action.
    - lightedman 4y ago
      "Heat pipes from the previous decade don't have a wicking matrix" Yes, they do. If they're not flat pipes, they've likely got a wicking material inside them. This isn't really new tech, it's been around for cooling LASER and LED arrays for quite some time.
      - runnerup 4y ago
        Thank you for correcting me. I thought I remembered photos of heat pipes from popular CPU coolers c. 2010 with smooth inner faces, but on reviewing some old photos from across the internet I found I was mistaken.
aidenn0 4y ago
It is physically easier to push down than to push sideways. Pushing down means the card is in a vertical position. It would be 2 extra steps to rotate the bench to a vertical (and therefore horizontal card) position.
fomine3 4y ago
Nowadays some cases supports to put video card in vertical orientation by using riser cable, for cosmetic reason.
- simoncion 4y ago
  It's not just for cosmetics. Many video cards block two expansion slots. Some block three, and I think a few block four. If you can use a cable to make it possible mount that card away from your motherboard in a place where it blocks exactly one slot, then you've freed up several-to-many expansion slots. Source: I did this in my PC. I actually bought a large case so that I could do things like this.

spuz 4y ago

I'm more inclined to believe AMD are fully aware of the effect that gravity can have on a cooler and thoroughly tested it during the design phase in all orientations. The ball was probably dropped later when testing samples were returned by the manufacturer where they either only tested them in the vertical orientation or they didn't sample enough of them to catch the issue. After all, this is apparently not a design bug but a manufacturing one.

causality0 4y ago

What are you on about? Some of the cards don't have enough coolant in their vapor chambers. The ones that do are perfectly fine. It has nothing to do with "pushing the limits of design". Simple manufacturing defect.