No hardware launch seems free of problems nowadays as new reports show an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card with concerning memory temperatures. If correct, it could impact the longevity of the card.
According to some GPU-Z screenshots shared on the Chiphell forums before being removed, a custom Radeon RX 9070 XT card suffers from high VRAM temperatures reaching up to 94°C. While some memory chips are rated for up to 105°C, previous experiences with cards which sustained high temps for long durations inside mining rigs showed signs of degradation. This resulted in their inability to maintain their official speed/frequency, forcing second-hand users to reduce speed and lose some performance.
That said, what concerns me the most is the GPU frequency which – at 2,028MHz – is far from the advertised 2,400MHz game and 2,970MHz boost. Hopefully, it’s just a reaction to the test load, were modern GPUs lower their speed intentionally to avoid damages that may occur from using torture tests like FurMark.
While this may be alarming given all brands are facing a myriad of issues lately, it’s likely to be a lone case and not a universal flaw. Worst case, this could affect a batch or model from an individual brand. Despite not having concrete evidence about the cause of this issue, it looks a lot like a cooler problem. Either it’s a bad cooler design that doesn’t chill memory correctly or poor contact due to the thermal interface/manufacturing tolerances.
The only thing we can draw from the shared GPU-Z screenshot is that the GPU runs at acceptable temps – 60°C under load. Though on the high side, even the hot spot is within reasonable margins at 79°C, i.e. 19°C delta. For example, my RX 7900 XT has a delta ranging between 11 and 15°C depending on the load. To me, all signs point towards bad VRAM cooling.
In any case, reviews will cover all these aspects, helping you choose a model that satisfies your performance, temperatures, noise, and price requirements. You can expect reviews in a couple of days as the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 are set to launch on March 6 at $599 and $549 respectively. You can follow us on Google News to get notified when we publish ours.
