PC Drivers & Software

[MikeySCT]

Hey AMD, I am posting this NOT because I believe it, I don't believe a driver cand kill a card, unless it somehow stop the fan completely, but here's something making the round in the various forums I go to:

I thought I'd better post it here for awareness, There've been talk that these cards may still be under warranty (some parts of Europe might have 3 years warranty on cards), which begs the question, IF some of these cards may still be under warranty, why send them to some random shop for repair? Seems to me RMA is a viable option in such cases....

Edit - Other than that one time when nVidia released a driver that killed some of their cards (I think it caused the fans of some cards to stop spinning). Very seldom does a program on a driver level kills a GPU. but you can brick a card with a bad VBIOS flash. Still, I do believe that these cards were perhaps previously used as mining cards that were resold. And those who'd bought them are the unfortunate ones facing this issue. Last driver I'd had installed for my 6900 XT was the Adrenalin 22.10.2, I'm pretty confident I'd have no problem with this driver dated 08/12/22 (I think it the Adrenalin 22.11.2)

[Lufy]

My issues randomly come back and then stay away for 1 or 2 days except for whatsapp desktop that always blackscreens so i cant even use it anymore to do video calls, atleast not without risks

[jsk68]

Bloody hell go look at nvidia support if you think Amd is bad...

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/geforce-graphics-cards/5/

[campcreekdude]

I skipped 3 generations with the Radeon 7970 lol I probably will skip a bunch of gens too with my 7900 xt.

[MikeySCT]

Oh man, this takes me back, I was the proud owner of 2x HD7970 back in the day, started with 2x HD 5870 for EyeFinity 3x 1920x1200 monitors. Actually, I'd suggest AMD call the updated, and faster, RX 7900 XTX the RX 7970 XTX, that'd be so dope! I might just buy one just for the heck of it!

[Skrybe]

Just a comment on naming. I'm actually sick of all the extra letters being added to model numbers. They don't make things clearer or really help buyers make a decision. On the face of it is "7900", "7900XT" or "7900XTX" faster? Who knows without reading specs? Are there extra features in some of them? Again who knows.

In my opinion just stick with the number being the indicator of the better card. So yeah, 7900xtx *should* have been called something else (like 7970).

The only time I'd use letters would be to indicate a new revision of the same model because of minor tweaks. eg: rx7900, rx7900a, rx7900b. In that scenario the performance and features should be basically the same, but the "a" or "b" revisions might be a slightly different layout or better process or whatever.

Note: AMD aren't the only company guilty of annoying naming. Lots of companies do it and it can be super misleading to customers.

[jsk68]

This started before Amd bought Ati, the x1900xtx this was in the mid 2000's.

Nobody seemed to have a problem with it back then...

[Skrybe]

I've always had a problem with it. Like I said, it's not just AMD. Intel CPUs annoy me too, 13000, 13000k, 13000 KF... And mobos with 790 A, 790 P, 790 Pro, 790 Plus You need to literally google the suffixes to understand what they mean.

And that's not taking into account marketing by AIB companies. Where they put their own spin on naming and model numbers.

[MikeySCT · Accepted solution]

I couldn't edit my original post, so I guess the update will have to be here. Kris, the repair guy in my first post, had come back to verify that the driver (presumed to be Adrenalin 22.11.2) is NOT at fault here. This turned out as expected, that the driver wasn't the cause of the issue, and that these cards were probably used by a miner or miners, sold to these unsuspecting buyers.

[eebiii]

Just as a reference, I have 4 AMD cards 6750 xt and newer and 2 NVidia 1080ti and newer and have never had an issue with drivers or anything for the most part. All of my cards except the 6750xt have water-blocks on them. SO, IMO, 

I say we just find the miners selling these cards to everyone and KICK the Sh** out of them! 

[MikeySCT]

Now we know the issue wasn't with the driver, but in my humble opinion, Kris was being irresponsible. He should have asked these card owners where they had gotten their from in the first place, that'll tell him why they'd sent them to him for repair instead of RMA'ing those suckers.

He should have understood that many thousands of users with the RX 6800XT/6900XT have installed and are running their cards with that driver without issue, and that the affected cards were from his region....and nowhere else. Put it this way, IF I were him, when I see these cards coming to me for repair {were from my particular region), and NOT being sent for RMA, the first thing I'd do is ask them, "Why aren't you sending your card for RMA?"

By posting his original vid, his intentions weren't clear, like I'd said, he was careful with his wording and did not outright push the blame on the driver, though by stating that they had all used the same driver, the implication was clear enough. Now as to why he;d posted his vid, it's quite possible that it being controversial, it would generate many views on his channel (like him, I've not outright stated it as fact).

Also, by posting his original vid, he'd done AMD a disservice, and has damaged AMD's reputation during the time there was doubts about the driver. I can imagine some who might have been looking at the RX 6800 XT/6900 XT to purchase, then changing their minds and going nVidia due to this controversy.

[jsk68]

It's funny how all the YT shills swooped in and made it worse,as it stands Nvidia is the only one that released card bricking drivers, funny how quickly people forget except if it's Amd.....

[Flyfisherman]

Sometimes people are quick to jump to conclusion, without all the facts.
Tom's Hardware: The Mystery of the Radeon RX 6000 Mass Extinction Event May Have Been Solved

Best regards from Sweden

[BlackSabbath]

I believe