PC Graphics

[Pipistrello]

Hey,

I noticed that the lower VRAM section of my XFX Speedster Merc 6900 XT is completly glued with epoxy all round the chips. According to the manufacturer this is within expection for some AMD gpu series.

Can anybody confirm that this is normal?

6900 XT - XFX Speedster Merc 319

Not sure if I received a refurbished card with some resoldered chips instead of a new one. The other chips in the upper section are all fine, no epoxy at all.

Regards

[Pipistrello]

Anyone who can help?

The manufacturer is not willing to share any information about this topic.

[one123 · Accepted solution]

i dont think its refurbished.Maybe its hotglued to prevent  memory break solder from pcb bending,i saw in  youtube repair rtx 3090 where only  memory close to pcie slot  broke.

Those memory are "reinforced" to not get separated  in long term usage.

[one123]

Watch from min 5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTgDEYLE1Ic

[goodplay]

Try asking on an overclocker forum, 6900xt owners thread (overclock.net, overclockers.co.uk). Maybe someone with the same model has done a teardown.

Some review sites (techpowerup) have teardown pics. you could compare with.

[one123]

Here are pictures for sapphire 6950xt,same hotglue for vram not to separate from pcb.I think you should be safe,xfx did this to prolong videocard life:

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/sapphire-radeon-rx-6950-xt-nitro-pure/3.html

Gamernexus made a teardown for sapphire,same glue on memory,its cleart that its intentional for strenghten memory modules(from min 10):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwMQ4nyJp5g&list=RDCMUChIs72whgZI9w6d6FhwGGHA&index=20

[elstaci]

It is rather strange. Maybe some other User with the same Make & Model can check to see if theirs also has that black epoxy or hot glue on those 3 specific chips.

The only thing that comes to my mind since it is so close to the PCIe connection, the black epoxy is to help prevent the chips from excessive vibrations that might cause the solder to break while in use or removing and installing the GPU card.

If the GPU card is only a few days old, those chips doesn't look new at all. Unless the GPU card is several months old.

Really the only way to find out is by seeing if another User with the exact same GPU card has the same thing or not.