At the beginning of the year, AMD ended up confirming an issue with the vapor chambers of their Radeon RX 7900 XTXnow, almost a year later, this problem moves to NVIDIA products. Specifically, this problem has been detected in gaming graphics GeForce RTX 3080and in the professional segment RTX A6000 for workstation.
In the case of AMD, a problem in vapor chamber design meant that these GPUs could achieve the 110ºC. Obviously, these high temperatures affected to GPU performanceknowing that this defect caused the camera to have less coolant than it shouldaffecting the cooling of the GPU.
For older NVIDIA GPUs, the vapor chamber is showing cracks
According to the first reports from the Korean media QuasarZone, the first clue came from a high temperature problem in the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition graphics cards. Additionally, the NVIDIA RTX A6000 for professional use has also been splashed. While discovering where these problems could come from, they discovered “cracks“in the steam chamber which were due to a chemical reaction of “traces” coppermade.
In this way, the problem of high temperatures is linked to a defect in the vapor chamber. One of the main reasons was linked to a “liquid metal cap“. Specifically, this would be producing a chemical reaction inside the heatsink. That is why the simple passage of time is causing these graphs to present a serious failure during their operation.
QuasarZone reports that another NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPU was brought in to investigate those “high temperatures.” When the cooling system was removed, it was found a “hole“in the steam chamber similar to that of the RTX 3080 Founders Edition. To put an end to the growing doubts, the technician decided to open the vapor chamber of the RTX 3080 FE. After opening it, it was revealed a blue substance relatively “strange”, which resided next to the copper pieces torn off.
This substance is basically oxidized copper, which has a blue color. It is indicated that a humid condition within the vapor chamber is one of the main culprits that facilitate the oxidation process.
This defect in the vapor chamber causes the GPU to exceed 100ºC in temperature
Basically, we are facing the same problem that we saw in AMD GPUs in NVIDIA GPUs, where a problem in the vapor chamber causes these GPUs to reach 100ºC affecting your performance. Obviously, when there is a crack, or hole/hole, the vapor chamber loses its function. so much is lost the pressure as part of the coolant liquid, which seriously affects to the flow internal chamber that regulates temperatures.
This problem is not normal, and is happening on graphs that mostly have more than three years of life, so they do not have a guarantee. If this problem has started to arise now, it is likely that as time passes, the number of affected GPUs will increase. Of course, as good news, it is indicated that these graphs They had great use during their life period until being opened numerous times to be cleaned and replace its thermal compound.
So, in theory, if you have an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition, or an NVIDIA RTX A6000, you shouldn’t worry. Of course, unless you are starting to experience overheating problems. That it could overheat would be normal, if this GPU has not had maintenance in recent years, so a simple cleaning and change of thermal compound would be the solution, since the appearance of cracks is indicated to be a very rare case. Time will tell if it is an isolated caseor graphics subjected to a lot of use will end up presenting this critical failure.
