It’s usually a good idea to always have the latest drivers installed for your PC hardware. After all, the manufacturers use the updates to ensure that their devices remain state-of-the-art and meet all requirements. In the case of the Radeon RX 6800 and Radeon RX 6900 graphics cards from AMD, however, using the latest drivers can backfire. At least that’s what the YouTube channel KrisFixGermany, which specializes in hardware repairs, claims.
According to their own statements, defective graphics cards of the type mentioned have accumulated in the past few weeks. The lion’s share of the copies given to him for repair are said to have been completely over and no longer salvageable because the graphics processor had burned through. The expert identified the release of an up-to-date driver as a possible cause for the total failures that occurred. Although it comes directly from AMD and was officially certified by Microsoft, according to the YouTuber it triggers a devastating chain reaction that, in the worst case, leads to the complete destruction of the graphics cards.
The best graphics cards
Zotac
Details about the test
Per
Extremely high game speed – even in 4K with ray tracing effects
Very fast rendering speed
against
Extremely high price
High power consumption (450 watts)
Zotac
Details about the test
Per
Very high game speed – even in 4K with ray tracing effects
Very fast rendering speed
against
Very high price
Slightly high power consumption (307 watts)
Zotac
Details about the test
Per
High game speed – even in 4K with ray tracing effects
Fast rendering speed
against
high price
Slightly high power consumption (261 watts)
MSI
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X 12GB GDDR6X
Details about the test
Per
Very high speed in 4K and Full HD games
Very fast rendering speed
against
Very high price
High power consumption (max. 428 watts)
powercolor
Details about the test
Per
Very high speed in 4K and Full HD games
Efficient mining possible
against
Very high price
Slow ray tracing speed
MSI
Details about the test
Per
Very high speed in 4K and Full HD games
Efficient mining possible
against
Very high price
Slow ray tracing speed
Zotac
Details about the test
Per
Very high speed in 4K and Full HD games
Very fast rendering speed
against
Very high price
Slightly high power consumption (max. 351 watts)
MSI
Details about the test
Per
Very high speed in 4K and Full HD games
Very fast rendering speed
against
Extremely high price
High power consumption (max. 450 watts)
Zotac
GeForce RTX 3080 AMP Holo
Details about the test
Per
Very high speed in 4K and Full HD games
Fast rendering speed
against
Very high price
Slightly high power consumption (max. 343 watts)
sapphires
Details about the test
Per
Very high speed in WQHD and Full HD games
Fast paced 4K games
against
Very low speed when raytracing
A bit loud under full load (5.3 sone)
Complete list: The best graphics cards
Driver could fuel hardware failure
Specifically, this is about the WHQL driver with version number 22.11.2. Whether he is actually responsible for the failures and if so, how it comes about, is still unclear. AMD has not yet taken a position on the subject. According to KrisFixGermany, however, the same phenomenon has been observed with all graphics cards: the rails for the main processor, the memory and the associated controller have burned out due to a short circuit. According to the YouTuber, this could be due to an existing and production-related hardware error that only becomes apparent with the driver update.
The repair professional suspects that the new driver affects the temperature regulation of the graphics card and causes overheating. The extreme heat, in turn, could cause the flawed chips to break and damage the circuit board. What is true of this theory is currently difficult to verify. In any case, you should keep a close eye on your computer after installing the driver and switch it off immediately in the event of any abnormalities in order to prevent worse things from happening. If you want to be on the safe side, you can do without the driver update for the time being and wait for AMD to comment on the problem.
