What you need to know
- ASUS changed the cooler mounting pressure on the ROG Strix Radeon 5700 to fix an overheating issue.
- Future cards will be shipped with a better PSI, and ASUS will offer an upgrade to anyone who has already purchased the card.
- ASUS blames AMD's product guidelines for suggesting a PSI that's too low to dissipate the heat through the card's heat sink.
ASUS is playing the blame game over its ROG Strix Radeon RX 5700 series of graphics cards (via TechRadar). ASUS states in a post that the product guidelines from AMD recommended a mounting pressure PSI that is too low to properly dissipate heat. ASUS will now ship the cards with higher mounting pressure and will offer an upgrade to people that already purchased the card.
The ROG Strix Radeon RX 5700 series of graphics cards experienced overheating issues. ASUS states that it torqued cards to a mounting pressure of 30-40 PSI "based on AMD's baseline recommendations." This pressure seemed too low, and following testing from ASUS, the company determined that a pressure of 50-60 PSI works better. Here's an excerpt of ASUS' post:
Initial batches of ROG Strix RX 5700-series graphics cards were torqued to 30-40 PSI based on AMD's baseline recommendations. While those guidelines provided leeway to apply more torque, we took a cautious approach because were dealing with a new 7nm GPU and didn't want to risk damage to the die. After receiving user reports regarding temperature issues, we performed extended R&D testing to find the optimal PSI range for our graphics cards without compromising GPU reliability.As a result, all ROG Strix Radeon RX 5700-series graphics cards shipped from January 2020 forward feature new screws that increase cooler mounting pressure to 50-60 PSI, resulting in improved heat transfer from the GPU to the heatsink.
ASUS already began shipping cards with higher pressure in January. All cards from that series of cards going forward will ship with the higher pressure. Additionally, anyone who already purchased a ROG Strix Radeon RX 5700 series graphics card can upgrade to one with higher mounting pressure starting in March 2020. ASUS notes that the coronavirus outbreak may affect shipments, which could affect the March 2020 start date for upgrades.
At this point, we've only heard ASUS's side of the story. While ASUS did R&D testing to find an optimal mounting pressure after people complained about the overheating issues, the company could have potentially spotted this issue before the card's launch.
The details on how to tell if your card is eligible for an upgrade are available in a chart in ASUS' post breaking down the issue. If you're in the market for a new GPU, be sure to have a look at our guide to the best graphics cards.
