Friday, May 26th 2023
AMD Confirms: RX 7600 Reference Cards in Retail will Not Have Power Connector Flaw
In the course of our testing of the reference-design AMD Radeon RX 7600 graphics card, we noticed a flaw in the physical design that could impede certain kinds of 6+2 pin PCIe power cables, causing improper power connector contact, posing a potential fire hazard, theoretically. The flaw centers on the design of the card's backplate. The cutout near the power connector is designed such that certain kinds of 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors don't properly insert. Most if not all power supply units (PSUs) have their 150 W, 8-pin PCIe power connectors designed to be 6+2 pin, where you can split two of their pins away, turning them into 6-pin PCIe. While some PSU brands use a passive hook-type tail-end bridge that ensures the 2-pin portion inserts along with the 6-pin portion, some brands use more elaborate stubs that hold the two portions together. The AMD RX 7600 reference backplate design impedes these kinds of connectors.
We reached out to AMD with our findings before the May 24 review NDA, and the company got back to us with a statement:
Here's our analysis of the AMD statement.
AMD states that there are plenty of Radeon RX 7600 graphics cards that you can buy right now. These are custom-design (non-reference design) graphics cards from AMD's board partners, such as Sapphire, PowerColor, XFX, ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI. These cards are currently available for purchase, and none of them have the flaw. As for the reference-design (made by AMD) graphics card, AMD says that these cards are not available in retail, but should be over the coming weeks, and will have a revised design without the flaw. AMD didn't spell out a definite timeline, and so "the coming weeks" could even mean months (the company isn't sure). The way we interpret the statement is that the current batch with the bad backplate design will not make it to market, not now, not in the coming weeks or after that.
If you'll notice, none of AMD's AIB partners have published product pages of reference-design RX 7600 cards on their websites, which confirms that AMD has placed a block on the sales and marketing of the reference-design RX 7600, giving them time to work on the revision—which really just needs to be a new backplate, the rest of the card isn't affected. Unlike NVIDIA, which has a de facto reference-design in the form of the Founders Edition graphics card that it directly markets without partner branding; AMD retains a classical marketing approach to its reference graphics card designs—these are sold by its add-in board partners with minimal re-branding (brand-specific retail packaging, stickers, inclusions, extended warranty incentives, etc).
In conclusion, AMD has ensured that none of the cards with the power connector design flaw make it to customers, while it works on a revision that comes out "over the coming weeks." Good job!
Be sure to catch our detailed review of the reference-design AMD Radeon RX 7600, in which we discussed a few workarounds under the assumption that cards with the flaw would make it to retail—which we now know they won't.
We reached out to AMD with our findings before the May 24 review NDA, and the company got back to us with a statement:
We are very pleased with the volume of Radeon RX 7600 cards available globally from our AIB partners. We expect RX 7600 reference design cards to be available over the coming weeks with a design that accommodates all power supply cables.
AMD states that there are plenty of Radeon RX 7600 graphics cards that you can buy right now. These are custom-design (non-reference design) graphics cards from AMD's board partners, such as Sapphire, PowerColor, XFX, ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI. These cards are currently available for purchase, and none of them have the flaw. As for the reference-design (made by AMD) graphics card, AMD says that these cards are not available in retail, but should be over the coming weeks, and will have a revised design without the flaw. AMD didn't spell out a definite timeline, and so "the coming weeks" could even mean months (the company isn't sure). The way we interpret the statement is that the current batch with the bad backplate design will not make it to market, not now, not in the coming weeks or after that.
If you'll notice, none of AMD's AIB partners have published product pages of reference-design RX 7600 cards on their websites, which confirms that AMD has placed a block on the sales and marketing of the reference-design RX 7600, giving them time to work on the revision—which really just needs to be a new backplate, the rest of the card isn't affected. Unlike NVIDIA, which has a de facto reference-design in the form of the Founders Edition graphics card that it directly markets without partner branding; AMD retains a classical marketing approach to its reference graphics card designs—these are sold by its add-in board partners with minimal re-branding (brand-specific retail packaging, stickers, inclusions, extended warranty incentives, etc).
In conclusion, AMD has ensured that none of the cards with the power connector design flaw make it to customers, while it works on a revision that comes out "over the coming weeks." Good job!
Be sure to catch our detailed review of the reference-design AMD Radeon RX 7600, in which we discussed a few workarounds under the assumption that cards with the flaw would make it to retail—which we now know they won't.
98 Comments on AMD Confirms: RX 7600 Reference Cards in Retail will Not Have Power Connector Flaw
i learned that lesson years and years ago :) now i have time to enjoy lager :D instead of reposting the same thinks over and over and over again.. :)
No point in making a shitshow out of this.
You are doing Gods work!
"We reached out to AMD with our findings before the May 24 review NDA, and the company got back to us with a statement:
Here's our analysis of the AMD statement.
AMD states that there are plenty of Radeon RX 7600 graphics cards that you can buy right now. These are custom-design (non-reference design) graphics cards from AMD's board partners, such as Sapphire, PowerColor, XFX, ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI. These cards are currently available for purchase, and none of them have the flaw. As for the reference-design (made by AMD) graphics card, AMD says that these cards are not available in retail, but should be over the coming weeks, and will have a revised design without the flaw. AMD didn't spell out a definite timeline, and so "the coming weeks" could even mean months (the company isn't sure). The way we interpret the statement is that the current batch with the bad backplate design will not make it to market, not now, not in the coming weeks or after that."
It was caught unlike the rtx 4090 power connector adapter debacle
So this is a Non Issue
AMD's mistake, very noobish, but at least didn't reach sales. And even if it did, that 8pin connector might, don't know, be handling power nicely even half inserted. The problem would be with connectors not secured correctly, to dropping out of the card socket (all that vibration from fans could make it happen) and people having a non functional system. Best case scenario, they put the cable back on the card. Bad scenario. They don't have technical knowledge and they call a technician meaning expenses to pay that technician or staying without a PC until a technician in the store they bought their PC fixes the problem. Worst scenario. Technicians convincing them that the card is dead, isn't covered by warranty and they need to buy a new one. The technician gets a free GPU, AMD loses a customer and people paying a graphics card twice.
Ok, first: smoking is bad, so are you suggesting that consoles are behind the times on healthy gaming?
As well, my reliable sources (namely Mr. Potato Head) reminded me his family of what he referred to instead as 'classic computers' can still run programs that people use when they're not gaming. Said Mr. Head, "You know, people with jobs, students who do homework... they appreciate these machines that can play 1942 as well as run Lotus 1-2-3." Really, though, I can't recall a modern console that lets me run Word, Resolve... or watch porn... I mean, er... anyway... (Editor's note: that may be the true "dirty reality" in PC use, yeah?)
I'd also like to point out AMD cards and any non-60 GPUs may have taken offence to their lack of inclusion in your abusive attack on PC cards, though AMD GPUs tell me they're less so since their step-siblings run consoles today anyway.
And it's 'its' for possessives. I'm not admonishing just educating, Boyo.
Same issue in previous RX6000 Reference cards, but not many people noticed.
AMD is not ATI or Matrox, AMD is still that bad, low quality, problematic.
tpucdn.com/gpu-specs/images/c/405-pcb-front.jpg
(I know, usually there's no significant performance hit to PCIe 3.0 x8 as Tech Power Up tested on the RX 6600 XT. But the 7600 outperforms the 6650 XT, so it needs more bandwidth, and in the worst case the performance loss may be over 10%, which means it'll perform on par with the 5700 XT which can be bought used for much cheaper and has a full PCIe 4.0 x16 interface.)
Wait. The 5700 XT performs as well in 4K, probably thanks to its 256-bit memory interface. Maybe I'm being too optimistic about this card; it's a little bit of an electricity guzzler, it only has 8GB of memory, it struggles at higher resolution where it's cache isn't enough to make up for it's 128-bit memory, and it has only 8 PCIe lanes. This is no RTX 4060 Ti, which costs 48% more and has all the same downers except power efficiency while only performing 25% better in today's games, but I guess the RX 7600 is still a little disappointing.
The notch on the 8-Pin is blocked by the backplate.