AMD RX 5700 XT Tear-Down: Inside the Vapor Chamber
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Date: 2020-05-06
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Comments and reviews: 10
Stefan
Ah so this is basically the same as the R290X cooler, what a dramatic peace of shit. But it seems the contact with the core is at least somewhat flat, on my R290X this part was concave and touched the GPU with like 1 square mm of copper. Tears. just tears. I will never understand why they built a copper vapor chamber that wouldn't even connect to the GPU properly. Having a bad cooling solution is one, but not having it attached properly just blew my mind. AMD Videocards themselves are quite ok price/performence wise, I really enjoyed the 290x after having it watercooled, but really that poor cooling solution shocked me so much (especially for a high-end card) that I will never buy AMD again. And now seeing a comparably BAD cooling solution AGAIN! , this is just infuriating. It's like the company just doesn't care about it's own product.
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Ah so this is basically the same as the R290X cooler, what a dramatic peace of shit. But it seems the contact with the core is at least somewhat flat, on my R290X this part was concave and touched the GPU with like 1 square mm of copper. Tears. just tears. I will never understand why they built a copper vapor chamber that wouldn't even connect to the GPU properly. Having a bad cooling solution is one, but not having it attached properly just blew my mind. AMD Videocards themselves are quite ok price/performence wise, I really enjoyed the 290x after having it watercooled, but really that poor cooling solution shocked me so much (especially for a high-end card) that I will never buy AMD again. And now seeing a comparably BAD cooling solution AGAIN! , this is just infuriating. It's like the company just doesn't care about it's own product.
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gnif
What a shame you just destroyed a GPU that gives you an incredible opportunity. It has the debug parts on it and it's clear that debugging headers were attached! The first part you point out, it's a simple linear voltage regulator, the other, no idea without the part number. I will bet you that its a Mechanical sample because it wont start without a debugger attached, not because it's broken. Send it to someone with the tools to poke at it on the logic level. it would be invaluable to someone like myself that works on these cards (AMD Vega and Navi reset fixes for VFIO. Also, you can't solder aluminum. it's clearly an epoxy of some form. And why oh why did you drill it. sigh. use a Dremel with a cutting disc to cut the edges open/off. Even clamped into a vice and a hacksaw would have done a far better job! facepalm
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What a shame you just destroyed a GPU that gives you an incredible opportunity. It has the debug parts on it and it's clear that debugging headers were attached! The first part you point out, it's a simple linear voltage regulator, the other, no idea without the part number. I will bet you that its a Mechanical sample because it wont start without a debugger attached, not because it's broken. Send it to someone with the tools to poke at it on the logic level. it would be invaluable to someone like myself that works on these cards (AMD Vega and Navi reset fixes for VFIO. Also, you can't solder aluminum. it's clearly an epoxy of some form. And why oh why did you drill it. sigh. use a Dremel with a cutting disc to cut the edges open/off. Even clamped into a vice and a hacksaw would have done a far better job! facepalm
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Donald
The purpose of the dent is to direct more High Pressure air towards the center of the vapor chamber near the GPU core. You see as the fan spins it builds up pressure on the rear wall because it has no place to go. If that dent wasn't there, most of that air pressure would be released as the fan opens up at the top. So this sort of acts as a controlled diffuser. That said, there was a ton of room for improvements on the inside. a hyberbolic or parabolic shape on the rear end with sound absorbing material with a central focal deading core at 1KHz to 2KHz tuning frequency would have really cut down on a bit of the objectionable blower noise. Similar concepts are used to control backwaves on speakers. And there would have been no decrease in efficiency. -Signed an engineer
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The purpose of the dent is to direct more High Pressure air towards the center of the vapor chamber near the GPU core. You see as the fan spins it builds up pressure on the rear wall because it has no place to go. If that dent wasn't there, most of that air pressure would be released as the fan opens up at the top. So this sort of acts as a controlled diffuser. That said, there was a ton of room for improvements on the inside. a hyberbolic or parabolic shape on the rear end with sound absorbing material with a central focal deading core at 1KHz to 2KHz tuning frequency would have really cut down on a bit of the objectionable blower noise. Similar concepts are used to control backwaves on speakers. And there would have been no decrease in efficiency. -Signed an engineer
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Guest
I have a PowerColor reference 5700XT from Day 1 launch. Zero issues (other than fan noise, but decided to try the putting thermal pads on the back-plate and washer mod. After I did this, my GPU temp dropped a whopping 1 C. I also started getting random/intermittent crashing with dwm. exe and BSODs with IRQ_not_less_or_equal. I first thought it was my B-die memory since I was overclocking it from 3200 > 3600, but I turned off the O/C (back to stock. Still getting crashing. I removed the pads ands washers (back to stock, no crashing yet. So I am NOT recommending this mod at all.
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I have a PowerColor reference 5700XT from Day 1 launch. Zero issues (other than fan noise, but decided to try the putting thermal pads on the back-plate and washer mod. After I did this, my GPU temp dropped a whopping 1 C. I also started getting random/intermittent crashing with dwm. exe and BSODs with IRQ_not_less_or_equal. I first thought it was my B-die memory since I was overclocking it from 3200 > 3600, but I turned off the O/C (back to stock. Still getting crashing. I removed the pads ands washers (back to stock, no crashing yet. So I am NOT recommending this mod at all.
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Christian
The vapor chamber is most likely made out of pure copper, for the better thermals, which is very soft and malleable. The pressure from the tools you're using to cut into it is moving and mushing the copper around instead of creating a clean cut. The copper is actually soft enough that you can use a knife to chamfer the edges and cut through to the hollow inside. Also if you'd really like to demonstrate the inside of a vapor chamber, you can heat it up until it pops open, but make sure you're wearing thick gloves and a face mask.
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The vapor chamber is most likely made out of pure copper, for the better thermals, which is very soft and malleable. The pressure from the tools you're using to cut into it is moving and mushing the copper around instead of creating a clean cut. The copper is actually soft enough that you can use a knife to chamfer the edges and cut through to the hollow inside. Also if you'd really like to demonstrate the inside of a vapor chamber, you can heat it up until it pops open, but make sure you're wearing thick gloves and a face mask.
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Krazi
12: 43 ____ right here take the black metal part of the reference cooler and remove the vapor chamber from that part of the RX 5700/or XT and use that with the blower fan to cool the VRMs/GDDR6 GRAM and throw an ARCTIC hybrid AIO solution AIO Cooler on the GPU then cut out/make room for the water cooler hoses on the AMD shroud and there u go an actual. AMD Reference RX5700 XT 8GB GDDR6 HYBRID. GAMER. LOL that what i did with an older R9 290 4Gb card a few years ago? i still have it
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12: 43 ____ right here take the black metal part of the reference cooler and remove the vapor chamber from that part of the RX 5700/or XT and use that with the blower fan to cool the VRMs/GDDR6 GRAM and throw an ARCTIC hybrid AIO solution AIO Cooler on the GPU then cut out/make room for the water cooler hoses on the AMD shroud and there u go an actual. AMD Reference RX5700 XT 8GB GDDR6 HYBRID. GAMER. LOL that what i did with an older R9 290 4Gb card a few years ago? i still have it
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SIC66SIC66
The part of the heatsink is probably open to allow more air into the heatsink at the area where the pressure is lowest. These kind of fans dont have an even distribution of pressure across the heatsink. The bit furthest away from the dent is where the pressure is highest. Also, wouldnt it have been better if AMD made some holes in the PCB so the fan can pull air from both sides? Looks like the PCB is empty in that area anyway. Steve, you know what to do.
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The part of the heatsink is probably open to allow more air into the heatsink at the area where the pressure is lowest. These kind of fans dont have an even distribution of pressure across the heatsink. The bit furthest away from the dent is where the pressure is highest. Also, wouldnt it have been better if AMD made some holes in the PCB so the fan can pull air from both sides? Looks like the PCB is empty in that area anyway. Steve, you know what to do.
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Rippthrough
Hard to tell on the video but it looks like either a silver solder or a thermal epoxy holding the chamber down. It would have probably come apart with a heatgun. Also the issue with the angle grinder is the copper is so soft and mallable that with the heat from the grinding it just drags it around back into the cut - aluminium is similar, rub some candle way on the cutline and the grinding disc before cutting and it will fix that problem.
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Hard to tell on the video but it looks like either a silver solder or a thermal epoxy holding the chamber down. It would have probably come apart with a heatgun. Also the issue with the angle grinder is the copper is so soft and mallable that with the heat from the grinding it just drags it around back into the cut - aluminium is similar, rub some candle way on the cutline and the grinding disc before cutting and it will fix that problem.
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Dazley
I imagine that design idea for the dent in the shroud must have come from someone dropping one of the older cards so hard it put a dent into the shroud and that's how they came up with this design. OR it's a preventive measure. Preapplied dents so that folks like Linus can drop it without fearing of putting dents into it accidentally. Tho, it reminds me of those ergonomic grips. God, that design is. very debatable.
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I imagine that design idea for the dent in the shroud must have come from someone dropping one of the older cards so hard it put a dent into the shroud and that's how they came up with this design. OR it's a preventive measure. Preapplied dents so that folks like Linus can drop it without fearing of putting dents into it accidentally. Tho, it reminds me of those ergonomic grips. God, that design is. very debatable.
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Daniel
Product idea: stickers for the mod mat that fit on the GPU section but are specific to individual board layouts. This could help people make sure they remove ALL the necessary screws before prying on a card. Also, if possible in manufacturing, add a 2nd sticky side to the top of the sticker, but ONLY on the spots where the screws go, so that when you place them down they don't roll away.
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Product idea: stickers for the mod mat that fit on the GPU section but are specific to individual board layouts. This could help people make sure they remove ALL the necessary screws before prying on a card. Also, if possible in manufacturing, add a 2nd sticky side to the top of the sticker, but ONLY on the spots where the screws go, so that when you place them down they don't roll away.
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