Earlier this week, reports began swirling that some people’s GPUs were being bricked as a result of playing Amazon’s New World MMO game, a new MMO from Amazon Games that is currently in beta testing.
Now, one manufacturer of affected cards, EVGA, has reportedly began processing immediate replacements of impacted RTX 3090 GPUs (via Tom’s Hardware), even going as far as sending out a replacement before inspecting the affected GPU.
A prominent YouTube channel, JayzTwoCents, has gotten involved in the dilemma, testing an affected GPU and a non-affected GPU to see where the issue could be. In the tests, it is found that EVGA’s RTX 3090 climbs to over 20% more than its power limit, whilst the comparable MSI model is unaffected and remains within its power limits.
EVGA, so far, is showing itself to have good customer service. But reports have started coming in of other models and manufacturers also suffering as a result of players on New World. Previous claims tried to suggest that it was a design flaw or fault with the EVGA RTX 3090, but with additional reports coming in from other models, it raises questions over whether this could still be an issue with the New World game itself, not that a game should ever have the capability to destroy physical hardware, at least not so easily as it appears.
I've now had the following GPU owners express they have had shut downs and failures with New World…
RX590
6800
6800XT
6900XT
3080Ti
3090
So once again, the issue definitely is with SOMETHING in the way the game New World is rendering. This ISNT a 3090'exclusive issue! PERIOD!!— JayzTwoCents (@JayzTwoCents) July 22, 2021
For now, if you do find your GPU fried after playing Amazon’s New World, we recommend submitting an RMA claim to the manufacturer. If you’re worried of destroying your GPU, we recommend staying away from New World for now, until more information comes to light on a possible solution to prevent this issue from occurring at all.
