Update October 6th 8:35AM - Amazon Games has issued a statement regarding certain RTX cards struggling with New World. In the statement, Amazon says it's conducted a "lengthy investigation" and has concluded that there aren't any issues with New World itself that could brick the cards. Amazon points to the fact that EVGA has already acknowledged issues with its manufacturing process, suggesting this could also be the problem with other OEM cards. If you're having trouble with an RTX card, Amazon says you should contact the manufacturer.
Original story follows below.
The New World graphics card wars continue. Players are now reporting that the Amazon Game Studios MMO is bricking their Gigabyte RTX 30 series cards. Supposedly, the RTX 3090 and 3080 Ti models are most at risk of failure when playing New World.
How are Gigabyte RTX cards being bricked by New World?
Back in July, users reported problems with EVGA-branded Nvidia Geforce RTX 30 series cards when playing the New World beta. Players said their cards were running at 100% fan speed, then subsequently dying completely. Now, it looks like users are having similar issues with a different OEM in the form of Gigabyte. Several players say their RTX 30 series cards (often RTX 3090, but occasionally also RTX 3080 Ti and 3080) is either causing crashes or outright dying when playing New World. It sounds like the same problem as players experienced with the EVGA cards: the GPU fans begin to work at 100%, the screen goes black, the game (and often the PC itself) crashes.
Worryingly, some players are reporting that this problem is even happening when they're queueing to get into one of New World's servers. The game plays a 3D scene in the background while you're waiting to connect, and some are saying this 3D scene alone is causing problems with their RTX 30 series cards. Given the fact that queue times for the game can be extremely long, this means you could be looking at several hours of waiting, all while your Gigabyte card is struggling with New World's loading screen attract mode scene. That's not a good look, to say the least.
Why is this happening?
When this happened with the EVGA 30 series cards, the OEM fessed up and admitted the problem was caused by bad MOSFET soldering (thanks, PC Gamer). To its credit, EVGA was quick to acknowledge the problem and offer a mea culpa. The company said it had only received a small number of dead RTX 3090 cards as a result of the New World problem, but it was still quick to replace cards, in some cases sending out new ones before the old ones had even arrived at EVGA HQ. We don't know if it's bad soldering that's causing the issue with the Gigabyte RTX cards, but given that the nature of the problem seems similar, it's not unlikely.
In terms of fixing or preventing the problem yourself, users are offering the same sorts of tips as they did for the EVGA cards. Capping your frame rate appears to help (you can do this in the New World video settings menu). Lowering graphics settings might help, and if you're feeling particularly advanced, you can use a program like MSI Afterburner to adjust your graphics card's fan settings or wattage curves. The jury's out on whether these "fixes" actually do remedy the problem, though; they seem to work for some users, but for others they don't, and they're not going to help if your card has already died. We've contacted Amazon Game Studios, Nvidia, and Gigabyte for comment on this story.
Are you experiencing problems with your Gigabyte RTX 30 series graphics card and New World? Let us know in the comments below!
