Hop off your outrage pony, Internet. Earlier this month a YouTuber named KrisFix, who runs a German PC restore store, printed a video titled “Are AMD cards dying after a driver update?” KrisFix stated that his store not too long ago obtained 60 Radeon RX 6800 and 6900 in for restore, and 48 suffered from visibly cracked GPUs.

KrisFix ostensibly requested for the neighborhood’s assist in figuring out the core challenge, however between that title and the timing of the video—it printed mere days after AMD acknowledged manufacturing issues with reference Radeon RX 7900 XTX components—the video set the fanatic neighborhood ablaze. Forums have been stuffed with fear after a number of publications ran articles fretting in regards to the harm and whether or not their very own playing cards may very well be ruined by “bad” Radeon drivers.

On our Full Nerd podcast, I cautioned involved viewers to attend for an official response from AMD. This state of affairs was bizarre. Why was solely this single German restore store seeing this challenge, and why abruptly? Drivers have been doable, however a most unlikely wrongdoer, particularly since others weren’t seeing comparable points across the globe. The root trigger was extra doubtless one thing remoted to that store, or a minimum of that area.

Turns out that was appropriate. Today, KrisFix posted a follow-up video, and he now suspects the harm was brought on by poor dealing with from cryptominers, not something AMD did.

In brief, after additional surveying his clients, it seems that the majority of those playing cards have been purchased used through the finish of November or starting of December, from the identical provider. KrisFix now theorizes that the provider was a cryptominer who doubtless saved the GPUs someplace moist after shutting down their operations. Those humid circumstances doubtless prompted the harm, KrisFix says.

Speaking from afar, that makes a lot extra sense than the unique driver worries that shook the tech neighborhood. Again: This was bizarre.

So sure, you may (and at all times might) improve your Radeon GPU to its newest driver with out concern of it blowing up. In a touch upon as we speak’s video, KrisFix left the next message:

“Because there was a lot of speculation after the first video, I decided to change the title so it wouldn’t cause wrong thoughts. Journalism is a good thing, but maybe some topics become more appetizing when you twist things a bit. This channel is not meant to create videos with misleading content. The first video garnered a lot of interest and panic after which I was obliged to invest time and resources to give clarity on the topic. If in the first video I had been sure where the problem was I would not have asked you for information.”

All that stated, whereas KrisFix is taking purpose at media protection of his report right here (we didn’t cowl it initially), it’s value mentioning as soon as once more that he initially titled his video “Are AMD cards dying after a driver update?” mere days after the overheating Radeon RX 7900 XTX controversy flared. “Maybe some topics become more appetizing when you twist things a bit,” certainly.

The unique video is now titled “Why did several dozen AMD 6000 series cards fail with the same symptoms?” KrisFix says, “I know there will be many more questions, but I think the topic is closed.”

Update your drivers, people. And in case you’re going to get riled up over unsubstantiated rumors, at least do it in style.