Gigabyte RTX 30/40 GPUs suffer from PCB cracking
Pay attention when installing GeForce cards manufactured by Gigabyte.
Gigabyte PCB cracking, Source: Louis Rossmann
The problem was first brought to light by Louis Rossmann, a known personality advocating for self—repair laws. He has a long history of battling companies that see unlicensed product repairs as a problem to their business.
Apparently, many users have had a problem with Gigabyte graphics cards suffering physical damage. All examples point towards a design flaw that causes a crack in the same area near the PCI interface. Once the PCB cracks, the PCIe lanes are destroyed, so the GPU can no longer transfer the data, which renders the graphics card useless.
Gigabyte PCB cracking (post RMA), Source: Louis Rossmann/eBay
The picture above shows red arrow stickers put by Gigabyte after the RMA claim. This type of physical damage is not covered by the warranty and therefore users are left with broken cards that will not be repaired. Louis has shown that many such Gigabyte cards with stickers are currently listed on eBay. As the company refuses to address this matter, gamers are attempting to recover some funds by reselling damaged cards.
The good news is that the issue is fixable (as shown below), as this is not permanent damage to the GPU, memory or VRM components. The PCB path repairs are a common thing for electronics repairs, but this does not change the fact that those problems affect one brand specifically.
Gigabyte PCB cracking (fix), Source: Louis Rossmann
The issue has been swiftly brought to broader attention by other YouTubers like JayzTwoCents. The tech-repair community was quicker than Gigabyte to give affected users at least a bit of hope. A step-by-step guide on how to fix such graphics cards has already been published, but it is highly recommended to leave such repairs to professionals with proper equipment.
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