Igor's Lab received a defective PowerColor RX 9070 XT Hellhound from a reader who had purchased the card. While it had apparently passed quality control tests, Igor found a defective RDNA 4 die that resulted in unsustainable temperatures — which persisted even after re-pasting. According to the tech outlet, the culprit was "pronounced pitting," which can occur during the backgrinding process.
Igor's Lab does preface its report by noting that, for now, this is an isolated case and it cannot fully confirm what caused the damage to the die. It could be a single bad card, or perhaps a faulty production line may have resulted in a bad batch of dies. Either way, the extent of the problem isn't clear at present.
