Radeon VII Owner's Club!

This came today. I might go custom loop at some point in the future. Waiting until this weekend to install it.

First Impression: It looks nice, but the radiator is not as thick as I would have expected. I might add another 120mm in the loop.

alphacool_1.jpg alphacool_2.jpg
 
It doesn’t take much thickness to saturate the air with heat if running normal fans.

Yeah, the fins are nicely spaced and it appears to be 100% copper, just a bit surprised. It should work well, and with the quick connectors I ca always expand.
 
Yeah, the fins are nicely spaced and it appears to be 100% copper, just a bit surprised. It should work well, and with the quick connectors I ca always expand.


It'll work nice youll see card boost itself until it hits hotspot temp of 100-105c, make sure just pour thermal paste on there! And congratulations!


I am using 1 ekwb PE 240mm rad push/pull fan srtup for ryzen 5 2600 o/c 4ghz 1.35 vcore, Radeon VII o/ced 1.9ghz / Mem 1.1ghz vcore 1.075v, on 1.075v Card automatically core speed hits as high 2ghz-2.1ghz and mem hit high as 1250

Im new watercooling, its my first loop,
 
Just installed my newly arrived Radeon VII 50th Anniversary version in my box. Replacing a EVGA 980 TI. CPU and motherboard are old at this point (Asus Sabertooth 2011 socket with an Intel 4 core) but I am upgrading incrementally. Next purchase is a new widescreen to replace my Dell 27" 60 Hz monitor. BTW, how/when do the game codes arrive? There was nothing in the box about any games.
 
Just installed my newly arrived Radeon VII 50th Anniversary version in my box. Replacing a EVGA 980 TI. CPU and motherboard are old at this point (Asus Sabertooth 2011 socket with an Intel 4 core) but I am upgrading incrementally. Next purchase is a new widescreen to replace my Dell 27" 60 Hz monitor. BTW, how/when do the game codes arrive? There was nothing in the box about any games.

I bought my card from amd's website, and I was emailed my game codes. I got the email maybe a day after I hit the buy it now button on paypal.
 
Just installed my newly arrived Radeon VII 50th Anniversary version in my box. Replacing a EVGA 980 TI. CPU and motherboard are old at this point (Asus Sabertooth 2011 socket with an Intel 4 core) but I am upgrading incrementally. Next purchase is a new widescreen to replace my Dell 27" 60 Hz monitor. BTW, how/when do the game codes arrive? There was nothing in the box about any games.

My code was sneakily hidden in the invoice email. I had to go to amdrewards to redeem. It then took them a week and a half to actually assign them...

I miss the scratch off cards with codes.
 
Found the code in the invoice email. However, when I tried to submit it, the AMD verification tool choked on trying to connect to their server. After multiple attempts to uninstall/reinstall it continued to either report unable to connect or the tool was not valid. I opened a support ticket with AMD.
 
Welp I finally pulled the trigger on upgrading my R9 290, and bought a Radeon VII 50thAE along with 3 of these so we shall see how it goes...


Probably will try to build a full custom loop for this rig later this year when I upgrade the cpu/mobo/ram. Going to wait till Zen 2 drops and see how it all pans out.

Well some new stuff arrived yesterday :)

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Well some new stuff arrived yesterday :)

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Nice!! Congratulations!!!!

I should of waited but i missed my Radeon VII to much :(

Bykski Radeon VII waterblock are pretty nice, i paid like $130 new, no leaks nice rgb color and makes good contact on gpu / memory die's. My card boost upto 2100 core and memory 1250.


Heres my first loop, ryzen 5 2600 4.1ghz / Radeon VII /w waterblock on ekwb PE 240mm rad

I wasnt RGB guy until i got case then got crosshair VII hero and it had rgb and memory has rgb.

I thought red and white go nicely.
 

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The install was pretty straight forward.

Impressions:
  • Cutting thermal pads sucks! The pads are this jelly like substance and the only good way to cut them to size is with a razor blade
  • The temperatures dropped 30-35c over the stock cooler, and it is much quieter overall
  • The stock Eiswind-12 fans have a terrible whine, so I replaced them with a couple Corsair ML120
  • The unit is thermally limited, meaning that setting the fans above 70% doesn't provide any benefit. Also adding a second set as push/pull does not seem to provide any benefit

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I might add another radiator to see if that changes the thermal capacity in any real way.
 
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That's the first time I've seen a company proactively communicate an engineering issue so close to the product's release. ...Good on them?
 
That's the first time I've seen a company proactively communicate an engineering issue so close to the product's release. ...Good on them?

Yeah, I appreciate the proactive nature of their communication. The lack of details suck. Is the issue with the unit leaking, the pump dying, cracked PCB/VRM/die, etc? What should I be looking for. Also the timing sucks since I just installed it 36 hours prior.
 
I definitely feel a couple different kinds of way about that... It would be very nice if there was more detail as to the actual issue so you can know whether you need to remove the cooler immediately or not.

Of course, it might be worthwhile to do a little Google-Fu to see what the reported issues are with it...
 
I definitely feel a couple different kinds of way about that... It would be very nice if there was more detail as to the actual issue so you can know whether you need to remove the cooler immediately or not.

Of course, it might be worthwhile to do a little Google-Fu to see what the reported issues are with it...

Yeah, I did a search. The only thing I found was on a reddit post.


"I'd be careful. On the German pcgameshardware forum two ppl seemingly bricked their card with the cooler. We don't know yet what happened exactly. No visible damage to the cards, but they don't give a signal anymore"



On the forum referenced... one user sig...

Asus Z390 ROG Strix-E Gaming, Delidded i9-9900k @5.2 - 5GHz @1.33V, 2x 16GB G.Skill Camouflage DDR4-3100 CL16-18-18-32 CR2
Radeon VII RIP - Killed by Alphacool Eiswolf
Corsair Carbide Air 740 @4xIntake/3xExhaust, Samsung Z970 Evo 500 GB, Samsung 860 QVO 2 TB

Found this post in particular. It looks like one of the contact patches on the block is not machined properly.

http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/g...d-radeon-vii-laberthread-377.html#post9851286

also

http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/a...pro-amd-radeon-vii-zerstoert-die-karte-2.html

Ugh...
 
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The install was pretty straight forward.

Impressions:
  • Cutting thermal pads sucks! The pads are this jelly like substance and the only good way to cut them to size is with a razor blade
  • The temperatures dropped 30-35c over the stock cooler, and it is much quieter overall
  • The stock Eiswind-12 fans have a terrible whine, so I replaced them with a couple Corsair ML120
  • The unit is thermally limited, meaning that setting the fans above 70% doesn't provide any benefit. Also adding a second set as push/pull does not seem to provide any benefit

View attachment 160567 View attachment 160568 View attachment 160569

I might add another radiator to see if that changes the thermal capacity in any real way.

On my full cover blocks I just use thermalpaste instead of dicking around with pads. I ain’t got no time fo that shit.
 
I just added the +77% power mod to my newly waterblocked RVII and gained 300 points in Time Spy with a gpu temp of MAX 42c! Card is really shining under water. On Air this card was pretty terrible. What a nice turn around.
 
I just checked my 24/7 is about 1950/1200 1.075V. I usually go around 100Mhz under max OC and back off voltage a bit for my 24/7. That last 5% isn’t worth beating the card to me.
 
I'm not happy right now. That may explain the weird issues I saw with the card not wanting to apply more than 1010mv and the fact that it wouldn't boost properly even though thermals were great.

I have to relax before I send a reply...

alphacool2.png


Any recommendations on replacement stock thermal pad / paste to use when remounting the stock cooler?
 
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Dude, that really sucks.. I hope everything turns out OK. Maybe consider modifying the cooler yourself? Or ask for them to send you a fixed version 2 cooler instead of a refund?
 
Dude, that really sucks.. I hope everything turns out OK. Maybe consider modifying the cooler yourself? Or ask for them to send you a fixed version 2 cooler instead of a refund?

For possibly bricking my card, I would hope for a lot more than that. I would expect the components for a custom loop, or an offer to replace the card. That is on top of a refund.

As far as modifying, I thought about that, but that would mean grinding one of the thick fins on the underside of the water block. I don't think that would work too well without the proper machining tools.
 
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For possibly bricking my card, I would hope for a lot more than that. I would expect the components for a custom loop, or an offer to replace the card. That is on top of a refund.

As far as modifying, I thought about that, but that would mean grinding one of the thick fins on the underside of the water block. I don't think that would work too well without the proper machining tools.

Thats really shitty, you'd think they would test waterblock %110 before shipping it out customers, company at fault. Seems me Quality Control not on par?

I hope they do right and ship you v2 and cover shipping cost both ways and refund some of cost product for troubles your going thru.
 
Thats really shitty, you'd think they would test waterblock %110 before shipping it out customers, company at fault. Seems me Quality Control not on par?

I hope they do right and ship you v2 and cover shipping cost both ways and refund some of cost product for troubles your going thru.


Yeah, that was a pretty crappy response in my opinion. This was my reply, typed it up at 5:30 this morning so forgive any grammatical errors.

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I will work on removing the cooler and sending it back to you as soon as I can.

Even though I have not powered on the system, I am concerned that the card might be damaged and the warranty on the card is now void. I don't think there is any way to tell for sure. There is also the fact that it is now just as simple as remounting the stock cooler as it uses graphite pads and not traditional thermal paste. By the time I get everything back together I will have lost the use of my computer for at least a week.

In the end I have a $700 card that I have no way of being sure if it is broken, and no way to replace it if it is. I am extremely disappointed, this was my first AlphaCool product, and now my last.
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Offering a refund is nice, but falls well short of "good customer service". With the time it took me to do the work to install it, the fact that my card might be damaged, and the hassle of shipping it back, a refund is the absolute minimum. Offering to cover the remainder of the AMD factory warranty would be good. Refund + free product would be somewhat of a consolation.

Hard to describe how pissed off I a right now.
 
Just throw some paste on and the stock cooler to test it out. Ease your mind. Then worry about a permanent solution.
 
i wouldn't be surprised if some how people are over tightening the cooler and it's cracking the HBM2 modules which you'll never be able to physically see, the card will just randomly have texture problems or fail to run at all. that's just my 2 cents based on the two reddit posts.
Yeah, that was a pretty crappy response in my opinion. This was my reply, typed it up at 5:30 this morning so forgive any grammatical errors.

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I will work on removing the cooler and sending it back to you as soon as I can.

Even though I have not powered on the system, I am concerned that the card might be damaged and the warranty on the card is now void. I don't think there is any way to tell for sure. There is also the fact that it is now just as simple as remounting the stock cooler as it uses graphite pads and not traditional thermal paste. By the time I get everything back together I will have lost the use of my computer for at least a week.

In the end I have a $700 card that I have no way of being sure if it is broken, and no way to replace it if it is. I am extremely disappointed, this was my first AlphaCool product, and now my last.
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Offering a refund is nice, but falls well short of "good customer service". With the time it took me to do the work to install it, the fact that my card might be damaged, and the hassle of shipping it back, a refund is the absolute minimum. Offering to cover the remainder of the AMD factory warranty would be good. Refund + free product would be somewhat of a consolation.

Hard to describe how pissed off I a right now.

if you never powered it on then it's a non issue since the problem mostly pertained toward a possible shorting issue, also your warranty isn't voided since changing the thermal pad/paste doesn't void it any longer.

as for why it probably wasn't found in testing is that it's not 100% guaranteed to cause a short, it probably has to be installed in a very specific way to cause the short to happen.
 
I ran it though some tests the first day I had the cooler installed. I have not turned it on since I got the email the following day. I am just going to get some paste and use the stock cooler for now. One issue is that the pad covering the VRMs ripped when removing the stock cooler, so I have to replace at least one of those. I will research it out on my own, but if anyone has a recommendation/link to the proper replacement pads for the OEM grey ones.

I ordered a cheap card as a backup for now.

The mods in /r/AMD deleted my post warning others about my perils. I guess they don't think warning people of defective products is acceptable in their forum. :confused:
 
I got mine and love it, I wouldn't expect a big boost from my Vega 64 Water Cooled Edition, but in games, it was around 22-34% faster in Metro Exodus while using considerably less power. In Superposition and Heaven Bench, around 600-700 points difference.
 

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Nice one. I had Vega 64 Crossfire before and I was surprised by how much better Radeon VII was. People don't know.
 
I bought samsung nu8000 75" with freesync, i got xbox1x try and mess around.

4k@60hz hdr on 75" is amazing, i use 1440p 120hz amazing and awesome.

I had gtx 1080ti fe/w aio used it on t.v, I'd get tearing on 1080ti, i seen Radeon VII coming out,

I bought Radeon VII, I went all out lol, bought custom loop and installed waterblock.

I know i love my Radeon VII, every game is smooth, My overall games and movies and desktop look and seem more colorful then with 1080ti.
 
Theoretically the colors should be the same, but I have noticed too that AMD seems to look better. At least if you don't mess with the settings.

The first time I noticed was when I was doing a game review a few years ago, and had to swap from Nvidia to AMD and back several times to test the same games.

I didn't believe it at first, but I tested it a few times and AMD colors in games definitely looked better. Maybe more full or vibrant, not sure but it looked better. I've seen other people here agree, even though most think it is placebo.

I also think that that Radeon VII is just about the best card out there barring the 2080 Ti (which isn't even in the same segment in terms of price). I've had a Titan X Pascal and also a 1080 Ti, and the experience on Radeon VII is better.
 
The saga continues...

I went to ship the card out. For some reason shipping from CA > Germany is insanely expensive. For door to door tracked shipping UPS wanted $445. USPS wanted $240 for shipping the box. As of now they have asked for the invoice for the card and the cooler. Given the cost of shipping everything to them, maybe they will just refund me for the cost of the card and the cooler.

Rocking the RX570 for now.

/shrug
 
See if it can fit in an USPS Priority Mail box. They have flat rates, I think for the medium size international is $50.
 
See if it can fit in an USPS Priority Mail box. They have flat rates, I think for the medium size international is $50.

I will wait to see if they can refund me with just the invoice that I sent them. I'd rather not spend any more time on trying to ship it back to them.
 
I will wait to see if they can refund me with just the invoice that I sent them. I'd rather not spend any more time on trying to ship it back to them.
You're trying to return the aio? or the card and aio?
 
I'm waiting for a deal on one on a used one. Wouldn't mind waiting for Navi, but it seems it may be a while before high end Navi is released.
 
I ran it though some tests the first day I had the cooler installed. I have not turned it on since I got the email the following day. I am just going to get some paste and use the stock cooler for now. One issue is that the pad covering the VRMs ripped when removing the stock cooler, so I have to replace at least one of those. I will research it out on my own, but if anyone has a recommendation/link to the proper replacement pads for the OEM grey ones.

I ordered a cheap card as a backup for now.

The mods in /r/AMD deleted my post warning others about my perils. I guess they don't think warning people of defective products is acceptable in their forum. :confused:
I've had pretty good luck with this type on my repaired GTX 690.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UYTTXSM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's a stiffer material than what nvidia originally used, but they're the highest thermal conductivity pads I could find.
 
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You're trying to return the aio? or the card and aio?

At first they said they wanted me to return the AIO to them ($445). Then they asked for invoices for both the AIO and card. Their communications are very unclear...


What they asked for at first

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Hi,

the cooler gets in touch with the GFX-Caps. Please mount the original cooler on your GFX-Card and send us the cooler back with the original package, invoice fort he shippment and invoice fort he cooler. After we have recieved the cooler, we will refund you the amount fort he cooler as well as fort he shipping.

Have a great day!
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Then
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Hi,

OK, that is really too much. The point is we need all that stuff for the insurance issues. Can you send us just the invoices from the cooler and the GFX-Card and we will try it to handle it by this way. Have you bought the cooler from us?

Sorry for the inconvenience
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Maybe they were indeed asking for everything in the first communication and it was just lost in translation.
 
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