If you have an RTX 3090, Amazon's New World MMO could kill it [Update]
Amazon's New World MMO is currently in closed beta, and that has led to a surge of interest in the game. New World launches at the end of August, so this closed beta is a chance for prospective buyers to see the mostly-finished product, and a lot of folks are taking Amazon up on its offer of beta access in exchange for pre-orders. However, if you have an RTX 3090 graphics card in your rig, you might want to sit out the New World beta for now, as there have been reports of the game bricking GPU hardware.
As spotted by PC Gamer, there are thread up on both the New World subreddit and the New World official forums in which players report that playing New World has bricked their GPUs. The issue seems to mostly revolve around EVGA cards – specifically the EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra – though there have been less frequent reports of other cards as well.
ATTENTION:
Playing the New World beta on my EVGA 3090 has fried my graphics card completely. There are many accounts of this same thing happening with the same card with the same game.@TEAMEVGA @playnewworld @EVGA_JacobF
I just want to make sure this doesn't happen to others
— Gladd (@Gladd) July 21, 2021
Obviously, it's never a good time to have a GPU die, but right now is a terrible time given the current PC hardware shortage. While it's been difficult to pin down a precise cause, there's talk among the player base that uncapped framerates in New World's menus (or even while players are waiting in queue) is to blame. If you're going to play New World and you want to avoid bricking your high-end GPU, limiting your frame rate to 60 or even 30 might be a good place to start.
Talk of GPU failures while playing New World really started making the rounds when Twitch streamer Gladd experienced that exact thing on-stream. Shortly afterward, he published a tweet (embedded above) in which he confirmed that his graphics card had been fried "completely." PC Gamer notes that there were known issues with early-model RTX GPUs that had defective power delivery components, but a driver update pushed by NVIDIA supposedly quashed those issues.
Until the community, the developers behind New World, and GPU manufacturers get to the bottom of this issue, it's probably best to avoid the New World beta if you've got an RTX 3090, particularly an EVGA FTW3 Ultra. We'll see what happens from here, but with just about five weeks left to go for release, this could potentially be a big problem for New World.
Update: Amazon has not only issued a statement in response to these reports, but it has also detailed some measures players can take to ensure that their GPUs operate normally while playing New World. In addition, the company has announced that it will issue a patch that limits framerate while in New World's menus. You can read Amazon's full statement about the matter here.