According to recent reports, Amazon’s latest video game, New World, has been “bricking” high-end Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 graphics cards. Computer hardware is bricked when it has been damaged beyond repair, turning in this case top of the line graphics cards costing as much as $1,499 into expensive paperweights.
TomsGuide reports that internet users are warning others to avoid Amazon’s new open-world MMO game New World if they’re currently using an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090, the most powerful and expensive of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30-series graphic cards.
A number of Reddit users, all owners of the GeForce RTX 3090, reported that the recently launched New World closed beta doesn’t just crash their graphics card but brick the $1,499 GPU entirely.
Multiple users on the official New World forum have reported the same issue, RTX 3090 GPUs completely breaking after just a short time playing the beta. One Twitch streamer with over 438,000 followers named Gladd tweeted that this card had also been destroyed by the game.
Most complaints seem to relate to the EVGA-made model of the RTX 3090, particularly the FTW3 Ultra version. However, at this stage, it is unclear what is actually causing the catastrophic card failure. The blame may lie with the card manufacturer or with New World itself, or it could possibly be an Nvidia firmware issue.
Some users reported that after replacing their RTX 3090 with another GPU the New World beta ran without issue. Regardless, this is of little comfort to many owners of the $1,499 RTX 3090 that will have to hope their card is under warranty and eligible for replacement.
Despite preliminary reviews of the game seeming mostly positive, Amazon’s latest foray into gaming might be destroying the hardware of players that have the misfortune of owning the wrong graphics card.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com