Of all the issues that PC gamers suffer from, whether it's a dodgy driver issue, excessive fan noise, a buggy game patch, or OLED burn-in, I wouldn't put GPU backplate photodegradation in my top 100 potential problems .
But apparently, it's a thing. two Users On Reddit (via Videocards) Some photodegradation has been reported on the back panels of various graphics cards. Color change closely matches the patterns you'd expect to see from a side-by-side set of memory modules equipped with RGB lighting.
Speculation is that the RGB lighting in question interacted with the coatings used on the back panels of the cards. It does not appear to affect a specific card, as reports show phenomena affecting MSI and Gigabyte cards (followed later by the Asus card). Instead, it appears to be related to the RGB LEDs that accompany the memory array.
Now I'm not a materials engineer, and even if I were, I wouldn't want to speculate too much without specific knowledge of the LED emission spectrum, or the materials used in the back panels themselves. However, years of exposure to UV radiation could be an explanation.
It makes sense. If you leave a shirt in the sun, it will be exposed to the sun's UV rays and will fade quickly. Something similar seems to be happening here. Fortunately, this does not appear to be a widespread problem. If that were the case, millions of owners of PCs equipped with RGB lighting would be reporting similar issues.
My assumption (and you know the old cliche about assumptions) is that there are some low quality memory modules or defective LEDs emitting light they're not supposed to.
There is another aspect to consider. It's one thing to end up with some cosmetic damage over years of use — perhaps 24/7 use — but it's another to look at a brightly lit RGB system at night and have your retinas burned by elusive light.
It will be interesting to see if this issue becomes more widely reported. There's no word from users about a specific memory kit or group, but if there is indeed a faulty set of fully functional RGB LEDs being used by memory manufacturers, we may see more of this in the future.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm about to check the RTX 4060 in my daily system to see if it has any signs of damage caused by some G.Skill Royal DDR4 memory. Damn, those lamps are shining!
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