Amazon Game Studios' immensely popular new MMO "New World" launched this week, bringing with it hilarious naming restrictions and Steam record breaking. But it seems that it's not just records that are being shattered, and anecdotal reports of GPU breakage are beginning to appear on the Internet.

According to our sister site PC Gamer, the latest report of New World bricking a GPU comes just months after the game's beta version destroyed several users' upscale new GeForce RTX 3090s. As with the results of that fateful test run, this is an even bigger disappointment given that players around the world have experienced crashes and subsequent card failures during gameplay, and it is hard to even find a decent GPU now.

In the July beta, the problem appeared to be largely confined to EVGA cards, occurring only during the New World menu, which features uncapped frame rates; EVGA was quick to respond, and a faulty smoldering of a particular card contributed to excessive power consumption and burnout. Acknowledging that this was the case, the company promptly replaced the bricked GPU. It appeared that nothing more could happen, especially since Amazon intervened and capped the frame rate of the menu as a precautionary measure.

However, reports of GPU bricks in the full release indicate that the problem affects more than just EVGA cards. Even with frame rates capped, players have disclosed problems with cards from various manufacturers, including multiple cases of Gigabyte RTX 3090s biting the dust.

While several major media tests could not reproduce the bricking process, WinFuture reported that the trigger point is rampant, putting extra strain on the card and possibly causing it to crash, WinFuture, even stated that a Gigabyte RTX 3090 broke just by exiting a game, "the fan goes to 100%, the screen goes black, and the PC says goodbye."

Most other reports from the Internet indicate that such complications are caused by changing graphics settings. This may cause the GPU to load up to 100%, but unless the card is defective in some way, it is not necessarily an immediate disaster.

So, what does all this mean for you as you are about to check out "New World" this week? We're not entirely sure yet, but these headaches seem to stem from the problematic GPU rather than the software itself. But that may not be what you want to hear. Until the confusion subsides and the answers become clearer, it may be safer to refrain from jumping into this fresh MMO world for now.