at least CPUs were good ...
Read the article. Pure trash clickbait headline.
Cards aren't normally getting that hot at load based on plenty of reviews, and the dual and triple fan cards coming out this week will drop temps even further.
A $399 card that keeps up with a Radeon vii/2080/1080 ti isn't bad at all.
But yes amd does keep fucking up by launching only the reference design.
They did they same thing with the 290x. People thought they were hot loud trash for years based on reference launch reviews when in reality a nice aftermarket card was as good as a 980 a card that came out a year after it. Everyone just based the perf on the reference launch reviews.
Based on Navi with 40 cus I actually expect a 64+ cu large Navi to be a complete beast. Timing is going to matter though as Nvidia will also have new cards soon.
Amd actually is catching up though, which is good for everyone. Hopefully they can continue to close the release date and performance gap.