GeForce 7900 Inferno – Burn Baby Burn @ [H]

Great article Kyle...

I'm wondering if you have any info on this issue affecting the mobile 7900 parts. I've just ordered an Alienware m9700 with dual 7900gs's in SLI, so I'm hoping with the relatively low clocks of that part that it won't be an issue... I doubt anybody will be selling OC versions of the mobile parts anyway.

I'm still running a BFG 6800 Ultra OC in my desktop that came with stock clocks of 425/1100. It's been extremely stable and performed well. After monitoring temps, I used coolbits to OC it a bit more, to approximately 450/1150 or so, and it continued to run very stable with no noticeable jump in temps. Everything ran just fine.

Then I got Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, and I started seeing severe artifacts and slow downs in the opening sequence, and one complete shut down. I checked the temps and the card was relatively hot. I'd been running BF2, F.E.A.R., and CS:S for months hours at a time with no problems at these settings, but Oblivion caused these issues almost immediately.

I've returned the card to stock OC settings, and it runs fine, though hot with Oblivion, so I'm wondering if it's not just the cards are reaching their limits, but the demands code differences can cause to the hardware.

While obviously video cards should run main line software at stock settings, I'm wondering what it is with Oblivion's code that seems to be pointing out these issues.
 
I thought I would chime in since I volt modded my 7900GT and what I have now learned that what is happening to me is happening to others who did not mess with the voltages. I have an XFX 7900GT Extreme that I bought a few days after the 7900 series was announced. I then volt modded it to 1.4V using the guide on extremesystems.org. Before I volt modded I have very little room to play. After getting to 630 on the core with 1.4 I decided I would try the 1.5V mod and was able to run at around 700 on the core. The thing that struck me funny was the entire time I was not able to overclock the ram without getting artifacts. When I say I couldn't overclock it, I mean I cannot move it 5mhz above stock or I will get artifacts pretty quickly in just about anything 3D. Chances are excellent that if I did not up the voltages on my core I would probably have a dead card right now or would have already RMA'd it to get another bad one. This gets me concerned as to how long my card will last with the higher voltages since I voided my warranty with it I'll have to get another one out of pocket. The kicker being it would have done it anyway and I could have returned it had I not Vmod'd it.

Also, the core no longer clocks to 700, I am running it at 650 right now rock solid up from the 520 it was clocked at. I am still very happy with this card and the new drivers have improved some of the newer games a bunch. If it does end up crashing and burning, I think I may give ATI another try as there isn't much in the lines of alternatives for something as fast as these at this price point.
 
I have an eVGA 7900 GT and I've been clocking a lot of Oblivion time. I have had a couple of crashes, but no artifacting or other graphical glitches. However, I've been concerned that my card runs HOT: I'm reaching 70-71C under load.
 
Hmmm... Seems I like a picked a bad time to send in my 7800GT to trade on an eVGA 7900GT CO via their "Step Up" plan.

Hopefully, the delay in them shipping it to me is a result of them making sure that I get one that works.

But it is good to hear about how they take care of their customers. The 7800GT that I traded was my 1st eVGA product and I chose them on hearing over & over again about their outstanding service reputation.

Glad that it wasn't an "Urban Legend"...
 
I have two 7900 GTXs and have had them for about a month. I read a bunch of this artifact stuff two weeks ago here on the [H] forums. I had seen nothing until a week ago when I fired up GRAW and hooked up a Dell 2405. For about a hour I started to see lines of whitedots in random areas. No lock ups. Runs SiN, HL2, and FEAR like a champ so far.

Im a little nervous, but Im going to keep up and see what happens. If I have a bad card or two the BFG tech support told me "no problem" to RMA. They were great when I emailed them. We went through some basic troubleshooting, but my system is rock solid.

This article was really informative, to the point, and called on the guys we buy expensive toys from to keep helping us, and above all be honest when there's a problem. I dont think they'll see a stampede of returns, but its nice to know there may be a problem and that someone will listen and help us out.

Thanks, Kyle.
 
COMING FROM EVGA STEP UP

When the 7900GT's came out I was sitting on two 7800GT's in SLi. As a result of EVGA's awesome step up program I was able to upgrade for the cost of about 60 bux plus shipping. The only major problem was the fact that I was out of a gaming computer for about a week or so because I didnt cross ship.

I got the new 7900GT's installed with no problems. However, I didnt get a chance to really stress them out till I graduated college about 3 weeks ago. Then the problems started. As soon as I would enter BF2 I would get all kinds of artifacts, and half the screen would be black. I could alt-tab back into windows and the screen would be fine(i think the clocks lower when going into 2d). Then I would alt-tab back into BF2 and it would be fine...for a couple mintutes. After an intense 30 minute session or so, i'd be kicked out to the desktop or the artifacts would come back.

This was a big let down since I was coming from two perfectly fine 7800GT CO's. I havent contacted EVGA support yet.

I really dont know if I want another set of cards, if they aren't doing anything to fix them. Tighter testing isnt going to help the fact that a ton of cards arent stable. I dont see EVGA sitting on a pile of cards that are overclocked too high, my guess is they are gonna trickle back into the market...prolly sent out as RMA's.

The cards really shouldnt be overclocked as high as they are from the factory any longer, and it seems appalling that they would continue to do.
 
foofighter06 said:
COMING FROM EVGA STEP UP

I got the new 7900GT's installed with no problems. However, I didnt get a chance to really stress them out till I graduated college about 3 weeks ago. Then the problems started. As soon as I would enter BF2 I would get all kinds of artifacts, and half the screen would be black. I could alt-tab back into windows and the screen would be fine(i think the clocks lower when going into 2d). Then I would alt-tab back into BF2 and it would be fine...for a couple mintutes. After an intense 30 minute session or so, i'd be kicked out to the desktop or the artifacts would come back...

...The cards really shouldnt be overclocked as high as they are from the factory any longer, and it seems appalling that they would continue to do.
Click to expand...

Er, can someone say heat related problem...?

This kinda illustrates something I've noticed about the 7900GT's since they 1st came out... Is it just me or does that cooling setup just appear to be really undersized for the kinds of speeds these things are clocked at? Regardless of what size manufacturing process they moved to or how much more efficent & cooler they are supposed to be.

As I look at the 7900GT CO (500/1500), it appears to have a reference Nvidia cooler on it - which looks suspiciously puny to me. I'm no engineer, but even I know that OC'ing = More Heat. I certainly don't use stock AMD cooling when I OC my CPU.

Maybe the deal isn't faulty GPU's but inadequate cooling on these things pure & simple. And if the collective "they" are going to crank these things up, they had better implement a more robust cooling scheme. It couldn't cost THAT much - certainly cheaper than a batch of RMA'ed products.
 
DoomRulz said:
There so much rubbish and what not surrounding the 7 series these days...I wonder if it would not be better to simply get an ATi card :rolleyes: I haven't heard of a single complaint coming from an ATi owner.

Just wondering: if eVGA, BFG, & XFX are dishing out nonsense cards due to their OCing them, where does this place other makers like PNY? Are their cards even worse or what? I've heard PNY makes some pretty bad video cards.
Click to expand...

Stock OEM PNY 7900 GTX @ 680/1720 working great for the last month.
 
skippy9146 said:
Er, can someone say heat related problem...?

This kinda illustrates something I've noticed about the 7900GT's since they 1st came out... Is it just me or does that cooling setup just appear to be really undersized for the kinds of speeds these things are clocked at? Regardless of what size manufacturing process they moved to or how much more efficent & cooler they are supposed to be.

As I look at the 7900GT CO (500/1500), it appears to have a reference Nvidia cooler on it - which looks suspiciously puny to me. I'm no engineer, but even I know that OC'ing = More Heat. I certainly don't use stock AMD cooling when I OC my CPU.

Maybe the deal isn't faulty GPU's but inadequate cooling on these things pure & simple. And if the collective "they" are going to crank these things up, they had better implement a more robust cooling scheme. It couldn't cost THAT much - certainly cheaper than a batch of RMA'ed products.
Click to expand...

It may be a heat issue, but it's not the cooling setup of the card that is the problem. The temps always appeared to be perfectlly fine with all the bad cards I've had.

And again....this problem is not just happening with overclocked cards.

The (alleged :D ) temperature problems are discussed on page 2 of the linked thread:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1052934
 
Just to backup Jiggaman and skippy and to ease the fears of many of you out there...

My evga 7900 GT CO Superclocked is running rock solid stable for hours and hours on end at 650/1700 with a 1.5 volt mod and Zalman vf900 with Arctic Silver 5 applied.

I did see issues when clocking too high with the stock cooler on the card.

Those problems are gone for me with Zalman and it looks like evga is shipping new cards with new coolers which cover the ram.

Before the Zalman I had problems with Oblivion crashing, but BF2 and FarCry with HDR would still go for hours.

I guess Oblivion = made for Xbox360 ATI GPU.

Cheers!
 
KJ43 said:
It may be a heat issue, but it's not the cooling setup of the card that is the problem. The temps always appeared to be perfectlly fine with all the bad cards I've had.

And again....this problem is not just happening with overclocked cards.

The (alleged :D ) temperature problems are discussed on page 2 of the linked thread:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1052934
Click to expand...

I really think you fellas may be onto something with that.

The 7800GT's I had, had the copper CO heatsink that covered both the GPU and the memory.

My 7900GT's that are clocked @ 500/1500 dont have a cooler covering the memory.

Now, given that...EVGA recently released another 7900GT clocked @ 500/1500. The difference? Bigger cooler.

Check it out. My card's cooler
0200.jpg



The new card's cooler...
0100.jpg


Same price, and more importantly...SAME CLOCKS! :confused:

Maybe EVGA has a new cooler to try to solve some of their problems?
But....if i send my 7900GT's back....I want the version with the bigger heatsink
 
Cool.

I usually upgrade GPU cooling just because, whether I OC 'em or not. Perhaps my 7900GT CO will have one of the upgraded factory coolers.

Man that thing's a LOT bigger!
 
I have a regular clocked EVGA 7900 GTX. I took it from the stock clocks 650/1600 to 725/1850 on the stock cooling. Ive had the card about 2 months and get NO lock ups, NO artifacts, NO issues what so ever. This thing overclocked more then any card I have ever owned. IM amazed I dont get any artifacts, and I have played both COD 2 and Oblivion for many hours infact. I also play UT 2004 every night, and just beat S!N episodes emergence. Basically I think its select cards out there that are the problem and not everyone that has been released/sold.
 
Xenozx said:
I have a regular clocked EVGA 7900 GTX. I took it from the stock clocks 650/1600 to 725/1850 on the stock cooling. Ive had the card about 2 months and get NO lock ups, NO artifacts, NO issues what so ever. This thing overclocked more then any card I have ever owned. IM amazed I dont get any artifacts, and I have played both COD 2 and Oblivion for many hours infact. I also play UT 2004 every night, and just beat S!N episodes emergence. Basically I think its select cards out there that are the problem and not everyone that has been released/sold.
Click to expand...

Yeah but seeing the difference betwen those 2 coolers kinda make one wonder... At least your GTX has the big ass heatpipe cooler on it.
 
skippy9146 said:
Yeah but seeing the difference betwen those 2 coolers kinda make one wonder... At least your GTX has the big ass heatpipe cooler on it.
Click to expand...

True but on the card above the only difference I see is the new cooler covers the memory too. Other then that I dont think it would make that big of a difference. Sure theres more surface area now, but I would find it very interesting to see what the difference in teh temps between the 2 are.
 
0100.jpg


This is exactly what my eVGA 7900 GT KO 256MB looks like. The HSF covers the Memory Modules. I must have been lucky to get the newer revision I guess. After I posted I went ahead and played Oblivion for 2 hours straight. And My Temps after I exited the Game were 50C.
 
Im going to eat my words here.

The bigger heatsink means your clocks are at least 520/1540(although newegg lists them as 500/1500)

not 500/1500 like my cards with the smaller heatsink.

The two cards still cost the exact same from newegg though.
 
I'd like to add that I too have had first-hand experience of problems in FEAR and 3DMark06 with stock clocks (450/660). And if you go on eVGA's forum, you will see that people have tried downclocking their overclocked cards, but more often than not, the problems still return. I think this certaintly isn't limited to overclocked cards.
 
Excellent article Kyle, I for one got 2 EVGA 7900GTX's which are running stock clock speeds since the release date. I got 2 for the reason of not needing to overclock the cards and just run them at stock speed in SLI to play nay game I want and so far I am very happy with the cards and have had zero problems and can play all my games i.e. FEAR, HL2, Oblivion. :p
 
Problems exist for the KO series that has the cooler over the memory. So heat is not a factor (or at least not the main one). On Evga forums you see people having same issue with their GTX's as well.
 
I FINALLY got an email from eVGA this evening not only stating that my cc details had been approved, but stating also that my replacement had been shipped today via NEXT DAY AIR. :eek:

That must have set them back $30!

Talk about awesome support... I guess they were just a little swamped and thats what took so long to get a response from them. I hope that the replacement card I'm getting is one that has the modifications Jacob from eVGA told us about. :)


I'll be sure to post pics of the old card and new card so people can compare (if you guys want, anyway). :D
 
KJ43 said:
I'm going to be putting a new X1900XTX in my box tonight and selling my new replacement 7900 GTX OC in the unbroken anti-static bag to try to recoup as much of my money as possible.
Click to expand...

That is about the best way you can ensure no more bum 7900's :p
 
R1ckCa1n said:
That is about the best way you can ensure no more bum 7900's :p
Click to expand...

Well, yeah. I'm not completely happy about what happened because I really wanted the 7900gtx to work. You can see my updated card in my sig. Everything is rock solid so far and looks great. I just wanted a card to play BF2 and Oblivion well. The sli in the future would have been a good option to have for an upgrade at some point though.

I understand that these things happen. It's pretty damn annoying when the cards cost what they do.
 
So I have a brand new EVGA 7900GTX Superclocked card sitting on my desk. I can't test it yet as my CPUs will arrive next week. All this has made me really nervous. After reading all this I am glad that I atleast went with EVGA...if things go wrong then atleast I won't get burnt.
My card will be used for playing "0" games. It will be used only for my 3d design work. What is the best way for me to test if my card will perform ok? Will my card model number give any clues?
It's my first self built PC so I could have done without another variable that could bring the system down! :mad:
 
Kyle, I think you should update that to include 7800 GT's too, atleast EVGA 7800GT. I bought my 7800GT back in december. Everything was going fine, but I never played Oblivion.

I got Oblivion, it played fine, but about 5 months since the day I installed my card, I started having trouble with artifacting when I pushed my card like maybe raising the resolution at something higher than 1024x768 then running into a field of grass. I simply thought "bug", no big deal. Then a couple of days later (during my spring break :( ) the card started artifacting at boot time. That was it, there was no way around this, so I contacted EVGA and they had a simple solution, send it back to us and we will replace your card (thanks btw). They told me to cross ship it, which confused me because their site specifically state that they will not cross ship any product. I guess this was a special case. :p

And it was. I checked the forums and lo and behold, they had many other people with video artifacting. So I wasn't the only case. :eek:

Anyways the card is working fine now, but I haven't tried oblivion again. I'll try it when I get the chance - do the same thing I did before.

I just want say thanks to EVGA for not running me around when I needed my card replace and that they stood by their warranty. I understand people and companies make mistakes, and I thank all the companies for not screwing the customers over. Thanks EVGA, I'll consider you guys along with a very selected few other companies when I buy feature cards. :D
 
qkool said:
And it was. I checked the forums and lo and behold, they had many other people with video artifacting. So I wasn't the only case. :eek:
Click to expand...

Of course their support forum had 7800GT problems listed. It's a support forum primarily designed for evga customers to consult others for technical problems with eVGA products. People don't go to a support forum to say 'Hey my video card works perfect!'. If you look there are just as many 'problem threads' about the 6800GT and other GPU chipsets as there are for the 7800GT. These are simply normal statistics at work here.

There is nothing wrong with the 7800GT, you must have just gotten a bad one. :)

Not trying to ruffle your feathers or anything, I just don't see the need to stir up a fire when things are pretty warm already.
 
mutant said:
So I have a brand new EVGA 7900GTX Superclocked card sitting on my desk. I can't test it yet as my CPUs will arrive next week. All this has made me really nervous. After reading all this I am glad that I atleast went with EVGA...if things go wrong then atleast I won't get burnt.
My card will be used for playing "0" games. It will be used only for my 3d design work. What is the best way for me to test if my card will perform ok? Will my card model number give any clues?
It's my first self built PC so I could have done without another variable that could bring the system down! :mad:
Click to expand...

Why didn't you go with a card designed for 3d apps like a quattro?
 
qkool said:
Kyle, I think you should update that to include 7800 GT's too, atleast EVGA 7800GT. I bought my 7800GT back in december. Everything was going fine, but I never played Oblivion.

I got Oblivion, it played fine, but about 5 months since the day I installed my card, I started having trouble with artifacting when I pushed my card like maybe raising the resolution at something higher than 1024x768 then running into a field of grass. I simply thought "bug", no big deal. Then a couple of days later (during my spring break :( ) the card started artifacting at boot time. That was it, there was no way around this, so I contacted EVGA and they had a simple solution, send it back to us and we will replace your card (thanks btw). They told me to cross ship it, which confused me because their site specifically state that they will not cross ship any product. I guess this was a special case. :p

And it was. I checked the forums and lo and behold, they had many other people with video artifacting. So I wasn't the only case. :eek:

Anyways the card is working fine now, but I haven't tried oblivion again. I'll try it when I get the chance - do the same thing I did before.

I just want say thanks to EVGA for not running me around when I needed my card replace and that they stood by their warranty. I understand people and companies make mistakes, and I thank all the companies for not screwing the customers over. Thanks EVGA, I'll consider you guys along with a very selected few other companies when I buy feature cards. :D
Click to expand...

I keep hearing about people that burn up their cards with Oblivion. I wonder if it isn't something about that game that pushes Nvidia cards past it's limits regarding heat...
 
I bought up an XFX 7900GT Extreme Super Hiper Type-R Turbo II (the 520mhz one) shortly after release and before the brief shortage of 7900gt's (newegg was actually sold out of that part less than 30 minutes after I got my confirmation email). The card was tested for base functionality before application of ramsinks and the waterblock to replace XFX's heatsink. I have *knock on wood* thus far had no problems whatsoever with this card. I've mainly played bf2 on this card, and I haven't run 3dmark 06, so that might be why I'm not seeing any issues with it. The card wouldn't overclock beyond 520 worth a crap... I think the GPU could hit 531, but it wasn't completely stable. I gave up, since this is WAY more card than I was used to, and I can always go for SLI.;)

I'm very interested now if my card exhibits the issues put forth here, but I'm loathe to go without my system for the amount of time it would take for XFX to get a card to me. I *knew* something was amiss when the XFX cost less for a higher clocked card (prices were from newegg at the time of purchase).

Perhaps I should make lemonade out of lemons: Use this as an excuse to buy a second 7900GT from eVga. That way, when it arrives, I can test the bejeeezus outta the card I have without fear of being only playing nethack and dopewars for a week or more. Hell, if it works, I've got SLI. Have I had too many beers, or does anybody think that might actually fly with the wife?:confused:

*stumbles off to ponder*

-q
 
Hammerhead666 said:
Why didn't you go with a card designed for 3d apps like a quattro?
Click to expand...
Audi doesnt make video cards so try the Nvidia Quadro instead. :p
 
skippy9146 said:
Er, can someone say heat related problem...?

This kinda illustrates something I've noticed about the 7900GT's since they 1st came out... Is it just me or does that cooling setup just appear to be really undersized for the kinds of speeds these things are clocked at? Regardless of what size manufacturing process they moved to or how much more efficent & cooler they are supposed to be.

As I look at the 7900GT CO (500/1500), it appears to have a reference Nvidia cooler on it - which looks suspiciously puny to me. I'm no engineer, but even I know that OC'ing = More Heat. I certainly don't use stock AMD cooling when I OC my CPU.

Maybe the deal isn't faulty GPU's but inadequate cooling on these things pure & simple. And if the collective "they" are going to crank these things up, they had better implement a more robust cooling scheme. It couldn't cost THAT much - certainly cheaper than a batch of RMA'ed products.
Click to expand...

This is my report!!! I had 3dmark06 loop for 3hours while I drove my wife and two of our friends to a resturant about 2 cities away..(lol..it was a nice night for a drive)

YAY!!! card was running still and it looked just as good as it did when I left. Max temp reported by mbm is 61c..

Now the question is... Is this card running A OK because it was hand picked? Or, is it because before the card ever when into my computer I removed the hsf unit and reinstalled it with some AS5 minus the plastice cover and shitty fan?.. I also installed the OCZ coppers that I had already modded to fit unter the areas where the hsf actually covers but does not touch(SIC!!!!) about 20-30% of four of the ram chips!!!!! I basically had to break off up to 5 fins off the ram sinks and then file the surface(Not the bottom, of course) to fit them.. I did choose to reinstall the factory heatsink because it is quite a heavy chunk of copper and quite well made when you look at it.. For a fan, I ghetto rigged a super screaming delta60mm with some coat hanger bent through the fan holes for legs. It sits right under my card and i can easily move it around to find the sweet spot.. idle 38c hard load 61c.. its ok for how cheep it is but i see a zalman 9000 in my future :D

Edit for clarity:
My card is an eVGA 7900gt ko superclock. factory 550/1580. I recieved the card from newegg with the smaller cooler and the one I got back from eVGA with the "retarded, we dont need no ram cooling on this OCer " cooler and that is why I went to such lengths.:mad:
 
My 7900GTX died (and I've already gotten an RMA for it)

What seems to cause all my 7900s to crash is fireflyforest in 3dmark05 looped 12 times

I usually turn resolution to 1600x1200, full AA, and 4x ansio

That's my ultimate stress test
 
I'm reposting this message here that I posted over on Anandtech:

----------------------------------------------------------
I came across this post here which mentioned cleaning the areas around the pencil vmods. Well, I thought, what the heck let's give it a shot. Sure enough, my 7900GT stopped blanking on me. However, my memory overclocks were still limited to around 800 vs. the 880 I had gotten when I first overclocked the card.

I looked at the back of the board against the light and noticed that there was all sorts of residue left over from the assembly/soldering. Most of the time, the assembly factories do a quick wash to get rid of all the flux material on the circuit boards. This is usually good enough. However, when we start doing our mods, we're not always too careful and lay our sweaty, oily hands right across the components. This adds conductive paths across circuits and causes instabilities.

Here's what I did and what I recommend:

1. Get a bottle of 90% Isopropyl alcohol. Pure acetone (nail polish remover) should also work.
2. Get a roll of paper towels.
3. Take one paper towel, saturate a corner of it with alcohol.
4. Scrub vigorously the areas around the chips that control the memory and gpu voltages. Also scrub the components opposite each the ram chips. As your paper towels shreds, soak a fresh corner and continue. IMPORTANT: Don’t put your hands or fingers on the freshly scrubbed areas!
5. Get a clean paper towel and rub vigorously, sopping up all the alcohol. DO NOT BLOW ON IT TO DRY!
6. Hold up the board at an angle and look for any traces of residue. Use a magnifying glass if necessary. Repeat steps 4 and 5 if any residue is detectable. The board should look absolutely shiny.
7. Do your volt mods. DO NOT blow on the board to dry or to blow away graphite from a pencil mod. This will leave residue from the moisture on your breath. Use a can of compressed air instead (if you use an air compressor, make sure it has fresh oil and moisture filters).
8. Put your video card back into your system holding it only by the edges and bracket.

After you do this, your results hopefully will be similar to mine –

7900GT before cleaning:
GPU = 630MHz @ 1.4V and high fan speed (VF900), no artifacts, no blanking
Memory = 800MHz @ stock volts, no artifacts, no blanking
-- with pencil volt mod, 840MHz, no artifacts, but lots of blanking.

7900GT after cleaning:
GPU = 650MHz @ 1.4V and LOW fan speed (VF900), no artifacts, no blanking
Memory = 940MHz @ STOCK volts, no artifacts, no blanking!!

My 7900GT is now rock solid stable even at the low fan speeds.

----------------------------------------------------------


There are two reasons why everyone has been getting artifacts/lockups on their overclocked 7900 cards. The first is dirty boards (literally!) from the factory and from our handling of the cards. This will not only cause blanking as described above, but also artifacting (and, to a lesser degree, lockups).

The second reason everyone is experiencing problems is overheating. My same 7900GT with a VF900 heatsink, will completely lock up after a while for about 15-60 seconds while playing F.E.A.R. (1600x1200 4x 16x, softshadows on) IF the fan speed is low OR the room is warm. If I crack open my case and turn the VF900 fan speed to maximum, I get ZERO lockups, even after hours of play.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of the manufacturer's overclocked 7900 cards. If you've grabbed the cards when inserting them and laid your sweaty, oily palms across any of the components or the PCB, you've created changes in resistance and capacitance that will quickly cause instabilities. If on top of this you are running things in an inadequately ventilated case, you will experience lockups, artifacts, and various other problems.

There is no need to RMA your card -- just make sure it is spotlessly clean as described in the guide above and get plenty of cool air to the heat sink.

- kbj
 
mutant said:
So I have a brand new EVGA 7900GTX Superclocked card sitting on my desk. I can't test it yet as my CPUs will arrive next week. All this has made me really nervous. After reading all this I am glad that I atleast went with EVGA...if things go wrong then atleast I won't get burnt.
My card will be used for playing "0" games. It will be used only for my 3d design work. What is the best way for me to test if my card will perform ok? Will my card model number give any clues?
It's my first self built PC so I could have done without another variable that could bring the system down! :mad:
Click to expand...

Hi; Find any program ie: Si Soft Sandra that has a burnin module,and let'r fly..
WARNING!!! Burnin's DO overstress the whole machine..
You have been WARNED..G'luck & have phun.......:)
 
I had a card out of the first batch and it was utter trash BFG replaced the card several times but one of the issues was the peg link mode on a8n32,
needs to be disabled as it has issues with the 7900 cards, also asus has put out a new bios for the a8n32 boards to improve compatiblity with the 7900 cards:
A8N32-SLI Deluxe Bios version 1205
1- Enhance PCI / PCIE compatibility
2- Support 7900 Series VGA cards
3- Enhance SATA RAID compatibility
so the speed of your pci-e bus may be an issue too as it fixed my current problem at the time.
 
There are sooo many dying cards... it's serious... more serious then we're led to believe.. it almost seems like 1/4 enthusiasts.
 
Had a BFG 7900GTX that started having artifacts on the 2nd day I had it. I did troubleshooting by downclocking the memory to stock with coolbits. Still had artifacts. Downclocked to 650 and the artifacts went away. Made the mistake of telling BFG support that I used coolbits to troubleshoot, but only with a downclock. They voided my warranty on the spot. So much for gamers serving gamers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top