NoxTek
The Geek Redneck
- Joined
- May 27, 2002
- Messages
- 9,300
I have spent quite a bit of time lately scouring the eVGA forums concerning problems with the 7900 series cards failing after a short period of use. To me it seems like there is a torrential dowpour of people with dead or dying cards who are having to RMA only to run into the same problem again with their new card. It's rapidly growing to a point where one is forced to suppress the urge to scream "DESIGN FLAW!".
At first I thought that it might be related to the folks who have been doing hard volt modding to their cards but lately it sure seems that the problems have come from all different kinds of users.
It's apparently come to a point where certain manufacturers are releasing BIOS updates to most of their line of factory overclocked cards altering the core/vertex delta, loosening memory timings, and in some cases even lowering the core and memory clocks from the original rate. I don't know about the rest of the enthusiast user base but I paid extra for the SuperClocked version of the card and I'm not going to be very pleased if it comes down to an UNDERCLOCK to solve issues with the cards dying.
So what are your thoughts, [H]ardForumers? Do you think there is a design flaw that has cropped up? Is it a case of overzealous manufacturers putting factory overclocked cards to market with parts that can't handle the increased speed?
<EDIT>
For the record, I have a 1 week old eVGA 7900GT CO Superclocked whos stock speed is 550/1580. Sofar it seems to perform like a champ and I havent noticed any signs of artifacting though I havent really put it through the paces hardcore yet. I have a Zalman VF900 Cu here ready to install but if I can resist the temptation I may just wait awhile to see if it's going to crap out on me or not.
</EDIT>
<EDIT - 5/20/2006>
My eVGA 7900GT is now in it's death throes. Yesterday, it started artifacting mildly in the Deep Freeze test of 3DMark 06. It progressed with each 3D game/app I ran until today when it will no longer run most games without corruption or crashing/BSODing.
Dissapointing.
</EDIT>
At first I thought that it might be related to the folks who have been doing hard volt modding to their cards but lately it sure seems that the problems have come from all different kinds of users.
It's apparently come to a point where certain manufacturers are releasing BIOS updates to most of their line of factory overclocked cards altering the core/vertex delta, loosening memory timings, and in some cases even lowering the core and memory clocks from the original rate. I don't know about the rest of the enthusiast user base but I paid extra for the SuperClocked version of the card and I'm not going to be very pleased if it comes down to an UNDERCLOCK to solve issues with the cards dying.
So what are your thoughts, [H]ardForumers? Do you think there is a design flaw that has cropped up? Is it a case of overzealous manufacturers putting factory overclocked cards to market with parts that can't handle the increased speed?
<EDIT>
For the record, I have a 1 week old eVGA 7900GT CO Superclocked whos stock speed is 550/1580. Sofar it seems to perform like a champ and I havent noticed any signs of artifacting though I havent really put it through the paces hardcore yet. I have a Zalman VF900 Cu here ready to install but if I can resist the temptation I may just wait awhile to see if it's going to crap out on me or not.
</EDIT>
<EDIT - 5/20/2006>
My eVGA 7900GT is now in it's death throes. Yesterday, it started artifacting mildly in the Deep Freeze test of 3DMark 06. It progressed with each 3D game/app I ran until today when it will no longer run most games without corruption or crashing/BSODing.
Dissapointing.
</EDIT>