NoxTek
The Geek Redneck
- Joined
- May 27, 2002
- Messages
- 9,300
[EDIT: I'd like to AGAIN remind everyone that this COULD be a load of complete BS. Anti nVidia propoganda being smartly written by someone with lots of time on their hands and the urge to "stir shit up". Take ALL of this with a grain of salt. Mmmmkay? Need I re-iterate this point any further?]
This was just posted on the eVGA forums:
Now apparently this information comes from an internal source in the eVGA software engineering department. If this is true it sure does provide a good explanation for the problems that seem to affect most of the current run of 7900 series boards.
This isn't a far fetched explanation by any means, especially when you consider that ALL 7900 boards are actually made at a singular facility (Flextronics) and then distributed to the board partners (eVGA, BFG, XFX, etc) for cooler installation and branding/SKU.
I'd be willing to bet the VRM in question is the one just to the right of the GPU area when looking at the backside of the card. On my defective 7900GT thats on it's way back to eVGA, the voltage regulator chip in question is an AZ7805D linear regulator made by Advanced Analogue Circuits. The datasheet is here (PDF).
Here are photos of the VRM on my defective 7900GT:
It looks like the sane or similar VRM is on the GTX boards in the same spot on the backside of the card.
<EDIT>
Below is a photo of the same voltage regulator chip on my replacement card sent by eVGA on Thursday evening by next day air:
As you can see it's the same chip from the same manufacturer, but the week and batch number is obviously newer. There are also some pretty obvious signs of re-soldering so I'm thinking that eVGA might have replaced this chip before sending the card out to me.
AGAIN - I don't know for sure that this is the voltage regulator in question, but it's the only one on the underside of the card. (There is an similar one on topside of the card near the DVI outputs). This could be the regulator in question, it might not be, or the whole story might be a very legitimate looking false rumour.
This was just posted on the eVGA forums:
This IS a cross-post from the general forum. Mods, if you dont delete it, feel free to leave it here or move it to the General Forum (where I posted it first):
To all,
There are a batch of 7900 cards with bad voltage regulators on them. These cards were shipped from China. Nvidia IS aware of the bad batch of voltage regulators and is waiting for the batch to run out before updating the regulators with a batch of higher quality regulators. They are ignoring higher than normal failure rate (50-60%) in hopes of filling demand, and that is why prices are dropping on 7900 series video cards.
These voltage regulators are located on your card directly below the GPU on the underside of your card. The regulators are a 3-pronged small chip with the terminals bent at a 90-degree angle.
These regulators will and can degrade over time (esp. 3-6 months). The OC or Superclocked versions of these 7900 cards will exibit artifacting and graphical errors before the standard clocked version due to the higher current draw of overclocked cards.
This problem effects ALL Nvidia 7900 series cards, regardless of make (IE: BFG, XFX, EVGA...) and is the direct fault of Nvidia, NOT any card distributor.
This problem was originally addressed from HardOCP.com under the mis-understanding that it was a problem caused by overclocking from vendors, which it is not. BFG, XFX and EVGA ALL are trying to improve quality control to solve this problem, but EVGA has shown the best effort so far.
Please do NOT return ANY defective 7900 series card to any retailer (store) that the card was purchased from. You may get another defective card. Instead, please use any RMA procedure from the vendor that distributed your card as they will test your replacement card and try to assure your RMA will be trouble-free.
I have forwarded this issue to HardOCP, TomsHardware, Anandtech and Overclockers.com for further investigation.
Your welcome.
Al Capone[CC]
Now apparently this information comes from an internal source in the eVGA software engineering department. If this is true it sure does provide a good explanation for the problems that seem to affect most of the current run of 7900 series boards.
This isn't a far fetched explanation by any means, especially when you consider that ALL 7900 boards are actually made at a singular facility (Flextronics) and then distributed to the board partners (eVGA, BFG, XFX, etc) for cooler installation and branding/SKU.
I'd be willing to bet the VRM in question is the one just to the right of the GPU area when looking at the backside of the card. On my defective 7900GT thats on it's way back to eVGA, the voltage regulator chip in question is an AZ7805D linear regulator made by Advanced Analogue Circuits. The datasheet is here (PDF).
Here are photos of the VRM on my defective 7900GT:
It looks like the sane or similar VRM is on the GTX boards in the same spot on the backside of the card.
<EDIT>
Below is a photo of the same voltage regulator chip on my replacement card sent by eVGA on Thursday evening by next day air:
As you can see it's the same chip from the same manufacturer, but the week and batch number is obviously newer. There are also some pretty obvious signs of re-soldering so I'm thinking that eVGA might have replaced this chip before sending the card out to me.
AGAIN - I don't know for sure that this is the voltage regulator in question, but it's the only one on the underside of the card. (There is an similar one on topside of the card near the DVI outputs). This could be the regulator in question, it might not be, or the whole story might be a very legitimate looking false rumour.