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Capacitor on 6800 GT

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PacFu

Member
If you have a GT, you know near the rear of the card, by the molex, there are 2 large capacitors. What are they for? Say, when installing, one falls off (not break), is it really needed? 😱
 
I don't know what that capacitor is for? I know in general that capacitors hold a temporary charge of electricity and help regulate the voltage for the card. I imagine that you will have a dead card or a very volatile card without that capacitor (they wouldn't just slap it on for the heck of it).

I just had several capacitors (4) that were bad on my motherboard (old system)... that motherboard is toast now unless I want to spend hours soldering new ones onto an outdated motherboard.
 
Originally posted by: PacFu
If you have a GT, you know near the rear of the card, by the molex, there are 2 large capacitors. What are they for? Say, when installing, one falls off (not break), is it really needed? 😱
Click to expand...


Hypothetically, of course.


As for what they're for, I imagine they're for capaciting.
 
Actually i had a capacitator fall off from my GF3TI200 and it ran perfectly. Actually oced it from 175/400 to 206/481 stable! still ran 2 days ago when it was swapped out for a 9800p.
 
Originally posted by: CRXican
I think it's safe to say you suck at video cards
Click to expand...

:evil: I'll kill you.

j/k, but really not in the mood for jokes.

It must have came off when installing, so I've been running it at ultra clocks for over a week now and no problems. I dunno if its worth RMA'ing or not, or just soldering it back on.
 
Originally posted by: KenSimone
It's the device that makes time travel possible. When that card hits 88mph, you're going to see some serious ****.
Click to expand...

oh well if its the flux capacitor, I better get it fixed right away
 
How in the hell does a capacitor just "fall off?" I think you need to quit munching on those mushrooms you're finding in the back yard and figure out what the hell you did. Or figure out who's messing with your rig. Between this and the melted fan, I'd say you either have the worst luck ever, are extremely careless or just plain full of sh!t.
 
I had a Ti4600 with a loose cap. The thing popped off during one of my less than graceful installs. I was freaking out because this was back when the card cost ~$300-400. I took a chance and ran it anyway...worked just fine. I didn't feel comfortable at all with it though and soldered it back on. The thing is still running today. 🙂
 
Remember back when people reported buying new in-box BBA Radeon 8500 (I think, maybe 8500 LE) cards, and having a cap rattle around in the box and fall out when they opened it, due to some sort of mfg issue with those cards?

I suppose, depending on where the cap is in the circuit, and how much it is needed, you might get away with running the card without it, but I wouldn't chance it. It could also maybe cause the card to get damaged further.
 
Capacitors store and release (electric) charge. You need capacitors on your video card (as you do on your motherboard) to store and release power as direct current (DC) to the components on the card.

When one (or more) capacitors fall off a device, it's ability to store charge is lessened; consequently, the card can become unstable because it can't get enough power to the card.

Depending on the device, a video card/motherboard/etc may run fine when one or two capacitors fall off, but more than a couple usually result in instability and crashing, especially at overclocked speeds.

If I just bought a new expensive video card and a capacitor "fell off," then I'd definately RMA it - it could hinder your overclocking ability or cause general instability in games.
 
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