GEFORCE 4 : important BUG !!!

[DN]

WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE -- YOU MIGHT AS WELL GET A FAULTY GF4 BEFORE #$%$ HITS THE FAN! AAAAAAAAAWH!

 

[flexy]

<< flexy -

<<this issue is not really *that* funny...since exactly that happened with my 1 1/2 months old retail radeon 8500.

I overclocked it *very* mildly from the standard 275/275 to like 10mhz more on core/mem site....which is really not much.....i dont think i ever went over 290mhz using powerstrip.

The result is that all of a sudden my video memory was damaged...artifacts all over, even after a cold PC start and leaving all clock settings alone.>>

Can you really sit there and say this post is right because you damaged your card? >>




I think you didnt get the point of my post 🙂

I didnt write to *blame* anyone - but rather point out the fact that "those" cards (be it from NV or from ATI) nowadays run extremely near at the edge of what is tolerable by the hardware so i'd advice against any overclocking. These cards get hot enough without any overclocking, require sufficient cooling etc. etc.

I think that this actually *is* right and worth mentioning - in OPPOSITE to countless other websites/forums where i hang out where it seems (from the talks) that overclocking is not the big deal but just moving some sliders up a bit....and there're not enough emphasis on that there's a REAL danger to physically damage a $300 card, even if you overlock it by...say only 10mhz more.

regarding your comment about "complaining":

Well..i *could* complain that some newer cards (radeon8500 for sure, gf4 i just dont know) are certainly different as they were like a few years ago....i didnt hear about shooting older cards like TNTs etc. by upping it's MHZ by just a few mhz...

And...the heat issues with the radeon are more or less known..and i am talking about non overclocked cards where things happened, too, after they are in use for some time especially in less than optimal cooled systems.

I dont know if the GF4 related post was a troll post - maybe it is...maybe it's not - i just remember the exact same discussion going on when the radeon 8500 was being released. (Heat problems blah blah, ATI recalls all cards...blah blah)

I dont know the answer to your Question "why should the gf4 increase in heat over time ?" (i dont have gf4 🙂...i just do know that it's possible eg. with my radeon, NON overclocked....fans blowing at it like crazy, superb airflow thru the whole case etc....after an hour play the fun is over and obviously the rams get too hot.

WHY ? I dont know...

 

[ElFenix]

shouldn't there be a ****CONFIRMED**** in the title of this thread?

 

[Rand]

Do you have any better information or proven reliable reference sources?
Without any confirmation it's rather unlikely anyone is going to take your word for it given that none of the websistes testing the product have reported any such problem, and nobody has even rumored there might be any issues.



<< It seems that after a long period of testing, the chip is getting hotter and hotter, thus making the chip more and more unstable. >>


Any chip becomes hotter as it's run longer and/or put under more stress.
It's hardly going to permanently remain at a fixed temperature.

Considering the GF4 Ti's won't have general retail availability until next month, most card manufacturers would have time to upgrade their cooling solutions if it was really necessary.

Or are you perhaps insinuating that the GPU itself dissipates more as time goes by (Under the same load)?
That would require a marked change in the GPU's characteristics over time, which is rather dubious. Unless of course it suffered from rapid electromigration.... which is pretty unlikely also.

 

[Rand]

<< hey people,

this issue is not really *that* funny...since exactly that happened with my 1 1/2 months old retail radeon 8500.

I overclocked it *very* mildly from the standard 275/275 to like 10mhz more on core/mem site....which is really not much.....i dont think i ever went over 290mhz using powerstrip.
>>



Well first of all, you overclocked it. There is NEVER any guarantee when overclocking. Almost always it's safe to go for a small overclock, but it's never a 100% guarantee. If it was a guarantee then it would be set at that clockspeed to begin with.
There is no such thing as a guarantee when overclocking.

The original poster on the otherhand was referring to stock rated clockspeed with no overclocking.
Have you tested a large enough sample of R8500 cores to confirm that your issue was indeed a common problem and not simply an unlucky card that didnt want to overclock?

You state that the RAM itself caused the problem, he is referencing the core GPU itself not the RAM.
And it is EXTREMELY unlikely that heat would damage the RAM to such an extent.
Conventional DDR SDRAM's do not dissipate terribly much heat relative to their thermal specifications indicating temperature loads they can properly handle. More often overclocking limitations are due to the quality of the DRAM, or voltage limitations, cross-talk interference can also be a possibility.

Even so, lets assume that it was indeed the core causing such issues for you and not the DRAM...
The R8500 core itself operates surprisingly cool considering it's status as ATi's high end graphics core. Indeed, there are a few third party manufacturers that ship 230MHz R850's running with just a large heatsink and no fan. While such a solution wouldnt be viable at 275MHz, it still doesnt require as much cooling as do many past high end GPU's. The stock HSF on ATI's retail R8500 is rather weak and not really very powerful as is, even so there have been numerous reported cases in which people have successfully removed the stock fan, and simply used a large HeatSink and a case fan situated a short distance away from the graphics card for cooling. Indeed, I've personally seen such a card that has been running smoothly under such conditions for approaching 3 months now.

It seems to me the issue you experienced is more likely associated with chip quality then any heat limitations, and the fact that you have not tested any volume of R8500's to confirm any consistent problem indicates that it would be difficult to prove conclusively based upon only one sample that it is a heat issue.

 

[j@cko]

Um.. is this suppose to be a joker's thread? am I missing something here.... 😉

 

[nortexoid]

it seems that Trident released its Blade3D too early...

[the saga continues]

 

[BFG10K]

I thought I was at Anandtech and not Rage3D. 😛

 

[Daemon_UK]

BFG10K, yeah most of the trolls have found their way here cause rage3d is down. 🙁

 

[LikeLinus]

flexy - Can you show me an article that tells about the so called "heat issues" with the Radeon 8500? Personally i've never heard such a thing. The two 8500's i've had did 300/300mhz (one actually only did 295/300) and ran great (what i'm running right now). Retail 8500's come with 3.6 mem and overclock nicely.

Please also post something that gives a good description of this so called "run extremely near at the edge of what is tolerable by the hardware ". So you're telling me they can't design a GPU that runs stable at 300mhz, while there are 2.4gig CPU's out there? What do you think about the SGI type workstations that do full rendering for movies like Shrek and Toy Story? Obviously that wont work either cause they are WAY beyond this so called edge you speak of.

Did you ever stop to think in your infinate wisdom that you might have just got a bad card? Apparently you think it's a flaw with the whole manufacturing of the chip and just not a problem with your own (excude the several thousands of people on AT that have them running perfectly overclocked and NON overclocked). ATI must be doing some serious coverup to not let that cat outta the bag!!!

"y upping it's MHZ by just a few mhz..."
"even if you overlock it by...say only 10mhz more."
". with my radeon, NON overclocked....fans blowing at it like crazy, superb airflow thru the whole case etc....after an hour play the fun is over and obviously the rams get too hot." Was this AFTER the fact that you said you ruined the same card overclocking? Once you fubar a card up..it's going to act weird non overclocked or overclocked. You probably screwed up the GPU.

You probably ruined your card when you overclocked it and didn't provide proper ventilation or cooling in the first place (or you had a bum card). I noticed you didn't say anything to my question if you used any proper cooling (i.e. crystal/blue orb, ram heatsinks, artic silver). I'm assuming you didn't.

Just something to think about.

 

[andreasl]

The very same message was posted on Ace's and THG's forums and I have no doubt at several other hardware site Forums as well. An obvious troll. He's probably reading the responses right now giggling to himself.

 

[AGodspeed]

<< The very same message was posted on Ace's and THG's forums and I have no doubt at several other hardware site Forums as well. An obvious troll. He's probably reading the responses right now giggling to himself. >>

Add VIAHardware and XBitLabs to the list of forums he's been posting this crap at.

It's really pathetic....

 

[Leon]

According to the guy at Aces Hardware, he posted this on:

Anandtech forums, THG forums, XbitLabs forums, VIAHardware forums. Lol

🙂