Well, needless to say, I was incredibly happy with the speeds. I'm actually kind of suprised it didn't happen sooner. The card does work, although I am currently underclocking to keep the artifact to a managable level
. I made no hard mods to the card, so an RMA shouldn't be any issue (albeit, a little dishonest maybe. my wife isn't happy about that one). But looking back, I'd probably hold off on overvolting a card till it was closer to the end of it's useful life expectancy. The only frustration (a minor one) is the fact that I still don't have that 8800gtx (or whatever other card I end up buying) to fall back on while I RMA.
Anyway, this is just a little post 7900gt-overvolting/overclocking-frenzy update. I'm crediting insufficient cooling of the VRs with the failure. I did use a small passive chipset HS with some thermal tape on the VRs, but perhaps that wasn't enough. If I do this again, I'll look to use a little heftier cooling solution there.
Anyway, this is just a little post 7900gt-overvolting/overclocking-frenzy update. I'm crediting insufficient cooling of the VRs with the failure. I did use a small passive chipset HS with some thermal tape on the VRs, but perhaps that wasn't enough. If I do this again, I'll look to use a little heftier cooling solution there.