My Gainward GF4 Ti4200 64 MB hasn't died yet...

[Antoneo]

Hey guys, I'm just looking for some advice as to what to do in my situation.

I built a new computer in late July/early August of 2002 with parts from newegg and mwave. I happened to buy a Gainward GF4 Ti4200 64 MB Ultra 650 (Non-Golden Sample) from newegg at that time as well. It is now the end of December, well over newegg's RMA period but still within Gainward's three year warranty.

I have come across many threads about my particular card such as: Long thread at madonion/futuremark and this article at overclockers.com. All seem to say that death of my video card is unavoidable.

I have not come across any serious problems like the pink/green screen of death, checkerboard pattern, or black and white stripes but have observed brief flashes or "sparks" while I play Starcraft for extended periods of time. I am a light gamer and have not played much heavy 3d games on it so I suppose I haven't taxed the system much graphically. I am thinking that this is the reason why the videocard has gone so long without dying but I could be wrong. I have never overclocked the card either.

Should I sell off the card for $90 and get a ATI8500/ATI8500LE (I need good 2D which was why I selected Gainward over other manufacturers in the first place, I have also heard good things about the DAC on ATI products after I bought the Gainward 🙁)?
I am also thinking about RMAing back to Gainward instead of waiting for serious problems to crop up since they have said that they are replacing the defective cards with new ones (I have also read that some people received new GS cards as a replacement :Q). From what I have read, the heatsinks on the new cards were beefier as well. I am afraid that if I wait too long and RMA later I would received a repaired or refurb card.

Does anyone know if the manufacturer goes through "testing" to check if the card really has problems? I know its a bit wrong to send back a non-defective product to the manufacturer in hopes of a "better" product but Gainward has acknowledged that there is a problem in that line and the time I can spare to make a decision is now since I'm on spring break.

Well TIA and I would appreciate it if previous Gainward RMA'ers could post their experiences with Gainward. Also, are there any people who have a Gainward Ti4200 64MB without any problems?

 

[NOSOUP4U]

it looks like its only the 64 mb card people are reporting problems with.

 

[tomstevens26]

Originally posted by: NOSOUP4U
it looks like its only the 64 mb card people are reporting problems with.

Do you mean the 128MB card? He said he has the 64MB card. I'm just curious because this card is on my list as a potential upgrade and I certainly don't want to do the best I can to avoid getting a lemon.... 🙂

 

[Twilling]

I have experienced some checker board problems with my Gainward GF4 Ti4200 and the only game that I play is Links 2003. I purchased my card in November and I am undecided if I should go through with the RMA process. If my card craps out then I won't purchase anymore cards from Gainward.

 

[thraxes]

I have a card here that I put in a system for a friend... It is to the fullest of the word "Kaputt". RMA is the only way to go for me right now... I will have to see if I can get a deal with my distributor for a different card.

Anyway, I haven't heard of the gainward problems before, when did they start to turn up (luckily I only sold one machine with that card in it... all my others were ATI based)?

 

[BlueWeasel]

It appears that it's not just related to the 64mb version of the cards. I have a Gainward Ti4200 128mb version and I was getting the white "checkboard" screen in some games.

I bought the card from Newegg in August of this year. I didn't find out it was a hardware issue until a few days ago. I called Newegg thinking it was too late to get an RMA through them. Within 5 minutes on the phone, I had an RMA number.

FYI, I also called Gaintech to inquire about RMA-ing the card. But in the end, I decided to go with Newegg.

Call Newegg.....that's a well known problem with the Gainward cards and you should be able to get a RMA with ease.

 

[Antoneo]

Originally posted by: tomstevens26

Originally posted by: NOSOUP4U
it looks like its only the 64 mb card people are reporting problems with.

Do you mean the 128MB card? He said he has the 64MB card. I'm just curious because this card is on my list as a potential upgrade and I certainly don't want to do the best I can to avoid getting a lemon.... 🙂

Yep, I have the 64 MB version of the card and the majority of the posts I have read in various forums seem to indicate that those were the ones with the most problems. However there were owners of the 128 MB version that said the same problems as well.

Anyway, I haven't heard of the gainward problems before, when did they start to turn up (luckily I only sold one machine with that card in it... all my others were ATI based)?

These problems seem to have been turning up in late June/early July as I was looking through the post dates. I happened to buy one late July but people who have bought the card much later also were experiencing the same problems.

 

[NOX]

WOW this is news to me!!!

Maybe it's because my Gainward Ti4200 (64MB, bought from newegg 8+ months ago) has never given me any problems, is the reason why I haven't noticed or paid much attention to this Gainward situation.

I have the non-golden sample too and have not experienced anything that's being mentioned in this thread, and the one at Amdmb and O/C.

It seems to me that a lot of the people having this problem were o/c?ing more then their card can handle, from reading those threads, and that the people not o/c?ing had defective Ram chips.

I'm glad I'm not over doing my card, it's still going strong, and plays all my games the way they should be played, great IQ and fast!

 

[Imported]

I have a Gainward 128MB Golden Sample, and it wasn't the checkerboard patterns, etc that people were seeing that forced me to RMA mine back to Newegg (Instant RMA# :Q!) but two capicitors blew up on me. Sucked because they blew up as I was setting up my computer for a lan.. 🙁 Luckily I had a friend who lent me his 8500. I'm still waiting for my card back though, so hopefully it isn't a dud.

 

[Antoneo]

Heh, well I haven't seen this issue either until I started seeing those brief flashes. I used various reviews, Anandtech's included, in buying this card but I guess the ones the reviewed were a different and earlier batch. Possibly why yours, NOX, hasn't been affected but I'm glad to hear that it is working fine 🙂.

Too bad mine is getting problems at stock speed 🙁, if I was having problems overclocked I wouldn't complain.

Imported, this is also my second Gainward GF4 Ti4200 64 MB from Newegg. The first one came with a capacitor that fell off the board, probably during shipment to be or Newegg's warehouse, and I had to RMA it back to them. Wound up waiting nearly two weeks.

Luckily I had a friend who lent me his 8500. I'm still waiting for my card back though, so hopefully it isn't a dud.

Ah, well can you tell a difference between the 2d image quality of the Gainward and ATI 8500? I am willing to make a switch if the difference is quite noticable, especially if the difference comes in at higher resolutions.

 

[Imported]

To be honest, I didn't really notice much of a difference. If anything, the 8500 seemed brighter, but thats about it.