nV solder vs ATI solder

[thilanliyan]

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/39506/135/

Lol, one more thing we can all "debate".

 

[Andrew1990]

Well working with solder at my job, I have to say that some lead can be used much more easily than other leads. I cant imagine what type of precision the machines must accomplish with these GPUs.

 

[Ika]

Yeah, it seems like Nvidia's entire 8400GS/8600GT-M problem stems from the type of solder they used. It might cost them a lot, since the GPU these things are based off of are everywhere.

 

[Hauk]

Very interesting. Perhaps I've been temperature paranoid for good reason. They "say" that modern GPU's are designed to handle the temps we're now seeing. Are they?

Solder, imagine that. Wow.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: SteelSix
Very interesting. Perhaps I've been temperature paranoid for good reason. They "say" that modern GPU's are designed to handle the temps we're now seeing. Are they?

Solder, imagine that. Wow.

Well the GPU itself probably could handle high temps...but what it's attached to the PCB with I guess in this case couldn't.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: SteelSix
Very interesting. Perhaps I've been temperature paranoid for good reason. They "say" that modern GPU's are designed to handle the temps we're now seeing. Are they?

Solder, imagine that. Wow.

Yeah. Now I'm wondering if I damaged a 9600GSO, by allowing it to run at 81C for a few minutes under stress-testing.

 

[Andrew1990]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: SteelSix
Very interesting. Perhaps I've been temperature paranoid for good reason. They "say" that modern GPU's are designed to handle the temps we're now seeing. Are they?

Solder, imagine that. Wow.

Yeah. Now I'm wondering if I damaged a 9600GSO, by allowing it to run at 81C for a few minutes under stress-testing.

I wouldnt think so, lead solder melts at about 180C and they probably used silver solder which melts at an even higher temp.

That silver stuff is a pain in the but but is more effective with higher temp devices.

 

[Zap]

a new, apparently independent research report, that claims that eutectic solder bumps, which are used for example by AMD?s ATI unit, may live much longer than high-lead versions.
...
which leads the scientist to believe
...
eutectic solder joints may have a longer life than the high-lead joints
...
If Tu?s findings are accurate
...
it appears to be clear that a simple switch without further research is simply not possible
...
the eutectic SnPb solder joint may have at least ten times longer life-time than the composite solder joint
...
However, he stopped short of actually predicting the actual life time of both joints ? which would require ?the real microstructure of these two kinds of flip chip solder joints [to] be studied and actual failure rate [to] be measured.?

A lot of "may" and "leads to believe" and "if."

Eutectic describes a property in the solder. High lead solder can be eutectic as well. Maybe NVIDIA was just trying to reduce the amount of lead for reasons other than failures. RoHS anyone?

Who knows. Who cares. I just want my graphics cards to be cheap, fast and reliable, and both ATI and NVIDIA have products more expensive than I care to pay, products too slow to interest me and I've personally seen failed GPUs from both companies. *SIGH*

"Making news... out of nothing at all." With apologies to Air Supply.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I think the Drivers for ATI solder are better.

 

[badnewcastle]

I think the purchasers for Nvidia's raw materials are stuck with machines running on ATI gpu's. Thus, creating too much heat in the office so they just purchased the first thing on the list in order to leave early.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: WaTaGuMp
I think the Drivers for ATI solder are better.

Yeah thank goodness they release monthly updates to work out any bugs with the solder.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: WaTaGuMp
I think the Drivers for ATI solder are better.

Yeah thank goodness they release monthly updates to work out any bugs with the solder.

With the fan profile fix I keep my solder at nice cool temps also.