Serious reliability problems with Nvidia Graphics cards

[Creig]

I just took a GF256 out of service from my garage computer and have now relegated it to my spare parts bin for testing purposes on AGP machines. That video card has been running 24/7 in one computer or another since I bought the thing something like 8 years ago. Aside from replacing the stock HSF, it's been working like a champ (and let's face it, who expects a stock fan to run for 8 years). ATI and Nvidia both get good marks in reliability from me.

 

[Genx87]

Had one video card die on me. That was my 8800GTS 640 after 2 years of service. RIP.

 

[taltamir]

someone has to win the lottery, you won the lottery of one company faulty cards.

 

[taltamir]

TI 4600 (faulty) - always had problems with this card since i had it out of the box, would run a game then after about 2 munites with BSOD then restart the pc, changed to radeon 9200SE

It was defective right out of the box and you kept it?

 

[Slugbait]

I had a fan die on a Ti200 Personal Cinema card about four years ago. Compro sent me a new fan, the card is still going strong in the wife's machine.

I pulled my working FX5200 last year from my HTPC and replaced it with a 6200. My Ti4600, unlocked/overclocked 6800, and 8600GTS SuperClocked are all running fine after years of use.

I bought a used Ti4200 that bit the dust after about two years. That's the only truly bad nVidia experience I've had.

At work, someone was dumb enough to buy a bunch low-profile Dell boxes, with onboard video. We all needed dual-monitor, and there aren't many low-profile video cards out there. We ordered a couple-dozen ATi cards, I believe they were x1300s: about a dozen died within six months, quite a few more didn't last the year.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: nRollo
I've owned and used literally dozens and dozens of ATi, NVIDIA, S3, 3DFX, Tseng, and probably more types of cards and never had one fail.

Originally posted by: Wreckage
Never had a video card problem (ATI, NVIDIA, 3DFX, S3, Cardex, Cirrius Logic, etc.) I did blow through 2 PSUs recently a few hard drives and I lost a motherboard once. Although I have bought, sold and used 1000's of parts.

Seriously? Wow...

I've never had a card die on me over time, but I also don't own cards for very long. I sold a 9700 Pro years ago to a buddy of mine that died last year though.

Generally, when I've had issues it's been when the cards were new. I tend to make sure my cards work first before OCing also, so that isn't it. Some cards are just defective. I've certainly had my fair share of these...

PNY GeForce 3 Ti200 - there was a capacitor loose in the anti-static bag (exchanged Comp-USA)
Gainward FX 5900 - never worked right. It's been so long I don't even remember exactly what it was. (RMA'ed to Newegg)
EVGA 6800GT - artifacts at stock in Doom3 (RMA'ed) (might have actually been a power issue)
HIS X1900XTX - artifacts at stock clocks (RMA'ed - took 3 months!!!)
7900GT (two in SLI) - screen 'jitters'. Never seen anything like it before or since. Returned to Monarch
8800GTX - launch day purchase - artifacts at stock clocks (exchanged with Micro Center)
HD 4850 (2 of these) - both cards would crash at stock speeds, probably due to crappy stock cooler. These were supposed to be a Crossfire set (for $300), but that never happened. (Returned to Best Buy)

 

[OCGuy]

Never had a card die......*knocks on wood*

Recently:

X800
X1300
8800GTS640
9800GTX
GTX260
2X GTX280


Although I never keep them long enough for one to go out.....

 

[VirtualLarry]

I should mention that I've had a recent video-card death, an Asus "top" 9600GSO, that was factory overclocked. I had it running in a four-GPU F@H rig, in a (well-ventilated!) Antec 300 case, and it still ran at 96C. Died in two weeks. The other twin of that card has only reached 84C, and it's still going strong.

I think that perhaps the card that died had poor heatsink mounting, if it was running more than 10C higher than the next card in line. Both EVGA cards with single-slot reference coolers stay cool, 71C and 77C. Asus's heatsink really sucks.

I didn't overclock the card beyond whatever the factory BIOS clocks were. Unfortunately, unlike the EVGA cards, the Asus cards had no fan-control option under RivaTuner. Something different about those cards I guess.

What can I say. Avoid Asus video cards. I have yet to RMA, Asus's web site says to send them back to the reseller, which is NewEgg in this case. Hopefully they will replace it, and not with a 9600GT.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: nRollo
I've owned and used literally dozens and dozens of ATi, NVIDIA, S3, 3DFX, Tseng, and probably more types of cards and never had one fail.

Originally posted by: Wreckage
Never had a video card problem (ATI, NVIDIA, 3DFX, S3, Cardex, Cirrius Logic, etc.) I did blow through 2 PSUs recently a few hard drives and I lost a motherboard once. Although I have bought, sold and used 1000's of parts.

Seriously? Wow...

I've never had a card die on me over time, but I also don't own cards for very long. I sold a 9700 Pro years ago to a buddy of mine that died last year though.

Seriously- and some of my old cards live on in friends boxes who have less demanding needs than me.

 

[will889]

One TI4200 I OC'ed too high (my fault) died and a 9700 pro died which ATI replaced. I think I have had about 8-10 other cards not counting fill ins and non gamer duty cards and none of them died while I had them.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: nRollo
LOL- I've owned and used literally dozens and dozens of ATi, NVIDIA, S3, 3DFX, Tseng, and probably more types of cards and never had one fail.

I think you just jinxed yourself.

Currently in aigomorla's signature here: "ROFL.. lost 4 ati cards and counting.."

I've seen or read about failures of just about any brand of any part. Then again, I used to do computer repairs, so the only computers brought to me were the failures.

Of my own personal stuff, I've had failures from both red and green teams. Two x800 series cards started artifacting badly after 2-3 months, as did one 7900 GT after a year. A freshly purchased Leadtek 6800 GT artifacted badly on the POST screen, but that was a bad batch of refurbs on Newegg BITD (there was a long thread in Hot Deals which turned into people complaining about DOA cards). Also, had a 6800 LE artifact, but that was only on the unlocked pipes, so purely my fault. Un-did my unlock and it was fine.

This thread reminds me of stuff I'll see in Memory and Storage... person A will only buy Seagate because he's always had WD drives die on him, while person B will only buy WD because he's always had Seagate drives die on him.

 

[Grinja]

I would imagine you just had a bad run ... the range of cards I've used have never died while in use.

 

[Keysplayr]

Cards I have had fail on me in order:

GeForce MX420. (Fan dies) Card ran fine without the fan though, never bothered with RMA.

Radeon 9700. (two of these in a row failed. memory problems with lines on screen. RMA'd twice)

GeForce 5900nu (memory problems. lines on screen. RMA'd and got a 5900U in return from BFG)

That's all folks.

 

[AmberClad]

I haven't personally had any cards fail on me through defects.

- I had a 6800nu that I broke (got carried away cleaning the cooler and left a nice gouge in the die). Not really a huge loss since it was obsolete by then anyway.
- There was a G80 8800GTS that I sold to a member here. I had always run it at stock, so I didn't know what kind of OCing headroom it had, but the buyer told me he managed to get a pretty impressive OC out of it. Couple weeks later, he told me he was getting artifacts...

I'm still waiting to hear aigo's story as far as what happened to his four cards. He's very hard on his parts -- one of the few people around here who's managed to kill a Wolfdale. I would theorize that he was Folding on the cards, but I would have thought he'd use NV cards instead, since they currently get higher PPDs.

 

[Shmee]

My old 6800 GT from BFG failed after a few years, just had to RMA it. then I sold the replacement to a friend later, but it worked fine. I have had a radeon 9600 XT go bad, if I remember correctly, wasnt in my comp though, sold it to my mom I think. My dad had a x1550 go bad I do believe, likes to artifact off and on. I ordered a BFG 8800 ultra once, it was DOA. Big fight with ebay and paypal, eventually had to just go to visa.

my 8800 GT worked fine, (though my old monitor's backlight died while I was using it on crysis) as did my x1650, and so does my GTX 260 c216. My 9800 GTX started some weird artifacting at one point, but I fixed that with a driver/OS reinstall or something.

Also, while talking about nvidia products I have owned 2 nvidia mobos, and tbh, they work pretty well too, though I am sad for lack of better bios support for my 780i FTW. my 680i LT had some nice features for its time, though its kinda hard to OC the newer procs with it. (e5200, also had trouble with my q6600 GO)

so, ya, I have good and bad luck with both companies, though I think a bit better with nvidia. of course, I may be a tad bit biased, B/C I started out gaming with the 6800 GT, when the ATi cards sucked with doom 3 engine. :C

 

[MegaWorks]

I've used both camps and I never had any problems with my cards.

 

[HOOfan 1]

Arrrr...you see that thar? That was from a Mako shark...and that thar...well let me tell you the story of the USS Indianapolis. We had just finished delivering the atomic bomb and....

wait we are re-enacting that scene from Jaws where they are comparing scars right?

seriously I have a Geforce 3 Ti200 still running...although I have had some problems that I suspect may be atributed to it....however I believe it has a passive heatsink so 6 years of running is pretty good.