Average lifetime of graphics card (before becoming faulty)?

[sam3]

As the title says im trying to find out the average lifetime of a graphics card before becoming faulty.
I am a regular gamer and although I dont tend to hang on to cards too long I have seen many of my old cards die in family/friends computers

I have had an Asus 7300gs last 1.5 years
EVGA 8600gts 3 years
8800gt 3 years
Zotac 7600gt 2 years


Still currently alive:
ATI 3600 4 years+
Zotac gtx260 3 years+
Amd 6970 1 year+

Whats your experience with graphics cards like? They seem to be the only component that breaks/ becomes faulty in my old builds (I still have a few skt 939 machines in use )

[Bambooz]

Stay away from nvidia if you want it to last At least the GF9 and older.
Their BGA/Bump problems is what ruins their cards. The heydays of that problem were the GF8 series.. those cards died like flies cause they ran so hot (sudden temp. changes) or they had a crappy single-slot cooler.

I currently still have my Sapphire HD3850, Leadtek 8800GTS (G80) and PoV GTX260.

Several 7600GT, 7800GT, 8500GT and 8600GT in family computers or my old rigs slowly died. First random lockups and BSODs, then random pixel-salad on the screen and when they're really done for, they don't show any image at all, despite the computer booting up without complaining about no GPU (most of the time).

The 8800GTS also has problems with this, but as long as you keep the cooler clean and fix their little design problem (thermal pads on the memory chips shrink with age, making them overheat and fail) they should keep going.
The 8800GT/9600GT/9800GT with the single-slot coolers also died like flies, simply because they run so damn hot with those crappy coolers. Thermal cycling combined with the cards running hot is what kills them in the "long" run. Most of these only make it to the "random multi-coloured pixel salad" stage. Few die completely (blackscreen).

My GTX260 is still going strong, but if you take a look at for example the EVGA forums, there are tons of people with the much hotter-running GTX280/285 which are on their way out or dead as a rock already.
As long as you keep the GPU cool (clean heatsink) and avoid strong sudden temperature jumps, they'll survive for a looong time.

PS: my oldest card that's still in use is an overclocked 6800GT AGP from 2004-2005 or thereabouts. No problems whatsoever, but then again, I'm using a 3rd party cooler on it (Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5)
The 6800GT was also the last card I bought brand new (for my own computer)..
All newer cards were bought used & dirt cheap, including my current HD6870 which I grabbed for 75eur / 62gbp (was a warranty return.. original buyer sent it back to the shop because the box was damaged)

[dave87]

Without wishing to jinx myself, the GPUs I've had (with the exception of ones I've killed - e.g. changing HSF etc) have outlasted the systems they were in...am I just lucky?

[maverick77_uk]

I've got a Radeon 9550 from 2005 that was used heavily for gaming and DVD watching - now light use - that is still going strong.

Also currently using a Geforce 8600GTS that was bought for £15 from Ebay a year and a half ago - still fine - although it does run hot, so wouldn't want to put too much money on it lasting forever!

[blueball]

8800GTX had since release, still going strong and gamed the hell out of it.

[shaithis]

Just had a spate of nVidia deaths within the family! My old 8800GTX which a friend bought from me a while ago, my mums 7800GT and her boyfriends 320MB 8800GTS (which used to be mine also!).

That all had a good innings though

[andy572]

This could be like the 'Which hard drive's best?' question!

I've had and seen cards from the red and green camps fold over within a year or two - even when not pushed much. For me, the first video failure was a passively cooled 6800 GT and I saw a 9500 Pro and a 9800 Pro stop working all too quickly. I've got working 3DFX cards from the 90s, an X800 XT PE (mmm, warming!) and in this PC right now, have a melt-through-the-centre-of-the-Earth 9800 GT. Like the X800, it was bought second-hand a couple of years ago and if I'm remembering correctly, had originally been one half of an SLI configuration.

I play games only rarely now and perhaps with the assistance of a reasonable power supply and otherwise good case cooling, maybe it's the under-clocking that's helped the X800 and this 9800. The X800 has an Arctic Cooling Silencer fitted and the 9800 has... a single-slot cooler! It looks useless! Thankfully, it's doing the job though. It's not quiet enough in this environment but it's working for now.

By the way, the 9800's currently about forty degrees above ambient (16 degrees C or less (feels colder)) - at half clocks! The PC had a rare rest overnight, so it might have the room warmed up again by the end of this evening!

[uannaka]

My GeForce MX ( I think that's the name.) lasted for about 6 years before it died. My ATI Radeon 5770 has been going strong for about 2 years I think.

[Phage]

Strange my old 7800GT is still going last I heard. (certainly they haven't asked me to fix it.) and my old 8800GT is still plugging away in Aus. I might actually bring that back home as a spare.

[kalniel]

I'm too small a sample size, but last I heard there's an OEM geforce 3ti-500 that's still working, otherwise I've had an OEM geforce 2 Ultra fail after two years, a leadtek 6800gt fail after three-four?, a leadtek 8800gt fail after about three, while on the AMD side I've had fewer cards, but they're all still working: sapphire x1950xt is still working 5+ years and a powercolor 4870 still working after 4+

[simonpreston]

I've had a GeForce 8800 GTS in my rig for almost exactly 5 years. Been trouble free.
I've just replaced it with a Radeon 5670 though to keep the noise and power levels down.

[Jejking]

My old ATi Radeon HD2600 Pro is still going strong until this very day, about 5 years old. Albeith moving between cases

That's good stuff, at least compared to the 8800GTX I had seen dying in my hands. That was nothing but a bad experience.

[sam3]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I was a little worried about the lifespan of GPU's after all the dead cards I had but im glad it only seems to be the confined to the nvidia 7*00 and 8*00 series. I should still be able to get a few more years out of my 6970 before upgrading

[cptwhite_uk]

I started work in 2004, installed an ATI 9550 into my work PC around 2005, that's now in reception and still going strong, and it was at least a year old when I bought it second hand...so that's going on 8 years.

[hb904460]

I have a Geforce 4 mx440 still going strong as well as a Radeon x1950gt. Both have standard cooling. No issues at all. Both were cleaned annually to keep them free from dust/fluff and used in cases with good airflow.

[ShadowKnight]

Well, so far it went all right, still own and run:

3dfx Voodoo 3 3000
3dfx Voodoo 3 2000
Hercules Geforce 3 Ti 500
XFX GTX260



The dustbunnies will be banned by using an R3 by fractal soon, though my CS-601 tower with 9 fans (its a turbine, really) never had the chance to collect dust