I hate NVIDIA!

[OilSheikh]

My Inno3D GTS 250 Fcatory-OC card has become faulty recently. PC kept freezing up within 10 mins. of any game, so I took the card apart and put some Coolermaster silvber thermal paste and put everything back and now , I get matrix characters all over the screen on bootup.
Once Windows starts, all's good but I can't increase resolution or enable Aero. Speedfan no longer detects GPU temp and NVIDIA control panel says Your display is not connected to a Nvidia graphics card.

This card lasted me 2 years. Before that, my 8800GT died suddenly one day after no display came after a restart. On both cards, I used the AC Accelero S1 and a Scythe 12cm case fan cable-tied onto it , whose fan speed was reduced during normal PC usage ( 500 rpm, 50C) and was ramped up ( 1100rpm ) during gaming.

What gives? Has Nvidia become crap ?

[Terbinator]

Well plenty of people are still using the G80's today so their design isn't at fault completely.

Buy a better brand next time?

[aidanjt]

Yeah I just gave away my 8800 after getting the 460. Still hammering away like a champ in my friends machine. Although that was a BFG, and this one is EVGA. I don't know Inno3D, but I don't think it would be a stretch to say their QA process probably isn't up to scratch.

[jim]

BFG and EVGA used to do the longest warranties, so if any card was going to last the distance you'd think it would be one of them.

[Sputnik]

I will never buy an Nvidia product again after the last one having the support life shorter than a goldfishes memory.

The reply email from them was a cracker, Thanks for buying our product, We have decided that we will no longer be providing updated drivers for it.

[aidanjt]

I hate nVidia for buying 3Dfx after belittling their superior visual quality with ZOMGFPSES! marketing aided in their downfall. But, never the less, their Linux drivers actually work well. Can't use AMD until either they rewrite their Linux binaries to make them not be a great big pile of crap, or manage to deliver first class opensource drivers like Intel are doing.

[OilSheikh]

So, who are top partners for NVIDIA and Radeon ?

[blueball]

I will never buy an Nvidia product again after the last one having the support life shorter than a goldfishes memory.

The reply email from them was a cracker, Thanks for buying our product, We have decided that we will no longer be providing updated drivers for it.

But you get the drivers direct from Nvidia!!!

[Terbinator]

So, who are top partners for NVIDIA and Radeon ?

ATI i'm not too sure, but for Nvidia it's pretty much EVGA exclusively, although you can't go wrong with a card from 'the big three' of Asus, Gigabyte & MSI.

[Ferral]

XFX used to be the daddy for Nvidia, build quality and quality of components are second to none. I have an old 6600 Gt AGP and it is still going strong in my mother in laws machine all these years later.

For ATI Sapphire are the main ones followed by HIS. I had a Sapphire X1950 Pro when they came out though, it was one of the first models and I had serious problems with it.

Gigabyte make decent VGA cards now.

Inno3D seemed to have gone downhill over the past few years, components they use seem to die shortly after warranties. Had capacitors go pop on me, fans failing mainly.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This thread should be useful if you want an indication of how good the warranties are:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=18231329

TBH,the warranty also is dependent on what retailer you use too.

I have quite a few graphics cards in the last 4 to 5 years.

Among them have been an X1900GT,HD3870,HD4830,HD5670,HD5850,8500GT and an 8800GTS 512MB. The only card which stop working was an 8800GTS 512MB.

Edit!!

If you can afford this MSI HD6870 1GB looks quite good value for money:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...s-free-shogun2

This MSI HD6850 also looks decent:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...-free-shogun-2

Both cards will be much faster than a GTS250.

[Sputnik]

But you get the drivers direct from Nvidia!!!

Nvidia decided to stop doing updated drivers for the Chipset on the motherboard I bought. So they just were not available.

[MaddAussie]

What chipset?

[Sputnik]

What chipset?

It was an Nforce3 ultra. Not that bothered now as I don't have it anymore

[OilSheikh]

Thanks for the link CAT.

So, top partners are GIGABYTE, KFA2, PNY, ZOTAC, EVGA and MSI

Personally, I have seen that MSI's average coolers in most of their cards are silent.
( From experience > 7900GT, HD3870 and 8800GT )

[OilSheikh]

This MSI HD6850 also looks decent:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...-free-shogun-2

Both cards will be much faster than a GTS250.

You mean this one ?