ATTENTION prospective 7900gt buyers

[[DW]Cougho]

This is a warning to all those about to purchase/thinking of purchasing a 7900gt.

As many will know i bought a 7900gt and as many will also know i overclocked it alot but lavished it with a zalman VF900 and its respective ramsinks. Now im no idiot when it comes to overclocking graphics cards so as usual i tested and re-tested my overclock under both high and low fan speed conditions, i DO NOT use unstable or "bench" overclocks, i go for the highest 100% stable overclock i can achieve.

Then i noticed things going pear shaped on the 7900gt, i was getting odd artifacts, trouble playing some videos and continual reboot cycles. At first i put this down to my motherboard which is frankly crap, it had video issues with the X1800XT i had too but was supposed to be ok with NVidia's lineup. However i had faith in my testing of my overclock (and it did have slight issues before i clocked aswell, again i put it down to my mobo) so i went a'googling.

I found this thread and many like it:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=179691

As a last resort though i undone every mod and my overclocks and tested again. I got the exact same problem. As of now its back for an RMA (which has been approved).

This is NOT an isolated issue by the looks of things and i would urge everyone to consider this when deciding to buy/not buy a 7900 series card, although it does seem its more confined to the GT's (in particular the pre-overclocked ones) rather than the GTX's.

Towards the end of that thread i want to link you directly to this post:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=593

I'd expect all major manufacturers to follow suit soon, and if you have a 7900 series card be extra vigilant for problems. When my new card gets here im going to run it in with ramsinks and a 92mm fan blowing over the rear of the card just in case.

[BUFF]

see http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

[SingingOrange]

intresting, now you got my worried, as I was thinking of getting new 7900gt. maybe I will go for the gtx instead

[[DW]Cougho]

see http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

Thanks Buff. Dated today, must say i didnt see that before i posted.

[sawyen]

Hugs my X1800XT.. *

But no suprise really, I used to have this sort of problem last time with my 6800GT when I pushed the card for far too high on far too long.. But unlike yours, undoing the OC gave the card life again..

[pumpman]

Itll work okay at stock speeds though?
im waiting for next gen anyway

[Smokey21]

Yeah, there fine at stock, and with very slight overclocks, but once you start pushing them, they bork.

Nvidia using cheaper mosfets, and other ****, to keep costs down. Either get a GTX, or ideally a X1900 or don't overclock.

[[DW]Cougho]

Not necessarily, thats the thing there is an in built problem with some component (probably the memory or memory power system) and even at stock it can detoriate. My card was showing signs of these problems at stock before i even clocked/replaced the cooler, of course i doubt overclocking it did much for its health. Read the thread i linked to and it explains how samsung validated the memory for these as being suitable for 1.8v, 1.9v max. Now for some reason manufacturers are shipping with 2v memory.

It is a superb card though.......... when it works. Depending on how nvidia and the board manufacturers handle this crisis it could severely damage/improve their reputation.

[Agent]

Nvidia using cheaper mosfets, and other ****,

1) nVidia make chips, then sell these to others to put on PCB's.
2) Mosfets have nothing to do with it. Where did you get that idea from ?
3) Did you even read the article ?

[jamena]

tbh if they sell the chips with a specification there's probably a good reason for the specification... Some may fail at stock - this happens with practically every product in which case you are entitled to an RMA - but you cannot just expect to be able to push the chip beyond it's rated bounds without accepting the fact that there may be consequences. Surely?

[ajones]

I think one of the arguaments is that this is a high end product, for the enthusiast market. Such markets have a very specific demographic and the manufacturers need to understand that buyers will overclock their goods. Even more, they must understand that the market is technically literate enough to be able to hide any tampering that may have caused the damage in the first place!

So yes, they can hide behind the "we told you so with the specs" thing, but if you want to keep your market happy, be prepared to bend over backwards!

[kalniel]

You managed to get an RMA even after overclocking and changing the default cooling? Impressive

Kudos to eVGA though.

[davidstone28]

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

I haven't noticed any o'cing problems on my stock card - Inno3D/DabsValue (450/1320) oc'd to 570/1600. I did get minor artefacting and the occasional flashing screen in the waterdragon scene of 3DMark06 beyond 570mhz, but thats to be expected because I've reached the limit of the overclock.

Also got a lock up in a specific scene of Oblivion and Fable, but that was caused by a services conflict in the system tray and the game due to some of the other software I run. Solved by disabling all non-Microsoft services in msconfig, so that you have a 'clean' boot.

Maybe its a case of the overclocked manufacturers BFG, XFX, eVGA etc not checking the cards sufficiently before selling them in overclocked form? Nvidia seemed to think that the primary problem areas re overclocking was that the vertex clock is 50mhz higher than the pixel clock.

Goes back to the same thing though doesn't it? Don't expect it to overclock, but if it does, its a bonus.

[Oobie-]

wow - thanks for the heads up. I was going to get a 7900gt from one of those 3 companies lol - its good to know eVGa have a good tech side to them which gets it sorted though.
I still don't know whether to go for ATI or nVIDIA

[Koolpc]

It is not just the Overclocked ones that are having issues! It is the stock ones too. I have read of a few people having problems with the ordinary stock core 7900's.

[jimborae]

........- its good to know eVGa have a good tech side to them which gets it sorted though.
I still don't know whether to go for ATI or nVIDIA

Thats for the US, UK rma process can & often is very different. - Just food for thought.

Also my XFX 7900gt's have been running fine with absolutely no issues