XFX 7900GT Finally given up...

[streetster]

Hey Guys,

Firstly. This card is noisy. So I went out and bought a Zalman vf-900 cooler for it. When the cooler was on, despite it making full contact with the core, I would get artifacts in 3dmark 2006 Deep Freeze. So I put the stock cooler back on. No glitches at all.

I decided to try some Tomb Raider today, just to avoid working, and now the card has decided to start artifacting again.

Below are some screenshots - the texture flashes on screen dont seem to be picked up by a print screen, and Deep Freeze didnt glitch as bad as before, although I only ran it three times...



Would you guys say this is grounds for an RMA?

[Agent]

RMA it.
Its a goner.

[streetster]

RMA it.
Its a goner.

Cheers buddy, have created a thread in the scan forum, if I cant RMA it back to them I guess i'll have to send it off to XFX

[scrandman]

Hi streetster - let me know how you go. I have similar problems with mine, but on a lesser scale and only with certain apps. Reason I haven't RMAd yet is that I've been told scan use 3DMark06 to test for faults, and I can't get the problem with it. Also I don't get the typical flashing black screen associated with ****ed 7900GT.

[streetster]

hmm, next time i get a chance i'll leave it looping Deep Freeze... i tried the '10mhz overclock' trick, but that gave the same result as stock... also the card isnt getting *that* hot.. it seems to idle around 50-60ish, and artifacts at 80.. something aint quite right!

couple more screenies:

[scrandman]

I only have the freebie version of 3DMark06, so can't use the loop option (unless I'm missing something).

The 10MHz overclock worked great for me, right up until a week before scan's 1 year warranty ran out... Now even stock 1320 memory clocks don't help...

I get the same issue as you with C&C 3 on highest settings and once saw the same with Medieval Total War 2. Otherwise I can't find fault with the card - ultimately this is why I haven't RMA'd, as I'm sure I'd get a NFF and be out of pocket with the postage for the priveledge.

Edit: My temps rarely see 50C

Edit2: Added some of my screenshots of "joy":

[Agent]

Mine was NFF'ed at first - more so because there was zero errors in a 3d mark running.

Search for a thread in there by me. If you let them know of this issue, they will run different tests to try and find it. Pands did mine on the second RMA and it was sorted the day they had it.

Sadly it had to be RMA'ed to XFX though, but it was done in under a week, so cant complain

[streetster]

Mine was NFF'ed at first - more so because there was zero errors in a 3d mark running.

Search for a thread in there by me. If you let them know of this issue, they will run different tests to try and find it. Pands did mine on the second RMA and it was sorted the day they had it.

Sadly it had to be RMA'ed to XFX though, but it was done in under a week, so cant complain

Hi Agent,

I had a search, found a thread with a link to your site where you said you had some videos of the fault, that link is now dead, but i found this image, is that from the same fault?

So far BF2, and Tomb Raider are giving me artifacts, I tried the 'pixel shader' test (feature test i think its called) in 3dmark06, and this gave me some dodgy textures, but must've missed the printscreen button, and in true sod's law fashion, i cant reproduce it! 2hours of looping deep freeze also didnt yield a thing, how annoying!

Any other games/apps you think I should try just to make sure this card doesnt get NFF'd straight off?

[e!]

made a crappy-quality 15 second movie of tomb raider glitching, print-screen doesnt pick this up

youtuuuube'd

used fraps and recorded a better one, on youtube again here <--- this is a better demonstration of the problem

[vmong]

Hey all, im pretty new what does RMA mean? and is faulty GFX cards a common problem?

[Agent]

Hi Agent,

I had a search, found a thread with a link to your site where you said you had some videos of the fault, that link is now dead, but i found this image, is that from the same fault?

Actually, yup it is
I said didn't error in 3d mark - that wasn't entirely true. It wouldn't error on anything bar the last credit screen.
I took the videos down because someone thought it would be funny to link them on another forum for showing 7x00 series issues that sometimes happens - suffice to say my bandwidth got a bit cained.

There is one video that i left on the gallery - grab it at http://www.adrian-gurney.com/gallery...?g2_itemId=468

If you want, I can try to find out the old ones, but i suspect its pretty much the same thing

[Agent]

Hey all, im pretty new what does RMA mean? and is faulty GFX cards a common problem?

RMA = return materials authorisation. Basically it means to send a product back because its faulty

As for graphics cards faults - they are pretty rare, but the 7x00 range has had a few. These have mainly been down to the manufactures though and not nVidia. For example, there have been a much higher number of faulty cards from XFX recently than other brands.

In all honesty though, its not something you should be concerned about

[streetster]

Hi again Agent

thanks for the offer of the videos, but hopefully I should be able to RMA this back to scan and be all sorted

[Agent]

With an issue like this, its well worth speaking to Pands and the guys from the RMA department via the Scan forum so they know exactly what to look for and minimise the risk of a NFF.

Go and post the screenies in there too

[asteroth]

just my tuppence, my XFX 7900GT started throwing artefacts and tearing and generally misbehaving, using ATI tool i could not get it stable until it dropped to 230Mhz! I had to post back to LoW twice (oh how i regretted not buying from scan) as they would not believe it was faulty.

any way point of the ramble, i eventually took it to Cex to test everything before offering you a silly price for it, they found it faulty and stamped the receipt as such which i packed in the box for Low on the 3rd time, no postage but a full refund in the end. fek i can waffle, if you can get it tested elswhere to corroborate your story!

[streetster]

hehe, cheers, Scan sent it off to XFX a couple of weeks ago, and the replacement card arrived this morning

[Clunk]

What was the replacement? not another 7900GT?