As if the whole
defective NVIDIA GPU situation couldn't get any more confusing, The Inquirer is now reporting that the
previous batch of bad GPUs may be far from the end of NVIDIA's problems. Apparently, four unspecified board partners are now saying that they're seeing G92 and G94 chips going bad at "high rates" as well, and in both desktop and laptop cards no less. That includes 8800GT, 8800GTS, 8800GS graphics cards, "several mobile flavors" of the 8800, "most" of the 9800 suffixes, and a few 9600 variants, all of which are based on the G92. As for the G94, it seems the only card affected is the
9600GT. Of course, none of this is nearly as set in stone as the previous lot of problems, but we have a sneaking suspicion this won't be last we hear about it.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
jason @ Aug 12th 2008 1:37PM
just the thing ATI needed
I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Aug 12th 2008 8:30PM
I'll take ATi's "alleged" bad drivers over nVIDIA's known bad hardware any day.
Cash @ Aug 12th 2008 11:46PM
Umm.. when the hell did The Inquirer free up headline space from stories about Batboys, half fish-half man love children of Elvis etc to make room for the latest tech happenings anyway?
linuxamp @ Aug 13th 2008 7:29AM
Now if Intel chips start spontaneously combusting then AMD/ATI will really take off.
DarkHelmet @ Aug 13th 2008 11:02AM
@Cash theinquirer.net is different from the national enquirer. You can find your favourite British tabloid at http://www.nationalenquirer.com/
JoeB @ Aug 12th 2008 1:39PM
This is bad news... My recent quad core has 2 x 8800 GT OC2's in it..
Crap...
broli @ Aug 12th 2008 2:16PM
Relax. Let's not forget that that Inquirer idiot is the biggest nvidia hater around. Let's also not forget how they like to post every rumour generally. now combine those two and you get a big load of shit which they call news.
Don't you find it weird that most these cards have been around longer than a year but only now this arises. If this was true,nvidia users all over the world would have noticed and made big news yet it didn't and probably won't. So just relax and enjoy your hardware.
blizz419 @ Aug 12th 2008 3:13PM
yea man why report what the inquirer puts up these are the same people that report on alien babies and other rediculous shit, fuck the inquirer you fuckin retards and i'm not a NVIDIA fanboy either i'mctually happy to see ATI step there game up when AMD took em over
A.C.E.R. @ Aug 12th 2008 4:35PM
umm blizz...have you even been to theinquirer.net? It's not the tabloid you douche.
Ridgecity @ Aug 12th 2008 5:11PM
"I wanna have that alien's babies!"
crispy @ Aug 12th 2008 1:42PM
Hmm...maybe I'll pick up an ATI this go around, too bad their scaling for HDTV's suck.
rahul @ Aug 12th 2008 1:44PM
Thats a very very big claim and a lot of trouble for Nv if true.
I dont think Charlie @ L'inq (whose sole aim in life seems to be hating Nvidia) is a particular trusty source. Waiting for confirmation from some other news site. As of now everyone is just reporting about the Inquirer claim.
kal326 @ Aug 12th 2008 2:39PM
All aboard the FUD train.....chugga, chugga, BULLLLL - SHHHIIITTTTTT
Isaac @ Aug 12th 2008 1:44PM
When I first got my ATI 3870 card I kind of regretted it because I thought the 8800GT would of been a better buy.
Now I'm glad.
white_ultras @ Aug 12th 2008 2:46PM
also 3870 drains less power due to more advanced and smaller chip process
FB @ Aug 12th 2008 1:46PM
Crap, just bought a 9600GT
Howard @ Aug 12th 2008 3:56PM
I dunno, I've had a 9600GT for 5 months and it's still going strong. Maybe it's just one bad batch?
Zak @ Aug 12th 2008 1:46PM
My 8800GT has always worked perfectly, and it still does. For whatever that's worth.
Jason @ Aug 12th 2008 2:02PM
Same here, no problems at all, knock on wood.
Cal @ Aug 12th 2008 3:32PM
My first 8800GT died after about 6 flawless months while under no stress at all, but haven't had any problems with its replacement
Rob @ Aug 12th 2008 1:47PM
If I ran a news site, I don't think I'd use the inquirer as the sole source of my stories, especially when the inquirer has a very obvious bias against a certain company, say NVIDIA.
kjb434 @ Aug 12th 2008 2:12PM
This isn't a news site!
It's a blog full of opinion.
Unbiased posts are not to be expected.
Rob @ Aug 12th 2008 2:15PM
OK, unbiased posts shouldn't be expected, but neither should straight-up FUD, which is any Inq article written by Charlie about NVIDIA.
Kiteless @ Aug 12th 2008 1:48PM
So far the 8600GT in my ASUS G1S-A1 Laptop has been fine. No problems at all. I have not done any driver updates for Video since all this GPU failing news started. I also haven't seen any official word from ASUS as to what is going on. Have you folks?
- Kiteless
"ATI/AMD Fan Boy"
Hamidxa @ Aug 12th 2008 2:01PM
Very true.
For a period of about 1.5 years, NV was very complacent.
Case in point, in Fall of 2006, NV launched the 8800 GTX.
In Spring of 2008 (a full 1.5 years later) NV launched the 9800 GTX, the supposed successor to the 8800GTX.
Ironically however, the 1.5 year old 8800 GTX was still just as fast as the 9800 GTX.
(Im aware that it was a new GPU, the G92, and the memory bus was changed as well -- a downgrade actually, but for all intents and purposes a name change is what it was, and they expected customers to pay more for it because it had a '9' in the name instead of an '8')
If that isnt complacency and trying to bank on uninformed customers, then I don't know what is.
you @ Aug 12th 2008 2:05PM
the 8600gt uses the g84 gpu. so you probably won't have any problems
GSpruce @ Aug 12th 2008 2:29PM
I have the same laptop(G1S-A1), and apart from it being rather hot(as a gaming laptop is epxected to be), i haven't had any problems. and @"you" its the 8600mGT which is affected supposedly.
@kiteless if anything did go wrong, don't expect Asus to do a damned thing.
Acariquara @ Aug 12th 2008 1:52PM
8800GTX and 320/640mb 8800GTSs are G80-based, so no failure there.
erik.david.nelson @ Aug 12th 2008 1:52PM
Glad I bought an EVGA card. Lifetime warranty!
Alex @ Aug 12th 2008 1:53PM
I thought it was localized to mobile chips. I might get an ATI this christmas after all.
maveric101 @ Aug 12th 2008 1:53PM
for those with laptops that have the 9600M GT, i think we're fine, as i believe those use the G96 core. correct me if i'm wrong.
also, i have a BFG 8800GT OC in my desktop, and that's been running fine for about 6 months, i hope it keeps it up.
LordAvalon @ Aug 12th 2008 2:15PM
Just got one of those in my HP dv7t!
WHEW! I was starting to get worried....
killermojo @ Aug 12th 2008 2:34PM
9600 uses the 94 core...
maveric101 @ Aug 12th 2008 3:10PM
@killermojo
no, i believe that's refering to the desktop graphics card. heres where i got my info on the G96 core of the 9600M (notice the "M") GT.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9600M-GT.9449.0.html
neofolklore @ Aug 13th 2008 8:00AM
don't worry, they'll probably be in the news next week
maveric101 @ Aug 13th 2008 2:44PM
in case you people needed any more proof that killermojo was wrong, here it is:
xtreview.com/addcomment-id-4813-view-Nvidia-G9x-mobile-GPu-list.html
i repeat, the 9600M (notice the "M") GT uses the G96 core.
was to uprank the wrong person.
poematik14 @ Aug 12th 2008 1:55PM
Pay off blogs to post biased and unreliable "news" to stir unrest and doubt/fud in the competitors fanbase. Then, advertise your product on the same blog as "worlds fastest graphics card.". Very clever, ATI. Too bad you still suck. We still have CUDA/Physx.
you @ Aug 12th 2008 2:03PM
yeah but it is the fastest card right now... they were only stating a fact.
Kiteless @ Aug 12th 2008 2:09PM
"You" He has stated *ONE* fact, nVidia has Cuda/PhysX, but he is doing it in a very tasteless way, and everything else is him accusing ATI of false information, something he is in fact doing in the process!
Because that is what people on the internet do, act like jerks because they could get away with it. If he/she was in a room with everyone that posted in in this article before him/her they would say nothing at all.
poematik14 @ Aug 12th 2008 2:11PM
@ James Cameron:
http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_physxgames_home.html
UT3, AoE III, Mass Effect to name a few.
Synergy6 @ Aug 12th 2008 2:15PM
@ James Cameron,
As of August 12, 2008 re. Physx-usage : "140 shipping titles for Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii", with "20 more PC titles expected before the year-end". It's not that hard to find out.
Jackrabbix @ Aug 12th 2008 3:30PM
yeah, as a PC hardware specialist, I have replaced about a dozen fan/heatsink arrays on broken Nv cards in the last 2 years that had 'died' to overheating.
I have also replaced the fan/heatsink on a single ATI (that was still running fine without them, but I thought it would be prudent).
All fanbois please TFSU.
Carl Vitullo @ Aug 12th 2008 4:11PM
although the 4850 does run pretty hot, i haven't heard any complaints. i build PCs for my friends, and i've used them since they came out.
also, i think you mean "STFU". a sentiment with which i agree wholeheartedly.
Hamidxa @ Aug 12th 2008 1:56PM
Well, add GTX 280's to that list.
I have had one die on me within a matter of 3 days, no overclocking, no excessive heat build up, just idling at the desktop at 53C when it decided to stop rendering all of a sudden.
There are entire forums full of threads where other people are reporting the same high failure rates for GTX 280's (just hit up Hardforum, nvnews, or just about any other major online forum and people are complaining left and right about how they are on their second or third units).
you @ Aug 12th 2008 2:01PM
alright. So your saying your electronic product failed? I don't want to sound like a jerk, but it will happen sometimes. One isolated incident doesn't confirm much. Now on the other hand if alot of people start saying that the gx200 gpus start failing then there may be some merit to your claims
Hamidxa @ Aug 12th 2008 2:40PM
you,
If you had read beyond the first sentence that I wrote, rather than impetuously remarking, then my point would have resonated with you better.
As it stands, when my GTX 280 failed on me, I decided to peruse through a few other sites (the aforementioned [H]forum, nvnews, rage3D, anandtech, etc.) and I came to discover that hundreds if not thousands of forum members were on their 2nd and/or 3rd units.
Given NV's recent problems and the monolithic design of the GTX 280, (and given the fact that it hits 100+C on load like nobody's business), it doesn't really surprise me that my case is *NOT* an isolated one.
you @ Aug 12th 2008 5:57PM
again i don't wanna sound like a jerk, but forums are not reliable sources of info when it comes to stuff like that. Sure, I'll bet that there are many failed gtx280's out there but probably not in the numbers that actually warrant a recall.
Hamidxa @ Aug 12th 2008 7:51PM
I cant help but to be reminded of the Xbox 360.
It has a failure rate of 30+ % and yet Microsoft didn't recall it, they simply decided to adjust their warranty for it.
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the failure rate for the GTX 280s is also in that range, and while forums are not completely representative of the whole, I still find online polls such as the ones on the various sites ("has your GTX 280 failed") to be fairly enlightening at least.
By the same token, I wouldn't expect NV to issue a recall either, especially when their entire reputation is built on the basis of them being the preeminent *High-End* GPU manufacturer in the world.
I too would dismiss such claims as anecdotal evidence.
cjgunit @ Aug 12th 2008 1:58PM
i have an 8800gt and i run folding@home for about 10 hours per day while i am at school and work. that keeps the gpu at practically 100% the whole time. pc wizard 08 pegs it at 75*c while at that load. if my core were faulty, that would have certainly brought it down a long time ago.
narutogrey @ Aug 12th 2008 3:13PM
The problem with the initial round of failures was due to thermal fatigue. By keeping your card at a high 75 degrees, it helps prevent the failure. The only better scenerio would be if you didn't use your card at all. Besides that, constant load is the best thing for the card right now.