5970s defecting?

cherryghost

Just got a link from a mate, seems a lot of 5970s are failing after a week or two. Just googled it, seems to confirm it. Wonder what the story is? I wonder if its from overheating ? Seems its artifacting before becoming completely unusable.

Pity, was thinking of getting one for the lulz after christmas


EDIT: Seems it might be the 9.11/9.12 catalyst actually. Theres a hotfix released. Some peeps still having problems though. This is disappointing

AlmightyCushion

That's some expensive lulz, I like the way you roll. Given it's artifacting it would sound like overheating. Has any one managed to get temps from them.

super_sweeney

haha ragin thats why you should always stick to nvidia.

Overheal

super_sweeney wrote: »

haha ragin thats why you should always stick to nvidia.

Yea because theyre cards never f-oh wait yes they do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia#Defective_mobile_video_adapters

Of course the difference there was Nvidia tried to fix the problem with a driver that would just up the fan speed, so the card could limp on until it managed to fall out of warranty. It wound up becoming a Class Action lawsuit.

Here we have a card failing very early.

I think I know what I'd rather.

super_sweeney

ah sure thats in laptops, waste of time in my opninion trying to put high performance graphics cards into laptops always going to have cooling problems. but ati and there latest cards the 4870 and 4890 i think could be wrong on the models but they had huge overheating problems and now the same thing with their new high end models. in my opnion trust nvidia never let me down.

marco_polo

super_sweeney wrote: »

ah sure thats in laptops, waste of time in my opninion trying to put high performance graphics cards into laptops always going to have cooling problems. but ati and there latest cards the 4870 and 4890 i think could be wrong on the models but they had huge overheating problems and now the same thing with their new high end models. in my opnion trust nvidia never let me down.

No they haven't had had any such problems . I hate hardware fanboyism TBH, however only the most blinked could possibly be in denial that the current and last generations of ATI cards are made of win.

leninbenjamin

I read some weeks ago on a few various forums of people having to RMA their 5970s. The PCB and the GPU itself seemed fine, the common complaint seemed to a dodgy fan. I read a few people basically saying the fan came loose on their card and stopped spinning properly. Nobody was willing to void the warranty though to ascertain whether it was simply poor assembly or an actual design flaw.

I'd imagine it wont be an issue once we start to see non reference coolers, but for now it seems AMD rushed them to get them out for the Christmas period. Bad form for such a premium product to have such oversight in production.

super_sweeney

well here are just a few post i found in seconds of the overheating problems.
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1136991.html
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=274134
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/t298701.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/254958-33-4870-heating

you can call me a fanboy if you want call me what you want but if you read correctly i said in my opinion, and to be honest by you backing ati's corner that makes you an ati fanboy. everyone has their preferences and i have never had overheating problems with nvidia's cards. hence why i say "nvidia all the way!"

marco_polo

super_sweeney wrote: »

well here are just a few post i found in seconds of the overheating problems.
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1136991.html
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=274134
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/t298701.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/254958-33-4870-heating

you can call me a fanboy if you want call me what you want but if you read correctly i said in my opinion, and to be honest by you backing ati's corner that makes you an ati fanboy. everyone has their preferences and i have never had overheating problems with nvidia's cards. hence why i say "nvidia all the way!"

Looks like certain vendors made some dodgy 4870 cards, doesn't exactly suggest that there is an underlying problem with the ATI design. I note the complete absence of the HD4890 from your reply.

Like I said I don't actually care, if as a consumer you want to deprive yourself of choice, using simplistic nvidia good / ati bad rational, then more power to you.

super_sweeney

well if you dont really care how come you choose to abuse.

like i said in the five minutes i spent reserching i found those and in the two minutes i looked i found these.
http://www.ozone3d.net/smf/index.php?topic=2223.0
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/276595-33-radeon-4890-overheating-problems
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=329625

but yeah it is my choice to use nvidia over Ati and its your opinion that they are simplistic. i have just never had any issues with nvidia where as ati i have so naturally why change it if its not broken?

Overheal

super_sweeney wrote: »

ah sure thats in laptops, waste of time in my opninion trying to put high performance graphics cards into laptops always going to have cooling problems. but ati and there latest cards the 4870 and 4890 i think could be wrong on the models but they had huge overheating problems and now the same thing with their new high end models. in my opnion trust nvidia never let me down.

im sorry but as has been regularly pointed out to me, there was nothing "High Performance" about the 8400M GS. Ever. It still chose to begin exploding on me after 11 months. Though the symptoms were there from the start, i just didnt know what I was looking for. The day one artefacting on CSS should have been my first clue.

Regardless, its ridiculous to drag this down into fanboyisms. You should be aware though that nvidia cards are far from infallible. And if my math is right, the same model desktop cards (8-series) should be failing as well, as they are processed in virtually the same way as the mobile units. The only difference being that better cooling in a Desktop will prolong the inevitable.

http://gizmodo.com/5023963/inquirer-every-nvidia-graphics-card-with-g84-or-g86-chipset-is-ready-to-die

well if you dont really care how come you choose to abuse.

Says the guy whoms first 'contribution' to this thread was

haha ragin thats why you should always stick to nvidia.

But whatever if it aint broke for you dont fix it. Im not happy with Nvidia though after the 8400M. Have since bought a 4870 for the desktop and love it. That doesnt mean the next nvidia card I buy will fail, but my next card probably wont be a nvidia.

Wonda-Boy

Well let me set the record straight....

My 5970 is performing superbly.....everything performance wise is top notch. And this is coming from a GTX295.....my problem is very niggly and not exactly serious but for the price I aint gonna take it.

I can play and have played Dirt2 and Crysis and L4D2 over the weekend like a mad eeejitttt and never once had a problem....the card NEVER goes about 70 degrees and the fan never goes above 30% which is very quiet and I cannot hear it over my Tuniq HSF fan on low.....I am getting 43 FPS on the Crysis Benchmark suite with all the bells and whistle only a tad slower then an i7 rig.

HOWEVER.....

When sitting at desktop I get these faint GREEN LINES and unresponsiveness....upon restart I get an OUT OF SIGNAL message before windows kicks in. Another reset and boots perfect, then another 2D nightmare after hours of 3D gaming....its has happen on 9.11 and I cannot remember if it did on 9.12 yet...I think it has.....but very annoying all the same.

But as far as games go superb.....really good. My last 3 or 4 cards were nvidia from the super 7800GTX to the 8800GTX and the GTX295 all great cards...but my GTX295 memory packed up less then 11mths later....but I got €450 refund!!!!!
Hence the 5970 enters stage RIGHT!!!!

Flaccus

I found the vrms overheated on the things when overvolted/clocked to 5870 levels which resulted in throttling of 3d speeds, so went back to 5870's in trifire which seem to outperform quadfired 5970's due to better scaling. Personally I think the built in fan control on the 5970 and 5870 sucks. It's quiet for a reason as it never spins the fans up decently till the gpu's get to around 70 degrees. As bad as the GTX 295. So I use MSI Afterburner which allows you to set you own fan profiles. Anything over 50% though is like a hoover.

Wonda-Boy

Overkill....sums it up mate. I am struggling to justify a 5970 at the moment let alone 5970CF or a 5870CF3.....

Any who....The fan on the 5970 works perfectly...why do you want a fan spinning any faster then the idle speeds when the GPU is only 29 degrees ?

My 5970 idles at 29/30 degrees and the fan is 25%....the maximum my 5970 goes to is 85 degrees which is very cool considering most go up to late 90s even 100s, and even then the fan only goes to 40% to keep the card cool.

Any thing over 55/60% and the fan is very loud...so it works perfectly...unless you had a bad card.

Also you can manually set the fan speed in CCC aswell....but afterburner is a better APP as you can save the volts aswell without having to reset them upon start up.

I am getting a few niggles with the 5970 but I am hoping its driver related and not the card.

cherryghost

so has it been sorted or will you have to wait for the next set of drivers?

Wonda-Boy

Well I sent sapphire Tech an email as its pointless even discussing the "niggle" with Komplett.ie where I got the card.

So within two days I think its sorted....well it must be if they are taking these steps.

They asked me to copy my vbios using GPU-z (CPU-z for graphics Obviously) and send it to them with a screen shot of the setting etc.

They sent me a new bios last nite with a powerpoint presentation on how to flash my vbios. Apparently the bios on my card is not an OC version and my card is an OC version.....so they were sure this would fix the niggles.

I kinda new the the card was not 100% faulty as it games for hours on end but at the same time little stupid things like this on a card this exspensive is a no no.

I am gonna flash it tonite and lets hope problem solved....as it happens I have had no niggles is over a week but still its annoying.

astrofool

Expensive cutting edge hardware is usually the most buggy. It's a risk you take as an early adopter.

Wonda-Boy

Well issue is not sorted...still get the odd vertical line on screen and the odd cold start.

Even with the new 10.1 drivers. So I have to wait till the end of the month to send back the card as no stock for a few weeks. Turn out that a hell of alot of 5xxx series peeps having issues like grey screens etc.

MADNESS.