PCI-E Card for around £200-£220

Darkwave · 12 Jul 2006 at 15:10

Richdog said:
I haven't heard much about this failure epidemic... s it really that bad? Any particular brands or models?

Mostly XFX and eVGA from what I have heard, and mostly factory-overclocked 7900GTs but it applies to the whole 7900 series.

Bennah · 12 Jul 2006 at 20:50

Tbh, I have not seen loads of failed 7900 GT card stories about.

I think they are safe cards. Seen a lot of people around forums that are happy with thier cards.

Darkwave · 12 Jul 2006 at 20:53

Bennah said:
Tbh, I have not seen loads of failed 7900 GT card stories about.

I think they are safe cards. Seen a lot of people around forums that are happy with thier cards.

It's a fact they have the highest failure rate of any series graphics card in the last couple of years, I think XFX and eVGA actually published their RMA percentages at one point.

People are not making a big deal out of this for no reason.

Bezinator · 12 Jul 2006 at 21:06

I am deffo going for the x1800 then lol

Meatball · 12 Jul 2006 at 21:27

I was going to recieve a 7900GT for passing my exam results to but I'm not sosure now. What percentage of these are failing exactly? 50%+?

Bennah · 12 Jul 2006 at 21:53

Úlfhednar said:
It's a fact they have the highest failure rate of any series graphics card in the last couple of years, I think XFX and eVGA actually published their RMA percentages at one point.

People are not making a big deal out of this for no reason.

Got any links to these failures? Any percentages or what not?

Your making out that the 7900 GT is the worse card ever.

Plus, why get a X1800 XT instead of a 7900 GT?

Richdog · 12 Jul 2006 at 21:55

Bennah said:
Tbh, I have not seen loads of failed 7900 GT card stories about.

I think they are safe cards. Seen a lot of people around forums that are happy with thier cards.

5 of my friends have them... no problems yet.

Lost-Prophet said:
What percentage of these are failing exactly? 50%+?

Come on... 50%? That's just silly, it can't be that high.

Bennah · 12 Jul 2006 at 22:01

I hear ya...

The 7900 GT are great cards. I cant believe that they are getting slated for being failures, which they are not :rolleyes:

Darkwave · 12 Jul 2006 at 22:21

Lost-Prophet said:
I was going to recieve a 7900GT for passing my exam results to but I'm not sosure now. What percentage of these are failing exactly? 50%+?

No, something like 5% RMAs but that's 50%+ more than usual which is where you're getting the 50%+ figure from.

Bennah said:
Got any links to these failures? Any percentages or what not?

Your making out that the 7900 GT is the worse card ever.

Plus, why get a X1800 XT instead of a 7900 GT?

I am simply stating facts that the 7900 series (particularly factory-overclocked ones) have a stupidly high RMA rate of like 5% which gives them the worst failure rate since the 9800 Pro which were infamous in the beginning. Like I said, they are going to be replacing the Samsung memory on the 7900s with Infineon memory in the hopes of solving the problem, would they be doing this if there wasn't a reason?

As for why I would suggest an X1800XT instead, my reasons are simple; They are faster at stock and don't need a pencil-mod to overclock high as they can adjust voltages through software, they are also cheaper and proven to be more reliable so far (which isn't bad for "old tech.")

I am not saying the 7900 series sucks, so look elsewhere if it is a fanboy fight you want. If someone wants a 7900GT that's fine with me, and I hope they don't have the problems that 5%+ of them have had so far, I just think it's important people understand the risks involved before buying because, as you said, you have never heard about all this so not everyone has. If you frequent sites like AnandTech and other hardware enthusiast pages you will have seen regular news updates from companies like eVGA who actually published their RMA figures.

Richdog said:
Come on... 50%? That's just silly, it can't be that high.

Yeah, he was confused. The RMA rate is supposedly about 5% for these, which is about 50% higher than average according to eVGA and I think XFX confirmed it.

Bennah said:
The 7900 GT are great cards. I cant believe that they are getting slated for being failures, which they are not

Christ, some people. :rolleyes:

Look, I never said they sucked or were "a failure," I didn't even remotely imply it. All I said was that they have a high failure rate, there is a huge difference, so stop being defensive now if you please.

Richdog · 12 Jul 2006 at 22:46

Right, 5% sounds more realistic. But i'd probably still go with the 7900GT for that sort of money and risk the failure rate... for £175 it's a great deal and I personally would have one over an X1800XT... though i'd have an x1900XTX over a 7900GTX.

Eliot · 12 Jul 2006 at 23:40

i though a 7900gt was roughly the same as a 7800gtx and a 7800gtx is roughly the same as a 1800xt, so why pay more a card that performs similar but doesnt do hdr+aa?

Darkwave · 13 Jul 2006 at 00:00

Eliot said:
i though a 7900gt was roughly the same as a 7800gtx and a 7800gtx is roughly the same as a 1800xt, so why pay more a card that performs similar but doesnt do hdr+aa?

Keep in mind the 7900s are also quieter, but you can get a Zalman VF900-CU with the difference plus a tiny bit of change. They also draw less power, so they're ideal for people with less powerful PSUs (although mine runs happily in my OCed system with tons of LEDs and cold cathodes on an Akasa 460w.)

The main thing though is personal preference, and it's a very valid reason so long as someone actually takes the time to look at both cards before choosing.

Obviously Richdog simply prefers the 7900, it could be because they're more efficient or because they're simply newer tech, who knows but it's his choice and I've seen enough posts by him to know that he's looked the X1800XT over enough to make an informed decision based on his needs and tastes. After all, that's why we don't just have one brand of graphics card.

Meatball · 13 Jul 2006 at 00:41

Úlfhednar said:
Yeah, he was confused. The RMA rate is supposedly about 5% for these, which is about 50% higher than average according to eVGA and I think XFX confirmed it.

my bad sorry to cause the confusion. I wonder what's causing the high failure rate :confused:

Darkwave · 13 Jul 2006 at 01:36

Lost-Prophet said:
my bad sorry to cause the confusion. I wonder what's causing the high failure rate

It's either the voltage regulator or the Samsung memory they've used. They're in the process of fitting the 7900s with Infinium memory to see if it solves the problem.

Meatball · 13 Jul 2006 at 01:54

Úlfhednar said:
It's either the voltage regulator or the Samsung memory they've used. They're in the process of fitting the 7900s with Infinium memory to see if it solves the problem.

any thoughts on when they'll be released? My results are out on the 24th of August so hopefully they'll be out by then.

Darkwave · 13 Jul 2006 at 02:42

Lost-Prophet said:
any thoughts on when they'll be released? My results are out on the 24th of August so hopefully they'll be out by then.

Not a clue beyond what I have read on sites like Anandtech, but supposedly they are already up for grabs in the States.

ACESHIGH · 13 Jul 2006 at 02:50

Úlfhednar said:
No, something like 5% RMAs but that's 50%+ more than usual which is where you're getting the 50%+ figure from.

I am simply stating facts that the 7900 series (particularly factory-overclocked ones) have a stupidly high RMA rate of like 5% which gives them the worst failure rate since the 9800 Pro which were infamous in the beginning. Like I said, they are going to be replacing the Samsung memory on the 7900s with Infineon memory in the hopes of solving the problem, would they be doing this if there wasn't a reason?

As for why I would suggest an X1800XT instead, my reasons are simple; They are faster at stock and don't need a pencil-mod to overclock high as they can adjust voltages through software, they are also cheaper and proven to be more reliable so far (which isn't bad for "old tech.")

I am not saying the 7900 series sucks, so look elsewhere if it is a fanboy fight you want. If someone wants a 7900GT that's fine with me, and I hope they don't have the problems that 5%+ of them have had so far, I just think it's important people understand the risks involved before buying because, as you said, you have never heard about all this so not everyone has. If you frequent sites like AnandTech and other hardware enthusiast pages you will have seen regular news updates from companies like eVGA who actually published their RMA figures.

Yeah, he was confused. The RMA rate is supposedly about 5% for these, which is about 50% higher than average according to eVGA and I think XFX confirmed it.

Christ, some people. Look, I never said they sucked or were "a failure," I didn't even remotely imply it. All I said was that they have a high failure rate, there is a huge difference, so stop being defensive now if you please.

The above is true. This is being talked about by a lot of people. Look on the internet forums & you will see. The failure rate is much higher on the current 7900 series than on previous card generations. And companies like XFX & eVGA have actually came out & stated their cards are having this higher than usual failure rate. Some examples on this eVGA forum posting ..
http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15366

They have even coined a phrase for these failures how often they are occurring ...

Your maybe suffering form NSDS (nVidia Sudden Death Syndrome) if you experience the following during and/or after the 3DMark06 tests.

1. Artifacts, tearing, fine colored dots, black spots with missing graphics.
2. Severe distortion during Deep Freeze test.
3. Complete system hangup during Deep Freeze.
4. Flickering desktop about 1 or 2 second intervals after the test is over. Desktop may have colors missing or black spots in windows, taskbar and start button. You may see this distortion earlier between 3D tests when 2D desktop is exposed.

These seem to be the most common symptoms of a bad card. At this point RMA is inevitable.

Other symptoms may be random rebooting, BSOD, lock-ups while playing games, getting dropped on the desktop, etc.

More interesting posts ..

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1059136&page=1&pp=20

http://forums.tweaktown.com/showthread.php?t=22246&goto=nextoldest

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/67909965/m/442006229731/p/1

ACESHIGH · 13 Jul 2006 at 02:52

Lost-Prophet said:
any thoughts on when they'll be released? My results are out on the 24th of August so hopefully they'll be out by then.

eVGA at least are releasing new SKU's for both their 7900GT & 7900GTX cards to allow end users to distinguish the older faulty cards with the newer spec (hopefully fixed) cards. Apparently they use different memory to previous cards too.

Darkwave · 13 Jul 2006 at 03:13

Thank you for taking the effort to back me up ACESHIGH, I was beginning to think I was in line to be shot at dawn for a moment there.

Richdog · 13 Jul 2006 at 07:53

Eliot said:
i though a 7900gt was roughly the same as a 7800gtx and a 7800gtx is roughly the same as a 1800xt, so why pay more a card that performs similar but doesnt do hdr+aa?

An overclocked 79000GT will FAR outperform a 7800GTX, and come close to 7900GTX performance. As for AA + HDR... when you play at the resolutions I do (20.1" widescreen) nothing less than an X1900 XTX would make it remotely playable. An X1800XT would certainly wither and die.

Úlfhednar said:
The main thing though is personal preference, and it's a very valid reason so long as someone actually takes the time to look at both cards before choosing. Obviously Richdog simply prefers the 7900, it could be because they're more efficient or because they're simply newer tech, who knows but it's his choice and I've seen enough posts by him to know that he's looked the X1800XT over enough to make an informed decision based on his needs and tastes. After all, that's why we don't just have one brand of graphics card.

For me performance goes in this order...

OC'd 256MB X1800XT > OC'd 512MB X1800XT > OC'd 7900GT > OC'd 7900GTX > OC'd X1900XTX

The X1800's are good, solid cards, but I would honestly rather have a 7900GT and OC the hell out of it. Performance would be equal or greater in the majority of games, and the thing would be a lot cooler. Saying that, I wouldn't trade my XTX for anything on the market right now besides a GX2.