Some GeForce 8800GTX cards defective, vendors unfazed

[danrok]

From the front page:
http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/content/view/1370/2/

Comments?

[cadaveca]

"Don't worry...it's Factory Refurbished."

[dsio]

I've cancelled my pre-order on the GTX. I'm not as confident in it as a long term high end card as I was a month or so ago, this is in a performance sense rather than anything to do with this report.

As much as it displeases me, I'm going to have to wait a while to see the R600 before investing my money.

Its somewhat sad really, as I've just been playing Need For Speed: Carbon on my machine, and at 1024x768, 2X AA, its unplayable at less than 15fps. I tried it out on a single card X1950XTX / FX62 machine at work, and with the native 1920x1200 on the monitor, the game is completely unplayable, even worse than 1024x on my 6800GT.

The next card needs to play everything currently available, at 1920x1200 with average AA / AF and an average frame rate of 50-60fps. I don't think an 8800GTX is going to do that in NFS Carbon.

NFS: Carbon = Very cool game.

[Pitch]

Originally Posted by dsio

NFS: Carbon = Very cool game.

Incidently yes. I'm normally quick to bash EA, but the game is actually alot of fun.

I was planning on waiting for R600 before making any decision on which to buy. Been trying to convince Bradmax to do the same..

[bonesaw]

this is quite the nvidia scare! its over all better for the consumers to wait it out a few months.

[Daston]

Are these even out yet? Cant find them on the net at all

[dsio]

This week, but many were taking pre-orders well in advance due to the expected supply shortage. When the 6800GT was launched in 2004, it had such amazing reviews that it took two months of ordering and searching to get any card at all, and it turned out to be an Albatron, which I hadn't planned on.

Getting one at launch, though it is a hard launch, is not going to be that easy, particularly for people in countries like Australia.

Shopping around the locals, it also seams there has been a run on 600W+ power supplies. The big boy Liberty I picked up earlier is impossible to find around at the moment, as previously, only the lunatic fringe needed PSUs that big. Now its actually becoming a required piece of hardware, and supply can't keep up with demand.

[cadaveca]

LoL the liberty was pulled. New units should have clear plastic caps for the unused modular connectors. If you don't have those in your box, DSIO, PLS don't use that PSU!

[danrok]

The story continues:
http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/content/view/1372/2/

[cadaveca]

AICs Speak out on GeForce 8800 GTX Troubles

We pinged the three leading suppliers of boxed retail and e-tail NVIDIA-based video cards in North America and asked them how the problems with the initial GeForce 8800 GTX video cards was going to impact them. This is what we heard back.

Dean Brady, Director of Marketing – BFGTech

BFG Technologies has worked closely with NVIDIA to correct a BOM error in initial units built by NVIDIA’s contract manufacturer. BFG and NVIDIA engineers have corrected the problem and tested all units in inventory. We are working diligently to recall boards that have shipped with this error. There will be clear markings on the fixed boards that BFG is implementing to allow consumers to easily distinguish which board they have. This will not delay the launch and customers can be confident that the products they purchase will be supported by BFG’s legendary support and true lifetime warranty.

Joe Darwin, Director of Technical Marketing – eVGA

EVGA is READY for Launch! EVGA has been working very closely with NVIDIA to correct an error in an early BOM list for internal testing, sample boards and a few review units. EVGA has tested and corrected the issue with its early boards and this will not delay the launch. EVGA is working with the review sites that it has sent boards to in order to get them updated boards so reviews can be posted on time. Thank you for your cooperation and we look forward to a successful launch.

Ryan Dumas, Technical Marketing Manager – XFX

NVIDIA recently reported a BOM change for the GeForce 8800 GTX and thankfully we had enough advance notice that our consumer board shipments will not be impacted. The only effected boards were those very early samples sent out to the press. I have verified with my factory that every board shipped out for consumer purchase will have the change in place and this small hiccup will not affect the hard launch schedule.

-[H]


lol...they substituted a 30k resistor for a 50k one. Guess they wanted extra voltage for card overclcoking, and it didn't pan out. I see very few "factory overclocked" versions because of this. Oh...wait...that's already been mentioned. Now you know why.

[cadaveca]

Dailytech:

A memo published by NVIDIA has circulated through GeForce 8800GTX launch partners claiming some initial G80 cards have been stopped from reaching resellers. Parts of this memo were republished on Bit-Tech earlier today. Specifically, the memo states that some vendor GeForce 8800GTX based cards will generate artifacts and cause the system to restart after 30 minutes to 2 hours of operation.

The artifacts and crashing are a result of an incorrect resistor value. According to the document, a 50K ohm resistor was installed instead of a 30K ohm and results in artifacts during heavy operation. Nevertheless, the document recommends checking the MOSFET to ensure the proper ones were installed and replace them if necessary.

Any manufacturer shipping cards based on the NVIDIA reference design with the reference bill of materials is not affected. However, several manufacturers have come forward saying their original batch of cards are affected, including EVGA, Gigabyte and MSI.

EVGA has released a statement to DailyTech claiming "EVGA has been working very closely with NVIDIA to correct an error in an early BOM list for internal testing, sample boards and a few review units. There is no issue with production boards and this will not delay the launch."

Several other manufacturers, including XFX and ASUS, have confirmed to DailyTech that their GeForce 8800GTX cards are unaffected and will ship at launch without problem.

NVIDIA has issued an official statement regarding the defective cards:

Some GeForce 8800 GTX boards that were built through our contract manufacturer had a simple BOM error - wrong resistor value. GeForce 8800 GTS boards are not effected by this.

These GeForce 8800 GTX boards were shipped to our Add-In-Card partners.

We have been working with them to pull these back and change the resistor to the correct value.

We believe we will still be able to hit our hard launch this week (Nov 8th) with the new GeForce 8800 GTX boards.

This is a testament to our execution as well as the execution of our Add-In-Card partners.

Adam Foat, Product PR Manger, Northern Europe.

DailyTech previously explored the performance of NVIDIA’s upcoming G80 GeForce 8800GTX. The card used did not exhibit artifact or restarting issues.

[skool h8r]

What, only 2xaa at 1024x768 and only 15FPS! OMG! I get like 30+FPS at 1024x768 with 4xaa (in the demo).

[cadaveca]

More info:

Originally Posted by Benny Lodewijk

This is the way to fix this problem.
Location of R520
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/143/rework1qm5.jpg
Replace R520 with 25.5K resistor
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/4788/rework2tb5.jpg

[Pitch]

Originally Posted by skool h8r

What, only 2xaa at 1024x768 and only 15FPS! OMG! I get like 30+FPS at 1024x768 with 4xaa (in the demo).

It's unplayable at tless than 15FPS.. not he's getting 15FPS...

[dsio]

No, as in all settings on max, 1024x768 2X AA 15fps average recorded. To test where the machine's at, I ran a 3DMark05, and it scored 5700. Overclocked, it was just over 6400 in 3DMark05, and pulled about 20ish fps. Setting motion blur and particle system to on, and shaders to high just kills it.

Incidentally the demos of NFS games in the past have always had cut down maximum quality over the full version. Maxing out Carbon at a given res and AA really seams to give it a pounding. I don't consider "medium" settings acceptable.

[cadaveca]

lol. then maybe it's time to buy a new card....