How I fixed my 7900GT artifacting

I guess I'm gonna get a X1800XT, period. then just sell my 7900 GT when XFX sends me back a new one

 

Well sorry if I was a lil bit over the line there but thank you for understanding my rage.

As for the RMA Procedure, I will request a written statement by XFX before they send me a new card stating this card is "the one". So no lockups nor artifacts for at least a year

One RMA will be done and I can totally accept that but when the 2nd card starts to fail, too then someone is in big trouble.

 

You are lucky. Its clear that EVGA is for overclockers/modders since they seem to have the best warranty.

XFX is certainly NOT for overclockers. I just wish EVGA had a step up program for customers of XFX.

 

Couldn't agree more about the bad cards on the loose and the chance of still getting a bad one now the fault has been identified is still going to be terribly high.

Nvidia could do with doing a MASS recall, but they would lose £££ $$$ millions

I'm not 100% sure about ATI, in terms of shader support for future games and general compatibility.

I need convincing and to look at some benchmarks!?!

 

No I refuse to believe its my hardware, i'm sick of shops trying to pin the blame on me and something thats not right with my system.

Its an Nvidia fault that they have admitted to period.

Ive tried every one of the four cards in several testbed systems at work and a friends system all with the same result.

Have you ever thought in a certain area, most shops at the very end of the supply chain will most prob get the cards from the same place? It will all trace back thru the shops, to the distributors, to the shippers, and as the Nvidia article pointed out to the ONE factory in China that has made most of these.

The cards are faulty. Lots of them are. Don't let anyone tell you different.

Just hope this will be the last RMA and I get a good one.

 

i have a 7800gs+ volt modded running 650 by 1520 mhz no artifacts

but running at 600 by 1480 to be safe

 

Nice!

Don't ever think ive seen a 7800gs+ with a problem

Thats a tasty 06 score as well!

 

LOL :roll: Now that is a cool idea. eVga becomes like a support club for disgruntal XFX owners

 

My 2 Cents

I have skimmed though this forum and just wanted to offer my two cents. I am not a "GURU" by any definition of the term, but I do have a degree in Electrical Engineering (well I will next week! yay!!)


Ne-ways, some forums have pointed out that the problem has come from the capacitors that control the voltage to the RAM.

http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14558

So, heres goes my two cents:

the impedance of a capacitor is given by Z = 1/sC

where C = value of capacitor, and s = jW (W = radian frequency = 2*pi*f). "s" is a term used in engineering that allows functions to be transformed from time domain f(t) to frequency domain f(w) --> laplace transform.

So, in short, the impedance of the capacitor is iversely related to the frequency. When you increase the frequency, you are decresing the impedance of your capacitors and allowing for more current to flow through the capacitor, thus increases current (which causes heat) to the ram. Voltage modding increases the propabiblity of this issue since by increasing the voltage you are also increasing the current (V= IR = double whammy to your RAM!).

It may not be noticable to the eye, but the heat that you are generating is causing physical damage to the components (duh! we already know this). I just wanted to add some technical background as to we we are having these problems.

I think that OC'ing is super cool, and you guys should be looked at as pioneers for your efforts in taking gaming performance to its highest level. However, if you are willing to take the risk of doing this, you might want to at least invest in the best cooling options available (eg. watercool the S*** out of everything possible in your system).

Thanks for your time and good luck!

DP

 

I have skimmed though this forum and just wanted to offer my two cents. I am not a "GURU" by any definition of the term, but I do have a degree in Electrical Engineering (well I will next week! yay!!)


Ne-ways, some forums have pointed out that the problem has come from the capacitors that control the voltage to the RAM.

http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14558

So, heres goes my two cents:

the impedance of a capacitor is given by Z = 1/sC

where C = value of capacitor, and s = jW (W = radian frequency = 2*pi*f). "s" is a term used in engineering that allows functions to be transformed from time domain f(t) to frequency domain f(w) --> laplace transform.

So, in short, the impedance of the capacitor is iversely related to the frequency. When you increase the frequency, you are decresing the impedance of your capacitors and allowing for more current to flow through the capacitor, thus increases current (which causes heat) to the ram. Voltage modding increases the propabiblity of this issue since by increasing the voltage you are also increasing the current (V= IR = double whammy to your RAM!).

It may not be noticable to the eye, but the heat that you are generating is causing physical damage to the components (duh! we already know this). I just wanted to add some technical background as to we we are having these problems.

I think that OC'ing is super cool, and you guys should be looked at as pioneers for your efforts in taking gaming performance to its highest level. However, if you are willing to take the risk of doing this, you might want to at least invest in the best cooling options available (eg. watercool the S*** out of everything possible in your system).

Thanks for your time and good luck!

DP

 

There's nothing more to discuss then.

So don't suggest any nonsense, ANYONE, anymore like PSU, Mainboard etc.
All the problem is the defective Voltage Capacitors.

I personally sent my card back and won't get a new one back, till a new batch of REVISED cards comes to my supplier.
I'll stick now with my old 6600GT.

 

From a different thread I posted this on but it applies to all BGF, EVGA and us poor old XFX owners....I know this is old news to some but

Ok I just read this thread from Hardocp...this may be old news for some but here is the conclusion of this thread:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

The Bottom Line

There are some “bad” 7900 video cards out there right now if you are going to shop for the overclocked variety. Again, it seems to me BFGTech is catching less flack than EVGA and XFX, but that is not a scientific observation. Keep in mind that BFGTech does not overclock their cards as high as EVGA or XFX. If I were buying an overclocked 7900 card right now, I would be leaning towards BFGTech or EVGA simply because they have a much better reputation when it comes to warranty, support, and service.

If you have a card to RMA, return it to the card builder, not the retailer. Given the awareness level of this problem at this time I would suggest that you have a much better chance of getting a solid 7900 directly from the card builder.

 

Great points Chakka, especially about people sending their bad cards directly back to the manufactures instead of the retail shop you bought it from. In fact if you look inside the box of any of your eVGA graphics cards there is a sticker that says,

Please Note
If Your Product is not Working Properly
DO NOT RETURN TO THE STORE
For Service and Technical Assistance for this Product
Call Our Toll Free Number
(888) 880 EVGA
​

Besides the fact that the manufactuer is asking you not to, you'll also save yourself alot of trouble with the actual retailer. Most stories I have read here about people going back to the retailers for RMA's dont' have happy endings! Just do it yourself and save time and aggrevation!

 

I've been using the XFX helpdesk and have been getting the usual generic trial and error fault finding tactics suggested by them.

So far no luck though. As well as exploding game models in BF2 I'm now getting:

When loading the game after I've quit for a break.

I have attempted to stress the card using Fear but as you can see, everything seems to be normal?


This corner of my card is very warm to touch, almost as warm as the chipset cooler on my motherboard which is quite worrying.


My case is pretty light on cables and has 2 fans out and 2 fans in (old pic showing 1 fan):



I'm stumped what the issue might be. Just seems hardware related to me. My old 6800 Ultra had no such issues no matter what I threw at it.

Don't be put off buying these cards. They're a fantastic purchase for the price and performance, esp if you're coming from an AGP card to PCI-E like I did.

If you have any problems I'm sure OCUK would be happy to deal with you if its dead on arrival or faulty within 2 weeks of the purchase. Otherwise take it up with the manufacturer. At the end of the day they can't get away with selling you rubbish for the sake of the forum bashing if anything. Oh and a court appearance.

 

Guys, did XFX just recenlty close down their forum/message board section on their site, bummer for XFX owners? I wonder what that is all about? Your not alone Dup, I get the same exact screen as you posted (first screen you posted above) sometimes when I load up Riddick. This is along with all the other problems us 7900GT owners have been having. The weird thing is, I only recenlty started having that specific problem, and it only happens about 3 out of 5 times. When that screen comes up after trying to load Riddick I have to do a manual restart to rememdy it. Also sometimes it will happen 1-3 times in a row, then all of a sudden the game loads just fine? It sucks your having this same problem but I'm glad I'm not the only one!

 

Its my understanding that XFX closed their forums when the negative comments and concerns starting appearing in large numbers. eVGA has an outstanding forum and is continuing to agressively attack this problem. Although all of the card makers are saying its a small problem I have to wonder. I guess we'll see as many who had problem cards have replacements on the way.

 

According to them, they want you to open ticket items direct with them. Second, they also staff a call center M-F.

 

For those of you with Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe mobos there is a new bios 1205 on their web site. One of the fixes listed for it is support for 7900 cards. Maybe this can fix a someones problems. I flashed it and so far so good but I wasn't having any issues to start with.

 

hasnt beeen a new bios for the premium in a looooong time!!!! im still patiently waiting !!!

 

Hmm my card is 73 degrees under load :/, And for a temp fix i underclocked the 2D memory clock to under stock and no artefacts.... im assuming that the 3D clock is more important?