Nvidia Cards With theG84 and G86 Chipset are Expected to Die

[Lilleput]

http://gizmodo.com/5023963/inquirer-...s-ready-to-die

Those overheating Nvidia laptop graphics cards that are dying en masse? The Inquirer is reporting that "all the G84 and G86 parts are bad. Period. No exceptions," on mobile and desktop. Those chipsets are in pretty much every GeForce 8-series graphics card below the 8800s (here's a complete list of cards and chipsets). Notably, that means every MacBook Pro since the Santa Rosa update has the bad cards, which fail at a "higher-than-normal" rate.

The root of the problem is the substrate/bumping material, which Nvidia themselves had characterized as "weak." The G84 and G86 chipsets use the same application-specific integrated circuit, which the Inquirer has been told had no changes made to it during its life cycle—besides, Nvidia wouldn't change the assembly process or materials for a single batch, according to engineers. So Nvidia's official claim, that the weak materials were only used for a single batch, doesn't hold so much water. And as the Inquirer points out, their fix, to run the fan more to offseat the heat issue simply covers up the problem while it drains your battery.

If this is all true, Nvidia better have more than $200 million set aside for fixes.

I know we have a few 8800GT owners on here

[Werner]

i've got a 8600GTS for about a month now, hope it does not die anytime soon...

[XeroState]

Originally Posted by Lilleput

http://gizmodo.com/5023963/inquirer-...s-ready-to-die


I know we have a few 8800GT owners on here

Ya it's been in the news for awhile now.. my buddy has a 8600GT SSC and just recently its been cooking like no tomorrow.

And those with 8800GT [or any 8800 card] are fine, all 8800 cards use either the G80, G92-150/200/400 chipsets. Which means my 8800GT 512 is fine... for now..lol

[Speedtouch]

^ Indeed.

Those chipsets are in pretty much every GeForce 8-series graphics card below the 8800s

Lilleput you can't read. All the 8800s are fine.

[Lilleput]

Yeah, i figured that out after i posted it.

[chaos386]

Dammit, my laptop has an 8400 GS in it! And not being in North America or Europe means that even if there's a class-action suit or a recall, I'll probably be SOL when it comes to getting them to replace mine.

[Crazyjeeper]

Wow, now I'm glad my laptop only has a 7400. And luckily, my 8800GT is G92 core, so no worries there.

[Deviate]

DAMMIT! And I just bought this freakin' laptop...

[Greatgraddage]

8600M GS here. Runs pretty hot as it is. They had better get some sort of compensation ready if this dies!

[Viper007Bond]

Damn, I wanted a free upgrade.

[awdrifter]

The Inq is probably exaggerating it a bit. I've built a rig with a 8600GTS for my cousin about a year ago, it's still running fine. And so far there haven't been a large number of people with 8600GT/S reporting problems either. The laptop versions might have problems because of heat, but the desktop version still have decent cooling. I don't think desktop users need to worry about this.

[Karoug]

I have been running a 8600GTS in my desktop for about a year now.. Not a problem with it..

[FATMOUSE]

I have a quadro nvs140m, hopefully that doesn't die.

[IceBone]

How do i check what's in my 8800 GTX?

[BlitzR]

Check with GPU-Z but, any of the 8800's should be fine.

[Crazyjeeper]

8800GTX, 8800GTS 320 and 640m all have G80 cores. 8800GTS 512, 8800GS and 8800GT card all have G92 cores.

[LurkerPatrol]

I have an 8600 GT and its been working fine so far. I've had the comp for almost a year now. I might move up to the 8800 GT just because of the higher framerate. I guess this sort of helps with convincing me with that.

Question is, will NVidia be buying me it?

[BlitzR]

Nvidia denies: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/07/nv...bustion-2.html

Took a little longer than I expected, but Nvidia has come around to denying that basically every GeForce 8400-8700 graphics card powered by the G84 and G86 chipset is a flawed, ticking timebomb, waiting to die from overheating issues. They say that the problem affects "only a very small percentage of the notebook chips that have shipped" and that "the problem depends on a combination of environmental conditions, configuration, and usage model."
While there's no immediate way to tell if Nvidia is in fact lying (which would be a massively boneheaded move), as the Inquirer alleged, we'll know in the coming months. Reports of massive chip failures and an even larger hit to Nvidia's financials than the US$150-US$200 million it already took would make it super obvious. Hopefully the Inquirer was just being bombastic and British.

You people can reat easy, maybe....

[Drift]

NOOOOOOOO! I just sent in my rebate form with the barcode. Please, oh please don't die on me little 8500GT..

[lamboman]

Originally Posted by Drift

NOOOOOOOO! I just sent in my rebate form with the barcode. Please, oh please don't die on me little 8500GT..

TBH, by the time that the cards are "supposed" or "should" die, you will be on your newer, faster cards. But, nVidia better be ready, because there are a LOT of these cards out there. Not in enthusiast systems luckily, but they are very common in the average home PC on sale ATM.