Another dying 280?

[Metrocall]

So far all the reports of defective 4870s and GTX280s are just BS.

I agree with three of the four things you said but this kind of offset me. I would be more than happy to prove to you that my card is defective and probably in the same way that a lot of people here are having. Kind of funny how so man people are reporting the same issue? I think this goes a little beyond just "normal problems". Again I agree with the rest of what you said.

 

[Dan_D]

So far all the reports of defective 4870s and GTX280s are just BS.

I'm sure there are plenty of defective cards out there. I have owned four of these things and I've had one dead one. That makes for a 25% defect rate for me personally. Likewise if you have purchased one card and it went bad, and you replaced it you'd have a 50% personal defect rate. Your experiences and anyone elses experiences on these forums most likely (unless you are a system builder who builds a ton of Geforce GTX 280 equipped rigs) represent too small a sampling to be worth trying to read into and aren't indicative of the real defect rate of these cards. Regardless I think that a few people complaining on forums about card deaths really just amounts to a very vocal minority making waves about a problem that exists but is not really any worse than usual. Some computer hardware is defective. It happens. A few people posting about defective hardware on a forum doesn't mean that there is a significant portion of people having issues with the card. It just meanst that the complainers are louder and heard more often than the people not having issues that are too busy playing games to care about posting in forums about their cards working perfectly.

 

[TerranUp16]

Regardless I think that a few people complaining on forums about card deaths really just amounts to a very vocal minority making waves about a problem that exists but is not really any worse than usual. Some computer hardware is defective. It happens. A few people posting about defective hardware on a forum doesn't mean that there is a significant portion of people having issues with the card. It just means that the complainers are louder and heard more often than the people not having issues that are too busy playing games to care about posting in forums about their cards working perfectly.

You sound a bit like Microsoft... but the issues w/defective 360's are very widespread (potentially as great as 50% defect- and, once again, considering my own experience with a 360 that actually exploded after RRODing, my friends' experiences, and my time at EA QA, 50% is pretty close to being on target) and are not at all relegated to a vocal minority as Microsoft suggested.

 

[LstBrunnenG]

Just an update for everyone:

New card is topping out at 95 C in Furmark, and this is with no help from my case fans whatsoever. It's a bit hot, but it's not an immediate climb to 106, so I is happy.

 

[Dan_D]

You sound a bit like Microsoft... but the issues w/defective 360's are very widespread (potentially as great as 50% defect- and, once again, considering my own experience with a 360 that actually exploded after RRODing, my friends' experiences, and my time at EA QA, 50% is pretty close to being on target) and are not at all relegated to a vocal minority as Microsoft suggested.

I seriously doubt the defect rate of XBox 360's is that high. No doubt its' higher than it should be for any piece of technology but I doubt its' as bad as people make it out to be. In any case this isn't about the XBox 360. This is about the Geforce GTX 280 which I firmly believe isn't nearly as bad as people suggest concerning the defect rate. If I took my own results with these cards as representational of all Geforce GTX 280's (and no doubt my sampling of these cards is greater than most of the people who are making these complaints) I'd put the defect rate at 25%. I've had four of these cards only one of which was defective. I doubt most people complaining about defective cards have had that many of them.

The fact is few people that aren't having problems are going to take the time to post in a bunch of forums to say "my Geforce GTX 280 is working fine and always has. That is all." More people are going to take them time when they spend $400-$650 and the card fails to work properly. It is human nature to dwell on the negative.

 

[TerranUp16]

I seriously doubt the defect rate of XBox 360's is that high. No doubt its' higher than it should be for any piece of technology but I doubt its' as bad as people make it out to be. In any case this isn't about the XBox 360. This is about the Geforce GTX 280 which I firmly believe isn't nearly as bad as people suggest concerning the defect rate. If I took my own results with these cards as representational of all Geforce GTX 280's (and no doubt my sampling of these cards is greater than most of the people who are making these complaints) I'd put the defect rate at 25%. I've had four of these cards only one of which was defective. I doubt most people complaining about defective cards have had that many of them.

The fact is few people that aren't having problems are going to take the time to post in a bunch of forums to say "my Geforce GTX 280 is working fine and always has. That is all." More people are going to take them time when they spend $400-$650 and the card fails to work properly. It is human nature to dwell on the negative.

I'm not saying that GTX 280's have nearly as many problems as 360's, but am just cautioning the utilization of such reasoning. At EA, most of the 360's our team worked with were very new and within two months we already began having rampant disc read errors, complete red rings, and other crippling, defect-related issues.

Beyond EA, I, personally, am at a 100% defect rate. I have a friend who went through eleven consoles and STILL maintained a defect rate of 100%. Another friend has burned through six and is on his seventh, making for an 86% defect rate there. I don't know ANYONE that hasn't burned through AT LEAST one 360 which puts the defect rate for them at 50% at least. More commonly, friends have RMA'ed 2-3 and are on their third or fourth console. From my observance thus far, the issue isn't relegated to just cores or premiums or launchboxes, as Elites seem to be just as problematic as do newer models, though I don't know anyone w/a 65nm version yet. Of my sample for 360's, there actually need to be a significant amount of people that have not had a single 360 fail on them to even bring the failure rate near 50%. And yet, I do not know a single person who has not RMA'ed their 'box.

I'm just urging caution in completely tossing concerns out the window. I think time will eventually unveil the quality of the GTX 280's just as it did for the 360's- hopefully the GTX 280 will fare much better than the 360 has.

 

[LstBrunnenG]

At least the 280 dies a lot quicker than the 360. Less of a time bomb.

Wait, what are XboX 360s doing in my thread?