Asus 4870x2 dead in 3 weeks

A

Aegeas

n00b
Joined
Aug 15, 2005
Messages
41
Well, my shiny new 4870x2 from Newegg is Tango Uniform. It was getting really really really hot, so hot that you could not touch it. Then the PC started having random reboots. Now the PC just reboots over and over with the 4870x2 in it. I switch it back to my 8800gt and everything is back to normal. I put the 4870x2 in another PC and it continues the same behavior. I think something is fubar in their heat handing with the current iteration of the 4870x2. I say, watch out. Something is starting to smell funky in Ontario.

Newegg was very gracious and has taken care of it, but that means I have a 10 day RMA process and I don't see anything on their web site to indicate that they have more of the Asus 4870x2 in stock....
 
I think so. It is the Corsair TX750W. It rated super high on everything I have seen.

Well, plus the video card does the same behavior on another PC. I think it just burned itself up.
 
Aegeas said:
I think so. It is the Corsair TX750W. It rated super high on everything I have seen.

Well, plus the video card does the same behavior on another PC. I think it just burned itself up.
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have you tried speeding up the fan or running the fan controller?

what kind of case and what kind of temps were you hitting?
 
First that orangey guy now this noob.

For one, cards fail regardless of who makes them. Strangely enough your one experience does not make a trend and definately not proof of a problem affecting every single ATI card.

Another thing is that they are designed to run hot but even that is easily remedied by a simple fan fix which has been posted on every single forum and tech site around.

did you do any research before buying this on here or other forums?
 
Aegeas said:
I think so. It is the Corsair TX750W. It rated super high on everything I have seen.

Well, plus the video card does the same behavior on another PC. I think it just burned itself up.
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That power supply is more than enough. You certainly seem to have a bad card. RMA it and be done with it.
 
Necro...go back to Anandtech buddy. I am disinclined to tolerate your childish comments. I'm sorry your fanboi sensibilities were offended by your pet product being questioned, but I'll not be flame-baited so easily.

The card already had the fan fix applied and had multiple fan performance profiles due to artifacting we were experiencing in games. As the card got hotter, it would get worse until it would eventually lock up. Turning the fans to max per Kyle's instructions and (very) helpful video and it lasted for several days of good gaming but would black screen upon exiting the game (specifically TF2) and have to be restarted.

Eventually it got to where after restarting it would play nice for a while until it was put under stress again. I can't be certain, but I can guess that this thing slowly and efficiently cooked in its own juices.

In my opinion, this card's heat mitigation system is problematic and ill-conceived at best and at worse it could be called defective.
 
Are you sure you have enough cooling in your case? I don't have your issues with mine and I play TF2 all of the time and haven't even touched my fan profile. I do have my case fans at medium settings though to pass more air through the case. Also, I keep my apartment fairly cool. The 4870X2 cooler can only do so much if it doesn't have cool enough air to start with. Otherwise, you have a defective card.

I haven't had to reboot my system since the Cat 8.9 drivers came out and have had my card for a month now.
 
It is always a possibility. You do your best and hope it is sufficient. I am using the Antec 900 gaming case with fans stuffed everywhere. I also turned them all the way up just to be certain of their throughput. I do think that if the card is getting too hot it should certainly let you know rather than have a meltdown. Hopefully we are beyond the days of the Athlon and their lack of automatic thermal throttling.
 
Put necro on ignore, he's obviously an unemployed teenager and ATi is all he can afford, so he spazzes out anytime someone dares to besmirch the Red Team.
 
Aegeas said:
It is always a possibility. You do your best and hope it is sufficient. I am using the Antec 900 gaming case with fans stuffed everywhere. I also turned them all the way up just to be certain of their throughput. I do think that if the card is getting too hot it should certainly let you know rather than have a meltdown. Hopefully we are beyond the days of the Athlon and their lack of automatic thermal throttling.
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Exactly. The card would kick its fans into high gear before it would thermally shutdown. It sounds like the card might have been bad, so RMA it. That said, because you have a bad card doesn't mean all 4870x2's are bad, that's just stupidity.
 
ATI is not a budget solution imo. If anything Nvidia is in the budget category right now with the price point they have dropped their line into. I bought an "enthusiast" level card, the price reflected it, and I would have preferred it has lasted a bit longer. As an earlier poster said "Anyone can make a bad card" and I agree. Let's just hope we don't start seeing a lot of these posts because of the heat management in these cards.
 
Cards die. To say "beware of this card" after your one experience is kind of naive. If you want to see a high failure rate, look at the GTX280 overheating problems people are having. RMA the card and buy a different brand if you think your single example is that of a larger problem.
 
I'd kick Asus and Newegg in the nuts for selling me a defective card. I can't remember a time where I have ever had a defective video card... ::knocks on wood::
 
This was not Asus or Newegg's fault. The current batch of 4870x2 cards are all reference cards (last I heard). That really means that only the add-ins that Asus (or whomever markets it) are what is different. Well, that and the spiffy sticker they put on the side (go Asus and your half-naked chick!).

If the heat issues are intrinsic to the reference 4870x2 then they will be present across current iterations of the card until non-reference models come out such as the Asus version that was mentioned recently that was made specifically to address heat management in the 4870x2. I don't have that link handy, but go look it up.

I can't say this is common to all cards and I won't venture to wager that it is at this point. What I will say is that I *hope* it isn't because oh my god was this card fast at 2560x1600. I almost wet myself getting to see the eye candy even if it was only for a couple of weeks.
 
You're still insinuating that this isn't just a rare occurrence, which it is. There aren't many threads about card failures for the x2. If this were like the GTX280, which people were getting 105C load temps and subsequent dead cards, then it'd be a concern. Computer parts are prone to have defects in certain small numbers, even with a sound product with no design flaws.

I have run my 4870x2 for a month now playing games about 2 hours a day on average and letting it idle for about 8 hours while doing random tasks. The card has even hit 100C several times when I was an idiot and set the fan to only 40%. The card still runs great despite the heat issues I created for it. It idles at about 73C and loads at 83-85C.

I think you'll have a hard time finding other examples to even seem reasonable when making such claims that there is a bad batch, or that there are inherent heat problems.:rolleyes:

Your connection between your card failing, and it being the same reference board as every other owner ruins your theory that there is a design flaw.
 
I think something is fubar in their heat handing with the current iteration of the 4870x2. I say, watch out. Something is starting to smell funky in Ontario.
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i'm sorry, but like orangey, you make these statements. You seem to be suggesting that their is a problem with ATI. There ain't IMO. People can run these things at stock with no issues, obviously you got a bad card, that is all.

Yet, you seem to say that their cooling is insufficient and people should avoid them based on your experience just like orangey with his thread.

I am not the one with the bad attitude, i am also not the immature ones throwing blame needlessly around at others when something goes wrong. Shit happens.
 
Well, I am certainly willing to believe that I got a lemon. To reinforce that I have purchased another 4870x2. It is even an Asus. I will gladly join you all in the ranks of the happy owners when I get my new dust-buster with the half naked gal on the side of it.Gaming at hi-res has never been this good or this nerve-wracking.
 
Aegeas said:
Well, I am certainly willing to believe that I got a lemon. To reinforce that I have purchased another 4870x2. It is even an Asus. I will gladly join you all in the ranks of the happy owners when I get my new dust-buster with the half naked gal on the side of it.Gaming at hi-res has never been this good or this nerve-wracking.
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+1...now if ATi would release beta drivers like nvidia does
 
necrophile said:
i'm sorry, but like orangey, you make these statements. You seem to be suggesting that their is a problem with ATI. There ain't IMO. People can run these things at stock with no issues, obviously you got a bad card, that is all.

Yet, you seem to say that their cooling is insufficient and people should avoid them based on your experience just like orangey with his thread.

I am not the one with the bad attitude, i am also not the immature ones throwing blame needlessly around at others when something goes wrong. Shit happens.
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Um....What?

But yeah man sounds like a bad card. I might be getting one of these cards or a gtx280 soon?
 
Run Riva Tuner 2.11 with it out of the box at fan speed of 40+ percent when you get a new one. Start there and see if you can reproduce the same reboot problems. I say chances are very slim that you get 2 defective units in a row and I would start to look at other parts of your machine if it happens again. They are rated to run very hot 90+C as stated by AMD.
 
necrophile said:
I am not the one with the bad attitude, i am also not the immature ones throwing blame needlessly around at others when something goes wrong. Shit happens.
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You are the one who's being an obnoxious tool, though. I barely read the video card forums and even I'm tired of your crap. "Glass houses", dude.

-S
 
1erCru said:
My 4870X2 idles at 39C and loads no more than 70 C. Fan 38 percent.
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I want to see a rivatuner screenshot showing fan speed %, temp, and framerate in the middle of a game of any GPU intensive game that has been released in the past 6 months.
 
Aegeas said:
Well, my shiny new 4870x2 from Newegg is Tango Uniform. It was getting really really really hot, so hot that you could not touch it. Then the PC started having random reboots. Now the PC just reboots over and over with the 4870x2 in it. I switch it back to my 8800gt and everything is back to normal. I put the 4870x2 in another PC and it continues the same behavior. I think something is fubar in their heat handing with the current iteration of the 4870x2. I say, watch out. Something is starting to smell funky in Ontario.

Newegg was very gracious and has taken care of it, but that means I have a 10 day RMA process and I don't see anything on their web site to indicate that they have more of the Asus 4870x2 in stock....
Click to expand...

Unless you hapeen to get a defective card, which I seriously doubt. It's your setup that causing the problem, not ATI. My 4870x2 has been working fine for almost 2 months without any issues.
 
All you "it's working fine for me so you're an idiot" people need some 9mm aspirin. Jesus, give me strength.
 
I'm not saying ATI has a problem with these cards however I'd like to point out that I had a 4870 go bad on me after 1 month of use under watercooling at stock settings. My friend just had a Saphire 4870 X2 die on him also watercooled with stock settings. These cards ran at no hotter then 45C under full load and idle at 30C and they still died. I suspect there is more to this then what you guys think. We both ordered our cards from Newegg also. I am running an Asus 4870 X2 right now however I am selling it to my friend and getting a GTX 280 ONLY because of CUDA and Mental Ray supporting GPU acceloration in Maya 2009. This wont be supported on ATI cards from what I've read leaving me no chioce but to get nvidia.He is RMAing his card and when he gets the new one will be selling it.
 
I have two of them and have had them for quite some time playing Warhammer Online for hours on end without a single issue.
 
Lemons happen. I have just started RMA on my Asus EAH4870X2/HTDI/2G which died before I could begin OS install (about 15 -20 minutes total up time).

I am confident that case cooling and power were not an issue.
 
It happens. Every brand / company will produce defects. RMA it and get a good one, and report back here :).
 
Returned grahics card to vendor. Technician tested and reports it performs correctly. No lemon essence detected. ;) Finger pointed in general direction of motherboard.

Advised of anecdotal evidence that BIOS Flashback sometimes fails, corrupting both BIOS copies (I had tried booting from both BIOS chips).

Pulled CMOS battery, reinstalled video card. Will wait an hour before reinserting battery and attempting to boot. If that fails it's RMA the mobo (different vendor).


*wanders off to find appropriate motherboard thread.
 
Isn't is a PITA when you don't do all your homework and have to RMA with Asus only to find the videocard is fine thus wasting more time and money?
 
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