How many video cards are failing?

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PeteRoy

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I just registered after reading this topic about baking your video card

I just sent my failing GTX 280 video card back to the store after I been having problems with it it was freezing after a cold boot but working fine after a off/on power cycle.

What amazes me most (apart from the fact you can repair a failed video card by baking it in a home oven) is the amount of failed video cards.

So many people say they have a failed 8800GTX, 9800GT, 8800GT, 4650, 7950 and more, what is going on with the video cards industry?

These high end cards cost a lot of money. Nvidia, ATI and their partners are making a fortune profit over these and yet they fail and people can't return them to get a replacement?

My ASUS GTX 280 failed after a year and half of good service, I never overclocked it or done anything to it other than updating my drivers regularly and playing games on it, what would I do if it had died after 3 years when my warranty expired? Buy another card for 400$?

My reason for making this rant is the fact that I care about PC gaming and yet with this sort of thing going on you see clearly that part of the reason PC gaming is dying is because companies like Nvidia and ATI are killing it with their over priced video cards that fail after 1-2 years of use.

Why buy a high end card for 400 dollars when you can get an Xbox 360 instead that has more games available?

I know I will keep playing on a PC as long as possible but most people won't and it shows already.

Is there any official statistic that shows the number of video cards that fail each year?
Does anyone keep count?
Do these companies sell us video cards that are not tested enough?
Is a new GTX 480 or Radeon 5870 are also expected to fail?
 
It's not the industry...people blow-out their cards with overclocking. If they ran them stock all the time, they wouldn't fail. ;)
 
hockeypro889 said:
why buy a 360 when it will rrod after a few months?
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I had a good laugh with this one :D especially since I'm considering buying a used 360 for its exclusives and to be able to game while chillin on the couch lol...

But yeah, I think people whos cards die are usually ones with poor cooling, or choose to overclock. Except there are still plenty of people who get DOA products or ones that simply fail from stupid shit like cheap solder, and that is a bunch of BS.
 
Ogilvy said:
It's not the industry...people blow-out their cards with overclocking. If they ran them stock all the time, they wouldn't fail. ;)
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I've never overclocked a card and I've had many die at the stock settings all which were well within their thermal specifications.

EVGA 7800gt failed within the first month.
EVGA 7900gt just short of a year.
2x Galaxy 8800gt g92s with defective memory out of the box.
2x XFX GTX 260s after half a year each.

Apparently the 7800gt I got from the first RMA that I sold just failed recently as did one of the underclocked 8800gt g92s I gave away.

Ordering a 5850 and not touching nVidia again. Far too many bad experiences over the last several years. RMAs are expensive when you live in Canada and have to ship to the USA back and forth all the time.
 
Ankle said:
I've never overclocked a card and I've had many die at the stock settings all which were well within their thermal specifications.

EVGA 7800gt failed within the first month.
EVGA 7900gt just short of a year.
2x Galaxy 8800gt g92s with defective memory out of the box.
2x XFX GTX 260s after half a year each.

Apparently the 7800gt I got from the first RMA that I sold just failed recently as did one of the underclocked 8800gt g92s I gave away.

Ordering a 5850 and not touching nVidia again. Far too many bad experiences over the last several years. RMAs are expensive when you live in Canada and have to ship to the USA back and forth all the time.
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That's just too many cards to have failed during normal use. I call shens on you, sir.
 
I've only had one card really fail on me - evga 7800 GTX but that was after 1.5 years. One of my 6800 GT's failed but it was due to poor shipping after I moved and not the fault of the card, sold the other one when I got my 7800 GTX. My 8800 GT still works and I'm keeping it as a backup card. Don't have any of my cards older than the 6800's since I sold them all... but none of them failed while I used them.
 
I've owned as many video cards as most in these forums, though I know there are those who have had more, but the ONLY card I've needed to exchange in forever was a GTX 280 I bought right at release in June 2008. I've had about 20 cards over the the last 6 years from low to high end.

At least for me GPUs have been VERY reliable and solid, knock on wood.
 
I have only had a GPU fail on me one time, when my 7900GT started freaking out in Vista and I had to downclock it but it still works (Kinda failed?). Other than that all the video cards I have owned are going strong.
 
Uberbob102000 said:
I have only had a GPU fail on me one time, when my 7900GT started freaking out in Vista and I had to downclock it but it still works (Kinda failed?). Other than that all the video cards I have owned are going strong.
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And this is the kind of experience most people will have - little or no issues with video cards. I've never had to RMA a video card, and I've purchased nine in the last 13 years. The typical RMA rate on these products under warranty have to be well-under %10, or they wouldn't make a dime.

But in that sub %10, there will be occasional randomly-selected people who have nothing but trouble, and have high occurrences of faulty products. It's rare, but it does happen.

There's no onslaught of faulty products. The failure rates may be a tad higher with lead-free solder, but not outrageous like the OP believes. The simple fact is, the most unsatisfied customer yells the loudest, and today customers have more ways than ever to bitch, and are easily search able.

EDIT: and the people who are baking their cards are doing it as a last-resort trick for cards out of warranty. They have nothing to lose, so they go ahead and try it.

And I do mean last-resort - about half the posts in the thread say it did nothing for them, so the problem was not the solder.
 
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Research shows the average life expectancy of a videocard is around 2 1/2 years. All of the examples in the original post except the 4650 could easily be 2-3 years old. The 1 1/2 year old GTX 280 that isn't overclocked... Yeah, I could see that one being mildly dismaying. Still, that's what warranties are for and when you buy a top-end card you should be making sure your warranty matches up to it in case something does go wrong.

The 3870x2 I sold to a guy a year ago after a year and a half of use is still going strong, the 9800GTX+ in my ex-girlfriend's PC is still working, my GTX 275 is still working, and these new 5770s I'm pretty sure will more than go the distance, too. Actually, my Radeon 9600XT is still powering a PC as well, and I bought that back in 2003 I believe, and that guy's brother is still using the X1600 I upgraded to at the time. I've had one die, an X1950, and it was used for F@H for over a year overclocked as high as it would go. Not a bad track record, eh? I think it all really comes down to the care you take with your system and how you set it up. If its being routinely cleaned out and you've got decent cooling then it's pretty rare to have a card die.
 
It's easy to see a lot of failure complaints in this forum and think that means everyone's cards are failing. You never hear from the vast silent majority who never had any problems.

My 8800GTX survived hard use by me from 2006 to 2009 with never a problem. Towards the end, I noticed it was spiking with really high temperatures, hitting 100C at 100% fan. This was caused by two things. First, I hadn't bothered cleaning the inside of my PC for quite awhile, and dust was starting to clog the cooling fan. Second, I was playing games with settings that were making the card work much harder than I ever had before.

When some people complain about having 5, 6, 7 video cards die on them in the same period that I've owned 2 video cards with no problems at all, I really have to wonder if there is an environmental issue, other component issue, or user issue going on. Environmental issues could be an area with lots of dust and/or a very dry climate generating lots of extra static electricity damage. Other component issues could be a string of bad PSU or motherboard choices. User issues could be mishandling the card or not preventing static electricity when installing, or smoking which is a big computer killer.
 
Ankle said:
I've never overclocked a card and I've had many die at the stock settings all which were well within their thermal specifications.

EVGA 7800gt failed within the first month.
EVGA 7900gt just short of a year.
2x Galaxy 8800gt g92s with defective memory out of the box.
2x XFX GTX 260s after half a year each.

Apparently the 7800gt I got from the first RMA that I sold just failed recently as did one of the underclocked 8800gt g92s I gave away.

Ordering a 5850 and not touching nVidia again. Far too many bad experiences over the last several years. RMAs are expensive when you live in Canada and have to ship to the USA back and forth all the time.
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Uh yeah, I'd check the current you're getting through the wall, that is way too many to be normal.
 
Cirrus Logic 5424
Cirrus Logic 5428
S3 Trident 63
S3 Virge 3D
Rendition Vertite 2100
Savage 3D
Savage 4
Savage 2000
ATi Rage 128
ATi Radeon LE
ATi Radeon 8500 (three of them)
ATi Radeon 9500 Pro (two of them)
ATi Radeon X1800XL (two of them)
ATi Radeon x1950Pro
ATi Radeon 3870
ATi Radeon 4870

Nvidia 8400GS-M
ATi Mobility Radeon 4570

out of all of those cards only 1 died and that was the Radeon 8500LE due to a blown cap. ATi repaired it and sent it back within a week.
 
I just pulled my GeForce3 Ti 200 (blast from the past!!!) out of my rig because it was locking my system up randomly. I've been using it since 2002... never overclocked, I kept the inside of the case clean and well cooled. I did have to replace the fan on it about 6 months ago though, damn nVidia and their crappy fans!!! :D :p
 
I'd like to see how many still have working 8800 GTX/Ultras.

Started using x86 in 1992 and since then I''ve had one card completely die on me (Cirrus Logic ISA graphics), one show symptoms of wear and tear (Radeon 3870) and two issues with bad fans (Sapphire ATI cards, a 9600XT and a 2600XT).
 
Ankle said:
I've never overclocked a card and I've had many die at the stock settings all which were well within their thermal specifications.

EVGA 7800gt failed within the first month.
EVGA 7900gt just short of a year.
2x Galaxy 8800gt g92s with defective memory out of the box.
2x XFX GTX 260s after half a year each.

Apparently the 7800gt I got from the first RMA that I sold just failed recently as did one of the underclocked 8800gt g92s I gave away.

Ordering a 5850 and not touching nVidia again. Far too many bad experiences over the last several years. RMAs are expensive when you live in Canada and have to ship to the USA back and forth all the time.
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Yeah, that's more than coincidence buddy. I've had one GPU die on me in the last 10 years. And it was because the fan died and went unnoticed. You either have really terrible luck or something else is going wrong.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
Cirrus Logic 5424
Cirrus Logic 5428
S3 Trident 63
S3 Virge 3D
Rendition Vertite 2100
Savage 3D
Savage 4
Savage 2000
ATi Rage 128
ATi Radeon LE
ATi Radeon 8500 (three of them)
ATi Radeon 9500 Pro (two of them)
ATi Radeon X1800XL (two of them)
ATi Radeon x1950Pro
ATi Radeon 3870
ATi Radeon 4870

Nvidia 8400GS-M
ATi Mobility Radeon 4570

out of all of those cards only 1 died and that was the Radeon 8500LE due to a blown cap. ATi repaired it and sent it back within a week.
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Savage fanboy!!! All kidding aside, I'm in the same boat as you having owned probably 8 different graphics cards with none of those cards dieing before my card has lost its usefulness to me. Generally, I just hand-me down the cards to friends whom continue to use it for a few years till they recycle it. I do tend to keep my cards well cooled in large cases with lots of fans in an air conditioned environment.
 
As a general rule, is it better to buy a video card locally, so it will be easier to return? I can purchase a 5770 at microcenter for 200 or mail order a 5770 for 30 to 40 less. That's a huge premium to pay just to save some time if the card is a lemon.
 
Zan said:
As a general rule, is it better to buy a video card locally, so it will be easier to return? I can purchase a 5770 at microcenter for 200 or mail order a 5770 for 30 to 40 less. That's a huge premium to pay just to save some time if the card is a lemon.
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if it fails after 15-30 days you will be dealing with the card maker anyway. just buy online form a reputable company that will exchange it for free if it fails in the first 30 days.


I have never had any card fail me but I have a had a fan start to fail twice which was replaced in RMA. I still have an 8600gt, 6600, and even MX420 that all work fine.
 
To be honest I think that its not too much of a stretch to say that 90% of electronic failure is user error. Dirty power, under powering, ESD, etc etc etc are all very common.

How many people use UPS's?
How many people actually care about ESD?
How many people use 400w power supplies for video cards that require more? (this one get tossed around here a LOT.. "you can run x card with y power supply, its plenty".. even though it pushes it WAY beyond the efficiency curve).

I won't even list the video cards I have gone through.. only one of them being DOA.
 
I've had 2 XFX GTX260s die on me out of the 3 total I've owned. Neither of which were overclocked. One died within a couple days, but that could be defective and just took some time to show it. The other one died after about 9 months.

I'm pretty careful about my electronics, use a UPS, etc.
 
I've had 3 4870x2's in a row come DOA, when it's me, 4th time's a charm.
 
Honestly, I don't think I've ever had a video card die on me. My Ti200 is sitting behind me in my Athlon XP board, still working when I powered it up a month or so ago to test something. My cousin bought my GF2, and I think it was still working when he upgraded to something else (it was in a drawer with some other PC parts last I knew). He also bought my 7600GS to throw in an AGP Dell a while back, and last I knew that was still working (though I don't think he uses that PC much anymore). My 8600GT went into a system I sold a friend and is still running strong. My 9800GT is still in my rig for PhysX. I'm in the process of selling my GTX285, which still works great. My brand new HD5870 is also working just fine (which is expected, since it's only a week old).

I've lived in remodeled old houses, brand new houses, apartments, and even questionably-wired old houses. I took my PC to LANs (including one where we actually blew up some electrical stuff in the house - the power company looked a little surprised when they saw ~25 PCs in the house) and to friends' dorm rooms since I was stuck on crappy dialup forever. I only recently picked up some budget UPSes, but they're too weak to handle my current PC. I have always run my PC through my APC surge strip though, which I bought 10+ years ago when I worked at Best Buy.

Video card fans, on the other hand, I've gone through a number of them. Mostly the older 40mm generic ones, where you could drop in a replacement for $10.
 
I think the surprising thing is how often they DON'T fail. What are we talking these days, 1 BILLION transistors per card?
 
Cschill1290 said:
Yeah, that's more than coincidence buddy. I've had one GPU die on me in the last 10 years. And it was because the fan died and went unnoticed. You either have really terrible luck or something else is going wrong.
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Matrices said:
Uh yeah, I'd check the current you're getting through the wall, that is way too many to be normal.
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Everything is on a (not crap) UPS and three of those were most likely dead in the box. I suspect the 7800 was dead in the box and I just never noticed it until playing a slightly more demanding game. The 8800gt g92s were definitely dead out of the box. Its terrible luck - I'm cursed apparently. Shit going wrong extends far beyond hardware for me. At least I can say I've never had any other hardware failures beyond one old 28.8k modem and a couple cd/dvd roms.
 
Ankle said:
Everything is on a (not crap) UPS and three of those were most likely dead in the box. I suspect the 7800 was dead in the box and I just never noticed it until playing a slightly more demanding game. The 8800gt g92s were definitely dead out of the box. Its terrible luck - I'm cursed apparently. Shit going wrong extends far beyond hardware for me. At least I can say I've never had any other hardware failures beyond one old 28.8k modem and a couple cd/dvd roms.
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This isn't you is it?
card.jpg
 
BFG and EVGA offer lifetime warranties on their cards, so I don't see the problem. As long as you got that lifetime warranty you are golden.
 
I've only ever had one card fail on me and that was a Powercolor 9800Pro. Only reason that failed was because the fan died and it fried the card. I'm currently running an 8800GTS 320 in my desktop that I've had and has been used quite a lot for a few years now. I bought the card not long after they were released. My brother has a X700 and X1900 that were both bought early in their life cycles and both still run perfectly. My sister-in-law is using my old 3870 (also got when it first came out) and my brother is using both of my old 9800GTXs (both a couple years old). Every single card has seen very heavy use and overclocking.
 
The only cards I have that died are passively cooled cards. GeForce 2 MX 200 and GeForce 8600GT (Gigabyte Silent Pipe thing)

Other cards with active cooling are all still working, including a good old Radeon 9600 Pro which I gave to my friend
 
Zan said:
As a general rule, is it better to buy a video card locally, so it will be easier to return? I can purchase a 5770 at microcenter for 200 or mail order a 5770 for 30 to 40 less. That's a huge premium to pay just to save some time if the card is a lemon.
Click to expand...

Video cards I see in B&M stores are generally more expensive than Newegg, plus I don't pay sales tax or even shipping most of the time on Newegg. I've also never been sent a bad card or had one go bad on me. Just lucky I guess.
 
I've only had one card fail which was a GeForce 4 Ti4400. It was a slow death, first it wasn't able to maintain the OC (it was a light to moderate OC) then it started artifacting in some games and needed to be downclocked and eventually just failed completely.

That said, I've seen many failed video cards in clients computers. Typically they were older cards manufactured back when there was that whole "bad caps" fiasco and sure enough just about every failed GPU I've seen had blown caps.

Also, while I personally have only had a sinlge failed card, I have had 3 failed CPU's and 1 severly degraded one. I'm pretty sure one of the failed CPU's was due to the board dying and taking the CPU out with it as every cap near the voltage regulators was blown or leaking heavily. The other two just stopped working one day. The degraded CPU was completely my own fault for overclocking/over volting higher than what one might consider safe.
 
I had an 8800M GTS die on me in an iMac. Stock clocks and fan settings.

I've had good luck so far with video cards but then again I have a decent UPS and actually keep myself grounded, unlike a certain few people. :)
 
I've been noticing my past couple of GPU's fans making noise after about a year, my case is an old Lian Li with the reverse ATX, almost as if the fans were only made to hang downwards... Weird stuff... But other than that, no problems. Of course I don't use UPS, just FedEx.
 
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