Now I remember why I love Nvidia

I consider ATI's six-months-and-going-stronger-than-ever GSOD issue to be a shit sandwich.

For the first 2-3 months it happened all the time at the desktop, but never in game. Starting with 10.3s (IIRC), that swapped, and the desktop's almost rock-solid stable now, but gaming's a real box of chocolates: you never know what's going to happen.

Since it swaps tendencies for me with different drivers, I blame the drivers.

Living with it, as I've accepted it's never going to be fixed.

yeah and Nvidia released drivers that killed customer cards so your point is?
 
Im pretty sure the gsod issue is a ram issue not a driver or processor issue. I can make it happen it I OC my ram to high.
 
I'm pretty ambivalent, used both 5970 and 480(sli) and liked both setups. Both have occasional issues, bugs but they do get resolved eventually. If something doesn't work, I can find a work around on the forums (that's what they are for :D), or I can wait until nvidia/ati issues a fixed driver, there are more important things in life than worrying about drivers support lol :D Or there's also RMA :D
 
lol something like that should have never made it out of QA

Accidents do happen.

ATi was having driver releases, then hotfixes without version numbers attached so you weren't sure which driver + HF you currently have installed, then new HFs/drivers would break things that were working in the previous driver.

After months of that... well, it's no longer an accident. Waiting another month for something broken to be fixed isn't an accident.

Right now ATi's so behind on their monthly driver releases that they're coming out at the end of the month... So, within a few month's time they've now ended up almost a month behind on new driver releases.

Nvidia's far from perfect, but I do believe Nvidia would have made this GSOD "shit sandwich" just an unfortunate part of ol' history well within six months' time...
 
Or there's also RMA :D

Swapping my not-convinced-at-all-it's-bad card for a was-a-bad-card-that-hopefully-got-at-least-half-fixed card?

I haven't felt willing to take that risk yet...

If the drivers weren't causing conditions to change, I definitely would have RMAed long ago...

But my system shows no pattern of behavior. The only thing that is clear is that the system was 100% absolutely rock-solid stable for over half a year with an Nvidia card in it, and others who have had GSOD issues with their 5xxx series cards have seen that resolved with buying a 4x0 Nvidia card.
 
Does this happen when everything is set to stock 725, 1000?

I thought stock 5870 settings was 850/1250? I've never set it as low as 725/1000. It's factory OCed to 875/1300, and adjusting that down to 850/1250 makes the dekstop worse as at the desktop it will downclock itself to 157/300, and since I have dual monitors, it causes screen glitching. This no longer causes GSODs at the desktop that I witness necessarily, but the computer is much more prone to not responding after the monitors have gone into power savings mode and turned off...

I also see my card can't seem to decide what GPU voltage is wants... When it's set at 875/1300 (which causes it to go to 400/1300 at the desktop to save power), the card is at 1.062, but within 30 minutes goes to 1.649 and stays there...

The oddball thing about this is it causes the card's temps to rise at the desktop...

The card's hotter at the desktop at 400 core clock than it is inside a game at 875 core clock... But, letting it do naturally on its own is what lets the card be at its most stable (can go two weeks without a GSOD), although it makes no sense to me...

Every time someone suggests things for me to tweak, it always makes the card much more unstable... And ATi's drivers not only flip-flopped where the instability lies (before 10.3 it was the desktop, 10.3 and beyond it's games), but seem to be a slow improvement every driver release...

Since letting the card do whatever the hell it likes lets it be stable for days/weeks at a time (it's still annoying though), I've never been convinced it's the damn card. And gaming on it was pretty rock-solid the first two months I owned it, so it's difficult to go "what a POS gaming card" if it's running games you throw at it fine?
 
Accidents do happen.

ATi was having driver releases, then hotfixes without version numbers attached so you weren't sure which driver + HF you currently have installed, then new HFs/drivers would break things that were working in the previous driver.

After months of that... well, it's no longer an accident. Waiting another month for something broken to be fixed isn't an accident.

Right now ATi's so behind on their monthly driver releases that they're coming out at the end of the month... So, within a few month's time they've now ended up almost a month behind on new driver releases.

Nvidia's far from perfect, but I do believe Nvidia would have made this GSOD "shit sandwich" just an unfortunate part of ol' history well within six months' time...

your assuming that it can be fixed by a driver. I suspect that this is a hardware bug brought upon trying to hard to get the memory performance out of 256 bit bus. it can be done but I think Nvidia was finally smarter then ATI on this point. no need to OC the hell out of the memory if you simply widen the bus a little. it cost more but so does a lot of RMA on GSOD
 
yeah 725, 1000 is 5850. And no the 5870 is 850,1200.
I am wondering if the ram to proc ratio needs to be kept in order to keep from grey screening. Or at least close.. So stock would be 1.4118 Ram to Proc. Then at 875 I would expect 1235. Much higher and I would expect GSOD. But that is just my theory.
 
yeah 725, 1000 is 5850. And no the 5870 is 850,1200.
I am wondering if the ram to proc ratio needs to be kept in order to keep from grey screening. Or at least close.. So stock would be 1.4118 Ram to Proc. Then at 875 I would expect 1235. Much higher and I would expect GSOD. But that is just my theory.

I am going to RMA my card tomorrow. its perfectly stable but only by down clocking my memory 22%. I haven't seen any ratio of the GPU speed to memory make a difference. The only working fix I have seen to date is to down clock your memory until it goes away.
 
yeah 725, 1000 is 5850. And no the 5870 is 850,1200.
I am wondering if the ram to proc ratio needs to be kept in order to keep from grey screening. Or at least close.. So stock would be 1.4118 Ram to Proc. Then at 875 I would expect 1235. Much higher and I would expect GSOD. But that is just my theory.

Okay, I have just set my MSI:AB profiles for 850/1200. I'll try this for gaming and see what happens. (and you're right, I looked it up, 1200 is stock... Did it use to be 1250 though? Someone told me 1250 a month or so ago, and it sounded correct...)

But this won't work for the desktop as setting the memory clock below 1300 (even 1299) will cause it to idle at 157/300, which not only is too low for the desktop with screen glitching, but leads to GSODs in my experience.

More suggestions? Be my guest...
 
I suggest you leave it at 875 and set the memory to 1235 and see if you still get the gsods.
 
I suggest you leave it at 875 and set the memory to 1235 and see if you still get the gsods.

Okay, but that won't affect the desktop, as it stays at 400/1300 otherwise it's at 157/300.

I still wonder if the 400/1300 desktop setting with GPU voltage at 1.062 upon boot going to 1.649 for whatever reason is something to look at?

If 1.062 is correct, why the jump to 1.649? And if 1.649 is correct, why is it at 1.062 when you boot?

And, at 875/1235, what volts should I be at?
 
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I consider ATI's six-months-and-going-stronger-than-ever GSOD issue to be a shit sandwich.

For the first 2-3 months it happened all the time at the desktop, but never in game. Starting with 10.3s (IIRC), that swapped, and the desktop's almost rock-solid stable now, but gaming's a real box of chocolates: you never know what's going to happen.

Since it swaps tendencies for me with different drivers, I blame the drivers.

Living with it, as I've accepted it's never going to be fixed.

GSOD is hardware issue, not driver issue.

driver is just attempting to fix those problem on hardware by software.

As I have own at least 4 5870 in the past, I can tell you none of it have GSOD issue.
not even my laptop's 5650.
 
Swapping my not-convinced-at-all-it's-bad card for a was-a-bad-card-that-hopefully-got-at-least-half-fixed card?

I haven't felt willing to take that risk yet...

If the drivers weren't causing conditions to change, I definitely would have RMAed long ago...

But my system shows no pattern of behavior. The only thing that is clear is that the system was 100% absolutely rock-solid stable for over half a year with an Nvidia card in it, and others who have had GSOD issues with their 5xxx series cards have seen that resolved with buying a 4x0 Nvidia card.

Agreed on all points. Apparently some people don't remember the thread with dozens of pages in it where users were experiencing GSODs with not only the 5xxx cards but some 4xxx cards as well (though it seemed to be much less prevalent on the older cards). There were a bunch of suggested fixes, but it seemed like it was happening so randomly that no one could ever pinpoint the cause of the problem. Some said it was a driver issue, others said it was an issue with the card itself, others said it was caused by Afterburner, others said it was because of an unstable system overclock, etc. etc. etc. Lots of people tried the various suggestions and thought they fixed the problem, only to have the GSOD return.

Despite the seemingly huge number of people who were experiencing the GSOD, there were quite a few people who claimed they never experienced it. It wasn't a widespread problem, they said. So I finally caved in and bought a 5870. I was impressed with the performance for the most part, and despite a few driver quirks I was happy in the beginning because I went quite a while without any crashes. Then one day while playing The Saboteur the game flickered and then grey screened on me. That time, I was able to Alt-Tab or Ctrl-Alt-Del out of the game and kill it...I was back at the Windows Desktop and just relaunched the game but that was the beginning of my GSOD adventure and in all future occurrences, encountering the grey screen meant a hard system lock (usually preceeded by looping or skipping audio), forcing me to reset my system. Yay.

It started with The Saboteur, but I began getting the GSOD in other games that weren't as stressful on the card. Tomb Raider: Anniversary would randomly GSOD without any warning whatsoever, so there was no way for me to even try to kill the game and return to the desktop. Just a hard lock with those damn vertical grey lines. So instead of spending time and effort trying to fix a problem that no one knows the cause of or the fix to, I said F it and bought a GTX 480.

Yes, it's hot and no, the card isn't quiet. But I've not had a single game crash since switching and my gameplay experience is smoother to boot. That's enough for me. The 5870 does offer great performance, but in my rig reliability and stability always come first. I'm damn happy with the GTX 480 and that's all that matters in the end.

I want to like ATI, I really do. And I certainly want to see them succeed in order to keep nVidia in line and in order to keep these wonderful forum discussions so interesting. But that particular card was giving me problems in my system, and like Tolyngee said I wasn't willing to play the RMA game...besides, I would have purchased another card in the meantime anyway because I wouldn't have wanted to wait 2 weeks or more for the card to come back.

I won't argue with people like shansoft that have had no GSOD issues with their cards. I'm sure there are people that haven't had the problem, but there are also tons of people who have (just Google "5870 GSOD" and prepare for some long reads across various forums). I'm happy for you guys, but I'm back on the green side again and the 480 haters can say what they want but this is a hell of a card and I'm happy with it. I'm eagerly awaiting the 6xxx cards and am anxious to see what improvements ATI has in store for us in the future. Game on!
 
I've never seen a GSOD on my 5870, but trust me, I've been victim of one of those "everyone else is fine it must be you" issues, so i can commiserate. If you're still having it at this point though, I would be on the phone with the vendor every day demanding they fix it. It's certainly not something I would continue to live with and assume it will be fixed at some point without my griping.
 
GSOD is hardware issue, not driver issue.

driver is just attempting to fix those problem on hardware by software.

As I have own at least 4 5870 in the past, I can tell you none of it have GSOD issue.
not even my laptop's 5650.

You say with confidence what something is, without ever having experienced it?

Then this is what should have happened but did not happen:

Back in Feb(?) when ATi released drivers that were to have been the GSOD fix as far as ATi was concerned, and it didn't, ATi along with Kyle got in touch with these users, and actually got these users to send them their hardware.

That did happen.

Here's what did not happen:

ATi received all of these cards, and upon inspection by the hardware developers themselves, deemed these cards to have problems at the hardware level, and told the users to RMA the cards, or ATi replaced the cards themselves.

If this was the case, the users would have been hollering that every single one of them had their hardware replaced. They did not.

And ATi would have now made it extremely clear to all of their loyal customers that if they are still experiencing GSODs, to immediately seek to have their cards replaced, even if it has to be at ATi's expense. (Everyone should still have a warranty, but in the event they do not, ATi should really help out.)

None of this happened. If it was determined every card was a POS hardware-wise, Kyle certainly would have had this on his front page so we'd know about it.

But, he didn't. And the owners didn't. And ATi didn't.

Just because you have no issues doesn't mean the drivers aren't all playing nice on your systems. And just because you're confident it's a hardware issue, doesn't mean the people responsible for the card from the ground up and tested the so-called bad cards themselves for problems came to the same conclusion after some painstaking testing.

If this was indeed an issue that the correct and only solution was an RMA due to faulty hardware, we would have known months ago.

This is affecting a minority of users. It was not a recall situation. ATi would have reached out to those few remaining affected and made it clear that they had faulty hardware.

It didn't happen, because it's not the case, unfortunately.

They didn't want to have people waste their $$$ and time and patience with RMAs when the truth is it's still a driver issue somewhere... With ATi not 100% clear what the F to do to resolve it for all...

That's what I believe is the truth...
 
You say with confidence what something is, without ever having experienced it?

Then this is what should have happened but did not happen:

Back in Feb(?) when ATi released drivers that were to have been the GSOD fix as far as ATi was concerned, and it didn't, ATi along with Kyle got in touch with these users, and actually got these users to send them their hardware.

That did happen.

Here's what did not happen:

ATi received all of these cards, and upon inspection by the hardware developers themselves, deemed these cards to have problems at the hardware level, and told the users to RMA the cards, or ATi replaced the cards themselves.

If this was the case, the users would have been hollering that every single one of them had their hardware replaced. They did not.

And ATi would have now made it extremely clear to all of their loyal customers that if they are still experiencing GSODs, to immediately seek to have their cards replaced, even if it has to be at ATi's expense. (Everyone should still have a warranty, but in the event they do not, ATi should really help out.)

None of this happened. If it was determined every card was a POS hardware-wise, Kyle certainly would have had this on his front page so we'd know about it.

But, he didn't. And the owners didn't. And ATi didn't.

Just because you have no issues doesn't mean the drivers aren't all playing nice on your systems. And just because you're confident it's a hardware issue, doesn't mean the people responsible for the card from the ground up and tested the so-called bad cards themselves for problems came to the same conclusion after some painstaking testing.

If this was indeed an issue that the correct and only solution was an RMA due to faulty hardware, we would have known months ago.

This is affecting a minority of users. It was not a recall situation. ATi would have reached out to those few remaining affected and made it clear that they had faulty hardware.

It didn't happen, because it's not the case, unfortunately.

They didn't want to have people waste their $$$ and time and patience with RMAs when the truth is it's still a driver issue somewhere... With ATi not 100% clear what the F to do to resolve it for all...

That's what I believe is the truth...

Why am I certain GSOD is cause by hardware?

Because I have manage to fix this issue for friends and people from other forums by asking them to down-clocking. Guess what? It works..

Ever wondering why XFX 5870 OC edition have massive report on GSOD? and somehow they have change the clock on VRAM from 1300Mhz to 1250Mhz and the case of GSOD has been decrease..

its pretty clear to me that its GDDR 5 issue.

You can say its ATI's fault, or you can say its manufacture's fault.
either way, its a hardware issue to me. driver only attempt to fix it.
 
Why am I certain GSOD is cause by hardware?

Because I have manage to fix this issue for friends and people from other forums by asking them to down-clocking. Guess what? It works..

Ever wondering why XFX 5870 OC edition have massive report on GSOD? and somehow they have change the clock on VRAM from 1300Mhz to 1250Mhz and the case of GSOD has been decrease..

its pretty clear to me that its GDDR 5 issue.

You can say its ATI's fault, or you can say its manufacture's fault.
either way, its a hardware issue to me. driver only attempt to fix it.

this. and I am going to RMA my card for this reason. If this could be fixed by software it would have by now
 
I've never seen a GSOD on my 5870, but trust me, I've been victim of one of those "everyone else is fine it must be you" issues, so i can commiserate. If you're still having it at this point though, I would be on the phone with the vendor every day demanding they fix it. It's certainly not something I would continue to live with and assume it will be fixed at some point without my griping.

Oldie, not trying to annoy you, but let me repeat:

With the 10.3 drivers, my problem and pattern of behavior with my 5870 did an absolute flip-flop that would make any seasoned politician proud.

Prior to those drivers, my desktop had me worried. Sometimes I couldn't even fully boot into Windows without a GSOD. It was that bad. But then sometimes I could have my system up for almost a week without issue. No pattern. But games were fine.

Now the GSOD fix drivers from ATi. Flip-flop. My system recently lasted two weeks without issue. Then GSOD twice in TDU. And I can play hours upon hours of TDU without incident, then after 18 hours (not straight, but according to the TDU clock) it can suddenly take a quick rash of about a half-dozen GSODs within an hour or so span before TDU is back to running smoothly. The it's smooth for another dozen hours or so 'til the game's completed.


I don't like going to the vendor with this story. Card's now stable at the desktop, and sometimes can game four hours, then suddenly will act like a bi-polar bitch off her meds? And without even re-filling he prescription of meds, it's suddenly back to all's well after letting it do a little temper tantrum?

And I did mention that before these drivers the desktop would crash multiple times a day, but immediately stopped doing that with these said drivers?

XFX is going to moan about ATi's drivers. If they didn't expect another card to fix this I'd agree with them.



If I had not experienced this flip-flop, and I had continued to experience these multiple GSODs a day at the desktop when the card ain't doing jack shit, I would have demanded an RMA once ATI released their GSOD fix drivers, and I saw zero change in behavior.

But unfortunately I saw a ~70% fix. And that my experience had now done a total flip-flop. Problem is that the next few drivers didn't add that 30% additional fix. It's remained status quo.

Perhaps I'll contact XFX. But there are those who have gone the RMA route and just ended up where they were anyway. If it was hardware, ATi would have said so. And then XFX would also know so. And since it's not a recall situation, they wouldn't be hiding it.


Also to remind that leaving my card alone to do whatever the hell it wants is still today what lets it be the most stable. When I start attempting all of the fixes that users suggest is when I start causing my own problems. So, the fix users suggest solved theirs make mine worse. Letting my card work as ATi/XFX designed it to do is the most stable route to go. This also hasn't been the experience of those with issues that I've read about.

I do know I'll kick myself if I RMA this card and never see another GSOD. I'll wonder why ATi hadn't made this clear.

And I'll wonder why then I hadn't bought that 480 sooner.

Whether the RMA fixes this 100% or has no effect has soured me this round (perhaps longer) to ATi. It's either hardware that they didn't put out an APB to customers to tell them to RMA now, or it's drivers that ATi, after half a year, can't seem to get a complete grasp on.

It's a lose-lose for ATi to me.

How's this:

I'm going to buy a 480. Physx is small, but it would be nice to have the option. Etc reasons...

If my system's rock-solid with it, I'm going to re-OC my computer back to where it was with my previous Nvidia card. (Before I completely undid the OC as that was the supposed issue causing my GSODs...)

If my system's still rock-solid, I will RMA. If my system has issues, I'll fault the OC, but I'll still RMA as the 480 with my non-OCed system is fine, but the 5870 is not.

If my system was fine OCed with the 480, I'll leave it there and install the returned 5870. If it's problematic, I'll undo the OC. If it's still problematic, I'll Ebay the card or throw it in the trash. And probably not buy ATi for a few rounds.

If everything's peachy with the 5870 in my system OCed or not OCed, but the 480's only great in my system not OCed, well...

Well, I'll go WTF!? and my brain will probably explode...

Problem is I already know it can take weeks of testing of letting the card sit in the system of normal use to have an idea...


While right now it's only GSODing at the desktop about every week or so, it's still damn annoying. You can't trust the system to be stable, so you're not doing non-gaming semi-critical functions with it you'd otherwise be doing, as you just don't trust the damn thing.

The 5870 would be the first video card to cause me to say that, though. And after all of the supposed talk about both camps doing poor drivers over the years, it's my first experience with it, regardless of where the problem ultimately stands. (And I've been in the game since before 3DFX released the voodoo1.)


What I do know is about 25% of the time I get flamed for being too stupid to know how to install drivers or maintain my system. If that was the case, why can me system sometimes be stable for days or weeks? And games can be solid for dozens of hours before going absolutely bonkers on me? And why do the other fixes make it worse? If I borked a driver clean or install, the effects should be painfully obvious within minutes or hours, and most definitely within days.

Well, I've babbled long enough. I think it's just time to bite the bullet, buy a 480, see what effect that has in my system, RMA my 5870, see what effect that has, and just Ebay the loser.

It's sad that I'm about 90+% certain the 5870's going to fall flat on its ass, though...

And I already owned a 4870x2, but wanted the single-GPU card... I gave ATi more cash for no benefit for the honor of getting myself into this mess...
 
Why am I certain GSOD is cause by hardware?

Because I have manage to fix this issue for friends and people from other forums by asking them to down-clocking. Guess what? It works..

Ever wondering why XFX 5870 OC edition have massive report on GSOD? and somehow they have change the clock on VRAM from 1300Mhz to 1250Mhz and the case of GSOD has been decrease..

its pretty clear to me that its GDDR 5 issue.

You can say its ATI's fault, or you can say its manufacture's fault.
either way, its a hardware issue to me. driver only attempt to fix it.

Downclocking my card makes the problem worse though. Like I said, the fixes for most bring out the issue for me.

It would be awesome if it had solved it for me, though. I haven't tried 850/1200 or 875/1235 yet. But I'm tired of this numbers game of finding settings.

To repeat: My card is most stable when I let it to whatever the hell it wants. 875/1300. And don't F with anything...

And at the desktop I cannot adjust the memory down without it causing the card to go to 157/300, which not only causes tremendous glitching because I have dual monitors, but also appears to help make my system unstable.

More suggestions? I'm still listening, honestly. But I can honestly state that of all of the suggestions I know of the past half-year, I'm not even lucky enough to have them just be status quo-ers. They tend to make things worse.

And I'm still going to try 875/1235 or 850/1200 when gaming. I don't remember those exact numbers being suggested before, otherwise I'd be doing them. But those numbers will cause my desktop to go unstable. Any way to lock the memory at those settings, so it doesn't go to 300?

Downclocking below that though, ATi or XFX can replace my damn card...
 
Downclocking my card makes the problem worse though. Like I said, the fixes for most bring out the issue for me.

It would be awesome if it had solved it for me, though. I haven't tried 850/1200 or 875/1235 yet. But I'm tired of this numbers game of finding settings.

To repeat: My card is most stable when I let it to whatever the hell it wants. 875/1300. And don't F with anything...

And at the desktop I cannot adjust the memory down without it causing the card to go to 157/300, which not only causes tremendous glitching because I have dual monitors, but also appears to help make my system unstable.

More suggestions? I'm still listening, honestly. But I can honestly state that of all of the suggestions I know of the past half-year, I'm not even lucky enough to have them just be status quo-ers. They tend to make things worse.

And I'm still going to try 875/1235 or 850/1200 when gaming. I don't remember those exact numbers being suggested before, otherwise I'd be doing them. But those numbers will cause my desktop to go unstable. Any way to lock the memory at those settings, so it doesn't go to 300?

Downclocking below that though, ATi or XFX can replace my damn card...

Seriously, If I am in your situation, I would be outrages like you, but what I would do differently is just RMA that damn card..

I have counter numerous defective card before, I know how that feel..
 
Seriously, If I am in your situation, I would be outrages like you, but what I would do differently is just RMA that damn card..

I have counter numerous defective card before, I know how that feel..

Okay, I'll buy a 480. Then RMA the 5870. Then make a decision and sell one.

I'm not an Nvidia fanboi, but I am curious what I think about Physx anyway. On a single card, I'm sure it's a great performance hit though, and not worth what I saw in comparison shots of Batman or Mirror's Edge.

But I also expect the 480 will be stable in my system with the CPU re-OCed. (Should I also expect the same with a good 5870 though are you saying?)


Oldie: sorry for the frustration. It's not pointed at any of the few that are responding here. I think Shansoft even understands it's not directed at him.

Frankly, the desktop being unstable is more aggravating for me than having the system unstable for gaming.

It's stable for gaming... Web browsing... watching movies... Using Foobar (music)... Skype... Yahoo... etc... etc....

Then BAM! Quicken of all things appears to cause a GSOD when I am balancing my checkbook... After two weeks of a solid system regardless of what you're doing, Quicken!? WTF...

It's... so utterly ridiculous...


Should I waste the extra $30 on a manuf OCed EVGA 480, or just nab the stock one?
 
Okay, I'll buy a 480. Then RMA the 5870. Then make a decision and sell one.

I'm not an Nvidia fanboi, but I am curious what I think about Physx anyway. On a single card, I'm sure it's a great performance hit though, and not worth what I saw in comparison shots of Batman or Mirror's Edge.

But I also expect the 480 will be stable in my system with the CPU re-OCed. (Should I also expect the same with a good 5870 though are you saying?)


Oldie: sorry for the frustration. It's not pointed at any of the few that are responding here. I think Shansoft even understands it's not directed at him.

Frankly, the desktop being unstable is more aggravating for me than having the system unstable for gaming.

It's stable for gaming... Web browsing... watching movies... Using Foobar (music)... Skype... Yahoo... etc... etc....

Then BAM! Quicken of all things appears to cause a GSOD when I am balancing my checkbook... After two weeks of a solid system regardless of what you're doing, Quicken!? WTF...

It's... so utterly ridiculous...


Should I waste the extra $30 on a manuf OCed EVGA 480, or just nab the stock one?

just the stock 480 will do the job. the pre-OC one is just 26Mhz bump, it does nothing, not even a binned chip..

also, physX is useless, no need to take that as a option..
 
just the stock 480 will do the job. the pre-OC one is just 26Mhz bump, it does nothing, not even a binned chip..

They don't even test the chip at that speed? It's just an extra $30 for a pre-OCed card that you can do yourself in seconds? Nothing more? Am I really understanding you correctly?

Although I suppose you get a card that you can demand works correctly very slightly OCed...

Sounds like potentially the same issue as buying a pre-OCed XXX card...
 
I have had factory overclocked cards before, but only because I got them at a good price. I wouldn't normally pay extra for them (and in the case of XFX 5870 XXX cards, people tended to have more problems due to the increased speeds). Just get the regular one; it's not like the 480 really needs to be overclocked anyway. I have the superclocked version only because (you guessed it) I got a good deal on it and it was one of the few available at the time. Otherwise I would have gladly purchased a stock model.
 
They don't even test the chip at that speed? It's just an extra $30 for a pre-OCed card that you can do yourself in seconds? Nothing more? Am I really understanding you correctly?

Although I suppose you get a card that you can demand works correctly very slightly OCed...

Sounds like potentially the same issue as buying a pre-OCed XXX card...

every 480 have different voltage, range from 0.98-1.075.

mine is 1.012, a EVGA 480 SSC, which is a pre-OC card.

they bump the voltage up in order to maintain the stability, unlike 5870 have same voltage for all of them. (beside non-ref).

Buying pre-OC is waste of money. They are just higher clock, that is it...nothing special about it.

I paid mine to learn that .. :(
 
every 480 have different voltage, range from 0.98-1.075.

mine is 1.012, a EVGA 480 SSC, which is a pre-OC card.

they bump the voltage up in order to maintain the stability, unlike 5870 have same voltage for all of them. (beside non-ref).

Buying pre-OC is waste of money. They are just higher clock, that is it...nothing special about it.

I paid mine to learn that .. :(

I dunno. I can't get mine stable above 800 core.
 
Tried 1.075 at 850 core. Once 3d start it locks up while sound keeps going for a few seconds and then everything just crashes and I have to hard reboot.
 
Tried 1.075 at 850 core. Once 3d start it locks up while sound keeps going for a few seconds and then everything just crashes and I have to hard reboot.

well, try 830....

and check your card default Voltage, you might end up with the 1.075v version to push on stock clock.
 
Why am I certain GSOD is cause by hardware?

Because I have manage to fix this issue for friends and people from other forums by asking them to down-clocking. Guess what? It works..

Ever wondering why XFX 5870 OC edition have massive report on GSOD? and somehow they have change the clock on VRAM from 1300Mhz to 1250Mhz and the case of GSOD has been decrease..

its pretty clear to me that its GDDR 5 issue.

You can say its ATI's fault, or you can say its manufacture's fault.
either way, its a hardware issue to me. driver only attempt to fix it.
To me it seems like the GSOD is more a symptom that can be caused by multiple different issues. I was having GSODs really bad (about every 30 minutes) with BF:BC2. Purging the system of all ATI and Nvidia drivers and reinstalling them fixed the issue for me. I have also seen the exact same thing happen when the card is overclocked too far. As far as I can tell, it is ATI's equivalent of the Windows BSOD. Both hardware and software issues can cause it and there just isn't one simple fix.
 
ATI drivers suck more. When Nvidia figures out a way to fuck up your .net installation so anything work related that depends on .net such as visual studio, SQL server management studio, then lets talk. Nvidia drivers, like someone else mentioned, are also easier to cleanup and un-install.
 
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