Possible to smoke your GPU from folding?

dr.stevil

dr.stevil

[H]F Junkie
2FA
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Sep 26, 2008
Messages
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well, to make a long story short, my GPU is toast and I'm in the process of getting it RMA'd. When I first got the card, it worked great and seems to slowly degraded to the point it's at now. Since this is the first card I've tried folding with I'm wondering if it has anything to do with it. While the temps never went overboard, it was crunching for days at a time before getting a break... it makes me wonder if the strain/stress had anything to do with it, or if it was just a coincidence.
 
BAKE IT!

*no seriously..... It probally was the stree on the card, crunching for af ew days will defenitly put some strain on the card. Its possible the solder was crap and was loosening more and more, or that the memory may have not been tested thoroughly before it was shipping out being stamped as "OK". RMA is a good corse of action, but it was most likly a coincidence on bad Q/A.
 
My 260s have been folding nearly 24x7 for over a year now, and when they weren't folding they were gaming so it's not like they got a break. If you kill it shortly after getting it new, I would say it was a faulty card anyway and gaming would of killed it, although it may have taken a bit longer.
 
It's not common to bake a GPU folding... however it has been done.

I killed one folding...... however making sure that power wires are not keeping the fan from spinning is not really the cards fault. I'm just glad it was just a 8800GS :eek:
 
Video cards are not built up to the same standards as CPUs and motherboards. It is not common to kill a GPU while folding, but it can happen if a particular card isn't up to the task. However, that does mean the card is defective.
 
Again, most likly its a solder issue. They use cheaper solder on video cards than they do on motherboards and whatnot.

Do your RMA and try with the new card. Its not uncommon to kill one folding, but its not an every day occurance either.
 
I think it most likely the card had a weekness/fault anyway and the work done by the card folding just made it show up. My 285 has been folding non-stop for 2 months without a problem. I think in the future I am going to take any new card and fold with it a while to test it good before the warranty is up if it is a card that has a limited warranty. This is if the card is not going to be folding anyway for some reason.
 
3 GTX260s folding for a year each.. all overclocked to 1512 shaders.... none dead yet.

Probably had some kind of weakness that folding found for you. You could look at this like it's a good thing. Folding found the problem for you, cause it would have taken months of gaming to have made the problem apparent. then the warranty might have expired
 
consider too that most video cards have overheat protection that significantly down clocks teh card if it gets too hot!
 
heh, well.... I'll have to fire up the new one for a few weeks when I get it to see if it'll show any flaws. Seems like a good way to test the integrity of a GPU, if anything :D
 
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