defective/overheating GTX 280s thread

[Redox]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: Mem
n7 surprised you never got a 4870 card,I know the 280 is faster but price to performance etc...

My display is 2560x1600, & i like eye candy like AA turned up.
4780 512 MB = doesn't cut it.

Originally posted by: gersson
Sorry N7 -- remember my thread about a similar thing happening? Link
Newegg RMA is SLOW AS BALLZ right now. It may be best to take the bullet and ship it 1-2 day shipping yourself and see if they can match that.
They just sent out my card today -- 1 week later.
Now I have to wait ANOTHER week to get the replacement and Pray to the game gods it isn't defective as well.
The kicker? No refund for this card

Gah, what a sucktastic experience you're having.

Same exact situation as mine...

I love the QC on these cards. :roll:
It's truely awesome to read about hundreds of other people with the same issue.

But hey, you can always exchange/RMA the card & you have a great chance of getting back a card with the exact same issue. :|

Originally posted by: AmberClad
So, I thought I had read that this is just an issue with the BIOS using a higher voltage than the card is supposed to use. And that some people had flashed the BIOS to one that had the correct voltage. Either of you two try that yet?

I want my warranty in tact.
Not really interested in having to risk messing with a $450 card.


As for how it overheats, the card idles at decent temps.
This morning it was 50C, which is actually cooler than my 8800 GTX at idle.

But then it skyrockets to 100+c in a very short time.

Literally a few seconds into the menu in GRID, it's 105c.

I don't even want to launch anything now, as my apartment gets a lot warmer during the day, & it'll be likely 110+C if i test something now due to higher ambient temps.

It's not my case airflow, or layout, or anything. Even case closed, i have decent airflow, as i have a 250mm side fan that blows over the entire motherboard/video card area. (TT Armor with side panel fan, + all other fan locations with Noctuas)

As i mentioned, apartment was very cool last night & this morning, & i tested with a house fan blasting into the open side case, & it doesn't matter...the card overheats in 30 seconds or less.

I must say, now that i've reasearched this more & experienced this BS, there's no way i can recommend a GTX 280 to anyone, as this is not a minor issue, it's a widespread show of incompetence on the part of those involved in making these cards.

Sorry to hear about the trouble you're having n7. Don't let it turn you off the card in general though. I'm running GTX280 SLI at 25x16 (EVGA stock cards) with no problems - idle is 50-55C and full load (ie. Crysis) is around 82-84C (when the fan ramps up quite a bit).

Hopefully you can return the bad card - you might want to try the EVGA model which also comes with a nice overclocking/fan control utility.

Can't say I'm disappointed with my choice especially with the recent price reduction and/or EVGA cash back offer. Since I game at high resolution and high AA, I really wanted the 512 bit 1GB memory.

Should add that I'm using a CoolerMaster Cosmos S case so airflow in my case is quite good.

 

[Keysplayr]

N7, I haven't seen my GTX280 get higher than 77C under load in an un-air conditioned garage. (About 79 degrees in here).
You can't RMA the card directly to the manufacturer?

 

[n7]

Eh, i just registered & contacted BFG.

Maybe they can guarantee a good card, since i realize getting a replacement from the store is actually another gamble.

And quite frankly, there is no way i would tolerate a second bad card.

So amongst other words...

So i guess my main reason for trying to RMA here instead of through the store, is that i'd hope you could ensure the replacement card isn't afflicted with the same issue, whereas through the store, i might get another bad one based on how widespread the issue seems to be.

Let's see how they come through...or not.

 

[Keysplayr]

BFG usually leaves a small leaflet in their boxes telling you not to RMA to the retailer, but only to BFG themselves. Did you get one in your box? Not sure if this is a global standard. US/Can/EUR/ASIA.

I hope you get this resolved. If you liked your 8800GTX, you'll like the 280. It's everything the 8800GTX was, just a whole lot more of it.

 

[Quiksilver]

n7, wasn't it you that had a ton of driver issues around the time the 8800GT launched? Now your going through this mess, I'm honestly surprised you went with another nVidia card based on your previous experience. You could have just waited a few more weeks and picked up a 4870X2.

Anyway hope the RMA goes as planned and you get a non-dud card.

 

[BFG10K]

Originally posted by: Quiksilver

n7, wasn't it you that had a ton of driver issues around the time the 8800GT launched?.

No that was me with the 640 MB 8800 GTS. In fact a lot of people had issues unless they stuck to the handful of titles that were currently being benchmarked.

The funny thing is though, with the GTX280 prices so damn low I honestly cannot decide what card to upgrade to.

 

[Magusigne]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Originally posted by: Quiksilver

n7, wasn't it you that had a ton of driver issues around the time the 8800GT launched?.

No that was me with the 640 MB 8800 GTS. In fact a lot of people had issues unless they stuck to the handful of titles that were currently being benchmarked.

The funny thing is though, with the GTX280 prices so damn low I honestly cannot decide what card to upgrade to.

I dunno....I had my 4870 and switched to a 260 and overall I like it

allbeit its a sideways step but the 260 overclocks like a champ!

The 4870 was hard to overclock the already taxed GDDR5 and without really messing around with the overclock you could only go from 750--->790 core.

My GTX 260 is stable at 690 core and I could probably push it further...load temps are fine and the fan isn't as whiney as the 4870

 

[nitromullet]

Sounds to me like the HSF isn't properly seated. My GTX 280 never gets up to those temps (70-80C load usually), nor does the fan ever run at 100%. I live in Seattle, and we don't have A/C here either. It's comfy at night, but can get into the 80s (F) during the day.

Pretty much all you can do is RMA the card... It's definitely a bummer, but I wouldn't be afraid of the GTX 280 going forward. As Keys said, if you liked your 8800GTX, the GTX 280 is really more of the same, but even more of it.

 

[n7]

Well, i'm glad to hear that at least a number of people here have working cards.

Those of you with them, what temps are you hitting at highest?
And have you ever experienced the stuttering/lagging/chugging that results from that?
Also, what about fan noise?
It's truely terrible during games... or do your cards not run at full or close to full RPMs?
Or you guys just don't mind noise?

Originally posted by: Quiksilver
n7, wasn't it you that had a ton of driver issues around the time the 8800GT launched? Now your going through this mess, I'm honestly surprised you went with another nVidia card based on your previous experience. You could have just waited a few more weeks and picked up a 4870X2.

Anyway hope the RMA goes as planned and you get a non-dud card.

I had many complaints with nVidia drivers for a long time with my 8800 GTX.
And actually, i still do, as it still loves BSODing when alt tabbing at least once every while.

Problem is, as i've mentioned, a 512 MB card is not a reasonable upgrade for me, which means either waiting who knows how long for a 1 GB 4870...
Or the X2, which then brings with it the issues of CF...& i highly doubt micro-stuttering is really fully gone, not to mention the joys of games that don't scale properly, & me needing a new PSU

Yes, i'm a very very picky user.
There is actually no card out there that really totally appeals to me.

Originally posted by: nitromullet
Sounds to me like the HSF isn't properly seated. My GTX 280 never gets up to those temps (70-80C load usually), nor does the fan ever run at 100%. I live in Seattle, and we don't have A/C here either. It's comfy at night, but can get into the 80s (F) during the day.

Pretty much all you can do is RMA the card... It's definitely a bummer, but I wouldn't be afraid of the GTX 280 going forward. As Keys said, if you liked your 8800GTX, the GTX 280 is really more of the same, but even more of it.

I'd agree.
The way temps skyrocket so fast is definitely representative of a poorly mounted heatsink.

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
BFG usually leaves a small leaflet in their boxes telling you not to RMA to the retailer, but only to BFG themselves. Did you get one in your box? Not sure if this is a global standard. US/Can/EUR/ASIA.

I hope you get this resolved. If you liked your 8800GTX, you'll like the 280. It's everything the 8800GTX was, just a whole lot more of it.

Well, aside from the noise & overheating, the card seems okay
While it was chugging badly, i tried some UT3 @ 2560x1600 w/ 4xAA, & it's playable at the settings i use
Huge improvement from the 8800 GTX in that regard.
Only other game i ran was GRID, which it wasn't all that much better in, though it's far smoother during the smoke/sand particles donuts & slideouts cause.

Obviously, it's hard to say what performance is really supposed to be, as my card is defective...

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: Mem
n7 surprised you never got a 4870 card,I know the 280 is faster but price to performance etc...

My display is 2560x1600, & i like eye candy like AA turned up.
4780 512 MB = doesn't cut it.

Originally posted by: gersson
Sorry N7 -- remember my thread about a similar thing happening? Link
Newegg RMA is SLOW AS BALLZ right now. It may be best to take the bullet and ship it 1-2 day shipping yourself and see if they can match that.
They just sent out my card today -- 1 week later.
Now I have to wait ANOTHER week to get the replacement and Pray to the game gods it isn't defective as well.
The kicker? No refund for this card

Gah, what a sucktastic experience you're having.

Same exact situation as mine...

I love the QC on these cards. :roll:
It's truely awesome to read about hundreds of other people with the same issue.

But hey, you can always exchange/RMA the card & you have a great chance of getting back a card with the exact same issue. :|

Originally posted by: AmberClad
So, I thought I had read that this is just an issue with the BIOS using a higher voltage than the card is supposed to use. And that some people had flashed the BIOS to one that had the correct voltage. Either of you two try that yet?

I want my warranty in tact.
Not really interested in having to risk messing with a $450 card.


As for how it overheats, the card idles at decent temps.
This morning it was 50C, which is actually cooler than my 8800 GTX at idle.

But then it skyrockets to 100+c in a very short time.

Literally a few seconds into the menu in GRID, it's 105c.

I don't even want to launch anything now, as my apartment gets a lot warmer during the day, & it'll be likely 110+C if i test something now due to higher ambient temps.

It's not my case airflow, or layout, or anything. Even case closed, i have decent airflow, as i have a 250mm side fan that blows over the entire motherboard/video card area. (TT Armor with side panel fan, + all other fan locations with Noctuas)

As i mentioned, apartment was very cool last night & this morning, & i tested with a house fan blasting into the open side case, & it doesn't matter...the card overheats in 30 seconds or less.

I must say, now that i've reasearched this more & experienced this BS, there's no way i can recommend a GTX 280 to anyone, as this is not a minor issue, it's a widespread show of incompetence on the part of those involved in making these cards.

1GB version of the 4870 is due at end of July,anyway good luck on your replacement or whatever you decide to do.

 

[BFG10K]

Originally posted by: Powernick50

The 4870 was hard to overclock the already taxed GDDR5 and without really messing around with the overclock you could only go from 750--->790 core.

I don't care about overclocking, and my reasons for considering the 4870 are likely different to most others?.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: n7
Well, i'm glad to hear that at least a number of people here have working cards.

Those of you with them, what temps are you hitting at highest?
And have you ever experienced the stuttering/lagging/chugging that results from that?
Also, what about fan noise?
It's truely terrible during games... or do your cards not run at full or close to full RPMs?
Or you guys just don't mind noise?

With good case cooling load temps shouldn't exceed 85C from my own experiences and user reports, mine never get over 80C. Its actually quite a bit cooler than my 8800GTX both idle and load and that's overclocked to 670MHz without 2D throttling enabled. It doesn't seem like there's a middle ground with working cards and problem cards, its either ~80C under load or 100C+.

The fan on automatic starts at 40% idle and will spin up dynamically as soon as you start running a 3D app. My fan has never increased beyond 60% with 80C GPU playing Crysis or running Furmark. At 60% you shouldn't be able to hear it over a 120mm case or CPU fan and at 100% it shouldn't be much louder than the 8800GTX fan at 100%.

And actually, i still do, as it still loves BSODing when alt tabbing at least once every while

Did this only start with the 17x drivers? I started getting lock-ups when alt-tabbing in certain games with the 17x series, there were some threads about it on Guru3D. It seems to be a memory allocation bug in Vista with G80 and 8GB RAM. Work around that worked for me was to use ALT-Enter instead of ALT-Tab.

 

[CP5670]

And actually, i still do, as it still loves BSODing when alt tabbing at least once every while

I used to get this problem with some older Nvidia cards/drivers (7800 era) but haven't run into it with this card, although I am on XP. Are you getting it randomly or with specific games?

Actually, the alt-tabbing with this card is much faster than the X1900 I was using earlier, as are the loading times of many games. I play most games in a different resolution than my Windows one and the X1900 had some kind of delay (several seconds) when changing resolutions in this situation, which is not the case anymore.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: Powernick50

The 4870 was hard to overclock the already taxed GDDR5 and without really messing around with the overclock you could only go from 750--->790 core.

From the reviews that I read, the memory overclocks much better than the core, due to the core having a limiter via BIOS. I remember the memory was overclocking around ~20% much greater than the core at around ~6%. Once we can bypass the limiter, it will be interesting to see how far the core will go. In the mean time, I don't think the GDDR5 is already taxed when you can overclock it 22%... That is no small overclock, IMO.

 

[nitromullet]

Those of you with them, what temps are you hitting at highest? I thinik the highest I've seen is 85C

And have you ever experienced the stuttering/lagging/chugging that results from that? Nope.

Also, what about fan noise?
It's truely terrible during games... or do your cards not run at full or close to full RPMs? I let the card adjust the fan itself. You can definitely hear the fan, but it isn't bothersome. IIRC from using EVGA's Precision briefly, it hits about 70% fan speed under load.

Or you guys just don't mind noise? I mind noise, but I also understand that high performance generally means high heat also. I personally think your card is running the fan abnormally fast because of the lack of proper heat sink performance.

 

[ArchAngel777]

I used to not care so much about noise levels, that is, until some of these latest generation of cards. Every card that is released seems to push the envelope further and further... For each 10db increase, they say that noise doubles. So, the cards of generations ago use to run at ~30db, and now they are approaching ~50db under load! That is some serious increase in noise. It even appears that some SLI/Xfire based rigs are approaching the noise level of some cars on the freeway!

As heat output increases, so does the need for larger heatsinks. At this point they are already covering most of the card... So what is next? We had single slot cooling, then we moved to double slot. So we don't have any where to go besides adding higher spinning larger fans, tripleslot cooling, or flat out requiring a waterblock for the new high end cards.

Die shrinks will not offset the power requirement so long as we continue to add more shaders, more ROPs, more TMUs... The only way I can see the situation improving is come to a stand still and let the die shrinks catch up and put power requirements back to reasonable levels... But that will never happen... Looks like my next high-end card is going to be watercooled as the noise is really getting out of control, IMO.

 

[JAG87]

n7, I have two of them, so I took the chance "twice" technically speaking.

Both are vanille evga cards. they idle at 49-50, and load at 78-79. These are gpu diode temperatures, the card temperatures are in fact around 10c lower (40 idle and 70 load). Fan noise is totally acceptable, no louder than my ex 8800 GTXs.

I think all these people with overheating cards have really BAD contact with the GPU. Most likely the paste air vacuum broke during shipping, and now they just have air gaps. Kinda like when you nudge a cpu heatsink and your temps go up 10c.

I am sure if you get it replaced you will be happy with the card. But you won't be happy with the drivers. These cards consistently downclock in games that are not too intensive, like cs 1.6, cs source, bf2, its just pathetic. Your frames get butchered.

So just a heads up, be ready for more disappointment if you like to play old classics. Until we get a new driver at least.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: JAG87
you won't be happy with the drivers. These cards consistently downclock in games that are not too intensive, like cs 1.6, cs source, bf2, its just pathetic. Your frames get butchered.

So just a heads up, be ready for more disappointment if you like to play old classics. Until we get a new driver at least.

wtf...like some power saving feature gone wrong?

 

[CP5670]

Strange, I've tried several old games on this card and have never seen anything like that. It always stays at the 3D speeds in a game.

So far, I have gotten problems with one old game, Grim Fandango, although it doesn't look that much worse in software mode (the backgrounds are prerendered and only the characters are 3D) so I just played it through that. Descent 3 is also having some odd issues, but I think my install of that game is just messed up as it was behaving similarly on my old card.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Well I bitched to Newegg and they are going to send the RMA back 2-day shipping.

 

[JAG87]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: JAG87
you won't be happy with the drivers. These cards consistently downclock in games that are not too intensive, like cs 1.6, cs source, bf2, its just pathetic. Your frames get butchered.

So just a heads up, be ready for more disappointment if you like to play old classics. Until we get a new driver at least.

wtf...like some power saving feature gone wrong?

yep, gone completely wrong. the driver determines which power state the cards should be in based on a load, the more load the less of a chance the cards will drop. for example in bf2 and in source, the cards occasionally drop down to 400/800 (low power 3d), while in cs 1.6 I have the joy of playing at 301/602 (standard 2D) and actually lagging when a smoke grenade pops, for a split second, before the cards kick back up to 602/1296.

isn't it ironic for 2 GTX280s in SLI to lag in 1.6...

Originally posted by: CP5670
Strange, I've tried several old games on this card and have never seen anything like that. It always stays at the 3D speeds in a game.

So far, I have gotten problems with one old game, Grim Fandango, although it doesn't look that much worse in software mode (the backgrounds are prerendered and only the characters are 3D) so I just played it through that. Descent 3 is also having some odd issues, but I think my install of that game is just messed up as it was behaving similarly on my old card.

What games, what resolution, what drivers, what AA and AF settings.

I have verified that these cards downclock in many non-intensive games, they downclock during loading screens. The issues has even been reported to nvidia by evga after my thread in their forums. This isn't something you will ever notice if you are playing crysis or GRID, but you will notice it if you are playing any game that you can get way above 100 fps.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Originally posted by: Quiksilver

n7, wasn't it you that had a ton of driver issues around the time the 8800GT launched?.

No that was me with the 640 MB 8800 GTS. In fact a lot of people had issues unless they stuck to the handful of titles that were currently being benchmarked.

The funny thing is though, with the GTX280 prices so damn low I honestly cannot decide what card to upgrade to.

I know a moderator on this site who would give you a really good price on a slightly used one...

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: JAG87
What games, what resolution, what drivers, what AA and AF settings.

I have verified that these cards downclock in many non-intensive games, they downclock during loading screens. The issues has even been reported to nvidia by evga after my thread in their forums. This isn't something you will ever notice if you are playing crysis or GRID, but you will notice it if you are playing any game that you can get way above 100 fps.

Some that I can think of off the top of my head are Freespace 2, Battlezone 2, Ballistics, Descent 2 and 3, both Deus Ex games and Unreal 2, along with some semi-old games like Far Cry, Splinter Cell: CT and NFS: Most Wanted. I was mainly searching for driver glitches and only played a few of them for a lengthy period, but never saw any slowdown that would result from something like this. The older titles were played with either 16xQ or 16xS, and the more recent ones typically with 4x. I always force AF to 16x globally. I used 177.39 when I got the card (almost all of these games were played on that only) and switched to 177.41 a few days ago.

If it's dependent on the framerate and only shows up beyond a certain level, that could be why I am not encountering it. Most of these games were played at 2048x1536 and I always use vsync, which locks them at 85hz at that resolution.

Does it switch the speeds constantly or do you need to be playing the game for a while to run into it?

[edit] Wait, I see what you're talking about now. I just looked at the Rivatuner graph this time (which I had not done before) and the fluctuation is clearly visible there.

I have to wonder if Rivatuner or the driver is misreporting the speed though, as I never actually saw any slowdown from this (which seems odd given the enormous drop in memory and shader speeds; you would think the high levels of AA would alone cause problems if the memory goes down to 100mhz). All of the games I mentioned net me a more or less constant 85fps.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Powernick50

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Originally posted by: Quiksilver

n7, wasn't it you that had a ton of driver issues around the time the 8800GT launched?.

No that was me with the 640 MB 8800 GTS. In fact a lot of people had issues unless they stuck to the handful of titles that were currently being benchmarked.

The funny thing is though, with the GTX280 prices so damn low I honestly cannot decide what card to upgrade to.

I dunno....I had my 4870 and switched to a 260 and overall I like it

allbeit its a sideways step but the 260 overclocks like a champ!

The 4870 was hard to overclock the already taxed GDDR5 and without really messing around with the overclock you could only go from 750--->790 core.

My GTX 260 is stable at 690 core and I could probably push it further...load temps are fine and the fan isn't as whiney as the 4870

I've seen you post this a few times now. every review site that I have seen got a 20% + oc on the memory and around a 4% core oc. you're getting a 13% core oc and unknown (so probably weak) memory oc, netting you close to the same overall performance increase on both cards.

Are you saying that you actually tried to crank up the memory and got artifacts, or were you concerned about it being gddr5 and thus reluctant to oc it aggressively? honestly, I haven't seen anybody yet say that he couldn't get 1100+ out of his mem on a 4870.

 

[BFG10K]

Originally posted by: JAG87

I have verified that these cards downclock in many non-intensive games, they downclock during loading screens. The issues has even been reported to nvidia by evga after my thread in their forums. This isn't something you will ever notice if you are playing crysis or GRID, but you will notice it if you are playing any game that you can get way above 100 fps.

Oh Lordy, I play a lot of games at a high framerate and the last thing I need is flashbacks of my G80 fiasco, a fiasco that is now just wrapping up after about 18 months.

Now just imagine if people use vsync in old games which will make them even less taxing.

I'm definitely waiting now; I'm in no rush to give nVidia more of my money regardless of how low their cards drop.