The Geforce 460 series has incompatibility issues with many motherboards - READ THIS!

[Ilias]

I apologize in advance for making such a pompous thread title about this matter but i thought that its only right to inform fellow users and potential buyers about those cards. The whole story started after i bought my Geforce 460 1GB last September, since some time after the card's flawless operation and stability, problems and freezes started to occur. I made a thread about it in these very forums over here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2143451

Despite the good help of many forum members, my issues were not resolved and i RMA'd my card. However the card was returned to me and after i made a phonecall to the supervisor of the repair department, i was told that my card ran flawlessly many tests for many hours without a single problem to occur. After i re-installed the card on my system however, the same problems re-appeared after a few days. It was not an issue with the drivers, BIOS, voltages, or temperatures: Everything was updated and carefully checked many times. So i started doing a research and eventually i struck gold: A dedicated thread in Nvidia's forums dedicated to this very matter: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=187401

To make a long story short, the Geforce 4xx series (and especially the Geforce 460) has incompatibility issues with many different motherboards. An Nvidia represantative replied on the very same thread, saying that they didnt look into the issue so far because they didnt have any return rates - but how could they when a technician installs the card on a different motherboard than your own and it magically works? Personally, i am STRUGGLING to convince my retailer about this and get my money back or get a different card.

So becareful about what videocard you are going to choose in the near future. If i were you, i would stay away from the 460 series of cards, until the matter is resolved.

Many thanks for your time,
Ilias

 

[1h4x4s3x]

I've read about this over at [H] and it apparently affects the 400 as well as the 500 series.
Two major faux-pas within a year, and I thought AMD was bad.

Good luck to you!

 

[Annisman*]

Well, thanks for the heads up I guess, but I am sure you will find that most people haven't had issues with their 460's. Including myself, I had SLI 460's with an Gigabyte X58 UD5, no problems on my end. Perhaps Bios updates would fix many issues people are having ?

 

[Skurge]

How can they be sure its the cards that have an issue with the mobos and not the other way around?

Granted, I didnt read the whole 1st post. I'll do that a little later.

Maybe its all that DRM crap they have in their drivers? I don't know.

 

[crazylegs]

Doesn't seem like a very 'fair' test.

Surely the way to test this would be in a system that is having trouble, to keep everything else the same (cpu/ram/psu etc) and to like for like swap the motherboard? With another known to work board.

If problems persist then maybe the graphics card does have compatability issues? :S

Otherwise there seem to be a whole lot of variables with all the changign harware, not to mention changing OS/drivers/software.

I have no idea or personal experience ad my last nV card was my 8800GTX.

Would be interesting if proven true.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I've had a Gtx 460 1gb and gtx 460 768mb and both have run fine on two different x-58 motherboards. Even had the x-58 gigabyte ud3r paired with a 460 1gb run flawlessly for months even though it's on the list. Not buying it. Move along people.

 

[Arkadrel]

@Ilias

what motherboard do you use? its a 2way thingy, because it doesnt have to be nvidia skipping some standard or something, it could be the motherboard makers too... either way someone made a error somewhere, and the card+mb combo is just bad.

which comes back to which MB are you useing?


that said.... thats a big list and lots of differnt brands (like you posted):
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=187401

 

[Ilias]

I've had a Gtx 460 1gb and gtx 460 768mb and both have run fine on two different x-58 motherboards. Even had the x-58 gigabyte ud3r paired with a 460 1gb run flawlessly for months even though it's on the list. Not buying it. Move along people.

Just because you (thankfully) had flawless performance with your cards, doesnt mean that there isnt a problem, or that many others dont have problems. As it is said in the thread i posted, the cards either work properly with some motherboards or not at all. Stop being a jerk.

@Ilias

what motherboard do you use? its a 2way thingy, because it doesnt have to be nvidia skipping some standard or something, it could be the motherboard makers too... either way someone made a error somewhere, and the card+mb combo is just bad.

which comes back to which MB are you useing?

I use this one http://global.msi.eu/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1333 equipped with the latest BIOS as well that lets it accept six-core Phenom processors. Ran flawlessly with my ATI4850 512MB before i replaced it with the Geforce.


We do not insult our fellow forum colleagues in a technical forum. Debate the merits of the contents of the post and leave it at that.

Re: "Stop being a jerk."

Moderator Idontcare

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm, haven't had any problems with my Gigabyte GTX460 1GB OC cards. They've been in a DFI X48 board, as well as their current home, Gigabyte P35-DS3R v1.0 boards.

(Gigabyte and gigabyte, working together, who would have thunk it.)

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

User error IMO.

 

[Idontcare]

Is this an issue with the video card or an issue with the motherboard?

Granted the incompatibility may well be real, but if it is a mobo issue then you can really expect Nvidia to anticipate that or solve it.

But I can appreciate the apprehension and presumed guilt until proven innocent given Nvidia's history of choosing to do what was best for them and worst for their customers until forced to change their position as a matter of legality. (e.g. bump-gate)

It would be nice to have a better understanding of how such an incompatibility could even exist, from a fundamental hardware/driver perspective.

 

[Bearach]

Is this an issue with the video card or an issue with the motherboard?

Granted the incompatibility may well be real, but if it is a mobo issue then you can really expect Nvidia to anticipate that or solve it.

But I can appreciate the apprehension and presumed guilt until proven innocent given Nvidia's history of choosing to do what was best for them and worst for their customers until forced to change their position as a matter of legality. (e.g. bump-gate)

It would be nice to have a better understanding of how such an incompatibility could even exist, from a fundamental hardware/driver perspective.

I totally agree with this, I will stay on the fence about this...

Are all these peoples' computers working perfectly without the said card in? Have they tried a different brand, maybe even an AMD card?

According to the nVIDIA representative, they are aware that some are said to have this issue, but they have not been able to replicate it at all.

 

[Absolution75]

Seems more likely that these people have issues with other hardware rather than the video card itself... ex PSU can't output the rated wattage.

There should be a lot more posts like this one if the issue effected certain systems.

Though it will be interesting if this is true.

 

[artvscommerce]

I was troubleshooting a card I got from EVGA B-stock and I stumbled upon that nvidia thread. With over 1200 posts it certainly seems like a pretty serious problem. I'm still wondering if the 2 cards I sent back to EVGA were truely defective, of if the BIOS revision caused them to be effected by this issue. (I have a working GTX 460 and the 2 defective cards I received had different BIOS versions than the working card). The problems I was experiencing are nearly identical to what's being described in the nvidia thread.

 

[artvscommerce]

Seems more likely that these people have issues with other hardware rather than the video card itself... ex PSU can't output the rated wattage.

There should be a lot more posts like this one if the issue effected certain systems.

Though it will be interesting if this is true.

If you follow the nvidia thread, you will find that there are many people experiencing these issues that have tried everything reasonable to fix it with no success. (RMA to new card, clean OS install, testing the card in multiple other working systems, different driver versions, ect)

 

[happy medium]

From the first post in the thread.

"Current number of users listed reporting issues: 112"



Current # of users not experiencing the problem "millions?"

 

[Unheard]

I can attest to this. I had nothing but problems put of my gtx460 (see my thread in the gfx card forum). after looking into it, it seems to be related to my amd 770 chipset. replaced it with a 6850 and it has been flawless since.

Further info edit:
I could only get the PC to boot stable into safe mode. At which point removing the nvidia drivers and booting normally would work. As soon as I reinstalled the nvidia drivers I would get lockups at login.

 

[brownstone]

From the first post in the thread.

"Current number of users listed reporting issues: 112"



Current # of users not experiencing the problem "millions?"

It would be interesting to know how many RMA'd their cards or just got a different card. Just because there are only 112 people with the "reported issues" does not mean that only 112 have ever experienced it.

 

[happy medium]

It would be interesting to know how many RMA'd their cards or just got a different card. Just because there are only 112 people with the "reported issues" does not mean that only 112 have ever experienced it.

Well Nvidia did state that there board partners are not experiencing anything unusual with the amount of RMA's.
That tells me the problem is not a big problem.

 

[BoomerD]

Happily, my EVGA GTX460 runs just fine on my ASUS P7P55D-E Pro board.

 

[tincart]

GTX 460 on an Asrock A790GHX working just fine.

 

[Rhezuss]

I'm a little worried...i'm receiving today or tomorrow my ASUS GTX 560 Ti and i'm on a ASUS AMD 770 motherboard...

Hope it turns out well.

 

[notty22]

Also no problems, Imo, the OP is coming to a incorrect conclusion. The 460 is one of the most popular selling cards since July '10 . Steam survey shows how many are using them. Of course there are some problems with USER installed electronics.
Before Nvidia came out with dx11 cards, there were many people that bought pci-e 2.1 labeled 5770/50 , 5760's and there were incompatibilities with older m/b's, where the card would not even boot. Some would with m/b bios updates , others not. I'm sure this effected some Nvidia cards as well.
Sometimes between the m/b and a particular vendors vga bios, things are incompatible. Buy another brand.

 

[hdfxst]

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1584908&page=4 post#64 is a response from Nvidia

 

[Ilias]

Sometimes between the m/b and a particular vendors vga bios, things are incompatible. Buy another brand.

Money dont grow on trees.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1584908&page=4 post#64 is a response from Nvidia

So it is a hardware issue indeed it seems. But they are still trying to solve it.