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GeForce 8800 GTX Recall

Posted by Hemos on Mon Nov 06, 2006 09:55 AM
from the get-over-here dept.
Upgrades Hardware Entertainment Games
An anonymous reader writes "From vr-zone.com: 'We have received news that all the 8800GTX cards out in the channel are being recalled due to manufacturing defect. We heard it is probably due to a resistor controlling 2D/3D switching and that leads to 3D corruption. However, the defect doesn't affect the 8800GTS cards.'"
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  • Red alert! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Rob T Firefly (844560) on Monday November 06 2006, @10:04AM (#16735293) Homepage Journal
    We heard it is probably due to a resistor controlling 2D/3D switching and that leads to 3D corruption.
    Dimensional instability! Quick, get three versions of the same starship to simultaneously generate a static warp shell! Only then we can contain the flood of anti-time, and continue our symbolic life lesson at the hands of a smug omnipotent bastard.
        • Don't worry.. He probably didn't understand the reference, stuck in the primordial goo of nerdiness.. to quote the same episode...
          Us that do get the reference are truly superior in our nerdiness..
  • twisted transistor..
  • When your greedy and can't wait for ROI according to your production schedule like a *normal* company...
    • It happens. It isn't like there isn't a huge market for yuppy gamers who HAVE TO HAVE THE LATEST.

      If people were a bit more conservative we wouldn't have a 4-month release cycle for GPUs. They'd spend more time refining the technology, and you'd be doing more with less.... yada yada.

      Personally, my GeForce 5200 was fine, the only reason I got a 6600 was that it was the cheapest non-turbocache PCI-E card I could get at the time [and the 7xxx series was out then]. I can play doom3/quake/enemyterritory just f

      • If people were a bit more conservative we wouldn't have a 4-month release cycle for GPUs. They'd spend more time refining the technology, and you'd be doing more with less.... yada yada.

        Which is my point exactly, it's *almost* like the 7xxx series fiasco that is still playing itself out. God forbid your an early adopter...does that mean that a customer should have to buy 2 of the same card to gain the benefit of some form of advertised stability? Ummm, that's a negative good buddy...at some point people

        • People should stop buying more than they need for graphics. That's the real problem [same could be said for processors, but frankly I think that's less of a problem].

          Nvidias business model revolves around rolling out the largest, most current consuming monstrosity possible so long as consumers keep buying it. If the customers shifted their spending habits from "I got a small wee wee and need a big pee cee" to "I really can get by with a 6xxx or 5xxx series card" they would spend more time making the middl
          • I have done what you suggest, in the past.

            But now I find it annoying that the sub-$100 market has gone completely to castrated video cards. That didn't used to be the case. I have both Radeon 8500LE and FX5700LE cards that were sub-$100, and I'm quite happy with them. The features are all there, just the clock is slightly degraded. Obviously I'm not a hard-core gamer with cards like that, but for what I do, they're fine. On my newest system, I searched until I found an nVidia 6200 card that was not TurboCac
            • I've seen sub-$100 6600GTs. I agree the low-end has been a lot of crap in the past, but a 6600GT is a solid card to have as the "low-end" even if it is a few years old now. I personally can't stand the contemporary nomenclature used by ATI and nVidia and I think it's one of the reasons people bitch about the low-end cards, it's really hard to figure out relative performance without doing a lot of research.
            • 7600GS. Pixel Shader 3.0, dedicated memory, and uses 27W max! Costs less than $100 for a 256MB-DDR2 PCIe model.
                • At that time last year, the 128MB 6600 PCIe was under $100. Although it was impossible for the 6600 to reach the clocks of the venerable 6600 GT, it was significantly faster than the 6200.

                  I do agree - the 6200 was a castrated card - no ultrashadow or lossless memory compression - but it was an exception.

                  All current 7000-series Nvidia cards have the same feature-set, with the exception of hardware SLI connectors. The 7300 GS is the only TurboCache card, and even with that limitation it manages to outperfor
          • I bought my top of the line video card because I need something to accurately render the billions of polygons in my 16x Anti-Aliased E-Wang at 120 FPS, you insensitive clod! On an entirely unrelated note, I choose not to measure my video card's power in Gigaflops. . .
      • Hey, asshole, the constant unending push to release the fastest card on the market drives prices down faster. Even if it didn't, you'd still be an asshole. If I want to spend $600 for a new video card because I think it's worth it, then I will. A 6600 don't cut it at 1920x1200.
        • My thoughts exactly, I have a 22" LCD with a native resolution of 1680x1050. I need a decent card to play all my games at 1680x1050 with max settings and 2xAA/8xAF. I have a X1900XT 256mb and it handles all my games just fine and it only cost me $360 Canadian after tax. If I had a 1900x1200 monitor, I'd probably need an even better video card, or I'd have to reduce the quality settings.

  • I've seen this before (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ellis D Trippman (655872) on Monday November 06 2006, @10:17AM (#16735501)
    They probably put the resistor in backwards
    • Fax received by admin from on-site engineer:

      Manufacturer insists their manufacturing tools have placed the resistor the correct way round.

      Their engineers say the entire reference board has been specified backwards.
  • a resistor controlling 2D/3D switching
    The higher they fly, the noiser the fall!
    Not even a flip-flop or a transistor!
  • IIRC, Asus is responsible for the manufacture of all 8800-series boards. The only thing the integrators do is add their cooling solution for the GPU and RAM.
    • No, they aren't the only manufacturer. They might be the ones to blame in this case, but the other companies like BFG, eVGA, and Gigabyte usually create their own customized boards, and don't simply use the reference board. The reference board may be the one that this problem occurs on, and ASUS might be the manufacturer of the reference board, but they most certainly are not the only manufacturer of boards.

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        It depends on the chip, but most companies tend to stick with the reference design and at most put on higher-end RAM and custom cooling (and then maybe OC the cards and sell them for a markup). Very few of the board makers bother to customize designs anymore beyond really simple things. If the problem is in the reference design then chances are all of the companies are effected. What may be going on here though is that ASUS has exclusive first dibs on making 8800GTX boards and thus are the only ones effecte
    • Nvidia CEO in Taiwan to secure TSMC capacity for DirectX 10-compliant GeForce 8800 [cpu3d.com]

      Looks like Nvidia is using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), atleast for their reference boards anyway.
  • This is terrible news!

    Oh well...i've waited six months for this card to come out...so a little longer won;t make much difference.

    That said, its a good job they recalled them. I'd be damnably annoyed if i'd just spent $600 on a card that was made broken.
  • If a product is recalled before any have been sold, is it really a recall?
    • Well, lookie [nvnews.net] here! [gotechzilla.com] Over the last week, brick & mortar retailers AND etailers across the country have done a boneheaded thing and sold the cards to customers early.

      Funny thing: many customers noticed glitches in 3D mode...what a coincidence! I guess we do need a recall!
      • ATI has the hardware sans software/marketing. Nvidia has the software and marketing. Although ... recently their drivers have gone the ATI route and are all .NET bloated, and since most *nix distros make ATI drivers easy to install I guess the gap has shrunk a bit. The 8800's numbers look really good, it's impressive. But since D3D 10 isn't out, I don't know what graphics I would be accelerating, dx9 I guess which cheaper cards do right now for less power. This is early adopter stuff. No, I think I'll
        • So you like rmaing things and that's why you get a MAC ? Good for you, I'll stay on my hand chosen hardware and I won't return anything ;)
          • But... but... but Apple's RMA's are all shiny and smooth and sleek and white and are printed up in that oh-so-classy Apple Garamond font face!
      • I gave up on ATI... not bad stuff per say, but nVidia actually had the card out when I wanted one (ATI is/was a "canadian" company and you could'nt buy their top end in canada... nice), and I got tired of the hoops to jump through in Linux to make them work. nVidia for me "just worked"

        Note... this is back when 6800 Ultra nVidia's were king, I haven't bought / needed to buy one since. I'm quite happy with my Ultra. Previously to that I had a 9600 Pro, also a good card, but a pita for linux compared to nVi
        • I like ATI mainly because every card is designed for a specific speed.. they all arn't the same damn card over clocked.

          But this only applies to built by ATI.. scew the others .. i still can't belive ATI let others build the cards.. *shudders*

          the 9600pro is a nice card.. i had one then picked up a x800pro.. on regret is that 3 months after i got it they came out with the x850.. same damn card BUT it supports the 30in Apple display.. the x800 has the dual link dvi but can't handel the res.. the x850 can..
        • ATI is/was a "canadian" company and you could'nt buy their top end in canada... nice

          Where do you live in Canada? I live in Markham, where ATI was founded, and I have no problem finding an X1900GT, X1900XT, X1900XTX or even an X1950XTX at local stores. Do you live out in the boonies?
      • So uh, if you give up on nVidia, what are you going to do? ATI? They can't write a driver to save their lives and they never have been able to. Intel? They're giving out driver interface specs which is admirable, but they have more powerful 3D chips in PDAs.
        • Apparently you haven't noticed the trend lately, Nvidia drivers are getting worse, while ATI drivers are getting better (atleast on Windows). I own 3 Radeons, a 9600XT, X800 GTO2 and an X1900XT and they all work great. I've used every Catalyst version since 5.4 and they've much better. Sure, Catalyst loads slowly, but how often do you actually load the Catalyst Control Center to change driver settings? Also, if you disable the custom catalyst skin and select "system skin" (see preferences tab), it will load

          • Sure, Catalyst loads slowly, but how often do you actually load the Catalyst Control Center to change driver settings?

            I don't know, because if I have it installed, the system blue screens on every boot. If I boot up in safe mode and uninstall it, then boot up, system boots fine.

            The system is also dramatically more stable with some old-ass hacked-up DNA drivers than with the commercial drivers which are a whole version ahead of DNA right now.

            ATI getting better at writing drivers? I call shenanigans

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Emetophobe (878584)
        ATI had the same problem with the X1800 series, it happens in the manufacturing world, especially with something as complex as a high end video card. I believe the original 7900s had issues with the voltage regulators.
        • No. eVGA was not the problem with the 7900s and it doesn't look like they're the problem now. All of the companies had problems with their 7900GTs. And when my 7900GT croaked eVGA cross-shipped and paid all the shipping both ways. And overnighted the new card. So eVGA got themselves on my good side. NVidia on the other hand can kiss my ass.
        • IIRC, eVGA is the only manufacturer that won't void your warranty if you replace their stock cooler with an aftermarket one. Also, eVGA offers a lifetime warranty on their cards.

          eVGA Warranty [evga.com] (As of June 22, 2005, all eVGA cards have a lifetime warranty).

          Disclaimer: I don't work for eVGA, I prefer Sapphire Radeons myself =)
    • Yes, it is. It's a total recall of 8800GTX's, which is what the summary says and what TFA says.

    • Re:+1 Scifi nerd (Score:4, Funny)

      by kfg (145172) on Monday November 06 2006, @10:54AM (#16735987)
      So it's not a total recall...

      Even better, the recall took place before the units reached the retail market.

      That's right, they can recall it wholesale.

      KFG
      • Where are my mod points when I need them!

        I nearly fell out of my chair.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by MMC Monster (602931)
          Heck, where are everyone's mod points.

          Off topic, but things just haven't been mod'ed up lately. Articles with a couple hundred comments, and just a few at +5?

          Why the sudden stinginess with giving out mod points?

          (And, no, I'm not expecting an informative response to this... but it would be nice. :-) )
          • Check my thread...it seems that all repliers are getting the mod points while the sub-thread parents get just "1"'s...
          • It goes through waves. In early August, most colleges started back-to-school, the same thing happened. I'm not sure if that's relevant at all, but there definately seems to be a moderation famine every so often.
        • As I nearly fell out of mine when I saw that I'd been modded Informative.

          KFG
      • Informative? It deserves a +5 ultra Scifi nerd for the reference to the movie and the short story.
    • Well, at least NVidia is accepting the blame for this one. I still don't think they admitted the 7900 fiasco was their fault(which it was). My next video card is going to be ATI. Kick-ass forceware or not, I can't trust these people anymore.

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