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GPU Lifespan

Flashheart

Flashheart

Flashheart

Associate
Joined
23 Oct 2010
Posts
618
Location
Telford, Shropshire
Here's the thing. Is it a good theory that if a Graphics card has a fault, or will develop a fault it will be within the first few months of ownership?

I have an asus gtx 480 and it has worked flawlessy, overclocked, for a few months now.

I realise changing the cooler voids the warranty, but would really like to get something on it. It'll run 840 at stock volts so pretty sure I can get some more out of it.

Is it safe to assume that after this time, a fault developing in the near future is slim?
 
It could develop a fault or become faulty at any given time. 1 day, 4 weeks, 3 years etc. Its total luck of the draw.

As far as voiding the warranty, as long as you could put the original cooler back on with paste neat enough etc, I doubt they would even know its been off.
 
Statistically there is a higher failure rate hour1/day1/week1 as the component is stressed in working conditions. After several months as described, there is every chance it will last for a lifetime (until it becomes obselete).
An exception is mechanicals, that fail due to wear, fans etc. Electronics may ultimately fail due to power / thermal cycling however this should be in the 1000's of cycles.

andy
 
nkata said:
Statistically there is a higher failure rate hour1/day1/week1 as the component is stressed in working conditions. After several months as described, there is every chance it will last for a lifetime (until it becomes obselete).
An exception is mechanicals, that fail due to wear, fans etc. Electronics may ultimately fail due to power / thermal cycling however this should be in the 1000's of cycles.

andy
Click to expand...

Agreed. In my experience if its going to fail it will do so in the first month.
 
in my experience if it is going to fail it will be five minutes after you mess with it.
 
nkata said:
Statistically there is a higher failure rate hour1/day1/week1 as the component is stressed in working conditions. After several months as described, there is every chance it will last for a lifetime (until it becomes obselete).
An exception is mechanicals, that fail due to wear, fans etc. Electronics may ultimately fail due to power / thermal cycling however this should be in the 1000's of cycles.

andy
Click to expand...


I have found this to be quite correct with all my obsolete cards. All week I have been stressing my new 5870 for hours a day, I have full confidence it will last me a very long time (with the exception of the fan which can fail at any time).
 
Thanks for the input guy's. This is pretty much what I thought, and you've confirmed it really for me.
While there is still obviously the chance of imminent failure, it should be much reduced as the card has been run in for a few months.

While this may has been asked before, what's the best cooler between the zalman, gelid and arctic accelero coolers? They all seem quite good from the reviews I've read, is there one that stand's out?
 
Flashheart said:
Thanks for the input guy's. This is pretty much what I thought, and you've confirmed it really for me.
While there is still obviously the chance of imminent failure, it should be much reduced as the card has been run in for a few months.

While this may has been asked before, what's the best cooler between the zalman, gelid and arctic accelero coolers? They all seem quite good from the reviews I've read, is there one that stand's out?
Click to expand...

They're pretty much the same. IIRC, the arctic cooling one is slightly quieter and cooler
 
Thermalright Shaman is the best (quietest and best cooling according to reviews) but you'll probably need one of their VRM coolers which pushes the price up a bit.
 
Two of my XFX 7600GS 512MB passive cooled cards died this week. They started giving memory errors.

Had them since Feb 2007, so 4 years. They had an easy life and never played that many games.

So graphics cards do not last forever.
 
I found the worst GPUs where the old 6800's I had 2 of those in an early rig. Pre overclocked XFX ones, these cooked. Actually had to underclock them back to stock.

In addition also there were issues with Nvidia 8600's dying on the mobiles. Luckilly on my dell, it has a more recent board and runs ok, I still dont like pushing it.

Had 2 Desktop GPUS die on me. Ati 9800 Pro died after about 2 years, these were prone , and another ATI x1950 died on me. Auctually feel bad about the x1950, sold it to a mate, it lasted 3-4 months and then stopped working.

Every other card has been fine.

One thing I have found is the paste they use on stock cooler is silly, Ive fixed half a dozen overheating cards, just by stripping down the card and using Akasa Silver paste.
 
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