Anyone else had loads of hardware issues with AMD current gen?

[eyetrip]

Have mostly been with ATI/AMD over the last few years. I think 8800GT was my last Nvidia card.

Now, I am sure I have been through more graphics cards than most this year, but there really does appear to be something up with the current gen.

Had a 5850 which lasted me ages, and 6950 which did well til the fan started going, but this year I have had in my possession no less than 7 79XX cards.

Of those 7, 5 either died or had some kind of hardware issue.

2 x Asus 7950 DirectCU II -One died with me, other was sold on and died.

2 x HIS reference 7970 - one died within days. The other I DSR'd due to noise (not including that as fault here)

2 X Sapphire 7950 Vapor-x - One would output over hdmi, the other was returned due to stupid voltage lock.

1 x Gigabyte 7970 GHz - This card simply wouldn't overclock AT ALL, but having stock volts of 1.25V meant it was noisier than it needed be at stock 1100MHz. The reason it is going back though is it would frequently cause my pc to hang on restart.

I have been using 2 x Gigabyte GTX 670 windforce for some months now, but was really wanting to go back to AMD as some things I did were just easier on AMD, but I just couldnt stand trying any more hardware.

One gets sick of returning stuff eventually.

Unfortunately I couldn't use both the windforces in SLI on matx setup, so I got an EVGA FTW 670, and both are running fine now with high, but acceptable temps.

The Nvidia cards have just been faultless hardware-wise.

Ok, I did return two reference GTX 670's at one point, but that was simply because of awful cooler.

I know it's not been any particular component in my system that could be to blame for all the ATI card problems, as I have been through different motherboards, cpu's, power supplies, etc.

Had anyone else found more problems than normal with current gen AMD?

 

[eyetrip]

No issues for me. If I had that many cards die on me I would be looking elsewhere for the problem.

Like I said, this has been with a multitude of different hardware for rest of machine. And not had a hardware fault with the 670's at all.

Had 6 7970's this year and only one has died.

Sounds really unlucky to have had 5 die

Like I said, not all died.

 

[eyetrip]

It doesn't rule out issues elsewhere just because an NV card has not had problems, but if I had many cards fail on me (more than 2) I would seriously look elsewhere for the issue. The AMD card failure rate is not that high and certainly not notably different to other manufacturers.

This has happened with:
different CPU's (3770/3930K)
different motherboards (Rampage IV Formula, P8 Z77M Pro - not sure if ran one on sabertooth z77)
different power supplies (Thermaltake Toughpower 875W, Seasonix X850)
with ups and without
Different cases
Hell, I have even moved house!

What else would you consider pointing the finger at? Whatever else you can think of, I have probably changed that too - though maybe, just maybe, not

 

[eyetrip]

This is why it narks me when people suggest that ATi is the defacto choice for this gen.

It isn't.

Don't get me wrong, they are brilliant cards when they work. And I would have liked to use them...

And the Nvidia cards aren't without their own issues, but at least they aren't dying on me.

 

[eyetrip]

When the choice is an over priced low end card or a decently priced high end card (or whatever comparison you might want to make) .

I do agree with this... I do think the Nvidias are woefully overpriced, and I do wish they were not let down with the low bandwidth and memory.

And yes, it's most certainly subjective. I know there are people form both camps, suffering problems, but I have personally never known anything like the issues I have somehow experienced with this gen AMD....

And I have been working with PC's for a long time now.

 

[eyetrip]

Its not the cards, its you, you're doing something wrong.

Doing something wrong.... that I am only "doing" to AMD cards..... hmmm

 

[eyetrip]

Was it aimed at you eyetrip?

Felt like it.

But I am a little tired and perhaps overly sensitive

 

[eyetrip]

eyetrip out of 7 cards and 4 different GPU PCB manufacturers,
2 from Asus died, and so did a his ref 7970. Yet all these cards had unlocked voltage control and were used in crossfire in your system?

Yet the ones that didnt die were voltage locked and/or noisy so you dsred them, which is acceptable thats personal preference.
The dodgey hdmi output did that card work with dvi?

I don't know but it sounds like you pushed your hardware too hard on the weaker cards and ran them too hot, or pushed the vrm circuits too hard. As for the asus I'm not sure.

I understand how it could appear that way, but I can tell you the HIS cards were barely clocked, and were never over-volted. They were too noisy for me to even consider that.

Only 3 of the cards died outright, but other had issues such as the hdmi (which, yes, dvi worked just fine for), or causing pc to hang on restart (Gigabyte GHz).

The one Asus that died is a card I sold on (so didn't die through anything I did), which I don't believe was being OCed, and was run as single card.

 

[eyetrip]

Its obvious the green envy is then trying to justify the more cash they just handed out for second place

blah blah blah trolls trolls trolls.

You sir, are the flip side of that coin.

Smug much?

Yes, I paid more, but after wasting a whole lot of money trying a load of 79XX cards.

In the end, the lower cost/performance ratio of the Nvidia was just negligible next to the immense stress that all the 79XX cards have caused me.

 

[eyetrip]

we will all be on consoles soon

I tell you, if they had released the next gen consoles a year or two back I would probably not be bothering with PC gaming. But the games are just starting to look too ugly in comparison to PC these days.

Consoles win for simplicity. Just suck for pretty pictures

 

[eyetrip]

So I am gathering from reading between the fluff and mud slinging that perhaps I have just been really, really unlucky?

As an aside, the Gigabyte and EVGA GTX 670's are running nicely together. Apart from my annoyances with having to stick with Nvidia...

Things like having to do an edid override to use 3dvision on a passive screen really irk me. Or them having done something in drivers that cause crashes in games trying to use Tridef...

Hopefully the 2GB memory will be enough to see me through a couple of years at least...

 

[eyetrip]

Just realised I forgot to mention in the OP the 7970 lightning BE I tried too!

Though not sure there was anything wrong with the card itself, having displayport issues, but the lack of dual link dvi meant I did not have a fallback for 2560x100.

Ah well, the 670's are running sweet - apaart from I played with my fan setup and mucked up my temps, and now for some reason can't get them as good as I had...

 

[eyetrip]

http://youtu.be/0Md1Xpwq1X0

Not sure what that has to do with the post, but will be interesting to see which is which.

I can't say I definitely saw microstutter with either, but the one on the left looked to have much smoother motion to me.