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is it just me or is graphic card build quality declining

never personally had a gfx card die on me, but ive seen quite a lot of new stuff die, my mates pci-e 6600gt died after about 4 weeks, though that could have been down to heat as that was in a shuttle.

still got my Asus x800pro flashed to xt pe @ x850 xt speeds that i bought on launch day, still going strong to this day.
 
I'll agree with you to some degree, especially the new 7900-series... But I've had x1800xt earlier, and that worked just fine until I killed it :)
And the 7800gtx 512mb I got now seems to be very sturdy and well built(the guy I bought it from payed like £570 for it, so it's ought to be good :p ), and I'm taking it down the volt mod track to see if it can withstand that :D
 
its not all to do with build quality, its part due to the fact that the cards are running faster and hotter etc etc, theyre bound to not last as long as the old stuff
 
fullfat said:
its not all to do with build quality, its part due to the fact that the cards are running faster and hotter etc etc, theyre bound to not last as long as the old stuff
Click to expand...

Well, I'm glad I'm watercooling mine ;) . But I think it's scary that it's normal for x1900xtx to reach 90c! :eek: When watercooled I'm like half of that, with next to complete silence! Plus the die is shrimping, greater chance for electro imigration(or what it's called :D ) plus the added heat adds up to that...
 
Yeh the cost is high and the failure rate is high, but the money we hand over helps them de-bug, cost down and improve yield, to make high volume lower cost solutions.... the card manufacturers know what their doing, and having an initial high rate of failure in the field is all part of doing business and learning about the product. They also don't want to be late, and will rush some stuff through to be the first on the shelves....
 
imo the build quality of everything you buy nowadays is as low as they can get away with. The idea of over-engineering something cannot be considered due to people wanting cheaper than cheap prices and there being such tough competitive markets. Things aren't built to last forever, just a short period until the next big thing/fashion comes along and people think they need to change ....
 
The market is so competitive these days that manufacturers have to try and eek out every little extra bit of performance they can from their cards to stand out from the crowd - this means that there is more potential for failure.

You only have to look at the number of manufacturers who have non-standard clock speeds on their cards these days: Gainward GS, BFG OC, XFX XXX, Leadtek extreme etc etc. In the old days most board partners stuck to the reference designs fairly rigidly, you had the odd cards here and there which were clocked faster, but they tended to be the exception rather than the rule.

Just take a look in the 7900 section on OcUK, I think around half the cards are running above reference speeds.
 
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