Windows 7 and its Drivers running Graphics Cards Too Hard?

[UniToxic]

Does anyone else think this may be the case?

This is our current household scenario:

Laptop #1:
Was running XP, due to its age it can't really play too much on low talk about high but frame rates were still choppy on lowest. Upgraded to Win7 after a few days graphics card died, before this we noticed a performance increase of about 10-15fps.
Didn't think anything of it due to the laptop being so old just thought it was its time.


PC #1:
Was running Win7 RC client, ****ed over a fair amount of games on full, Upgraded to Win7 Retail still ****ed over a lot of games but with a increased FPS. Graphics card died, didn't think anything of it due to the 8800GTX being 3 years old now. Replaced it with the warranty and the same happened again a few hours after receiving the replacement.


PC #2:
Was running XP, struggled to play Bioshock game on full settings. Upgraded to Win7, plays Bioshock game on full settings with no arguments. (until it gets pushed too hard and pc reboots). Card hasn't died but we think it is because unlike the Laptop and PC #1, it wasn't overclocked by default.



Now the only common thing between all 3 systems is the operating system, you have the laptop and PC#2 running ATI chipsets and AMD processor, you have PC#1 with a nVidia chipset and Intel processor.

To see an increased performance over even a fresh install of XP we have come to the conclusion that windows and the drivers made for it are pushing the cards a lot harder, for normal cards it isn't an issue as they can receive the extra power due to not being already overclocked and all they will do is reboot the pc. However, those cards which are overclocked by default are being pushed far beyond their capabilities? (Asking for too much power from the PSU or Mobo?)

(It would be interesting to see if the RMA demands towards various companies have increased since the release of Win 7)

 

[chaparral]

An operating system cannot kill a GPU card....

 

[paradisiac]

i wouldnt put it down to windows 7 or drivers, sounds like a lot of bad luck

 

[Rroff]

I wouldn't be so sure... my 260GTX SLI setup was running fine for over a year - put win7 on it and shortly after one of my GPUs started showing symptoms of dying - a few weeks later I've been forced to RMA it.

tbh I'm tempted to put the blame on aero possibly as its probably putting more work on the GPU over the same amount of time gaming and non-gaming compared to XP.

 

[paradisiac]

we have had windows 7 on all 3 of out setups since RC came out and not a problem with any of them so far, but then none of them are high end cards.

 

[UniToxic]

An operating system cannot kill a GPU card....

You are right, however it isn't new to hear about drivers killing a GPU, hence why I included it in the title (and since drivers are now optimised for Windows 7 it makes sense).

i wouldnt put it down to windows 7 or drivers, sounds like a lot of bad luck

Well that could be that, it just seems too much of a coincidence that we see a performance gain in windows 7 with the same hardware meaning something is being driven better / faster.

I wouldn't be so sure... my 260GTX SLI setup was running fine for over a year - put win7 on it and shortly after one of my GPUs started showing symptoms of dying - a few weeks later I've been forced to RMA it.

tbh I'm tempted to put the blame on aero possibly as its probably putting more work on the GPU over the same amount of time gaming and non-gaming compared to XP.

To be honest I am not sure if it is Aero that is causing it or what not, if it was taking more work to render it wouldn't we see a performance decrease from XP to Win7? But we at least with 3 systems and a handful of cards are seeing a slight performance increase.

we have had windows 7 on all 3 of out setups since RC came out and not a problem with any of them so far, but then none of them are high end cards.

I have put a old Leadtek 7800 GT in the PC#1, we have not experienced any problems with this card yet but we believe this is because again it is not overclocked by default. (therefore, the driver basically isn't overclocking an already overclocked card and end up causing damage to it?)


--


*shrugs* I really do not know, hence why I bought this conversation up to see what the general consensus is. (Just seems to much of a coincidence though)

 

[james.miller]

I wouldn't be so sure... my 260GTX SLI setup was running fine for over a year - put win7 on it and shortly after one of my GPUs started showing symptoms of dying - a few weeks later I've been forced to RMA it.

tbh I'm tempted to put the blame on aero possibly as its probably putting more work on the GPU over the same amount of time gaming and non-gaming compared to XP.

if it was pushing the gpu that hard you'd have seen a sharp rise in temperature and or fan noise.

in any case, even running flat out, if a gpu fails then its faulty.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Firstly you'd want to actually list the spec's of the computers involved. If they are all circa 3 year old Nvidia cards, welcome to bumpgate. Could well be a case of XP leaving the gpu idle and Aero putting the gpu under load and the driver letting it heat up, get to a certain point stick the fan on cool it down and rinse and repeat, that is what causes the bumpgate classic death cycling heat.

The 260gtx would more than likely be bad luck though continuous load on an overheated card thats hotter than usual due to sli and lack of airflow, possibly.

That's a possibility due to the problems with Nvidia and especially laptops, the problem should emerge on older desktop gpu's aswell but due to the nature of heat load on desktop cpu's(not being constantly turned off to save power nor powering down fans as much as possible to save power, it should take a lot longer). But by far the most likely option is, bad luck.