[NEWS] - Burn In Your GeForce FX - With A Screensaver

[Handruin]

To make a GeForce FX 5800 Ultra card suffer great pain, apart from Detonators 43.45 (we will test other versions of Detonators during the night) you need a 3D screensaver. Even the OpenGL screensavers like Pipes that come with Windows are OK, but for some serious “firepower” (to make the card extra hot in no time) you need a screensaver like Matrix Reloaded from www.uselesscreations.com or, the one we used the most, DiveVisions 2.0 from www.atlantis3d.com . This behavior was first noticed by Denis Arunovic from our team, and after he called me in the middle of the night, I joined the “hunt”.

Set up the screensaver to turn on itself after 1 minute, so you don’t have to wait too long. After the screensaver starts, you’ll hear the fan on the GF FX 5800 Ultra start spinning. Just wait around 5-10 secs and you’ll hear the fan stop! The 3D screensaver will continue playing on the screen, and after some time (depending on the screensaver) you’ll start seeing artifacts, or in the case of DiveVisions, the screen will look like the monitor was having some interference from a strong magnetic source. You can leave the screensaver running as long as you feel its safe, but don’t overdo it. We tried this around 10 times and were cautious enough not to let it run to long, as the temperature on the card, according to the drivers, reached 95-100C. According to my finger, the drivers were not lying (ouch!). When you end the screensaver, you’ll realize that your 2D screen is messed up and wavy. At this point the fan still won’t be running. To make it run, start something like 3dMark 2001. After you start the demo/benchmark, you’ll finally hear the fan! It will seem as if the 3dMark crashed, but just let it unattended. You’ll see some bizarre things but after a while the card will resume working as normal - when the fan cools it down (the cooling, when it works, is excellent, at least on the Gainward card).

http://www.warp2search.net/article.php?sid=11801&mode=thread&order=0

 

[Pradeep]

Ouch. Looks like there's going to be a whole lot of warranty claims for the FX family.

 

[freeborn]

Note to self: Disable screen saver when I get home. I do not wish to encounter this on my 5800 Ultra .

Free

 

[CougTek]

This card should have never been released. It's clear that it isn't an overall good design and was launched only to make NVidia looks a little less ridiculous in benchmarks compared to ATI's offerings.

A graphic card that cannot even handle a screensaver without failing is a graphic card that doesn't deserve to be on the shelves. It's like if AMD or Intel would release processors at frequencies passed their reasonnable limits. A 2.5GHz T'bred on the current process for instance (with regular retail fan).

 

[Howell]

This card should have never been released. It's clear that it isn't an overall good design and was launched only to make NVidia looks a little less ridiculous in benchmarks compared to ATI's offerings.

Unless you are referring to something other than what is in the article above I think you are a little quick to swing the bat. The problem is not an under rated cooling system; it is a bug (in the firmware?) that tells the fan to turn itself off. Hopefully they will produce a fix that is field upgradable. Regardless, I'd bet you could replace the fan with one that ran from a 4-pin molex.