Nvidia Problems Hit HP Desktops 141
Barence writes "HP has revealed faults with 38 different models in its slimline PC range, sparking speculation that Nvidia's faulty GPU problems have spread beyond laptops. HP's official statement says the problems are 'attributable to the computer's motherboard" and that affected machines 'may not boot or may not display video' — the same kind of terminology used to describe the previous faults with laptop GPUs. Both HP and Nvidia have declined to comment. But in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this year, Nvidia admitted 'there can be no assurance that we will not discover defects in other MCP or GPU products.'" Note: the linked story (updated since this submission) says that Yes, the problems are now confirmed to be rooted in the Nvidia GPUs.
Don't worry. (Score:4, Insightful)
who... (Score:2, Insightful)
brbut still: information on this fuckup is hard to find, non-concrete statements everywhere. why not have a tool that reads the s/n of the GPU, checks it and warns if your gpu is faulty? i'm owning a dell notebook which, according to dell, is not affected. but nevertheless dell put a bios-update online for my modell which obviously changed something concerning ventilation. being vague is not always the way to go.
nVidia is being sued by their shareholders? (Score:2, Insightful)
For "covering up" the faulty GPUs? Hey, if they signed contracts with the OEMs on these chips leaving the announcements to them, then that's the brakes -- they can't talk about it. What would you expect them to do?
OK EU, the blanket Pb ban had the best intentions (Score:4, Insightful)
buy EVGA and get a LIFETIME warranty (Score:1, Insightful)
but you MUST register the video card or mobo or prostitute with them within 2 weeks of purchase otherwise you have the standard warranty coverage. I have a G92 8800GTS/512, and a backup G80 8800GTS/320 which was my warranty replacement for a 7900GT which had a prolonged illness, then a slow death, after two years of use. If the G92 fails, I get whatever is comparable NOW, which would probably be . . . I don't like any of the current crop of GPUs because they use up too many watts for what I want . . . I'd get whatever I got but switch to ATI/AMD. IF the G92 goes tits up. I'd still be using the 7900GT if it was still working. My TOTAL system with the G92 uses 160W at idle (comprising an AMD X2 2.5GHz c.2005, secondary PCI video, X-Fi PCI, 2GB DDR, 4 HDs,,,,), almost the same as it was with the 7900GT. The current crop of GPUs ALONE would use that much power.
ATI Linux Support == Total Crap (Score:4, Insightful)
It's hardly affected it at all.
ATI Linux drivers are still total crap compared to NVidia's.
I would rather have a funded, supported binary blob that works over a bunch of unsupported unfunded drivers and open specifications any day.
Try to use any modern ATI card in an Linux-based HTPC that has to support HD video, and see how far you get.
Re:OK EU, the blanket Pb ban had the best intentio (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:ATI Linux Support == Total Crap (Score:4, Insightful)
My peeve with ATI is lack of OpenGL Windows extensions (which extends to Linux). ATI tends not to add EXTs even when the card supports the hardware (for instance, geometry shaders, which are supported in DirectX but not in OpenGL, and likely won't be supported in OpenGL until they become ARB, knowing ATI, so maybe OGL3.1).
I think ATI has a better scalable design and better heat properties (in SLI they rule the roost in power consumption, heat dissipation and throughput). Shader performance is still fairly poor on ATI cards, but they make up for it by massive amounts of shaders. ATI has had memory bandwidth issues in the past, but I haven't checked lately.
So basically, from a DirectX Windows only perspective, ATI is one of the best routes to go. From an OpenGL Linux, Windows, or MacOS X perspective, I prefer nVidia because they tend to support the latest public extensions (EXT is the agreed upon name and likely ARB - vendor only extensions have a vendor code like _ATI or _NV).
Re:Oh, so that's why (Score:3, Insightful)
Faith is usually misplaced with companies. Most of them have sucked at one point or another. All you can do is do some research about current products and hope there is no hidden problem brewing.
When I last bought a graphics card it was an NVidia 8600GT because of ATI's still-questionable Linux support at the time (the Open Source driver project was announced but nothing delivered yet). Now I can only hope that card does not die on me.
Based on ATI's improvement in drivers and NVidia's current problems I would get an ATI now. But that is not set in stone either and may be reversed a few years from now.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:the blanket Pb ban had the best intentions (Score:4, Insightful)
The failing solderbumps were high-lead solder. The solution was to switch to a eutectic solder, which has less lead. So why would RoHS anti-lead policies be to blame?