7900 GTX Retail experiences?

[Ryan]

I am looking for feedback from anyone who has purchased a 7900 card from ANY VENDOR.

Have you had any issues with it at all?

Thanks!

[Ryan]

Just to update everyone on what this about: there have been numerous reports of problems with various vendors overclocked 7900 GTX cards not working correctly. Reports of "freezes" in games and in 3DMark06 that go away after 15-30 seconds or so are the most common symptom, and I have seen the same thing in my testing of a retail vendors card here as well.

Currently I am working with both the vendor and with NVIDIA on the issue and hope to get some answers back to you today.

The most up to date information I have as of now is:

• Make sure you are using 84.21 drivers
• A "beefier" power supply may help too. Even though these cards draw less power, going by raw numbers, its very possible that these cards require the power to be more "stable" and "clean". How many 12V rails @ how many amps does your PSU have?
• I have used both an Antec 480 and Antec 550 PSU and have seen these issues with both a single cards and dual card configurations
• Other system test bed specs: A8N32-SLI (1103 bios), X2 4800+, 2 x 1GB Corsair 3500LL, SB Audigy 2 Value
• I have heard that other motherboards might be less apt to have these problems (like the A8N SLI Premium or MSI X16 board)
• Reports are very common on this issue for higher clocked cards, though my cards were not overclocked very much by default

Please, if you are having this issue, post your specs and what you have tried to fix it. I am trying to compile these results and present them to the necessary individuals to get it resolved!

[Crazy Chuckster]

I purchased an eVGA 7900GTX Superclocked card and I have been having lots of problems since day one.

At the stock speeds of 690 core and 880 memory the card will lock up and artifact in Battlefield 2 and 3DMark06. I was instructed to back the speeds off by eVGA's tech support to 650/800 to see if it fixes it.

At 650/800 I can play BF2 without lockups but I still get artifacts after a while.

My systems specs are as follows

MSI K8N Diamond Plus Motherboard
AMD FX-57 CPU
OCZ PC3200 2gb Ram
eVGA 7900GTX SC Video
Creative X-Fi Sound
WD Raptor 150 Main Drive
PC Power & Cooling 850w PSU

Fresh format of XP Pro SP2 with the latest nforce and 84.21 forceware drivers installed.

Those are not wimpy specs by any means and I have plenty of clean power for this video card.

I have submitted an RMA to eVGA and it was apporved but the last 3 times I have called they cannot tell me when I may receive a new card. I was in contact with Joe Darwin from eVGA but have not heard from him since thursday.

[Moolicious]

Hi,

I am having intermittent freezing issues exactly as described above with my eVGA 7900 GTX Superclocked. 3D Mark 06 will not complete the first test without freezing intermittently. If I lower my clocks to reference speeds (650/800) my system is 100% stable (looped 3D Mark 06 for over 12 hours). I have also been in contact with Joe Darwin and have been giving him updates on this issue as I've continued my testing. Here are my video card specs (see sig for additional specs):

Video Card: eVGA 7900 GTX SUPERCLOCKED
Video Card BIOS: 5.71.22.12.02

Notes:

• The intermittent freezing occurs in all 3D applications I've tried thus far: 3D Mark 06, FEAR, Far Cry, and Half Life 2: Lost Coast.
• My CPU temps during load are about 50C and my GPU temps areabout 60C.
• The freezing decreases as I lower the clocks (both core and memory) but does not completely go away until I'm running at reference speeds.

Things I have tried:

• Opening the case and placing a large fan blowing directly on the GPU, CPU and northbridge. My system temps were around 35C during this but the freezing still occured.
• Upgrading the BIOS on my A8N-SLI Premium from 1009 to the latest beta (1011.006).
• Playing with various PCIe BIOS settings such as PEG Link Speed.
• Used both 84.20 and 84.21 ForceWare drivers.

I've been following this issue very closely on multiple forum threads and it seems to mostly affect users with Asus A8N-SLI series boards. I've ordered a new Enermax Liberty 620W PSU which I was planning on doing anyway. This should be arriving in the next day or so and I will report back if this has made a difference.

If you or anyone else would like any additional information please let me know. I am willing to help out in any way possible to get to the bottom of this issue.

Thanks.

[Brandito]

does this apply to 7900gt cards as well? i currently have a trade up with evga in process to get a 7900gt co.

[tjdehya]

So is this a driver issue that will be cleared up soon? I was gonna be purchase a 7900GTX tonight but i guess i will have to do some research into this issue before i buy... It must be a driver issue... it usually is with Nvidia.

[Ryan]

does this apply to 7900gt cards as well? i currently have a trade up with evga in process to get a 7900gt co.

I have not heard any reports of this yet, no.

Thanks for the info guys, keep it coming!

[cobaltpap]

Same here. I've been dumped to the desktop atleast 25 times in one week. BSOD atleast 10 times

Windows XP Professional Sp2
Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego
Thermaltake A1744 Venus12
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra
RAIDMAX Astro 268WSP Silver case
5- 80mm 1- 120mm case fans
Antec trueblue 480 Watt Illuminated
2x Corsair XMS TWINX1024-3200XLPT
Cas 2 2 2 5, w/ Platinum Heat Spreader
BFG Tech. 7900 GTX OC 512mb 84.21, 670/1640
ViewSonic VX2025WM Black 20.1" 8ms Widescreen LCD
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS 64mb X-Ram
Klipsch PROMEDIA ULTRA 5.1 470 watts
Medusa 5.1 ProGamer Edition (Headphone w/ mic)
2x WD Raptor 74GB 10,000 RPM SATA Raid 0
Seagate 40gb 7200 rpm IDE
Plextor PX-716A DVD-RW SATA

[Trucker61]

does this apply to 7900gt cards as well? i currently have a trade up with evga in process to get a 7900gt co.

I have the GT CO Superclocked and it is running flawlessly with the 84.21's.

[liquidsoul]

I have a PNY 7900GTX at stock speeds and it runs flawlessly without any problems. Running on the 84.20 drivers. Power supply is an Antec Neo HE500w which is not that beefy.

[Crazy Chuckster]

So it seems to be mostly the overclocked versions of the cards that are having problems.

[liquidsoul]

Clearly it is driver related. I doubt all of the manufacturers would be having the same problem and not see it in QA. However, you would think they would test using the latest public drivers.

[Ryan]

I really think it is NOT a driver issue actually, but we'll see.

[-JL-PITBULL]

I guess Ill be sticking with my X1900XTX...hmmmm.

[Crazy Chuckster]

I think if it were a driver issue it would be seen on most all systems using these cards.