Any update: HD Radeon 4xxx v.s. Nviida 260?

[deanjo]

No, it would violate antitrust laws in the US and anticompetitive laws in the EU. Think of Microsoft bundling a browser or extending Java to render it incompatible. In terms of engineering, the only way you can exclude a certain type of card is to either extend the PCI-E standard on your card and your mobo so that they're only compatible together or to detect the brand and exclude that. Both of these actions violate competition laws.

You're probably thinking of certification. Yes, a vendor can certify its own products to work "better" with a platform, but everyone who implements PCI-E has to guarantee that all PCI-E cards that obey the standard can work.

Sorry but your wrong. This has been done for years. For example you cannot run SLi setup on a ATI chipset board and vice vera. You cannot use a off the shelf video card in a Mac. Hell you can't even make a chipset for another venders CPU unless you have licensing rights. Then there is also the fact that some devices (raid cards and ide controllers come in mind) will actually blacklist or drop the drives to a lower performance mode then others to address compatibility issues. Another example of this is Nvidia cards having to drop to 1x AGP mode on the old irongate amd chipsets.

Sorry but limiting functionality and features are very commonplace in the PC world and it is not illegal at all.

[crumja]

Well, crumja, i don't feel like buying an ATI card for 300 bucks just to test if the drivers are suitable for my needs...

You know you can return it, right? Alternatively, find a friend who owns an ATI card.

[crumja]

Actually restricting what items can be used on what boards is not illegal at all although they would frowned upon by many of the standard alliances and possibly be kicked out.

No, it would violate antitrust laws in the US and anticompetitive laws in the EU. Think of Microsoft bundling a browser or extending Java to render it incompatible. In terms of engineering, the only way you can exclude a certain type of card is to either extend the PCI-E standard on your card and your mobo so that they're only compatible together or to detect the brand and exclude that. Both of these actions violate competition laws.

You're probably thinking of certification. Yes, a vendor can certify its own products to work "better" with a platform, but everyone who implements PCI-E has to guarantee that all PCI-E cards that obey the standard can work.

[deanjo]

I used Google.

There's not one Leadtek video card available on Newegg, for e.g., and vendors I would check had none as well. I was just saying I would have to go out of my way to find one so I would not bother.

Newegg doesn't have alot of brands. Lack of finding them on there hardly qualifies them as a unknown or junk. Newegg, TigerDirect, etc are all loaded full of junk as well as some quality products.

[MAXX]

Well, I guess I could try to return it, but technically that'd mean sending it to the online shop I bought it from, then waiting for like 1 months to probably just receive my same squealing card back... or a used card of someone else who sent in his card...

I was thinking about covering the whole card in hot glue tomorrow, which would obviously void the warranty but also might reduce the squealing as reported online in previous places. (http://theovalich.wordpress.com/2008...280-squealing/)

Before I do that, I'll try to exactly locate the source, because if it's not the capacitors, but rather the voltage regulator, then obviously glueing all the card would be pointless and sending it in would make more sense. It's so annoying and loud, that I can't live with that card anymore in its current state, that's for sure.

I found an online shop which guarantees that their cards don't squeals though. They test them all and I think you can return them hassle free if they should squeal. (but I got to do some further research on their return policies before considering to buy one of their cards)

I did some extensive research on the return policies of the vendor I bought the squealing card from (not the manufacturer) and both people on the Internet and people I know who tried to return something, only have bad things to report. Waiting at least 4 weeks, having to send in stuff multiple times after it got sent back in the same state and so on. I guess that's the price you have to pay when you go with the cheap stuff. They cut down almost all their service...

If they at least had a physical shop. I hate talking to people on the phone, basically people at those hotline lie to you... that's what the people at my ISP hotline do, that's what the people do at almost every hotline I've ever called.
Last time the guy even said something similar to "Sir, I'm not a technician, I'm just a salesman, I don't understand what you're saying."

If they had a physical shop it'd be way easier to just talk one of the employees into taking the card and giving me a brand new one in exchange. I even talked people into "taking stuff back", that I never bought in that shop, but rather in another one and I knew that the other one would not take it without the recipe...

I already tried clocking the card down which did not help reducing the sound, reducing the voltage might help though, at least that's what I read today. I might try that if glueing does not help. And if that also doesn't help I'll probably buy a new one. Sending it in would IMO just be a waste of time. (well, and i couldn't send it in anymore after glueing around on it...)

[Panix]

Must be using Bing for a search engine. Leadtek shows millions of hits on google as well there are a crap load of product reviews on them.

I used Google.

There's not one Leadtek video card available on Newegg, for e.g., and vendors I would check had none as well. I was just saying I would have to go out of my way to find one so I would not bother.

[deanjo]

Whatever. I did a search for Leadtek video cards and got practically nothing. I am not sure where you or the other guy ordered their cards but I would not touch it with a ten foot pole.

Whatever happened was in the past. Since there is no choice with those cards or at least not available in my neck of the woods, what I said stands. Maybe XFX is bad now, I don't know. That's for XFX owners or former owners to decide. I just thought it was good that they allowed mods of their cards.

Must be using Bing for a search engine. Leadtek shows millions of hits on google as well there are a crap load of product reviews on them.

[Panix]

Leadtek has been around for a long time. They made the reference nvidia cards for years. They also have a RMA dept 2nd to none. XFX over the last while has gone to hell in a shithole when it comes to RMA's, the last card I had to RMA to them (a radeon 4870) took well over a month and a half to even get a reply. They used to be quick on RMA's but are absolutely one of the worst now.

Whatever. I did a search for Leadtek video cards and got practically nothing. I am not sure where you or the other guy ordered their cards but I would not touch it with a ten foot pole.

Whatever happened was in the past. Since there is no choice with those cards or at least not available in my neck of the woods, what I said stands. Maybe XFX is bad now, I don't know. That's for XFX owners or former owners to decide. I just thought it was good that they allowed mods of their cards.

[deanjo]

I am too scared to take chances with 'strange names', Leadtek, for e.g.

Leadtek has been around for a long time. They made the reference nvidia cards for years. They also have a RMA dept 2nd to none. XFX over the last while has gone to hell in a shithole when it comes to RMA's, the last card I had to RMA to them (a radeon 4870) took well over a month and a half to even get a reply. They used to be quick on RMA's but are absolutely one of the worst now.

[Panix]

It's a Leadtek GTX 260
Well, I already thought about returning it when that noise first occurred. But then I looked for some people who had experiences with returning stuff to the shop I bought it from and they said that most of the times they don't even look at the cards and so on.
Then I also read somewhere that they declare the squealing to be normal wearout.

BTW. the squealing is even there, while scrolling up and down in this thread.

Can you still return it? If you can, I would, right away. Imho, you got a defective card and your shop sounds like they're full of jerks. They just want the easy way out and try to convince you 'it's normal.' I am too scared to take chances with 'strange names', Leadtek, for e.g. Also, I want any potential RMA to go as smooth as possible. Before, I thought go with cheapest price but then I found out that EVGA and XFX are pretty relaxed regarding overclocking and I probably wouldn't even do that. I think that could mean they are pretty reasonable with cards that are returned hoping to retain your business.

All of them have defective cards that slip through the cracks, anyway. I will speculate and suggest maybe you got one. Especially if it is somewhat newer. Maybe the fan is dying on it so you are hearing the squeaks/noises?