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

[MAXX]

Well, I was also happy with all my previous cards, the one I had before the GTX260 was a GT7800 and it was working and working and working for years. I just exchanged it because it started to lack performance. Maybe I just should have sticked with it. It had no squealing at all.

Sometimes my Computer gets turned off daily, but during weekends/holidays and so on it never gets turned off.

I was always satisfied with their drivers but... well, these "new" hardware flaws are really hurting their reputation with me...
AFAIK they've already been there in the 8xxx series, I'm pretty sure they were not there in the 7xxx series because as I already said, I've been using that card heavily for years. (and I sold it to a friend who is still using it all the time and has no problems with it)

What make of Nvidia card is it?

I think a hot-running card (at degrees higher than usual) or one making excessive noise would be cause for RMA.

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.

[Zhick]

This is probably not relevant, but I'll just mention it. :P
I know that my ATi X1900 XT makes similar squeaky noises when I'm using the open-drivers and doing things like marking text in firefox and draging it around... it doesn't occur in games though so it's not really annoying. This doesn't happen when I'm using the closed source drivers.
So maybe it also was a driver change/update which introduced this on your card as well?

[Tares]

As for ATI temps, usually theirs cooling sucks big time. Usually is better to get a higher priced model with better default cooling system. Well, if you don't believe me my HD4850 was running ~70C idle and 85C stress with default cooler. Now it's ~23C idle and 30C stress on LC On other 4850 I've installed Accelero S1 without any fans and it runs 45C idle / 66C stress. I know that HD4870 is usually hotter, but there is not a big difference.

[panda84]

I don't know any advantages there, from what I see, nouveau is in much better shape regarding DRI2/TTM/KMS/Gallium3D.

To me it's quite the opposite. KMS working since Fedora 10 and DRI2 working since F11 on a Radeon 9500 AGP.
On the contrary KMS means blank screen in F12 alpha both for 8400M and 8800GT, while Radeon 9500 still work as it's supposed to work.
And I don't see a Gallium3D nouveau driver coming anytime soon.

[Panix]

What make of Nvidia card is it?

I would go with either EVGA or XFX cards unless the price of another card was so low, you'd have to consider it. Even if I had no intention of overclocking, I'd still go with one of the above. They both RMA cards that have been overclocked by the buyer without any question. It just seems like they are more likely to accept/tolerate various issues without hassling or questioning the customer.

I think a hot-running card (at degrees higher than usual) or one making excessive noise would be cause for RMA.

A GTX 260 card should be relatively cool-running and not much louder than comparable cards. I found an article that compares GTX 285, GTX 260 (both architectures) and ATI Radeon HD4870 among other cards. The GTX 260 looked like a good compromise and way better as far as temps go compared to the ATI. I am now waiting for the GTX 260 to go down a bit in price (hopefully).

[deanjo]

Too much FUD going on here. It's always "I read this or that". Please, think about what you're reading instead of accepting it on blind faith. Panix, AMD does not restrict what video cards can be used with their motherboards; that would be illegal. MAXX, you "heard" about bad ATI drivers. Have you tried them to see if they meet your needs?

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.

[deanjo]

I wish NVIDIA would just change to decent capacitors (preferably solid state ones) and to decent voltage regulators.
I'd gladly pay 50 additional bucks if I could be sure not to get any squealing in exchange...

It's not nvidia who decides what caps and regulators are used on the boards. That is the manufacturer of the cards. Nvidia does not manufacture cards. There are several Nvidia cards out there that have superior caps and regs compared to other nvidia cards.

[LenS]

Nvidia Redux

Well, either the voltage regulator or the capacitors.
I checked the fan when it first occurred, it's definitely not the fan.

Also I'm not 100% sure if it occurred before or after my old power supply died. I think it was after I changed to a new power supply. The old one had 500 Watts and the new one has 800 Watts. Might be connected to that somehow, or maybe it just coincidentally occurred around that time. It was not there right after changing the PSU, but rather a few days after.
Maybe it had just enough juice to run at lower clockspeeds on the older PSU and so there occurred no squealing, although that's unlikely. I wish NVIDIA would just change to decent capacitors (preferably solid state ones) and to decent voltage regulators.
I'd gladly pay 50 additional bucks if I could be sure not to get any squealing in exchange...

Hi, to preface this I've used Nvidia cards for a long time and been very happy with them. Their drivers have always been first rate. Unfortunately drivers are only part of the reason to buy a particular video card and from what I've seen lately they've been cutting corners on hardware design and manufacturing. This is the reason for the short lifetime. Does your computer get turned on and off daily? more often? less often? That's a factor in the failures.

This is from the fourth in a series of investigative articles about the Nvidia failures and are fairly technical, but explain and detail the reasons for Nvidia's problems. I have not seen anything else more informative on the web. This refers to ALL Nvidia cards, some more than others, I would suggest reading all four articles to get a good understanding of what's going on. This writer has access to an electron microscope and there are pictures in the article explaining what he's talking about:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...rfill-problems
WHEN WE TOLD YOU about the 'bad bumps' in the Apple Macbook Pro 15-inch models the other day, we expected it to end there.

But as luck would have it, Nvidia pointed us to a much deeper problem that not only affects at least some of the Macbook Pro notebooks, but likely every other high Temperature of Glassification (Tg) underfill chip Nvidia makes.

Technical Background
To understand this article, you really need to understand the problem, so please read the technical three part series (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) explaining what the problem is and where it occurs.

Nvidia's current problem stems from its half-hearted response to its earlier problem by only changing the underfill. Nvidia said that's what it did, both near the end of our initial Macbook article and in a later Cnet article here.

[MAXX]

Well, either the voltage regulator or the capacitors.
I checked the fan when it first occurred, it's definitely not the fan.

Also I'm not 100% sure if it occurred before or after my old power supply died. I think it was after I changed to a new power supply. The old one had 500 Watts and the new one has 800 Watts. Might be connected to that somehow, or maybe it just coincidentally occurred around that time. It was not there right after changing the PSU, but rather a few days after.
Maybe it had just enough juice to run at lower clockspeeds on the older PSU and so there occurred no squealing, although that's unlikely. I wish NVIDIA would just change to decent capacitors (preferably solid state ones) and to decent voltage regulators.
I'd gladly pay 50 additional bucks if I could be sure not to get any squealing in exchange...

[bridgman]

That kind of squealing is usually either the fan or the voltage regulator; can you tell which one is making the noise ?

I guess I should mention that most of our cards sell for a lot less than $300 no matter where you buy them.