GPU's: Tales of reliability and brand loyalty

[Sealpower]

I'll begin this thread with a disclaimer and a request:
In this thread we'll be discussing the reliability of graphics cards troughout the ages and its affect on future purchases. Please do not let it derail into a nVidia vs. AMD flame war. Play it nice people!

Now when that's out of the way lets get on with it.


Forgive me dear folks of the internet because I have sinned.
Ever since the dawn of time (or the early 2000's) I've been a loyal customer of the green eye-thingy
I've been a nVidia fanboy and quite steadfast in my resolve.

Back in 2004 (+- a few years) ATI looked very promising and just like today they offered equal (or better) performance for a lower price than nVidia did.
The problem was that they also had a terrible reputation for being unreliable. At least that was what everyone except the die-hard ATI people where saying.

This reputation was somewhat confirmed when my first and, so far, only ATI card (a Radeon X1650) caught fire and died spectacularly.

And as the poorly translated idiom goes: A burnt child fears the fire. (extra appropriate because: fire!)

After that incident I reverted to my 6600 GT and has since then kept to my habit of purchasing upper mid-range or lower enthusiast-range nVidia cards every two years or so.

My current card is a 560ti of MSI make and while it's been a great card most of the time it's not been completely without issues.

Now my two-year cycle is coming to an end and I'm not terribly excited on getting a 660. So AMD is looking more interesting than ever before.

So that's the story of the life and (maybe) death of a nVidia loyalist.


What about you girls and guys? Have you ever had your loyalties sway because of unreliable hardware and has that affected your future purchases? (if you had any loyalties in the first place that is, otherwise feel free to join in anyway)
Any thoughts or experiences on whether or not ATI/AMD deserved the "stamp of unreliability" they got back in the early 2000's?

These days I'm sure both manufacturers make solid and reliable stuff and the biggest culprit is probably the maker of the card itself. So ASUS, MSI, etc. What's your take? Myself, I'm highly suspicious of Gainward, don't know why though.

So share your flame!... as in burnt silicon and molten solder!

(I would also like to apologize for my butchery of the English language, I've not had the pleasure of writing something this complicated in years. This might also be my first thread on the escapist!)

 

[Hawkeye 131]

I guess I can't really add much to this discussion since I only recently finished school and saved up enough money to actually build a computer and join the PC master race but I'm currently running an EVGA GTX 680 and it's been bullet proof since I installed it last month.

I played through all of BioShock: Infinite and dispite some weird frame rate drops around the most mundane areas like doorways and archways between areas it performed flawlessly. I bought the game day-1 and installed it but I decided to wait until nVidia released the new or beta drivers(can't rememeber which), before playing it.

The card also runs Tomb Raider very well. I bought TR on Steam maybe a week after it came out and as many nVidia users were experiencing some major (game crashes), and some minor (frame rate drops), I installed the game but again waited until nVidia released the beta drivers a few days later. I'm currently about 50% of the way through the game and it runs very well. I have almost all of the features set to Ultra or High and even with the "TressFX" hair feature on my average FPS at 1920 x 1080 resolution is around 50-55 FPS. I'm not to overly concerned with FPS, I care about texture quality and AA.

So considering this is my first true gaming PC I haven't had any issues with the GPU.

-Hawk

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well yes on average ATI(now AMD) cards do fail more often because they do need to compete on price as they haven't got the billions nVidia puts in R&D, sadly they also save money on their driver writers so you can expect some really odd performance stuff if you go for their latest models.

But I prefer them because they are the underdog and have to play nice with their user base to stay afloat, while nVidia has been pushing for hardware exclusivity from the moment they got big enough, I know they has nVidia some great tech but the way they are pushing the market it is extremely dangerous to further development.

As for casualties:
- I had 1 nVidia and 3 ATI cards fail on me, last one I actually managed to repair
- friend who buys only absurd range cards $500+ burned out 3 nVidia cards (luckily 2 under warranty)
- and 2 ATI laptop "cards" failed with another mate

 

[devotedsniper]

I've always been a NVIDIA guy myself, I have tried ATI and it worked really well for a £40 card (settings on high), the drivers were a bit iffy at times but I never had any real issues but I went back to NVIDIA around a year later haven't been back since.

I like both brands, I like ATI's bang for buck, but i also like NVIDIA's general reliability and quality (both hardware and drivers). Oh and NVIDIA have made me even more of a fanboy now with the release of GeForce Experience, it scans for games then optimises them for my card, it's still beta and there's a limited amount of games it works for right now but it works very well.

One final thing before I started spending a lot of money on cards I only ever really brought £50-60 cards so cheap brands. The only company I've brought my expensive cards from are KFA2 and their brilliant but other than them I can't comment on manufacturers.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

I've been switching between Nvidia and AMD for a few years. I don't have a loyalty towards one or the other, at least not yet. I've only owned maybe 6 graphics card in my PC gaming lifetime, and two of those cards are the same one. My only "casualty" would be my GTX 480. I loaded up Far Cry 3, went to the bathroom, came back and found that my computer was turned off. After seeing that it wouldn't turn on again, I tried to test if the power supply was the problem, but once I took the graphics card out it turned on again. Later I tried the card in another computer and it still didn't work. I was pretty upset..most expensive card I've owned.

Other card I've owned were a GT 430 by Nvidia, a 9500 GT, and an AMD 6770 (two of these. They are great budget cards.) Out of all of these I've owned, the AMD 6770 is my favorite. As long as you have a decent quad core CPU, it will run most games at max quality as long as you can compromise not having 60 FPS (I've learned to deal with console quality frame rates, so I usually limit PC games at 30 FPS if they can't manage 60)

My next computer build it probably going to have a GTX 670 FTW Edition or a GTX 680 is I feel like spending more.

 

[Sealpower]

- friend who buys only absurd range cards $500+ burned out 3 nVidia cards (luckily 2 under warranty)

Whoa, that's something all right! I mean, warranty aside, that had to hurt. Right in the wallet!

Any idea what caused it?
Excessive over-clocking, inadequate cooling or power, or just plain and simple faulty hardware?

 

[Denamic]

Had an ATI card waaay back. I don't even remember the model any more. But it was terrible. Had to use different drivers for different games, and when I didn't, it crashed and I had to reboot. It just died eventually, so I switched back to my trusty GeForce 3ti. Since then, I had a 7600 GT, 8800 GT, and now a GTX 660. I have never once had a single issue with any of those cards. Not one. They all still work perfectly, too. My 8800 serves beautifully as my physx card.

Edit: Oh, and I had a 5600 FX between my GeForce 3 and 7600 GT, but I got that one for free from a friend and I only used it for like a month.

I played through all of BioShock: Infinite and dispite some weird frame rate drops around the most mundane areas like doorways and archways between areas it performed flawlessly.

Yeah, that's just the game loading data; nothing to do with your graphics card. It's supposed to run on consoles, too, so they had to pull some real-time loading magic with area transitions so they wouldn't need to put a loading screen in every doorway.

 

[Zac Jovanovic]

I've owned 4 cards by each brand, never has any died on me, and I've put them through some serious shit.

I have a GeForce 2 and a GeForce 4 collecting dust in a basement collecting dust, both were still working when they were replaced. Never any problems.

I've overclocked my ATI 9600 Pro mercilessly, even trying to get it to die in a ball of flame. So I could have an excuse to buy a new card, since that one was about 110 years old in graphic card years.

Later, a Nvidia Palit 9600 GT almost melted on me because I carelesly tossed a SATA cable into its fan getting it stuck while I was taking out a hard drive. It worked for 3 whole days (!)without the fan. I had some major FPS chopping in games, to the level of unplayability. On the third day I noticed a smell of burning plastic and when I opened the case I was shocked to see the SATA cable and plastic bits of the graphic card have melted together. And the damned thing still worked.
I've never heard about Palit before I bought that card but this little incident convinced me of their manufacturing quality.

Now I own 2 machines, one with a Sapphire 6870 and one with a Gigabyte GTX570 OC edition. And I have to say the Nvidia card doesn't quite justify nearly the double price I payed for it compared to the AMD one. And I had to install extra fans to keep the 570 cool, though the AMD card makes a tad bit more noise under load. But they both have very similar performance in games despite the massive pricetag differences.

In summary, both brands make kick ass graphic cards. I've had a few problems with drivers with both of them, though definitely a bit more on the AMD side since they started forcing catalyst. But after a couple incidents I've learned how to handle them easily.

TLR Both brands are amazing, but pick your manufacturer carefully. In my experience Sapphire and Asus make the best AMD cards. Asus is great on the NVIDIA side to but I would single out Palit for some incredible durability.

 

[Zac Jovanovic]

I just remembered another incident, though not with my own graphic card.

At a friend's place some years ago , we were playing WOW in LAN and an idiot friend of mine put a plastic glass of Coca Cola on top of a case. He knocked it over and it spilled over the side of the case, the one that opens.
Seconds later the screen started having serious graphical glitches, bars of color started shifting on it and the PC shut down. We opened the case to find out there is a puddle of Coke on the side of the graphic card, the case vents sucked it in through the hole on the case side and it fell over the graphic card.

We pulled it out, let it dry and when we plugged it back in it just displayed a completely messed up picture, we were barely able to recognize bits and pieces where it wasn't completely off.

We dipped it in alcohol for an hour, let it dry in a window for 3 days, and when we plugged it in it worked perfectly like nothing ever happened to it!

This was an NVIDIA 9600 GSO, not sure by which manufacturer.

 

[Andrew_C]

I run whatever gives the best bang for your buck in the sub £120 range. Sometimes ATI/AMD, sometimes NVidia. On an aesthetic note, I do prefer red cards to green cards, but green fits better with most motherboards.

Both Nvidia and AMD/ATi have screwed over their customers in the past, they will again in the future. brand loyalty is a game for fools, buy the best card that suits your pocket.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Bought myself an MsI GTX 660ti power edition for my first proper PC build but it's taken me a year and a half to save and build the desktop piece by piece so I'm not overly confident in it's power.

 

[clippen05]

My nvidia cards have always worked without issue, except for once where the fan on my GTX560Ti (nvidia's own make) broke; they replaced it quickly and without issue and it runs great to this day. Don't think I'll be switching any time soon.

 

[Zipa]

Always been a Nvidia user here since I got rid of my old Voodoo 3 back in the day. I have never had a problem with them really. I had a old GTX 460 melt because its fan failed but it was replaced quickly by them without any fuss. I have a Pallet and gigabyte card in my machine atm , a 570 and a 680 and both of them work flawlessly.

I have heard bad things about AMD drivers though so I tend to sick to what I know.

 

[Rinshan Kaihou]

I've had a bunch of different cards over the years. A Geforce FX 5500 That was the only card I've ever had completely die, that was from BFG Tech), A Visiontek Radeon 9600SE (Passively cooled, still have that card, was a great card), BFG Tech Geforce 6600GT (Went through 4 of these, the fans kept dying, finally put an aftermarket cooler on it). Sapphire Radeon HD 2600XT. Another great card. Replaced the fan after it died with the one I used on the BFG card.

These were followed by a Powercolor Radeon HD 4670, still have and use in the basement computer. Next an XFX Radeon 5770. And then another XFX 5770 for crossfire. Had that set up for a few years, until last may I replaced it with a single XFX Radeon 7850. Oh and I built my brother a computer with an XFX 7770.


In other words, Over the years I've had a ton of cards, and the only one I ever had flat out die was the BFG FX 5500. The 6600GT had fan issues, as did the sapphire card. But none of the others have ever broken. I personally these days usuallly buy XFX graphics cards, but I generally stick with AMD.

 

[somonels]

Umm, actually the manufacturer brand is more important than either nVidia or ATI since they are the ones who decide on the components and give you a warranty.

nVidia is usually considered the superior. ATI has their market in the lower end and more bang for buck.

 

[Smooth Operator]

- friend who buys only absurd range cards $500+ burned out 3 nVidia cards (luckily 2 under warranty)

Whoa, that's something all right! I mean, warranty aside, that had to hurt. Right in the wallet!

Any idea what caused it?
Excessive over-clocking, inadequate cooling or power, or just plain and simple faulty hardware?

No he is a company loyalist so even the thought of tinkering with anything is sacrilege in his book.
The oldest one was 4 years and the condensers on that one just popped, the other two appeared to have cooling problems but obviously we didn't dissect them as they had to go back.
Mostly it's an problem of picking up the first prototypes out the door, just as with games hardware gets rushed and not all issues are ironed out so if any problems do arise the early buyers are the ones getting shafted.

 

[Costia]

I remember having an GeForce2 MX400
then i switched to playing mainly on a console
In the next pc i had an ATI 5770.
And about a year later i replaced it with a 560 TI because the 5770 started acting up (probably my fault, playing with a bitcoin miner).
Overall i prefer the nvidia cards because i like their control panel more than ATI's. It also seems that they tend to have better drivers. ATI on the other hand is usually a better bang for the buck in the mid level cards.
I don't see any clear advantage to any of those 2 companies, I guess that's why both of them are still in business.
I am curious about intel. I have an intel GPU on my laptop and it sucks, but it does look like they are starting to catch up. Maybe in the not so distant future Intel cards will be a tough competitor in the low-mid range GPU market.

 

[Sealpower]

No he is a company loyalist so even the thought of tinkering with anything is sacrilege in his book.
The oldest one was 4 years and the condensers on that one just popped, the other two appeared to have cooling problems but obviously we didn't dissect them as they had to go back.
Mostly it's an problem of picking up the first prototypes out the door, just as with games hardware gets rushed and not all issues are ironed out so if any problems do arise the early buyers are the ones getting shafted.

I suppose that's true no matter what kind of product you're dealing. Another example is forestry machinery design (my field of work) where the first few years of the next generation of a product is always full of small issues that couldn't be anticipated during the design process but will be ironed out with every year's model.

From a consumer standpoint it's probably always best to buy a product at the end of its generation if you want reliability regardless if its GPUs, consoles or heavy duty machinery. The problem with the computer hardware industry is that it goes so fast and buying a GPU the day before the next gen is released isn't really an option.

 

[DSK-]

We've mostly had Nvidia cards in this house, although I still get flak for suggesting one ATI card to my dad many years ago and it ended up not being able to play his games and sounded like vacuum cleaner -_-

I've always used Nvidia cards. This PC has a 550ti, and I recently bought a GTX 260 to help me render some gameplay footage to be used with some components I ordered yesterday and upload stuff to youtube. My laptop has an ATI dedicated card but I had to sacrifice that for monetary reasons; however, to be fair, it has done me no wrong.

 

[BartyMae]

I generally buy AMD cards because I fear for AMD's future and they seem to generally perform the same as their nVidia price analogues. I've had the same 5770 for about three years now. Waiting for it to die before I buy a new one.

As for brands, I generally stick with XFX. Lifetime warranty and, from my experience, amazing customer support service. My 5770 has had its fan die twice. They've pretty much immediately sent out another one as soon as I've detailed the problem - didn't even have to send the 5770 back for them to do it themselves.