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Nvidia 55nm Parts Are Bad Too
JagsLive sends in a story (in somewhat inflammatory prose) from The Inquirer, which links to many others; they have been following developments in the alleged NVidia quality "fiasco" for some time. "Hot on the heels of its denials that anything is wrong with the G92 and G94s comes another PCN [Product Change Notification] that shows the G92s and G92b are being changed for no reason. Yup, the problems that are plaguing G84 and G86 are the same that affect seemingly all 65nm and now 55nm NVidia parts ... It is hard to overstate how bad this is. Basically every 65nm and 55nm NVidia part appears to be defective ... We are hearing of early failure rates in the teens percent for 8800GTs and far higher for 9600GTs ... To make matters worse, NVidia has a mound of unsold defective parts that they are going to bleed out into the channel along side of the (hopefully) fixed parts. As a buyer, you have no way of knowing which one you are getting ... Until NVidia comes fully clean on this fiasco, lists all the defective parts, and orders boxes clearly marked, you can't say anything other than just avoid them. Then again, since doing the right thing would likely bankrupt them, we wouldn't hold your breath for it to happen."
But they are lead free, which is good for us.
"Then again, since doing the right thing would likely bankrupt them, we wouldn't hold your breath for it to happen"
-5 Troll
...to buy Nvidia? Problem solved.
I've always secretly been an ATI fanboy... and a traitor since the 6800GT.
Now, I've got ATI again but recommended everyone I know (up until 48XX by ATI) buy the 8800 or 9600....
I wanted ATI to regain some track to even the market... but this is a little much. Complete flops are not good for competition either.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
I've got a two 8800 series cards (one 8800GT, one 8800GTS), and I live in a place with no air conditioning. If these cards were subject to heat failure the way the Inquirer has been hollering about - one or both would have died by now. Particularly the one in my wife's computer - it's a Shuttle box, which runs toasty. It's been rock solid, running 24/7 for more than a year now.
I'm not suggesting there is NO problem - but the Inquirer has been talking about this like all of these cards are just waiting to die. With no A/C, and temps in the house above 90F during the summer, they should be dead if the Inq is to be believed. Perhaps I'm just lucky, but I still aint buying the story.
"Nothing is so important that you cannot make fun of it." -Clarke
"If you're a betting man, now's a good time to pick up on Nvidia stock.
The question is, do you feel lucky, punk?"
Yes, Nvidia is worth a lot more then it currently is, if you don't think so you haven't been paying attention. Good investors look at the circumstances, if nvidia somehow stops being a good company (Execution, etc), then investors will bail, but good investors, make money on the waves the rises and falls, and get out before the damage occurs.
Why is NVidia using lead-based solders at this late date? The European RoHS deadline for lead-free components was back in 2005. The NForce and 8800 parts were RoHS compliant years ago. Are these NVidia parts even exportable to Europe?
Yeah, because the Inquirer is such a steady and accurate news source.
I'll believe this when I see more proof.
To make matters worse, NVidia has a mound of unsold defective parts that they are going to bleed out into the channel along side of the (hopefully) fixed parts.
This sounds very similar to what finally took down Weitek, back when there were a bunch of graphics chip companies competing hotly and being shaken out if they screwed up.
Weitek had built a very fast and powerful chip. But they had goofed: While it had the mandatory basic VGA mode for acquiring the Microsoft certification, there was a bug in it.
QA told management that the bug was there and would fail them. But Software told them a driver could work around it and people would want the chip because it was so fast on graphics rendering. (Of course it could not - because to get the cert it had to work with the stock bootstrap stuff, before a custom driver could be loaded.)
So they went to production with the bug. And the customers got their prototypes, found the bug, and demanded a fix. Eventually they did a fixed version - but had maybe a couple million of the buggy ones on hand and wouldn't sell the fixed ones unless the customer bought some buggy ones, too. So nobody bought and the company folded.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
It is hard to overstate how bad this is.
This will end all life on earth.
That wasn't hard.
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
- Linux support
Really?.
Also, I use FreeBSD. Unless something has dramatically changed with ATI drivers on FreeBSD in the past year, the drive quality argument goes right out the window.
I am neither an NVidia or ATI fanboy (heck, my current GPU is an integrated Intel), but this article is a steaming pile of crap.
Somehow, he takes a report of a routine running change to the production process (a new kind of solder), and magically turns this into some wild tale of how NVidia is shipping thousands of defective parts that will remain in the field.
Completely lacking is how he corresponds the running change to some defect...
SirWired
This guy still hasn't posted sources and is making radical claims about salmonella infection rates. If this rate was true then most of the US would have had some level of Salmonella poisoning by now. That is unless it is all killed by cooking it correctly. Still this post above is NOT informative. It is inflammatory. Don't confuse the two.
Fuad has been The Inquirer's middle name when it comes to nVidia for a long time.
The problem isn't "it's only hte gpu, the rest of it works fine," it's the fact that you are all taking an article from The Inquirer seriously. Doubly so since it's about nvidia.