AMD Graphics Chips Could Last 10X To 100X Longer

An anonymous reader writes "According to a research report out of UCLA, released this morning, NVidia's high-lead bump packaging could last anywhere from 1/10th to 1/100th as long as AMD's advanced eutectic bump approach. (TG Daily has picked up the claim.) NVidia is currently in the midst of a $200M recall of bad GPUs, and the report suggests that the issue could be much deeper than NVidia's PR department would have us believe." The report lends credence to the strident claims of the Inquirer's Charlie Demerjian, which we discussed a month back.

Comments

Sweet!

[blueturffan]

I'm all for longer life chips, but what are Grahiphics ?

Re:Sweet!

[Anonymous Custard]

I don't know, but they sound terhiphic.

Re:Sweet!

[atari2600]

I've had an ATI X1950 Pro for 3 years now and while the card works great, the newer games render it near obsolete. So yes, I can have a card forever but what good is that going to do me if I need to upgrade anyway?

Resale value would suck and why would anyone want to spend 50$ on a 3 year old card when they can get a 1 year old "better" card for 90$. (I pulled the numbers out of thin air but you get the idea).

Re:Sweet!

[dr2chase]

"Eutectic" is a materials science word; it means (more or less, and I'm refreshing my memory from Wikipedia) a mixture (alloy) that does not separate/segregate into its original metals when it freezes; it has the lowest melting point, and passes immediately from liquid to solid phase. If, say, you have a solder that has more lead than the eutectic mix, when it freezes, it will segregate into (tiny) bits of lead and a eutectic remainder as it cools.

The advantage of a eutectic mix is that the melting point is lower, and when it is melted, it is all melted, and flows nicely. There are probably some caveats and quid-pro-quos for how it behaves in contact with other metals, which will certainly go ever-so-slightly into solution and change things.

Re:Sweet!

[davester666]

What I can't believe is that a companies PR department would knowingly release false or misleading information in an effort to keep their stock price up.

It's unheard of.

Re:Sweet!

[John Courtland]

Solder is actually hypoeutectic, meaning it melts at a lower temperature than any of its component metals alone (and still remains the same alloy, which you mentioned).

There's also hypereutectic which means the opposite, obviously. A lot of pistons are cast with a hypereutectic alloy to keep costs down (forging is expensive) while increasing the melting point.

Grahiphics :O

[atari2600]

I was going to Google for that word but then I realized that kdawson was involved.

Old

[sexconker]

Nvidia has already switched away from high-lead solder.

The Inquirer reported on this whole fiasco.

People shit on The Inquirer a lot, but there are 3 awesome things about that site:

Their writers do not sign NDAs.

They have writers all over the world - not someone they send out, but people who live there.

Their writers intimately know people in the industry - from the people up top to the people at the factory floor.

Study does not relate to AMD vs NVidia

[Somegeek]

This study does NOT specifically address or study AMD or NVidia's Chips.

It does not specifically address or test the exact chemical makeup of chips belonging to AMD or NVidia.

The conclusions being drawn as to the relative life spans of those manufacturer's chips appear to strictly belong to the bloggers who want a big headline, and not to the authors of the study. The study authors specifically note that in order to determine the life span of real chips, the real chips in question should be studied. Quote:

"For life-time prediction, the real microstructure of these two kinds of flip chip solder joint should be studied and actual failure rate should be measured. "

The study states that they are ignoring various factors that would come into play in the real world in order to simplify the study, and that they are making a number of assumptions about various testing conditions and about the makeup of the materials themselves.

From reading the study linked, it's not even clear to me that they actually tested anything, and it appears from their wording to be only a theoretical exercise.

In no way should the results of this study be used to state that brand X's chips will have a longer lifespan than brand Z's chips.

Re:So Do nVidias last 3 months, or ATIs 30-300 yea

[omega_dk]

It could just mean that if failures occur along a normal distribution, which they probably do, each point is approximately 10-100x higher than the ATI cards, which would be a Big Deal.

Most companies offer at least a year long warranty; if they have significant failures in that year, like 10-100x higher than normal, that may put too much pressure on their warranty policy.

And let's not forget nVidia's partners in selling cards (you know, all the non-nVidia nVidia cards). Those people may see high failure rates of nVidia parts, and all of a sudden using another chipset just got a heckuva lot more attractive.

So, the moral of the story is, there is no set 'time' that a card will die. It's not like after 10 months all of them will just conk out. But if there are higher failure rates than normal in their warranty period, not to mention harm done to their reputation, it could end up costing them greatly.

Re:Down to the drivers

[minvaren]

How to fix bloated ATI drivers :

1] Download full CCC installer.
2] Don't install the CCC, just the drivers.
3] Download a copy of ATI Tray Tools.