Durability: Ati vs Nvidia

**unibrowzerzar** · June 15, 2006, 11:27 PM

I'm getting a new computer soon, and I'm sure that everyone who is in the same situation as me wants to know, "How durable and long lasting will my hardware be?". Since high end graphids cards have been known to last no longer than 6 months, I'm kinda worried about them. I read recently that it is normal for a card like Nvidia 7600 to begin to produce artifacts in as little as 6 months, with faster cards deteriorating at an even faster rate. I'm not sure if I should get the 3 year replacement warranty, and I'm not too sure i'd like to believe the report. Anyone who owns high-end hardware wanna help me out plz???

**SweetDreamz** · June 15, 2006, 11:31 PM

No, it won't happen. And why 3 year replacement warranty when you can get lifetime warranty from some companies such as eVGA and BFG?

**Hadrian** · June 15, 2006, 11:37 PM

Don't believe it man. Video cards last for years, especially ran on stock settings. My VCs have double lifetime warranties. If the go down, XFX will repair or replace them at no charge for as long as I or the second owner own them. Just make sure you shop warranty as well as video card. BFG,eVga and XFX for example all provide lifetime warranties. Sapphire,Asus and Powercolor provide atleast 3 year warranties. Don't listen to that garbage, most GPUs are high quality products made to last many years with most becoming outdated before they give up the ghost...

I've owned both nVidia and ATI and both have served me well...

**Rhinosaur** · June 15, 2006, 11:38 PM

I'veowned both ATI and Nvidia cards now, and both have served me nicely. I think that as long as you don't overclock you should be able to keep a card based on either companie's chips for as long as you want. I gave a computer away with an ATI 9200 that'll still run R:TW or CS:S, and thecard is 2 years old at least.

**sunsmountain** · June 16, 2006, 07:33 AM

Graphics cards are more error prone than CPU's and memory sticks. They tend to run hotter than most other components. Get a good brand & cooling, those 2 usually go hand in hand. Though my Club3D Radeon has been fine now for more than 3 years, I'm expecting it to die anytime soon now.

What will break down first, on average:

1. monitor
2. fans
both because of dust getting stuck in places where it shouldn't. Luckily they're easy to replace and they'll let you know real good when & how they go down.

3. graphics card
4. CPU, hard disk
5. mobo, chipset, memory
because of temperature. Though CPU's run just as hot as graphics cards (60-90 oC), they're better protected. You really need a big pile of dust before you can damage the graphics cards, mobo, chipset or memory. You cannot damage a CPU or hard disk with dust.

**Hadrian** · June 16, 2006, 11:04 PM

Thats good stuff sunsmountain, thanks for useful info....I always learn something from you...and the GPUs do seem to be error prone, especially the newer ones as they push the performance envelope and race each other to first release.

**Lee1026** · June 16, 2006, 11:08 PM

More error prone then CPUs don't tell us much, as a CPU with a regularly clean heatsink is expected to last for CENTURIES. So I will have to ask for more specify numbers, such as the mean time of failure.

**King Edward I** · June 17, 2006, 12:16 AM

and if dust gets between the "spinning disks" of the HDD then u got Chenobyl to your data!

**Incinerate_IV** · June 17, 2006, 02:05 AM

I think on average hard disk fails much much sooner than the CPU, since the hard disk is a moving part while the CPU is not. And most CPUs at stock speed almost never exceed 70C, which is what they were designed to handle. The ones reaching 80-90C would crash and freeze, so hopefully thats a good enough warning sign.

**OTZ** · June 17, 2006, 05:36 AM

I am going to go out on a limb and say the incidents of parts failures are rather low (sorry Lee, I have no emperical data to support my opinion on this one)...people probably replcae parts long before they break

**HorseArcher** · June 17, 2006, 09:36 AM

To respond the title of the thread, I've got an Nvidia Geforce4 Ti in my mom's computer. after many years of abuse by me; being thrown around for a while in the addic after I decomissioned it; and then finally re-comissoned by building a PC from parts, the damn thing is still working.. and working very good (jedi knight/BF1942/Freelancer etc runs fine)

**sunsmountain** · July 30, 2006, 01:54 PM

Graphics cards are more error prone than CPU's and memory sticks. They tend to run hotter than most other components. Get a good brand & cooling, those 2 usually go hand in hand. Though my Club3D Radeon has been fine now for more than 3 years, I'm expecting it to die anytime soon now.

I hate it when i'm right

Root cause of this is simply the fabrication process. Not the the fan, the cooler, or the brand. Turns out i wasn't the only one, simply that batch of ATi chips... even a slight misalignment in one part of the mask used to create/burn the chips causes a lot of those chips to be dead after 3 years. Since it was one of the last runs producing radeon 9700/9800's (speaking August 2003), the mask was getting old i guess. Though you also do not want to have a card from the first batch. Somewhere in the middle next time.