Crunchers Helping Crunchers

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Damn man that really blows. I hope you can save rest of the rig.

 

[Norton]

My motherfucking GTX 460's voltage controller just caught on fire.

Pics or it didn't happen:
http://img.techpowerup.org/120612/IMAG0048.jpg

Damn! Are you seeing any damage on the mobo or anywhere else?

 

[JrRacinFan]

My motherfucking GTX 460's voltage controller just caught on fire.

Pics or it didn't happen:
http://img.techpowerup.org/120612/IMAG0048.jpg

Guessing you may need these cards quicker than expected. Will attempt to work on getting them out sooner. PM me your address.

 

[Jstn7477]

First, let me reassure Stinger that his 465 is safe and sound at work in another PC. I was tempted to use it in this computer but the noise and heat put me off lol. Plus, it gets great PPD as a full time folder anyway.

It was my EVGA 1GB/256bit one. It blew up on the new PSU I was testing.

Rest assured, the motherboard and CPU are completely unscathed. Everything works on the Intel 3000 graphics. The power supplies are honestly very decent. The model I had in there was based on a Super Flower 80Plus Gold platform and cost me $80. JonnyGURU gave the 750w model a 9/10.

Both PSUs did the right thing: instantly shut down within a few milliseconds of me powering on the system. Somehow, moving my 460 around made it go from that state to allowing the system to turn on, but subsequently the chip ended up catching on fire. However, I'm not testing the original unit on this system even though I feel it's completely fine. I think this card simply took a shit like most NVIDIA cards and their weak power circuitry seem to enjoy doing.

 

[hat]

I heard that... I can't help but feel that both AMD/ATi and Nvidia are getting lazy and/or cheap with their cards. Either their crummy power circuitry can't handle it, or they're both just ramping up performance as much as possible without real concern of their card's health as they slap junky power circuitry on it. I'd rather have a more expensive card with better power circuitry or a less powerful card that is slower but doesn't use so much power. Cheap tricks like turning down the power on heavy apps like Furmark is just cutting corners.

 

[Chicken Patty]

Damn jstn, that sucks brotha. Glad it's just the card and PSU, coulda been worse.

 

[Jstn7477]

Damn jstn, that sucks brotha. Glad it's just the card and PSU, coulda been worse.

Thanks man. PSU is actually fine. It seems my card decided to be a GTX 590 after a few months of use. :shadedshu

 

[Chicken Patty]

Thanks man. PSU is actually fine. It seems my card decided to be a GTX 590 after a few months of use. :shadedshu

Ah okay, I misread that. Even better man, at least it wasn't so bad. We all go through this crap sooner or later man. I had two boards spark and almost catch fire on me, both times it was a faulty board. I was getitng ready to throw my PSU in the garbage. Glad I didn't!

 

[Jstn7477]

Just submitted a support ticket. I think I'll nickname that company "FlameVGA" from now on. Bought the damn card new just under 4 months ago with the PSU.

 

[brandonwh64]

Holy Shit! That chip caught on FIRE! Did the card just surge or something?

 

[Jstn7477]

I really don't know what happened to it. The rig wouldn't turn on for more than a few ms due to SCP until I pulled the board and put it on my desk. Board worked fine with onboard Intel HD3000 and no video card. Put video card back in, rig turns on and chip instantly lights up. Both PSUs work normally.

 

[brandonwh64]

I really don't know what happened to it. The rig wouldn't turn on for more than a few ms due to SCP until I pulled the board and put it on my desk. Board worked fine with onboard Intel HD3000 and no video card. Put video card back in, rig turns on and chip instantly lights up. Both PSUs work normally.

Ok man after seeing this and knowing Jr is getting his card today I sent you and him a PM. hope we can get you back up soon.

*Edit*

I also seen that I am to receive the 6950 today as well.

 

[Jstn7477]

I'm probably just going to buy a 7850 DCU2 at the end of the week and call it a day. EVGA hasn't even bothered contacting me yet after I sent a ticket 15 hours ago, and I want something that's cheap, runs cool and quiet in my home PC, so this card seems to fit the bill. My 460 before it blew up was so loud at 70c, it was ridiculous. Jr's cards will go straight into my farm and I'll just bring my quiet GTX 550Ti home until I get a new card. I can't see spending $420 for an effing GTX 670 that has no balls as far as computing ability goes. Sure, the games are smoother and the drivers are better, but I bet something will be out soon to quickly replace it.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Will get these out ASAP J. Hate to keep you waiting. I got them packaged up and ready to move. They would make great cruncher cards as long as you keep em cool.


Edit
Maybe setting fan at minimum 60% with afterburner? I have the delta on the fans set for silence in each of their bios'

 

[Jstn7477]

They'll be at my work under the care of a 15K BTU/hr window unit along with the other computers. Maximum room temperature has been about 80F, so they'll do fine. Most of the stock cooler GTX cards run in the 70-80c range up here depending on the fan speeds and work units. Noise is no problem for what I am doing with them.

 

[Radical_Edward]

I need this spare 5770 gone guys. I am willing to knock off $10 of the current asking price for fellow dedicated crunchers!

Check out my FS thread if interested.

 

[brandonwh64]

jstn, I got the 6950 today and it works great! I will post some heatware for you.

*Edit*

Stock clocks unlocked shaders

 

[Jstn7477]

jstn, I got the 6950 today and it works great! I will post some heatware for you.

That's good news! Hopefully you find much enjoyment in it and it lasts you a long time.

I brought home my trusty Sparkle Calibre GTX 550 Ti to use temporarily until I can get my PC sorted. Not as fast as a 460 by any means, but it's a quiet (except for the nasty coil whine) and neat looking card. SPARKLE Calibre Series X550 Ti DFL GeForce GTX 550...

Still set on trying to buy an ASUS HD 7850 DirectCUII card for this rig. It seems to be on par with the 6950/70 yet takes significantly less power, and overclocks to 1.1-1.2GHz with ease. I kind of wanted to go NVIDIA this time, but they can't seem to release a new card that isn't $400. As long as the drivers are *as good* as the ones for the 6K series, I think I'll be fine. Then again, NVIDIA's drivers on some cards recently cause Windows 7 to hang halfway through boot until you go into safe mode and uninstall them, so I can't say things are great on the NVIDIA side. I bet those f**king drivers turned down my fan speed or something during the night and blew up my perfectly functional 460 two nights ago.

Oh, by the way, EVGA hasn't given two f**ks about responding to my 1500 character support ticket, so I'm probably going to have to call those idiots in a day or two.

 

[brandonwh64]

Jstn, One question. How do you change the voltage on this card? I tried MSI afterburner different versions and sapphire trixx and none would let me

 

[Jstn7477]

Hmm, Sapphire Trixx allowed me to. I think it was on the last tab with the core/memory frequencies. There should be a window with three sliders on it, the bottom being the voltage slider that allows 1.1 to 1.18v to be set. I unfortunately haven't used Trixx in months so I don't really remember.

EDIT: https://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/TriXX/TriXX.aspx

The window should look like the last screenshot on that page.

 

[JrRacinFan]

J, I know you said you are semi-against EVGA but both of these 460's are reference EVGA 768MB cards. I think you should try them out a little in SLI before throwing them into the farm.

 

[brandonwh64]

Is there a way to get around the 1.18V limit?

 

[Jstn7477]

lol yeah, I was fine with EVGA until their card caught on fire after just under 4 motnhs and they've yet to answer my support request.

I might try them out this weekend in SLi, but I'll have to bring home one of my beefy PSUs to try them as a pair. I unfortunately surpassed 768MB of VRAM usage all the time with my 6950 2GB, so I'm curious how the setup will run. The HD 7850 piques my interest as it takes on average only 100 watts, which is great since the A/C is kept at 78F at home and my room frequently becomes warm during the night if I have anything more than this machine and my laptop running.

I've got nothing against your cards at all. I just feel they would be better suit my needs for continuous folding at whatever fan speed keeps them nice and cool as they rake in 30K PPD. The 768MB ones are particularly useful since they have less RAM and disabled ROPs, neither of which afects F@H but can affect gaming.

 

[Jstn7477]

Is there a way to get around the 1.18V limit?

That's the limit. Remember, you have to deal with PowerTune so setting high clocks or volts will just make the card run slower during heavy loads as it attempts to stay within the board's power limits. Having a chip with full CUs enabled further decreases the power margins unfortunately, especially on this non-reference card.

It will probably do around 900 @ 1.14/1.15v. Keep GPU-Z open and check for clock modulation while you test. Furmark reaches PowerTune limits on that card at 870/1.11v from my findings.

 

[brandonwh64]

That's the limit. Remember, you have to deal with PowerTune so setting high clocks or volts will just make the card run slower during heavy loads as it attempts to stay within the board's power limits. Having a chip with full CUs enabled further decreases the power margins unfortunately, especially on this non-reference card.

It will probably do around 900 @ 1.14/1.15v. Keep GPU-Z open and check for clock modulation while you test. Furmark reaches PowerTune limits on that card at 870/1.11v from my findings.

Your right, anything after stock 6970 clocks it falls on it face only netting 100 point more in 3dmark06

Wished there was a way to increase this. I have seen some of these cards go to 1000 core