Gainward 6800 GT Golden Sample Erratic Temperatures and Artifacts

[Cow Art]

I've had my 6800 GT GS for about 2 months now, and while it is one of my dearest possessions (sad), it has given me more grief than I deserve. (Which is none, really, because I'm a nice, upstanding young man. No, really.)

Anyway, the latest hassle is that I get artifacts on my desktop and in all 2D apps after a while and then my PC starts locking up. It locks up for a minute or so, then mouse movement resumes, but I'm unable to interact with anything, then it comes to life again and promptly crashes a few minutes later. All of this happening while my screen is a mess, of course.

Before this incident, my temperatures were really wonky, and the GPU temp in Expertool, RivaTuner and Coolbits was displayed as 10. Never below it, but sometimes it would jump to 11 or 12. Ambient temperature remained at the normal 40 degrees. However, after switching my PC on this morning, the temperature was displayed correctly. (Or at least, what should be correct.) And yet I still get artifacts. It's worth a mention that a week prior to this incident, I started getting flashes in some games. In other words, one frame would be rendered black and it would flash, before drawing the proper frames again.

I did, at some point, overclock it to 400/1100 (which it is supposed to handle), but reverted to stock speeds after seeing no visible improvement in performance (non-benchmark wise). I'd say I ran it for about a week at those speeds, but the rest of the time it was at stock with both fans set to 100% all the time.

If it doesn't clear up by Monday, I'll try to RMA it, but I'd rather have some more experienced users comment on my situation first.

Thank you in advance.

[thanosAIAS]

You're right to be disappointed.

Gainward Golden Sample is supposed to handle the extra MHz. You paid extra for that anyway.

The thing is Gainward has severe issues as a corporation. It's not the company you used to know.

Try the forums at their site. There were quite reports and solutions concerning such issues with their product line.

It is important to know though that their initial batch of cards was more of an overclocked reference design and their bios usually required an update to function properly. Plus the card cooler couldn't handle the generated heat. They issued dual fan copper cooled cards later. I guess you should search their forums, find the kind of card you have and try to isolate the solution to your specific problem.

Pity though for a gamer to deal with such frustrations. Gainward should know better.

[toxikneedle]

Wow that is sad, knowing that I doubt youll be able to get anything for the card if its broken :\ since gainward is no more. On their site they have a store that sells parts and I ordered a cable from there 2 weeks ago and it still didn't come, I emailed them too and no one replies so I think the Gainward USA is completely dead.

[$n][pErMan]

Cow Art ..... I have the 6800GT "Golden Sample" and it works perfectly. Im running it at 400mhz core and 1100mhz memory. And at one point (just to test) was running at 427mhz core and 1200mhz memory. Also the card idles at 50c and full load 75c with the defualt duel red LED fans it comes with. Perhaps you got a bad card or some driver issues?? I have no problem with the card and its honestly the best video card I have ever had hands down... I love it :) If I were you... id find every way possible to either fix it or get a new one from them ASAP as these are some of the best 6800's money can buy and they are extremely rare to find now!