Thinking of buying a 5850; How widespread are GSOD issues?

[syfted]

How widespread are the GSOD issues? A lot of stuff I'm reading is from ~2 months ago, have things improved drastically since then? I'm on Windows XP 32bit right now, but this seems to be occurring across a wide range of OSes, so I'm not sure it matters.

I'm not a fanboy of either NVIDIA or ATI, but I have no problem holding out for NVIDIA's next release if ATI can't get their stuff together, even though I want a new card now.

Have GSODs been reduced substantially since release?


Current system:
Corei7 920 on P6T Deluxe
3GB RAM
8800GT (she's finally dyin' on me, will be dearly missed)

 

[EXT64]

Unfortunately, I have not heard any statistics. All I can say for sure is that I bought a 5850 in January and it has not had a single random GSOD (and it has been OC'ed to 775/1125 recently). I have heard that recent drivers have helped some who had issues, while others still have problems. If you get a card that GSODs now (with the latest drivers) I would say to RMA it as defective.

Also, be sure to have the latest MB BIOS.

 

[jaguarskx]

No GSOD since I bought the card back in Oct/Nov.

 

[Rustyy117]

none for me either I've got mine a 950/1200 : )

 

[Mousemonkey]

There have been one or two threads about the subject if you wish to look for them.

 

[EXT64]

Yes, we know your lovely folder MM :lol:

But still it is hard to get a feel on how many of these cards had the issue, or more importantly how many after the 10.2 drivers.

 

[Mousemonkey]

But three or four people saying they haven't had problems is hardly painting a fair and complete picture either, is it?

 

[Rustyy117]

its pretty hard to know if your going to have problems with a card or not.... you could google "problems with ATi 5xxx series cards" for as long as you like and then buy one and not have any problems....
Most new cards on the market have problems.....just the way it is

I expect alot of those problems in your list are human error....seems to be quite common when it comes to PC problems in general.

you can bet that Fermi or any other GPU in the future will have problems

 

[Mousemonkey]

Ah yes, the "lets blame it on human error/new card" argument. So how then does a new driver fix the human error issue? The new card argument has more credence but would also suggest that ATi's QC department dropped the ball and did not do a good enough job or were not given enough time to do a thorough job in testing these cards before they were shipped out. A possible and rather telling point was made in AnandTech's review of the 5830 where it's mentioned that the BIOS the card came with was not the BIOS that the card will actually ship with, which makes me wonder if the other cards all have the right BIOS as some people have had to resort to voltage tweaks and under clocking to get their cards to run with some sort of stability.

 

[Rustyy117]

Ok MM, I'm not going to argue with you, at the end of the day your an nVidia fanboy. Nothing I can say will change your mind.... Seems strange that someone with a biased opinion is a moderator advising other people.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Ok MM, I'm not going to argue with you, at the end of the day your an nVidia fanboy. Nothing I can say will change your mind.... Seems strange that someone with a biased opinion is a moderator advising other people.

I'm no more biased than other mods who bat for the red team and is it more likely you can't argue with me because you know there may be more than a just a shred of truth in what I suggest and that frightens you a bit.

 

[Rustyy117]

Yeah I'm so scared, think I'll go hide in a corner :lol:

I'm not denying that theres some truth to what your saying, But I'm also right in saying that new cards generally have faults and there is a degree of human error in some cases.

Why can't you just admit that ATi is actually doing well for once. I haven't seen a moderator as biased as you in this forum

 

[Mousemonkey]

I haven't seen a moderator as biased as you in this forum

Then you are not looking at many threads are you? I have never made any secret about my preference for Nvidia cards and their drivers and if you go looking at my past postings I have not had a downer on the 3 or 4 series because they never had any major issues (I did slag off the 2 series though :lol: ). The 5 series however have had issues since day one and taking the ostrich approach of burying your head in the sand and ignoring that isn't going to change that any time soon if at all.

 

[EXT64]

Yep MM, I'm not saying 3 out of 4 means anything either. All I'm saying is that I have no real numbers (nor does anyone except maybe ATI/AMD) so the question is hard to answer. All we know for sure is that they are not all defective, nor are they all working properly.

 

[Rustyy117]

Is that it?

yeah I'll stick my head in the sand, and hide away from all the problems that my 5850 brings.....(sarcasm)

I think (IMO) the pro's of the 5xxxseries cards far outweight the con's, Just look at price vs performance... I think your just annoyed that nVidia have sweet FA at the moment.

Must be hard for a fanboy like yourself to come to the realisation that a HD5850 is faster than a GTX285, is cheaper and has so many other benifits.

I really don't understanf the brand loyalty, why not just buy the best prive vs performance card, you can better for less.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Is that it?

yeah I'll stick my head in the sand, and hide away from all the problems that my 5850 brings.....(sarcasm)

I think (IMO) the pro's of the 5xxxseries cards far outweight the con's, Just look at price vs performance... I think your just annoyed that nVidia have sweet FA at the moment.

Must be hard for a fanboy like yourself to come to the realisation that a HD5850 is faster than a GTX285, is cheaper and has so many other benifits.

I really don't understanf the brand loyalty, why not just buy the best prive vs performance card, you can better for less.

As I'm not using a GTX285 I couldn't give a rats ass about the performance differences, if anything this is showing your fanboyism more as you can't handle the fact that not everyone is fawning over these cards and blowing smoke up AMD/ATi's asses. :lol:

 

[Rustyy117]

I'm not a fanboy at all, I couldnt care less who made what. I buy best price vs performance, as I don't care for physX. If the GTX480 is going to be quicker than a 5870 and at a good price, and if i can get a good price for my 5850 I sell it and grab a GTX480. Though this seems unlikely looking at the rumored pricing.
Also I really couldn't care less whos buying what, why would I care? Its up to the individual to decide based on what they want from there card, there budget and a few other things.

 

[syfted]

There have been one or two threads about the subject if you wish to look for them.

I actually put this thread here because I was looking for statistics (even rough ones)- like the RMA rate of the cards, for example. People generally come to tech support forums and talk about damaged/malfunctioning hardware, so it makes for a poor cross-section of consumers to evaluate.

Right now the only data I have telling me these cards are reliable is from newegg. Most of the 5xxx series cards have generally good, 75%+ 5-egg ratings, but forum activity speaks differently. This complicates my decision to purchase.

 

[EXT64]

Well, neither is a great gauge really. I'd say, if you want one go for it. Very likely, it will not have GSOD issues. If it does, RMA it until you get one without GSOD.