Defective nVidia GPUs?

Wormy23 · Jul 3, 2008, 02:16 AM

This is probably why our MBP's are so HOT! If you can still buy AppleCare, you better buy it now just in case!

Article from Engadget:

NVIDIA says "significant quantities" of laptop GPUs are defective, stock tumbles

If you're the type to watch the late stock tickers, you might have noticed that NVIDIA's stock just took a pretty big hit, down 24 percent to $13.56 -- that's because the company just informed investors that "significant quantities" of previous-generation graphics chips have been failing at "higher than normal rates," and that it's lowering its Q2 estimates due to pricing pressure. NVIDIA will be taking a $150M to $250M charge against earnings next quarter to cover the cost of repairing and replacing the affected chips, but didn't specifically announce what products were defective, just that they include GPUs and "media and communications processors." Laptop makers have apparently already been given an updated GPU driver which kicks in fans sooner to reduce "thermal stress" on the GPU, and NVIDIA says it's talking to its suppliers about being reimbursed for the faulty parts. That's great and all, but we'd really rather know which chips specifically are failing -- if you're serious about playing in the big leagues, you better come clean, guys.

ilifecomputer · Jul 3, 2008, 04:19 AM

This worried me as well. It's interesting to note their suggestion that their discoveries are only the tip of the iceberg, that, future problems with current and past cards are possible. Ouch! I hope this doesn't affect us. With that, I've taken interest in finally downloading smc fan control for this notebook. Can anyone answer this for me:

Even if you set the fans at a higher default speed (or load speed), will they still speed up if the heat rises and requires such an increase (on top of what i have already increased)? Anyone know exactly how this is handled? Thanks in advance.

SchneiderMan · Jul 3, 2008, 05:10 AM

i hope they get it fixed in less then a month untill i get mine

plus the screen gap on all the mbp are somewhat defective for a $2,000+ laptop

Tracer · Jul 3, 2008, 08:58 AM

If Apple's parts are included in this, expect some sort of Replacement Program.

Tracer

Tallest Skil · Jul 3, 2008, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tracer

If Apple's parts are included in this, expect some sort of Replacement Program.

How do you replace a GPU that's part of the logic board? It's not a card-style mobile graphics card.

Fabreze · Jul 3, 2008, 09:31 AM

Do you think that this mistake by Nvidia could encourage Apple to start using the card style GPU's to be safe?

mox123 · Jul 3, 2008, 10:01 AM

did they use the same or different NVDIA cards for the santa rosa MBP vs. Penryn MBP?

noodle654 · Jul 3, 2008, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mox123

did they use the same or different NVDIA cards for the santa rosa MBP vs. Penryn MBP?

Its the name, just different amount of VRAM. It kind makes sense because my 128MB 8600 diode runs very hot...about 20*F higher than my CPU. We will see what happens in the next week.

wrldwzrd89 · Jul 3, 2008, 10:48 AM

Hey, there are two threads about this. The other one is here - though this thread is larger I think the other one is in a more appropriate section.

That said, I think this is bad news for nVidia - on top of the news that Apple went with OpenCL instead of nVidia's CUDA technology, this event will make things especially hard for them.

quagmire · Jul 3, 2008, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noodle654

Its the name, just different amount of VRAM. It kind makes sense because my 128MB 8600 diode runs very hot...about 20*F higher than my CPU. We will see what happens in the next week.

GPU's do tend to run hotter then the CPU. My Penryn MBP's GPU is running at 137 F and the CPU is currently at 113 F( not fully warmed up yet). On my 12" Powerbook G4, the CPU would run at 114 F and the GPU at 129 F once warmed up.

sixth · Jul 3, 2008, 11:06 AM

I think this is going to effect all 8-series GPU's in any mobile form. If they are telling investors to prepare for 200-million worth of repairs than its serious...thats A LOT of cards. If you hop on some Dell boards and look at all the M1530 video issues its inevitable that its going to effect MBP's too. The only way its not is if Apple is getting their cards from a different manufacturer than Dell, etc than hopefully we should be ok. Either way this a really big blow to nVidia and to OEM's that are using ANY 8-Series(MOBILE) chip.

If you look at all the problems that have been posted on the board here with people saying they are having a ton of video problems, now we can tie some of those problems to the 8600...not good in my eyes.

zflauaus · Jul 3, 2008, 11:33 AM

Ahh damn. And just as I'm about to buy my MBP too.

I agree with the others. Seriously, nVidia, you should have told us which ones were/are affected.

kabunaru · Jul 3, 2008, 11:50 AM

ATI cards for the next MacBook Pros, no more of this Nvidia crap.

mox123 · Jul 3, 2008, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noodle654

Its the name, just different amount of VRAM. It kind makes sense because my 128MB 8600 diode runs very hot...about 20*F higher than my CPU. We will see what happens in the next week.

Darn...i was hoping that my Penryn MBP won't be affected by this...

Cadium · Jul 3, 2008, 12:23 PM

Hopefully the chips which are affected are only limited to the GeForce 6xxx or 7xxx lines.

djcraze · Jul 3, 2008, 12:26 PM

I was just about to call Apple today because my Graphics Card keeps dying. The screen keeps fudging up, and giving me crazy boxes and mismatching areas on the screen... its quite annoying and requires a restart, so I guess I'm affected

.

dizastor · Jul 3, 2008, 12:28 PM

Thank god for intel integrated graphics.

Axemantitan · Jul 3, 2008, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kabunaru

ATI cards for the next MacBook Pros, no more of this Nvidia crap.

Yes. Hopefully it will be the 3800 series, which can support Blu-Ray Drives.

kabunaru · Jul 3, 2008, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Axemantitan

Yes. Hopefully it will be the 3800 series, which can support Blu-Ray Drives.

Those will be perfect for the MacBook Pros. Besides, ATI cards are better for Pro Apps any ways which the MacBook Pro was meant for.
Pro Apps work on the go.

swarmster · 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dizastor

Thank god for intel integrated graphics.

Eww, don't even joke about stuff like that.

Bring back the ATI cards! ATI always treated the Mac better anyway, and tends to have faster laptop chips. Jobs needs to get over it; the iMac G4 leak was so long ago!

Edit: Wait, that was Time Canada. The ATI leak was even longer ago! Canadians are your friends!

rlm22b · Jul 3, 2008, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilifecomputer

...With that, I've taken interest in finally downloading smc fan control for this notebook. Can anyone answer this for me:

Even if you set the fans at a higher default speed (or load speed), will they still speed up if the heat rises and requires such an increase (on top of what i have already increased)? Anyone know exactly how this is handled? Thanks in advance.

I'd like to know this as well.

Mark Booth · Jul 3, 2008, 12:34 PM

I wonder if this will turn out to have something to do with the MacBook Pro Vertical Stripes On Display issue?

Mark

sighlent · Jul 3, 2008, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Booth

I wonder if this will turn out to have something to do with the MacBook Pro Vertical Stripes On Display issue?

Mark

Probably not, that is a power management issue with the LED backlighting.

operator207 · Jul 3, 2008, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dizastor

Thank god for intel integrated graphics.

The same can be said for that 4mb video card I still have laying around to use in some PC hardware servers if the integrated goes bad. Oh wait, the integrated IS an Intel chip. Oh well...

sighlent · Jul 3, 2008, 12:46 PM

It most likely has relevance to this problem

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....19469&tstart=0

Which I think Apple still hasn't addressed

Jul 3, 2008, 02:16 AM	#1
Wormy23 macrumors member Join Date: Jul 2008	Defective nVidia GPUs? This is probably why our MBP's are so HOT! If you can still buy AppleCare, you better buy it now just in case! Article from Engadget: NVIDIA says "significant quantities" of laptop GPUs are defective, stock tumbles If you're the type to watch the late stock tickers, you might have noticed that NVIDIA's stock just took a pretty big hit, down 24 percent to $13.56 -- that's because the company just informed investors that "significant quantities" of previous-generation graphics chips have been failing at "higher than normal rates," and that it's lowering its Q2 estimates due to pricing pressure. NVIDIA will be taking a $150M to $250M charge against earnings next quarter to cover the cost of repairing and replacing the affected chips, but didn't specifically announce what products were defective, just that they include GPUs and "media and communications processors." Laptop makers have apparently already been given an updated GPU driver which kicks in fans sooner to reduce "thermal stress" on the GPU, and NVIDIA says it's talking to its suppliers about being reimbursed for the faulty parts. That's great and all, but we'd really rather know which chips specifically are failing -- if you're serious about playing in the big leagues, you better come clean, guys.

Jul 3, 2008, 05:10 AM	#3
SchneiderMan macrumors Demi-God Join Date: May 2008 Location: Los Angeles, CA	i hope they get it fixed in less then a month untill i get mine plus the screen gap on all the mbp are somewhat defective for a $2,000+ laptop __________________ SchneidersStudios.com <-Etymotic HF2 Headset Review coming soon YouTubeUnboxings Flickr

Jul 3, 2008, 10:01 AM	#7
mox123 macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Chicago	did they use the same or different NVDIA cards for the santa rosa MBP vs. Penryn MBP? __________________ Macbook Pro 15" \| 2.4GHz "Penryn" \| 200GB 5400RPM HDD \| 2GB Ram \| 8600GT 256MB 40GB \| 4G iPod More...Much More Than Meets The Eye!

Jul 3, 2008, 10:48 AM	#9
wrldwzrd89 macrumors 601 Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Solon, OH	Hey, there are two threads about this. The other one is here - though this thread is larger I think the other one is in a more appropriate section. That said, I think this is bad news for nVidia - on top of the news that Apple went with OpenCL instead of nVidia's CUDA technology, this event will make things especially hard for them. __________________ Proud iMac and iPod touch owner Successfully upgraded iMac to 1TB HDD

Jul 3, 2008, 11:06 AM	#11
sixth macrumors regular Join Date: Aug 2006	I think this is going to effect all 8-series GPU's in any mobile form. If they are telling investors to prepare for 200-million worth of repairs than its serious...thats A LOT of cards. If you hop on some Dell boards and look at all the M1530 video issues its inevitable that its going to effect MBP's too. The only way its not is if Apple is getting their cards from a different manufacturer than Dell, etc than hopefully we should be ok. Either way this a really big blow to nVidia and to OEM's that are using ANY 8-Series(MOBILE) chip. If you look at all the problems that have been posted on the board here with people saying they are having a ton of video problems, now we can tie some of those problems to the 8600...not good in my eyes. __________________ iPhone 4GB - Wife's Phone iPhone 8GB - Mine MBP Merom 2.33Ghz 3GB Ram upg/ WD Scorpio 250GB (home)

Jul 3, 2008, 04:19 AM	#2
ilifecomputer macrumors member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Los Angeles, CA	This worried me as well. It's interesting to note their suggestion that their discoveries are only the tip of the iceberg, that, future problems with current and past cards are possible. Ouch! I hope this doesn't affect us. With that, I've taken interest in finally downloading smc fan control for this notebook. Can anyone answer this for me: Even if you set the fans at a higher default speed (or load speed), will they still speed up if the heat rises and requires such an increase (on top of what i have already increased)? Anyone know exactly how this is handled? Thanks in advance.

Jul 3, 2008, 08:58 AM	#4
Tracer macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jun 2007	If Apple's parts are included in this, expect some sort of Replacement Program. Tracer

Jul 3, 2008, 09:31 AM	#6
Fabreze macrumors member Join Date: Jan 2008	Do you think that this mistake by Nvidia could encourage Apple to start using the card style GPU's to be safe?

Jul 3, 2008, 11:33 AM	#12
zflauaus macrumors 6502a Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: The Cylon Universe	Ahh damn. And just as I'm about to buy my MBP too. I agree with the others. Seriously, nVidia, you should have told us which ones were/are affected. __________________ MacBook Pro 15" \| Mac Mini C2D \| 3G iPod \| iPod touch \| iPod shuffle \| Nikon D60 Follow me on Twitter.

Jul 3, 2008, 11:50 AM	#13
kabunaru Guest Join Date: Jan 2008	ATI cards for the next MacBook Pros, no more of this Nvidia crap.

Jul 3, 2008, 12:23 PM	#15
Cadium macrumors member Join Date: Jun 2008	Hopefully the chips which are affected are only limited to the GeForce 6xxx or 7xxx lines. __________________ [font="Tahoma"][size=1]MacBook Pro (Late 2008): 2.4 GHz CPU / 2 GB DDR3 RAM / 250 GB HD / NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT (256MB)

Jul 3, 2008, 12:26 PM	#16
djcraze macrumors member Join Date: Jul 2007	I was just about to call Apple today because my Graphics Card keeps dying. The screen keeps fudging up, and giving me crazy boxes and mismatching areas on the screen... its quite annoying and requires a restart, so I guess I'm affected .

Jul 3, 2008, 12:28 PM	#17
dizastor macrumors 6502a Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Los Angeles	Thank god for intel integrated graphics. __________________ ejc on Twitter

Jul 3, 2008, 12:34 PM	#22
Mark Booth macrumors regular Join Date: Jan 2008	I wonder if this will turn out to have something to do with the MacBook Pro Vertical Stripes On Display issue? Mark

Jul 3, 2008, 12:46 PM	#25
sighlent macrumors member Join Date: Feb 2008	It most likely has relevance to this problem http://discussions.apple.com/thread....19469&tstart=0 Which I think Apple still hasn't addressed

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