"Significant quantities" of nVidia GPU's may be defective

[thejadedmonkey]

[nVidia] 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.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/02/nvidia-says-significant-quantities-of-laptop-gpus-are-defectiv/

According to the blogsphere, the Dell m1330 has seen recent driver updates, probably indicating that the 8400 GS is effected.

Reports also state that the 8600m is effected. If memory serves me correctly, Apple uses a variant of that in their Macbook Pro

The HP DVxxxx series also seems to be having some issues.

All I've got to say is wow. This is some pretty bad news for nvidia, considering I just listen some of the flagship products for the 3 major manufacturers. this could be the boost that ATI needs to get back in the game.