Friday, March 5th 2010

GeForce 196.75 Drivers Overheat GPUs on Some Applications

NVIDIA's recently released GeForce 196.75 WHQL drivers are causing problems with some users reporting "intermittent low FPS", in the words of Blizzard's technical staff. It notes that the drivers have a bug in its fan-speed control that causes graphics cards to overheat when running applications such as Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2 Beta. Not only does bad fan control result in bad application performance, but can also damage the graphics accelerator. Blizzard on its part advised users to revert to older versions of the GeForce driver. Version 196.21 (older WHQL-signed driver) can be downloaded from here.

Update (3/5): NVIDIA has withdrawn the 196.75 WHQL drivers from its website. The company is working to resolve this issue.
Source: inc gamers
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47 Comments on GeForce 196.75 Drivers Overheat GPUs on Some Applications

#1
SetsunaFZero
i had that prob with the beta driver 196.62. Installing EVGA Precision1.9 fixed it for my some how :/
Posted on Reply
#2
Cleorina
I did have prob with this driver with my GTX260... all my game have the same prob but not make my card run hot...
Posted on Reply
#3
Animalpak
World of Warcraft community is huge
Posted on Reply
#4
HASAN516
yes there is graphic card over heating issues in my GTX275, i am using riva tuner to manually control my card fan speed in crysis and HAWX, plus some additional 120mm fans to ventilate it even more:)
Posted on Reply
#5
SetsunaFZero
HASAN516..., plus some additional 120mm fans to ventilate it even more:)
wtf man oO additional 120mm fans lawoot. clean ur case, gpu- and cpu cooler get ride of an wire mess in ur case for better air flow :toast:

If u set the gpu cooler manually to ~80-90% there shouldn't be any problems. ;)
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#6
KainXS
yea nvidia pulled em, they overheated both my cards in any cuda app for me.
Posted on Reply
#9
Roph


But in all seriousness, this has likely killed some cards out there :(
Posted on Reply
#10
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
The standard drivers let the card run too hot anyway, I wouldn't suggest anyone run a graphics card(ATi or nVidia) without a 3rd party app controlling the fan and ramping fan speed up.
Posted on Reply
#11
phanbuey
glad my stock coolers are in a landfill somewhere... to be there for all eternity. Or at least until it decomposes... the copper is probably well on the way... but the plastic shroud along with that stupid sticker they put on it will probably be there for a while.
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#12
craigo
I am posting from my toshiba laptop with 8600gt`s in sli...I tried an nforce4 based system with sli in the socket 939 days aswell...what does nvidia offer as a hardware company cause all i see is overheating and raid issues and epic headfuck problems seriously buying anythingb from this company is fail
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#13
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
craigoI am posting from my toshiba laptop with 8600gt`s in sli...I tried an nforce4 based system with sli in the socket 939 days aswell...what does nvidia offer as a hardware company cause all i see is overheating and raid issues and epic headfuck problems seriously buying anythingb from this company is fail
Yes, because nothing ATi has ever released overheats...

At least nVidia's problem is a simple software issue that can easily be fixed, and not a hardware issue...

Oh, and we are all still worried about those horrible RAID issues, from way back in 2004, how was ATi's chipset doing back then...oh they didn't have any...well then...
Posted on Reply
#14
KainXS
its funny how they gather isn't it.
Posted on Reply
#15
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
craigoI am posting from my toshiba laptop with 8600gt`s in sli...I tried an nforce4 based system with sli in the socket 939 days aswell...what does nvidia offer as a hardware company cause all i see is overheating and raid issues and epic headfuck problems seriously buying anythingb from this company is fail
your complaints are not related to this topic, and are therefore offtopic and potentially trolling. Cease this action, please.
Posted on Reply
#16
craigo
sorry mussels, not sure about the latest windows driver but the latest nv graphicics driver is causing xorg issues and making my lappy bootloop...nvidia fail=always relavant

@ newtekie
sorry mate, i expect my hardware and software to work nforce4 broke my views on nvidia bigtime
Posted on Reply
#17
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
craigosorry mussels, not sure about the latest windows driver but the latest nv graphicics driver is causing xorg issues and making my lappy bootloop...nvidia fail=always relavant
This thread is directly about the drivers causing overheating. if you are experiencing that issue or a related one, please tell.

Otherwise, what you are doing is trolling. You have been officially warned by a moderator to stop this - it is not in your best interests to argue.
Posted on Reply
#18
the54thvoid
Intoxicated Moderator
+1 to KainXS.

Yup, I just defended NV on the BSN comments and on that comment thread there was a 480 will kick 5870 remark (way way way off topic).

Techpowerup should start a 'Harmony for gfx users' Forum where adults can discuss NV, ATI and whoever in perfect tech unbiased harmony. I'm getting more than a little queasy with the sheer amount of rampant fanboism from both sides.

On the driver side - any one can screw up. As long as NV renumerate the AIB's for the RMA's - it's cool. But if NV drag their heels then that would be very naughty indeed.
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#19
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
craigo@ newtekie
sorry mate, i expect my hardware and software to work nforce4 broke my views on nvidia bigtime
On issue should not be enough to cause you to completely dislike one company. No one is perfect, and ATi has had their fair share of issues as well, so your comment applies just as much to them.
Posted on Reply
#20
craigo
@ newtek
you are right of course,
but the only other issue i ever had with a company that polarized my outlook so much was HP with the firmware issues on the ml110..completely broke my faith in the company......apologies for the off topic but these are the issues that affect me personally and i find inexcusable so i will never spend money with the companies involved as i find the error inexcusable...other companies such as ATI in the 2900 era (i gather that is your point) i managed to avoid in my personal upgrade cycle
Posted on Reply
#21
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
Big fail with these drivers. These aren't just like those "early" drivers that keep the GPU hot, but that the bug keeps the fan at low speeds even as temperatures cross critical points when these particular apps are running...till you begin to see artifacts, framerate drops, etc (things which happen to overheated GPUs).
Posted on Reply
#22
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
Updated.
Posted on Reply
#23
v12dock
Block Caption of Rainey Street
That explains the stupidly low FPS while I was raiding last night..
Posted on Reply
#24
EarlZ
Good thing im using afterburner's automatic predefined usercontrol fan speed control.. damn thats a long name!
Posted on Reply
#25
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
craigo@ newtek
you are right of course,
but the only other issue i ever had with a company that polarized my outlook so much was HP with the firmware issues on the ml110..completely broke my faith in the company......apologies for the off topic but these are the issues that affect me personally and i find inexcusable so i will never spend money with the companies involved as i find the error inexcusable...other companies such as ATI in the 2900 era (i gather that is your point) i managed to avoid in my personal upgrade cycle
I'm not talking HD2900 era, those cards ran hot but didn't overheat to the point of failure, I'm talking HD4800 era...

And your personal preference is fine, however keep it to yourself, and certainly don't jump on every opertunity to bash the company you get. When you start doing that it goes from having a perference to trolling. Especially when your only beef with the company is some problems with a RAID controller from 2004...
btarunrBig fail with these drivers. These aren't just like those "early" drivers that keep the GPU hot, but that the bug keeps the fan at low speeds even as temperatures cross critical points when these particular apps are running...till you begin to see artifacts, framerate drops, etc (things which happen to overheated GPUs).
What worries me the most is that they are WHQL drivers. If these were beta drivers I'd be more inclined to shrug it off, as we all take chances with beta drivers, but WHQL drivers should not have an issue like this.
Posted on Reply
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