Radeon reference design 6970/6950 failure!

[Zubasa]

My only concern (as Thatguy mentioned) would be an electrical short if one of the pins somehow touched the metal cooler. Or if someone touched the metal cooler while the system was on (which was accidentally touching a metal pin from the 8 pin connector). That would then make the user part of the electrical circuit involving over 20 amperes of current.

The thing is that part of the cooler is plastic
That 8-pin socket is just slightly reduced to clear the fan.

With the pins exposed on all cards like they are, that bit of plastic would not make a difference anyway.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Still, its manually done.. and anything manual = high rate of failure. You dont see any indicication or markers as to up to where the assembler should melt the plastic.. its all done in the assembler's own judjement. And we dont know how manufacturers QA their cards, they might be just booting it up, and see if its displaying stuff, and then pass it.

Not having enough plastic shaved off from that pci-ex socket might have seating issues.

 

[Zubasa]

Still, its manually done.. and anything manual = high rate of failure. And we dont know how manufacturers QA their cards, they might be just booting it up, and see if its displaying stuff, and then pass it.

Not having enough plastic shaved off from that pci-ex socket might have seating issues.

Then that is the manufacturer's responsibility.
That is the reason we don't buy crappy brands.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

That is the reason we don't buy crappy brands.

Sadly, not all people are aware of brands etc. Most rich blokes, just buy anything that is with a shiny box, and whatever the sales person tell them. Heck even gigabyte hardware fails..

What im pointing out is this method just adds to that hardware failure probability.. regardless of whether its nvidia, ati, S3 or whatever.

 

[pantherx12]

I'm not even remotely fussed by this, has anyone ever opened up a piece of electronics your not supposed to open up? compared to the shit solder jobs and wires freaken everywhere I see in tvs and monitors this is "meh" at best lol

If anything kudos for AMD for relising the only people that will see this have already voided their warrantys and that this really really doesn;t matter unless someones a fussy dick lol

 

[Melvis]

Meh, no big deal, move on people

 

[Widjaja]

Ooooohhh AMD cutting corners!

Couldn't resist -_-"

 

[claylomax]

What's wrong with having a hand-crafted video card? http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=263668

 

[EastCoasthandle]

The modification to the power connector seen on some Radeon HD 6900 series cards was a conscious development decision. The reference boards use both fan and heatsink designs from multiple vendors and it was discovered some material produced on initial designs required adjustment. As a result we modified the PCIe power connector for a very small number of boards using affected components, which were mostly used for samples, as the most time and cost efficient solution to bringing the product to market in volume. This minor modification to the connector in no way affects the operation of the card and our partners have designed solutions which do not require this modification.

source

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

to be honest i could care less in xfire ill get 580 sli performance for cheaper and ive done far more dangerous things with electronics then a simple shave off some plastic... people need to get a grip.

seriously how is this any worse then halfassing an aftermarket cooler onto something it wasnt intended for and then zip tying fans to etc?? oh well people make mountains out of mole hills all the time, now if only they would jump off said mountain so the rest of the world can move on without there ignorance.

 

[Steevo]

This is not that surprising. Being first to market a new product at this time of year is fairly critical. The next batch will no doubt have a new replacement mold for the plastic sheathe of the effected 8 pin connector so that the cooler fits with no problems.

They had a choice between putting all of these cards back on the shelf and then replacing that connector on each card, or taking a short cut, allowing the cards to get to the market when they were supposed to.

My only concern (as Thatguy mentioned) would be an electrical short if one of the pins somehow touched the metal cooler. Or if someone touched the metal cooler while the system was on (which was accidentally touching a metal pin from the 8 pin connector). That would then make the user part of the electrical circuit involving over 20 amperes of current.

However, that would definitely make AMD's cards the most exciting video cards in the world. No contest.

20 amps at what voltage? I touch the positive side of large batteries when removing the posts with my BEAR BARE SKIN!! (1400 amps 12v) and touch the metal bodies of the systems they are installed in, and I'm dead not dead.

 

[Thatguy]

20 amps at what voltage? I touch the positive side of large batteries when removing the posts with my BEAR BARE SKIN!! (1400 amps 12v) and touch the metal bodies of the systems they are installed in, and I'm dead not dead.

the impednace of the human body is measured in kilo ohms. this means that at such a low voltage over a distance of more then a few inchs, the human body simply isn't conductive enough to low voltage DC current.

 

[pr0n Inspector]

20 amps at what voltage? I touch the positive side of large batteries when removing the posts with my BEAR BARE SKIN!! (1400 amps 12v) and touch the metal bodies of the systems they are installed in, and I'm dead not dead.

But of course it won't cause a short either since it's just a small corner.

What is funny though is that this is very likely the real reason behind the delay, not the "OMG GTX580 pops out of nowhere now we gotta delay the release even though there's nothing could be done at this point" BS.

 

[claylomax]

If this had happened with Nvidia it would have been posted on the TPU home page. LOL

 

[micropage7]

i guess its the another reason to wait for custom board layout and hope it wont end like that
btw: ATi has a nice design, i hope it would be like that

 

[RejZoR]

That's not the case. Someone designed a reference cooler that didn't fit on the card.
IMO this IS fail.

Well, at least they weren't using wood screws to tighten the cooler on them like NVIDIA did

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Well, at least they weren't using wood screws to tighten the cooler on them like NVIDIA did

Last time I told that in a humorous manner, I got an infraction from Sneekypeet

 

[Mistral]

Not to hijack the thread or anything but...

If you look at the 6950's PCB and the 6970's PCB, they look more or less identical, with the 6950's actually having some extra components.

What are those?

 

[Magikherbs]

Where are the heat pipes ! lol.. Is that really just a copper plate with no pipes ? A better HSF would bring temps down and no doubt improve performance.

 

[claylomax]

Last time I told that in a humorous manner, I got an infraction from Sneekypeet

Really? Now that's surprising this being TPU . . .

 

[wolf]

Where are the heat pipes ! lol.. Is that really just a copper plate with no pipes ? A better HSF would bring temps down and no doubt improve performance.

I believe it's a vapor chamber cooler, eliminating the need for heatpipes essentially.

 

[Magikherbs]

I believe it's a vapor chamber cooler, eliminating the need for heatpipes essentially.

I'm sure XfX and others are way ahead of me on that one. A dual fan design like the Asus HD 4890 would bee nice lol ...

 

[DarthElvis]

Crap site. Judging from the comments there, morons read it. Not a big deal. Only failure is the article author.

 

[wolf]

I'm sure XfX and others are way ahead of me on that one. A dual fan design like the Asus HD 4890 would bee nice lol ...

I don't think we'll see reference design coolers like that for a long time. what AMD and indeed Nvidia try to achieve is something as quiet as possible, as effective as possible, for the least price, so that they have more room to profit or move on the price of their cards if price-cuts need to come.

start throwing really effective high end air coolers on reference cards and the price will go up. they could just have their stock coolers bought from a company like say Arctic cooling, but I bet they make more money themselves selling them separately.

 

[slyfox2151]

Ooooohhh AMD cutting corners!

Couldn't resist -_-"

lol that comment made my day.