Another 7900gt Problem

I on my 3rd RMA with these POS cards, and I need some input from you guys. The first card took about 3 months to artifact and it got progressively worse. MY second card started to artifact the next day I got it. Mind you once the artifacting starts it only gets worse with time, until I can't even access 3D apps. I have volt modded (1.4 volts) these cards and are wondering if that could be the culprit? I run a Arctic Silencer 5 and an extra 80mm fan on the back of the PCB (over the mem. regulator) and my load temps stay in the 60s. I am scared to volt mod my 3rd card when I get it, but I don't want to stay at stock speeds of 550MHz and 1630MHz. Did I just have bad luck, or should I stay away from volt modding it and cranking the core to between 650-700MHz?

I would go for the last option, it could be that those 2 previous cards were duds, but just to prevent it from happening again, i would go by normal oc, and not voltmodding.

Well yea a volt mod could do that...

What I don't understand is that the 7900gtx utilizes 1.4V on the core because it has a better cooler and yet it works fine. With my Arctic Silencer 5 I get really good temps (35C idle and 67C max load). Others put 1.55v volts on air with these 7900GTs and don't have these problems.

tranceaddict said:

What I don't understand is that the 7900gtx utilizes 1.4V on the core because it has a better cooler and yet it works fine. With my Arctic Silencer 5 I get really good temps (35C idle and 67C max load).

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A 7900GT is not a 7900GTX. They share the same core, but they are physically different. And Nvidia probably had a reason for making the GTX sooo big, and the GT smaller (probably can't handle such high speeds)

Others put 1.55v volts on air with these 7900GTs and don't have these problems.

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Doesn't mean they won't have a problem tomorrow.

dan