Chipped GPU die corners.

As I was repasting my m6000 today I noticed one of the corners of the GPU die was slightly chipped. Using a magnifying glass I confirmed that it is indeed a tiny chip on one of the corners of the die. I then looked at my other cards and guess what? They all have the same exact chips in the same exact corner . Three different cards (Nvidia Geforce 460m GTX, 240m GT, and AMD Firepro m6000) and they all work perfectly fine, but all of them have this chip. I remember my 460m had this chip for years, way before I started playing around with modded x-brackets and different size thermal pads, so I suspect this has something to do with the heatsink applying uneven pressure to the die. Apparently more (or too much) pressure gets applied to the portion where the chip occurs.

Anyone care to look at their cards, or any cards you have since replaced but still have in your possession?

BTW, the chip occurs in the outlined are of the pic attached.

 

Picture of the actual chip please?

 

Just started getting artifacts on my 7970m again. I had this happen about a month ago, but I then repasted and they went away. Now they are back and it seems like they're for good. I tried the card on my 2nd M15X and it's doing the same thing (lines across the screen before Windows loads). I inspected the card and guess what, that card has a cracked die as well except the crack seems to have spread further than my other cards. I thought the artifacts were due to overheating or a cracked solder joint in the BGA array but now I'm thinking that some damage may have been done on the die itself.

The second pic is of my 240m GT. That chipped corner is not as severe and the card works fine. My m6000 has a similar sized chipped corner as the 240m and that card works fine and overclocks well. My 460m has a bigger crack and when I take a look with a magnifying glass I can actually see what appears to be an exposed copper trace wire in the die. That card works fine too and I noticed this chip years ago and thought nothing of it because the card works to this day, and I've gamed on it for a while now with no issues.

Gofspar on the 7870m thread also reported a chipped corner. I think his card is dead though.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/m6000-7870m-gpu-thread.785735/page-7

 

I had my hd 6850 died because of chipped GPU core. It's the worst possibility when replacing the GPU's thermal paste and heatsink because if you're lucky, your cards can perform well for an amount of time before they get artifact and die, if you're unlucky, your cards die immediately after they've been chipped. This kind of problem is very common in Vietnam, both for GPUs and mobile CPUs so we're expected to be very careful when replacing the thermal paste or heatsink for the GPU, especially AMD's desktop GPUs and all mobile GPUs and CPUs because they don't have the core's protector like what desktop GPUs and nVidia Desktop GPUs have.

 

no gpu comes with an IHS anymore

 

oh, maybe i missed that out, thanks

 

Even if they did, I bet most of us would de-lid them anyway

 

yep