Faulty 8600m GT?

Ok, so after great deliberation, I finally decided to get the Lenovo Ideapad Y510 with the 8600 GT card. So far I couldn't be happier. Great design, amazing feel, and incredible performance, all for an EXTREMELY low price ($764 shipped). The one thing that bothers me though, is the graphics card. I looked at the detailed specs in RivaTuner and GPU-Z and it seems that I have the G84 Revision A2 core. This revision is supposedly among the faulty 8600's. I do know that heat is the primary reason that these chips have been dieing. The temps on mine have been very satisfactory, testing RaceDriver GRID for about 30 minutes, GPU temps peaked at 90C and then settled back down to a healthy 85. This was with the machine on my lap mind you, I could probably get even better temps with it on a desk, let alone a notebook cooler. So, should I be worried about my laptops health? Are these temps sufficient to make the gpu fail? Also, is there any way I could undervolt the gpu in order to get even better temps, and if so, would this compromise performance (no overclock)? I have a one year warranty, and am considering upgrading to a three year warranty later. Does anyone know how quickly the gpu would/could fail? Also, should I upgrade my warranty? I realize this is a lot of questions to ask in one post, and for you guys to answer, so I thank you for your time.

 

Woops I just realized this should be moved to the gaming section. Sorry about that. Can an admin please do this?

 

You should test the temps again on a desk first. If GPU temps are above 75C when idle then there's definitely heat issues going on. Mine is idle around 65~70C usually and peaking at around 80~85C, which should be the norm. Note that this is without a notebook cooler.
You might want to have it checked whilst it's still under warranty. Maybe get the GPU replaced.

 

No no, mine idles at 60C, under full load at ~85, no cooler. I just want to know if the 8600 GT will fail later on, due to the low temp melting silicon. Thanks for your reply though!

 

Shouldn't fail anytime soon, that's from my experience of about 7 months or so.

 

True, but seeing as the 8600s in particular have been known to fail quickly due to bad manufacturing, I want to make sure that it will actually last.

 

As long as the temps don't seem dangerous, then there's nothing to worry about. Besides, only a small percentage of the cards actually fail. BTW mine's also the G84 Revision A2.

 

Thanks for that, I am now much less worried. I still think I will spring for the extra 3 year warranty though, just to be on the safe side.

 

ehm...

The problem is temperature changes, the die expands at different rates, and then cracks, as laptops change the power supplied to the GPU more often, temperature fluctuates more often, thus laptop GPUs are under a higher stress level than desktop GPUs and more likely to fail.

A small percentage? I see the opposite. There were significant failures amongst Dells I believe - or do you refer to this particular card?
A lot of these Chips have failed in the Sony FZ - however hardly any in the SZ.

i.e. failure rate depends also on heat management and user pattern.

Technically any GPU with the G84 build and A2 revision is affected - some will die sooner, some later.

 

So then what would be the minimum time I would have? And also the maximum? Is there anything I can do to increase the time?

 

You can't put a timeframe on it.

Most Dells have failed in a few months I believe.

Most Sony FZs have lasted a little over a year.

What you can do to extend your cards life - don't take this as necessarily ideal, but I supsect good cooling - i.e. notebook cooler, clean vents and no graphics demanding tasks should extend its life.

Ask aroud in the Lenovo forum if anybody experienced any failures yet.

 

Eek @ a few months and just a little less Eek @ a little over a year! In any case, thanks for your help.

 

Hey! how do you know revision A2 is the faulty one? what is the revision they fixed?

 

I believe it is Revision A3, which is still extremely rare. I could be wrong though.

 

expand your warranty to 3years if possible.
Otherwise you are definitely risking it with this GPU core.

 

Read the thread in the Sony forum - lots of useful links - also, broken FZs.

That is good advice - possibly the best really.

 

hey DetlevCM can u paste the link for the sony threads? i just got my motherboard replaced today..... im getting the same temps in front of the technician, but they only sent a new motherboards, no new heatsink and no thermal paste, and there is no thermal paste in the gpu... so they are sending new heatsink, thermal paste, and new mobo just to make sure, so i hope this is fixed, dell is shipping the parts, and will arrive tomorrow since i have premium support for xps, and maybe tomorrow i can get this all done!... i ll let u know how it goes! this mobo gpu revision is A2... he said thep problem is fixed...

 

Problem fixed - far from it...

Here is the Sony thread:
(Very well done by the way)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=268277

 

Don't worry, you have another 11 months before it fails

 

Depends on the laptop model and make.

 

if something like that happens to me, like the gpu failing just after warrantly expires, im gonna go against dell with all these, blogs, before i bought this laptop i talked to several dell technician and i have logged all conversations saying the problem is fixed, the extra year warrantly they published in thir blog for affected systems.... i mean if my warrantly expires and something like the screen, hard drive... gets faulty.. its ok... but if it is the video card.. they gotta do something with all the prove of the problem and all that they said about being fixed.... i dont think all of this nvidia chips are faulty... im amazed how important is the thermal paste, in my desktop wich has 8 years working non-stop, dont have any thermal paste, and have great temps. under load... and this system doesnt have thermal paste in nvidia chip, and will get to boil water if i wanted....