What a sickner for Nvidia and its partners

TheThreeDegrees

As some of you may have read my various posts regarding an 8800GT I bought recently,well today it came down to the acid test.

Just to recap the issue I was experiencing was that the 8800GT (€259) and Zotac claimed that its card was a single cable solution for DVI to HDMI for output to HDMI capable televisions etc.It was written all over the box and there are numerous websites promoting and marketing this feature.This is indeed bull**** at the highest level.

After almost 10 days of trouble-shooting and a nerve wrecking experience I returned the card for a full refund.

Instead I opted for an ATI EAH3650 (€89)which does not claim to do sound over HDMI.
And guess what?
It worked straight out of the box!And better still I am getting FULL HD video and sound straight from the graphic card.

So I will advise you all before you splash out your hard earned cash on the Nvidia "marketing machine",BEWARE!

yoyo

Are you sure its nvidia thats at fault and not Zotac, the ATIs do seem the biz for this kinda connecting alrite, but I dont think its fair to blame nvidia as zotacs cables supplied could have been incorrect or an actual fault with that particular card

Nick

TheThreeDegrees

nope not pointing the finger but nvidia shared its design with this company.

but I will be sending an email to Zotac as its blatantly obvious that they are milking the Nvidia machine worse than the others.

Luckily I bought this card local but if I had bought it online and the HDMI feature was important to me well i'd be truly pissed off.

I have to say lads paying over €200 for any GT is madness or desperation.I fell victim to it.
It plays games rather well but thats it.
You dont get all the extra features but then hardcore gamers dont care about the features do they?

AlmightyCushion

TheThreeDegrees wrote: »

It plays games rather well but thats it.

Isn't that what a graphics card meant to do. That's like saying that a car is great for driving from A to B but can't fly for shít.

TheThreeDegrees

yes thats right the Zotac claimed it could go from A to B and also claimed it could fly for a princely sum of 260 euro.but it never took off.

the ATI on the other hand did not claim it could fly but it did!for the meagre sum of 89 euro.

mathias

Now to be fair , this is a single faulty card were talking about here , not false advertising ,

I have installed many HDMI graphics cards lately , both nvidia and ati and they all worked, there are bound to be some faulty ones , its just unfortunate that you got one , its nothing to do with false advertising.

I installed a brand new 8800GT in my own HTPC last friday , it works fine , sound and all.

By the way , HD is 720 vertical lines or better , graphics cards have been there for a decade or more ... theres nothing special about that.

Also the 3650 is a low end budget card , ideal for HTPC's ( home theatre where you just intend to play movies and such on your HDTV ) , there are many nvidia equivalents , such as the 8500 /8600 and so on , many of which support sound over HDMI.

The 8800GT that you exchanged is a different animal altogether, currently sitting near the top of the mid to high end graphics intensive gaming market. It was always overkill for just playin movies anyway if that was your sole purpose for buying it. If however , you want to play games on your HDTV well thats another matter. Its ATI equivalent would be the 3850/70 and is a similar price.

TheThreeDegrees

this is where i'm coming from.

My purchases for my recent build:

Q6600 €210 "exceeeding expectations"
Ballistik PC8500 €100 "exceeding expectations"
Ix38 AbitGT €210 "exceeding expectations"
Silverstone Olyimpia 850W €160 "exceeding expectations"
Zalman CNPs 9000 cooler "exceeding expectations"

One Zotac 8800GT €260 ---THE MOST EXPENSIVE COMPONENT
Overheats my case becuase of air exhaust(and this is common on all GT's)
noisey fan
some lock ups during game play "NFS pro street"with just some basic AA.
False and mis-leading information claiming to provide sound from DVI/HDMI(supposedly just in my scenario)

do I have a right to be pissed?
am I being harsh or unrealistic to say that we are being rode by Nvidia and Co?
why is it all the other components can do their job extremely well and all work together?
I dunno lads but I'm begining to smell the coffee on this whole Nvidia graphic card experience.

mathias

do I have a right to be pissed?

Indeed you do , and so would anybody I believe.

am I being harsh or unrealistic to say that we are being rode by Nvidia and Co?

I think you are being a little harsh yes , these cards ( 8800 ) are top gaming cards and do run hot , but a little research would have told you that. Most people are happy enough with them. Faulty parts do happen , its unfortunate you got one but there it is! The tagged on sound for HDMI does work , it works on mine , as it does on most , yours was faulty , fair enough , but its not a universal problem with those cards , the vast majority work fine.

why is it all the other components can do their job extremely well and all work together?

The vast majority of computer parts generally do , I have a 35K spending history with computer parts on the net , and Ive only ever gotten 2 bad parts , one was a motherboard and the other was a hard drive.

I dunno lads but I'm begining to smell the coffee on this whole Nvidia graphic card experience.

Again , calling international fraud on Nvidias part because you got a bad one is a bit extreme , there are only two major graphics card manufacturers and lots of happy customers. Nvidia still lead the pack when it comes to performance and with the imminent arrival of the 9 series look set to continue that way , I think they make very good products , again its unfortunate what happened to you but its not unusual and also not that common either.

mathias

On a side note :

Overheats my case becuase of air exhaust(and this is common on all GT's)
noisey fan

This one has an exhaust out the back of the case and is whisper quiet ,
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=344052

I got mine last week , now Im playing Crysis on a 90 inch projector screen , Im very very happy with it.

The cooling solution depends on the card manufacturer usually ,they take the reference design and do what they do to it , some add HDMI sound , some TV out , some Vivo , and so on , and they can all be quite different when it comes to cooling , some are very noisy , some a very quiet , some people remove stock cooling and install water coolers and so on.

In all cases the latest and greatest graphics cards are very expensive , if you want state of the art graphics then its going to cost a minimum of approx 300 -500. Sometimes even more , in most cases , the graphics card will be the most expensive part in an avid gamers PC , its usually the part that runs second hottest as well , with the processor being the hottest.

TheThreeDegrees

yes you know I'm taking the mickey out of nvidia dont ye?!:)

It is a good thing that they do but some manufacturers are xploiting this fact.

Roll on 9 series and lets see what you can do!

Me i'm gonna try get me maulers on a 3870x2 and play with it for a while.
Not cheap though:(