EVGA release patch to stop Nvidia 10-series cards from going up in flames

midian182

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Last month, users of EVGA’s GTX 1060, 1070, and 1080 graphics cards reported that the GPUs were overheating so much that some of them caught fire. The company has now issued a VBIOS update that it hopes will solve the problem.

Both Reddit and EVGA’s forums have been inundated with complaints from users of the affected cards, who report that their PCs are suddenly switching off as the GPU temperatures reach excessively high levels. In some cases, cards would emit smoke and shoot out flames. Tom’s Hardware Germany found that one GTX 1080 reached 114 degrees Celsius (237 degrees Fahrenheit) when running the FurMark stress test.

Here’s a list of all affected cards.

It was discovered that the problem lies with the cards’ voltage regulation modules (VRM) overheating due to the insufficient cooling coming from EVGA’s custom ACX 3.0 cooler. The company’s video BIOS update will increase the default fan speeds to reduce the VRM temperatures.

“This update resolves the potential thermal issues that have been reported, and ensures the card maintains safe operating temperatures,” said EVGA. Every one of its cards shipped after November 1 runs the updated VBIOS by default.

EVGA is also installing VRM thermal pads in all its new GPUs and is offering 10-series owners free thermal pad kits from its website. If you don’t want to install the thermal mod yourself, just send the card to EVGA and the company will do it for you.

For those who would prefer a brand new card, EVGA says it will honor its full warranty on the affected GPUs. Its Standard Cross-Ship RMA means users will receive a new card before returning the defective one. You are required to pay the full cost of the replacement, but this is refunded shortly after EVGA receives your old GPU.

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Damn, I'd be annoyed if I'd bought a 1080 and it burst into flames.

I wonder if it's the VRM's are low quality or if the cooling system ACX 3.0 is just inadequate? Hence the fix of "speed up the fans, that'll just keep it from catching fire".

Either way, nice to see EVGA jumping on this and offering software fixes, Thermal Pads and even full replacements. I've never heard anyone (here in the UK at least) have a particularly bad experience with EVGA's Warranty process.
 
I honestly have never liked EVGA's ACX coolers. That's why when I upgraded to two 970's in SLI (from two EVGA 670's) I decided to go with the somewhat rare Nvidia branded 970's that use the same exact vapor chamber cooler used on the reference 980. These 970's run cooler than ANY card's I've ever owned and I've owned nearly every single flagship since G80 (8800 GTX) was launched. I had ALWAYS stuck with EVGA but I believe they only put their best work into their insanely expensive Classified series GPUs now, which are awesome of course. But anything under the Classified series just doesn't satisfy me anymore.
 
I wonder if it's the VRM's are low quality or if the cooling system ACX 3.0 is just inadequate? Hence the fix of "speed up the fans, that'll just keep it from catching fire".
Ramping up the fans may take the edge off VRM temps, but there's no question EVGA coolers that contact only the GPU (but not VRAM or VRM) are to blame. Toms Hardware's thermal imaging photo's show the issue even on lower powered GTX 1060's where some of the EVGA's VRM's underneath ACX coolers are running up to 35c hotter than same card under MSI's Twin Frozr:-

EVGA GTX 1060, 119c VRM:-
http://media.bestofmicro.com/G/Q/609722/original/03-IR-Furmark.png

MSI GTX 1060, 84c VRM:-
http://media.bestofmicro.com/4/B/596315/gallery/02-IR-Furmark_w_727.png

The end result for some is not pretty:-
http://forums.evga.com/EVGA-GTX-1060-6GB-ACX-20-blew-up-and-caught-fire-m2568927.aspx

And remember, the above shots are from just the 120w cards...
 
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I wonder if it's the VRM's are low quality or if the cooling system ACX 3.0 is just inadequate? Hence the fix of "speed up the fans, that'll just keep it from catching fire".
Ramping up the fans may take the edge off VRM temps, but there's no question EVGA coolers that contact only the GPU (but not VRAM or VRM) are to blame. Toms Hardware's thermal imaging photo's show the issue even on lower powered GTX 1060's where some of the EVGA's VRM's underneath ACX coolers are running up to 35c hotter than same card under MSI's Twin Frozr:-

EVGA GTX 1060, 119c VRM:-
http://media.bestofmicro.com/G/Q/609722/original/03-IR-Furmark.png

MSI GTX 1060, 84c VRM:-
http://media.bestofmicro.com/4/B/596315/gallery/02-IR-Furmark_w_727.png

The end result for some is not pretty:-
http://forums.evga.com/EVGA-GTX-1060-6GB-ACX-20-blew-up-and-caught-fire-m2568927.aspx

And remember, the above shots are from just the 120w cards...
Wow...

I've always had a lot of respect for EVGA, they are the only GPU company I'm aware of that have a Warranty that works even if you're the second owner of the card or if you've had it in a water cooling loop.
You would have thought with such a good rep and warranty that the cards would be absolutely rock solid. Here in the UK at least, EVGA cards are among the more expensive of the bunch as well.
 
Damn, I'd be annoyed if I'd bought a 1080 and it burst into flames.

I wonder if it's the VRM's are low quality or if the cooling system ACX 3.0 is just inadequate? Hence the fix of "speed up the fans, that'll just keep it from catching fire".

Either way, nice to see EVGA jumping on this and offering software fixes, Thermal Pads and even full replacements. I've never heard anyone (here in the UK at least) have a particularly bad experience with EVGA's Warranty process.
I think it just shows that they've been going downhill over time. Thing is, the cards should've been built with this usage in mind--even though few people will push their cards like this, you don't build it cheaper and assume no one will run into that situation. It's good they are making up for their mistakes though.

But yeah, their warranty process was smooth when I went through it years ago. Kept me updated and what not, but wasn't happy they charge extra for cross-shipment; OCZ for instance doesn't. I stopped buying their stuff anyways back when they accused me of stealing hundreds of promotional codes from their website. Asked them to provide me something so I could refute it, but they never would. Then the moment I said I'd be forwarding out conversation and their attempt in breach of warranty/false claims to the Connecticut Attorney General, and take them to court, they instantly treated me like a #1 customer again and acted like nothing ever happened.
 
There's absolutely nothing wrong with the ACX 3 coolers and it seems to be more prevalent on FTW and higher clocked cards. Installing the new BIOS is only part of the solution, it just ramps up the fan speeds slightly. The real fix is to apply thermal pads to the VRM's which is an easy fix for people who aren't too chicken to remove the cooler, clean then reapply thermal glop to the GPU.
 
There's absolutely nothing wrong with the ACX 3 coolers and it seems to be more prevalent on FTW and higher clocked cards. Installing the new BIOS is only part of the solution, it just ramps up the fan speeds slightly. The real fix is to apply thermal pads to the VRM's which is an easy fix for people who aren't too chicken to remove the cooler, clean then reapply thermal glop to the GPU.
so there is nothing wrong with a cooler, you just have to add pads so the cooler actually touches the VRMs? That makes no sense.

The ACX 3.0 doesnt touch the VRMs directly, and this is a design flaw. Especially on higher wattage cards, but even lower wattage models should have SOMETHING. We tear apart mobos that claim to support 125 watt CPUs but use a 4+1 phase VRM with no cooling, because they have a tendency to overheat. GPUs are no different.

On a $700+ card, not having VRM cooling is rediculous.
 
Hmmm I remember a certain user bragging about only using EVGA branded cards and touting them as being the best available and would refuse to use any other brand, also being upset that the Titan X wasn't available through EVGA... Seems like quite the contrary now, quality wise at least, it's more than impressive that they are offering such a rock solid customer support program for the afflicted GPUs however. But in this day and age you absolutely have to, otherwise the bad reputation spreads like wildfire and if no time you can go from being one of the top producer of smart phones, eh I mean GPUs, to barely a blip on the radar.
 
And this is part of the reason I don't overclock or screw with my product in any way to get results that haven't been properly tested and certified.

I demand warranties.
 
so there is nothing wrong with a cooler, you just have to add pads so the cooler actually touches the VRMs? That makes no sense.

The ACX 3.0 doesnt touch the VRMs directly, and this is a design flaw. Especially on higher wattage cards, but even lower wattage models should have SOMETHING. We tear apart mobos that claim to support 125 watt CPUs but use a 4+1 phase VRM with no cooling, because they have a tendency to overheat. GPUs are no different.

On a $700+ card, not having VRM cooling is rediculous.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the cooler, apart from the cheesy multi coloured LED's that is. They just forgot to check that thermal pads were attached to the VRM's at QC.
 
so there is nothing wrong with a cooler, you just have to add pads so the cooler actually touches the VRMs? That makes no sense.

The ACX 3.0 doesnt touch the VRMs directly, and this is a design flaw. Especially on higher wattage cards, but even lower wattage models should have SOMETHING. We tear apart mobos that claim to support 125 watt CPUs but use a 4+1 phase VRM with no cooling, because they have a tendency to overheat. GPUs are no different.

On a $700+ card, not having VRM cooling is rediculous.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the cooler, apart from the cheesy multi coloured LED's that is. They just forgot to check that thermal pads were attached to the VRM's at QC.
Seems more likely, to me, from the number of model numbers included that they "forgot" to include them during the design phase as a cost cutting measure.
 
EVGA was certainly hoping no one notice the absence of cooling material. They're not stupid. They knew they were not adding cooling pads to the cards. It was also most certainly an executive decision to let them out the door that way. I've worked in production plants before, I know how thing are working the lines.
 
Glad I caught this in time. Was literally about to order an EVGA 1080. Not sure which brand il take now, game rock any good does anyone know?
 
I have had nothing but nice things to say about EVGA since buying my 980ti through them and using step-up to get the 1080 SC. I will be contacting them on Monday about getting a replacement if the replacements are shipping with the VRAM heat spreaders already applied now.

As said above, that is really poor QC to let that many product lines leave the factory.
 
Did they not test the cards or something? This doesn't seem to be an isolated problem, so what gives? Especially on 1060's, they can't be that hard to cool lol.
 
As Dan Forden would say: TOASTY!

EVGA are really good guys, but I ditched them in favor of MSI a couple of GPU generations ago and haven't looked back. They screwed up their software, their cooling solutions became WAY too noisy and they made getting free games only work when you bought the cards directly from them.

And now their VRMs are frying and the solution is more noise... great.
 
Yeah, it was a bad slip up but these things happen, just ask Samsung.
I still think Apple cut the Note 7's charging circuit designer a check to put all 11 of his kids through college, and possibly grad school as well.

In other news, I bought an EVGA GT-750 ti for my "best" i3 rig, just so I could feel I owned a "real computer", and deserve to be a Techspot member.

That being said, I think I'll join the lynching. "Those damned Nvidia GPU's certainly have gone to hell in a hand basket since I bought my 750! :mad:
 
The photo shows a Sound Blaster card catching on fire. Is this some kind of Photoshopped click bait? Perhaps the author could explain?
 
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