http://www.pcekspert.com/articles/127-1.html

Screensaver of Death

Set up the screensaver to turn on itself after 1 minute, so you don’t have to wait too long. After the screensaver starts, you’ll hear the fan on the GF FX 5800 Ultra start spinning. Just wait around 5-10 secs and you’ll hear the fan stop! The 3D screensaver will continue playing on the screen, and after some time (depending on the screensaver) you’ll start seeing artifacts, or in the case of DiveVisions, the screen will look like the monitor was having some interference from a strong magnetic source. You can leave the screensaver running as long as you feel its safe, but don’t overdo it. We tried this around 10 times and were cautious enough not to let it run to long, as the temperature on the card, according to the drivers, reached 95-100C.

Wow... thats incredible.
So you go out and buy this expensive card.
Set it up. Run some tests... go out and buy some ear defenders.
Come back set your PC up and then leave it for a couple of hours...
Screensaver comes on and your card burns up..
LOL Nice one Nvidia :p

Could be costly for nVidia if they had to replace burned out cards. Its a bad idea to rely on software to control card cooling, but at least its easy to fix with a patch. Another good reason to get a good passive cooler like the Zalman ZM80A-HP fitted since you get low noise and excellent cooling and the added protection that your card is ok even if the fan fails (there is no fan!).

So now the Geforce FX Series has the following disadvantages:-

- Overpriced
- Underperforming
- Hair Dryer / vacuum Cleaner Fan
- Overheating on screensavers

and now EA have been partnered with NVIDIA, all their games will be optimised for these cards.

What annoys me most is that EA apparently have the license for Half Life 2, which they will inevitably optimise for NVIDIA cards, so us ATi owners will probably miss out.:(

Well, I'm not too sure about EA & HL2...
There's been a couple of (semi) interesting thread about it over @ Beyond3D (3D companies forum)...

What most people agree on is that people who own nvidia card will most likely get some more eyecandy than the rest of us, but the games will still play on other IHV's cards...

And if enough consumers get pissed off at this, they'll most likely add the same features for us... (Kinda like NWN's shiny water....)

If a screen saver kills this thing, what do games do to it? :o

Rick, I think this is only an error when screensavers are involved; the fan activates to 3D mode and then goes back to normal therefore leaving the FX working but not getting cooled when screensavers are being used. Whereas in games, the FX Flow will stay in 3D mode. This is probably just a driver error, and will be easily fixed with a patch or in the next Dets. I would just like to point out that I am a fan of NVIDIA’s work, but am strongly against the FX FLOW hair dryer.

It's kind of silly to give fan control through drivers, rather than a temperature sensor or something hardware based.

guess it's a good thing the ultra's were in short supply there are lots of people that leave their computers running all the time. I know I for one would be extremetly upset to wake up and find my card fried.

The swedish chef cooks fried FX

Firsta you taka the fx thena you adda the screensaver.........:D

HIGHLY second that Tim.Im using Winbond Hardware doctor for a heat activated alarm,but I dont trust it to shutdown.Also another reason that I dont leave my PC on 24/7.

now thats fuuny! apartently - i dont know where i read this - but the reason the Geforce FX 5800 (NOT the 5900) sounds like someone cutting up a filling cabinet with a chainsaw is because that wonderful daglow plastic case on the fan TOUCHES THE FAN!!!! wonderful piece on engineering there. the 5900 has been redesigned and looks just like the geforce 4 fan - except twice the size

Steg