8600GT Failures - any hard evidence?

I have seen reports but no actual numbers with cards failing. This card has been out for quite a LOOOONG time and I am wondering how many of you have returned your XPS 1530 for this card failure.

This card is used in a LOT of machines including the Apple Macbook Pro.

Does the card fail just in games or in normal use - or is it game dependent?

I have ordered the XPS 1530 and it comes with this card. I plan to play some games. I could not wait several months for the new GPU because I need to prep lessons on it to be ready for September 1.

I could dump the XPS and buy an ACER 6920 series Gemstone which comes with the 9500GS card but a T5750 processor instead of T8300 in the Dell.

The national inquirer is not a credible source. Is there something with actual percentages of machine failures like 90% of all machines on the planet with an 8600GT card fails within a year from a credible source like PC Review or even CNET?

 

The card has only been out on the market for a year. That is not a long time. Issues like minor overheating take years to manifest.

 

So far Ive heard a lot of complaints about nvidia but not too much ppl saying their's went bad so idk

 

if you want to play it safe get a sager NP2096. It should be within the budget of you XPS and perform better. It will come with a 9600 GT and one of the best cooling systems out there so no need to worry about it burning up, and it comes with new montevina based processors.

 

Sager does not have global support and I will be teaching in China. I am in Canada and didn't want to deal with the cross border issues.

I bought the 3 year return to depot warranty and I'll bring my 4 year old trouble free HP 1040 laptop with me as a back up.

Presumable if in a year's time the 8600 card fails and they know it's a problem then Dell would simply replace it with the 9600 card. But knowing most business practices I don;t hold high hopes for "good business" practices especially from U.S. companies that only look at the next quarter rather than long term customer satisfaction. We'll see - I think I get some sort of trial period with the Dell.

 

Look of the sager isn't as good as the Dell either.

There really isn't any hard evidence really. Yes there have been people who received defective graphics cards, but nothing that a replacement didn't take care of. My advice to people who receive their units is to play Assasins Creed at max settings and play for a long duration even if you are not a gamer, just to test out the graphics card. If you are getting a lower framerate than usual, it probably has the problem.

Nvidia have said they have a small handful of gfx cards that have the overheating issue, BUT it is by no means a design flaw. it is simply a problem with the manufacturing process. If it really was a design flaw or something that was really a widespread issue, which Nvidia claims it isn't, then Dell would mostly likely have removed the 8600GT as an option just because it would save them more money than having to deal with a bunch of angry consumers because their gfx breaks down despite knowing for a fact there was a problem with the 8600GT card itself.

Personally I've had no problems gaming at great settings and a few friends of mine who were early adopters of the M1530 have also had no problems whatsoever with overheating of any kind. The key is to do gaming/testing early on so that if there is a problem, you can get it replaced.

Warranty is nice, but the fact is you will still be receiving a refurbished laptop. I have a feeling this has been blown out of proportion.

Dell released a bios update to address it, but only for the small handful of affected users with the 8600M GT, though for those with no problems with their existing card, all it does is help make it cooler than it already is, so it is not a bad thing to update that bios.

 

In life, nothing is safe.

I could get electrocuted to death by the lamp on the floor, because i just spilled water there. I could get run over getting the newspaper. I could get savagely raped by a robber during the night.

Nothing is safe. America tries so hard to make everything safe, it backfires.

Hum, let's see, There have been some consumer complaints about the card getting hot, but no concrete hard evidence as you requested.

In my opinion it's normal for a laptop to run HOT!

It's small compact and restricted air stream.

 

You'll know when the GPU chip is fried and then and only then will Dell replace it. Doesn't look like there's mass failures on these GPUs and I have a feeling Dell will deal with it on an individual basis. Why replace something when it isn't broken yet? To offset this 'potential' problem the BIOS update will hopefully minimize the damage.

 

Happy waiting for the GPU to be fried. Considering early adopters of the M1530 with 8600M GT have had their's for a little over a year, many are still going strong.