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According to VR-ZONE, Nvidia are planning on fixing the poor design of the GTX590 and will re-release it in June. They claim a ‘much needed hardware fix where the new inductors are added to the card'.
Kitguru reported on this many months ago, after many cards were failing due to design issues. This hardware fix apparently means that 3rd party cooling solutions such as the GTX590 waterblocks will no longer fit, due to a change in the baseplate. This revised edition will be denoted with a 502 marking on the PCB and should hit retail in June.
Hardware.fr reviewed the card at release and their GTX590 testing showed a reading of around 112c from the card under load. Since then some partners have been updating card bioses however the main issue was down to a poor VRM design. The very high temperatures are due to the VRM’s being underspecified. Each of the GPU/IMC phases has 35A each, and only four phases per GPU, with one phase for the IMC.
With the DrMOS chips being operated at close to peak forward current rating with a high duty cycle, this is part of the reason of the stress related failures. At very high load levels the DrMOS chips can become very inefficient as they are optimised for efficiency at low loads. Some claim they shouldn’t be used for VRMs for high power electronics in the first place. This inefficiency is adding more wasted heat into the scenario. Nvidia have placed them right under the fan’s dead spot too which doesn’t help with cooling.
This new version indicates that while Nvidia denied it at the time, there are hardware design issues with the original release.
KitGuru says: No indications yet as to whether current customers will get a free replacement for the flawed older design.
Didnt they go on record last month after all this hit, saying that there was nothing wrong with their card? what a bunch of muppets.
And here I am thinking I should buy a 580 lightning which I know has no issues but makes me wonder should I really support nvidia if they pull stunts like this
I like their hardware, but they have been rather aggressive about this card, saying it was fine and nothing was wrong. VR ZONE clearly found out otherwise.
Funny how they can dismiss these reports for ages then suddenly decide to reissue a new card. My friend is furious, he bought one, and now he finds out it is actually ‘broken;.
Refunds or replacements? any news on that?
imperfection is what nvidia nowadays are.
gtx580 case, and now gtx590
radeon on other hand so much competitive these days, no time-bomb design
The real muppets are people who STILL went out and bought these cards after cards around the globe had been burning out either from overclocking ( something ‘enthusiast’ grade cards are supposed to be built for) or from running at stock clocks. I can’t feel pity for a fool so willingly parted with his/her money.
Nvidia crapped on their fans this round, yet all most of them can muster is: ” please sir, might I have some more?”