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EVGA GeForce GTX 1080/1070/1060 BIOS Update

Piggus

Member
Has anyone received their pads yet? I requested mine on November 5 and haven't heard from EVGA since. I assumed there would be a tracking number.

Yep, got mine a couple days ago and installed them. I ordered them on the 3rd and didn't get a shipping notification. It just comes in an envelope.
 

Tfault

Member
Just received the replacement 1080 FTW and as far as I can tell it's a brand new one, came in sealed box with all the other standard items (disc, manuals etc).

For those interested it also has the thermal pads installed between the PCB and back plate.

Will be comparing performance against original card over the weekend, hopefully it's fixes the 100%FBS.
 

Meelapo

Neo Member
Is it possible to install the original BIOS on a GTX 1080 SC? I received my RMA in the mail but I'm not liking the loud fan and I prefer the default fan setting of the original BIOS. I figure I have the thermal pads on so that should take care of the heat issue enough. Does anyone know where you can get the original BIOS?
 
Received my replacement card late this afternoon. Card was already switched to the slave BIOS. o_O I assume that's from their doing the updates and someone forgot to switch it back. Did their adjusting the fan curve in the slave BIOS result in the base fan speed actually being lowered? Because my old card it was 20% while the new one is 15% but that 15% is also at a much lower RPM. Not an issue since I'll still use my custom fan curve, just odd I know they apparently messed with the scaling or whatever.

Aside from that, happy with the replacement, no coil whine and I lucked out getting a card that is a bit better in the "silicon lottery" from what I can tell so far.
 

nataku

Member
I decided I'm probably going to just RMA my card instead of doing the pads myself. My current card boosts to 2000 without any overclock, so I'm worried I'll get a worse card but I don't really feel comfortable taking it apart myself.

Those who did the RMA instead, how has your new card compared to the old one?
 

brau

Member
I decided I'm probably going to just RMA my card instead of doing the pads myself. My current card boosts to 2000 without any overclock, so I'm worried I'll get a worse card but I don't really feel comfortable taking it apart myself.

Those who did the RMA instead, how has your new card compared to the old one?

I would like to know about this too.
 

Kadin

Member
I decided I'm probably going to just RMA my card instead of doing the pads myself. My current card boosts to 2000 without any overclock, so I'm worried I'll get a worse card but I don't really feel comfortable taking it apart myself.

Those who did the RMA instead, how has your new card compared to the old one?

I would like to know about this too.
I posted my impression on the prior page but so far so good. It's running a bit cooler and I got a brand new replacement even though I bought it shortly after launch - well outside the 30day window. They said I'd get a re-certified model but mine was factory new. That isn't a guarantee of course but I saw another person in here had the same thing happen to them.
 
Received the thermal pads I don't need anymore today. I'm still kind of tempted to take the card apart and put some different thermal paste/grease on it but I probably won't. The large thermal pad is a little thicker than the other one, the VRAM pads aren't cut individually like they normally are and instead just three strips for each set of modules.

Oh, they have a disclaimer at the bottom of the last page of the instructions that still says this is an "optional" mod to improve cooling.

I decided I'm probably going to just RMA my card instead of doing the pads myself. My current card boosts to 2000 without any overclock, so I'm worried I'll get a worse card but I don't really feel comfortable taking it apart myself.

Those who did the RMA instead, how has your new card compared to the old one?

I would like to know about this too.

Mentioned it in my last post, the replacement I got was a little better, with the testing I've done today my more aggressive custom fan curve it'll boost to 2012/13 and seems to stay at 1988MHz/2GHz my original card settled at 1932-1950 with the same fan curve. On the OC front my original card would shit the bed if it reached 2.1GHz for more than a second and stay at 2050MHz-2075MHz, so far this one has been staying at 2.1GHz/2088Mhz without extra voltage but I still need to do more testing, I'm not sure yet if the voltage increase is actually working. Temps are about the same so far while idle, maybe slightly better when the card is being pushed working. The Micron VRAM still seems to top out at 8900MHz for me.

It's still a crapshoot how good of a card you'll get back.
 
Received my Cross-Ship RMA yesterday and just opened the box today. To my surprise it was a brand new card in retail packaging. Thought they were only doing those for the ones bought within the last month but hell I'll take it. So far I haven't had any problems and the card itself is about 8 to 10 degrees cooler than the one without the thermal padding.
 
They've probably gotten so many RMA requests that they're just sending out new cards, they'll probably end up selling the good ones they get back as refurbished after putting pads on them.



I was thinking while running 3DMark earlier that I should've hung on to my original card a little longer since I had two weeks and ran it in SLI for a day to boost benchmark/e-peen scores. Obviously don't have one of the new bridges so I wouldn't get the most out of it with the old SLI bridge but still.
 

Vash63

Member
Just got my thermal pads in yesterday and installed. Not too difficult, just needs a #1 Phillips. I'm staying away from the BIOS update as I hate loud fans, figure the new thermal pads should be more than enough to keep it safe.
 

Soroc

Member
Good thing I decided to do a cross ship RMA a few weeks back. Seems like mine just got shipped out a couple days ago and I'm supposed to get it on Wed. Turns out my current 1080 FTW just blew white flames out one of the bottom vents and fried. PC wasn't even in use, just idle with the monitors asleep when it happened. Back to my 980 for the time being.
 

Iced

Member
Good thing I decided to do a cross ship RMA a few weeks back. Seems like mine just got shipped out a couple days ago and I'm supposed to get it on Wed. Turns out my current 1080 FTW just blew white flames out one of the bottom vents and fried. PC wasn't even in use, just idle with the monitors asleep when it happened. Back to my 980 for the time being.

Did you happen to flash the vbios?
 

z3phon

Member
Good thing I decided to do a cross ship RMA a few weeks back. Seems like mine just got shipped out a couple days ago and I'm supposed to get it on Wed. Turns out my current 1080 FTW just blew white flames out one of the bottom vents and fried. PC wasn't even in use, just idle with the monitors asleep when it happened. Back to my 980 for the time being.
yikes that's scary.
 

Soroc

Member
Did you happen to flash the vbios?

I didn't. Everything has been perfect with it since I got it about 2 months ago. I didn't even update to the latest drivers that had some issues.

yikes that's scary.

Yeah, never actually have had anything like that happen before, I was worried a fire was going to start. Stunk up the whole room for quite some time too
 

AColdDay

Member
Valtýr;225057864 said:
What is the typical temp people are seeing on a 1070 FTW?

Right now mine is idling at 49 degrees, and goes up to 61 while playing a game.

As far as performance differences, I can't tell any difference just yet.
 

Kadin

Member
Valtýr;225057864 said:
What is the typical temp people are seeing on a 1070 FTW?
Not sure how much difference there is between the SC and FTW as far as temps are concerned but my SC is idling consistently now at 26c. Pretty big difference from my previous card which was around 32c.
 
Valtýr;225057864 said:
What is the typical temp people are seeing on a 1070 FTW?

I use the slave bios so the fans are always running, idles around 27-30C with the default fan speed which as I mentioned before, is actually lower on this card than it was my original one which I assume is due to the updated BIOS.
 

z3phon

Member
Yeah, never actually have had anything like that happen before, I was worried a fire was going to start. Stunk up the whole room for quite some time too
Did you have the default fan profile or a custom one set higher than the default?
I updated the bios, hopefully that helps a little but still waiting for the thermal pads to arrive. :/
 

Soltype

Member
Good thing I decided to do a cross ship RMA a few weeks back. Seems like mine just got shipped out a couple days ago and I'm supposed to get it on Wed. Turns out my current 1080 FTW just blew white flames out one of the bottom vents and fried. PC wasn't even in use, just idle with the monitors asleep when it happened. Back to my 980 for the time being.
If your card blew up and was idle, then all these cards are borked.
 
I received and installed the thermal pads today on my 1070 SC. Most difficult part was disconnecting the led and power connector, besides that it was quite simple. Card continues to work fine, don't really notice any difference in gpu temp or anything but at least I'm not as worried. I have an overclock of +130 Mhz on the gpu and +400 Mhz on the memory. I regret updating my cards bios now though because the fans are a lot louder. I guess I'll set up a custom and quieter fan profile. Unless maybe there's a way to roll back the bios?
 
If your card blew up and was idle, then all these cards are borked.

The general consensus is that the design of the cards is flawed. You can put thermal pads on them to patch up the problem, or flash a BIOS that runs the fans really loud to push more heat away. But in general the lifetime of these cards will probably be shorter than other cards from other manufacturers and when they die, they will probably do so spectacularly through self-immolation.

If you're within your 30 days return period, return the card and buy one from MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, Palit, or even a reference card. It's not worth the hassle of keeping these cards.

If you're outside your 30 days, you can try and convince the store to take it back because it's fundamentally defective. Otherwise you can just ride it out and buy a different brand in the future when the one you have now dies.

It's not clear why with many stories and Youtube videos flooding the Internet why EVGA refuses to just recall all the cards. They're doing wonders for their reputation by pretending there's nothing really wrong and issuing band-aid fixes like a BIOS that runs the fans really loud or thermal pads the owner has to install themselves unless they RMA the card. Meanwhile cards are exploding live on Youtube. Most people already know that the EVGA ACX coolers are pretty crappy compared to every other aftermarket cooling solution so also having fundamental design flaws isn't going to help future EVGA product sales.
 

Vuze

Member
The general consensus is that the design of the cards is flawed. You can put thermal pads on them to patch up the problem, or flash a BIOS that runs the fans really loud to push more heat away. But in general the lifetime of these cards will probably be shorter than other cards from other manufacturers and when they die, they will probably do so spectacularly through self-immolation.

If you're within your 30 days return period, return the card and buy one from MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, Palit, or even a reference card. It's not worth the hassle of keeping these cards.

If you're outside your 30 days, you can try and convince the store to take it back because it's fundamentally defective. Otherwise you can just ride it out and buy a different brand in the future when the one you have now dies.

It's not clear why with many stories and Youtube videos flooding the Internet why EVGA refuses to just recall all the cards. They're doing wonders for their reputation by pretending there's nothing really wrong and issuing band-aid fixes like a BIOS that runs the fans really loud or thermal pads the owner has to install themselves unless they RMA the card. Meanwhile cards are exploding live on Youtube. Most people already know that the EVGA ACX coolers are pretty crappy compared to every other aftermarket cooling solution so also having fundamental design flaws isn't going to help future EVGA product sales.
Yeah, I don't get it either. While the very first video that circulated was staged as fuck, just in the last few days a 1070 FTW of a streamer caught fire / caused a little firework in his game PC live on stream, a 1080 FTW popped and fried a PCIe slot and now we also have an affected GAFfer.

And that's just the people that are vocal about it and i witnessed.

Really hope there'll be a good deal on a FE or other cheap model during Black Friday so I can pick a new card up.


E: oh, another fried 1070 FTW PCB on the NVIDIA subreddit
 

DagsJT

Member
FFS, I was happy with my MSI 970 but decided to switch to EVGA for my 1070. What a mess.

I'll look at sending mine in I think.
 
"Optional thermal pads™".

Can't remember was the BIOS update considered "optional" too?


I might've went with another company had it not been for so many cards with custom coolers being too long to fit in my case (the FTW at 10.5" just barely fits) on top of EVGA's reputation which has definitely taken a hard hit with this mess.
 

Murugo

Member
I'm only just getting around to building my first PC and I haven't heard about this issue until now. Don't think I'm comfortable opening my FTW card from July just to add thermal pads to it and make the fan run louder. Almost tempted just to sell the card and get an MSI, but I'll contact EVGA first to see what they recommend. After 4 months I doubt they can give me a new card.
 

Vuze

Member
I'm only just getting around to building my first PC and I haven't heard about this issue until now. Don't think I'm comfortable opening my FTW card from July just to add thermal pads to it and make the fan run louder. Almost tempted just to sell the card and get an MSI, but I'll contact EVGA first to see what they recommend. After 4 months I doubt they can give me a new card.
Asking for a refund is probably the smartest thing to do, especially in your case.
 

Iced

Member
I just realized that http://www.evga.com/thermalmod/ shows me a tracking number for the thermal pads. I requested them on November 5 and they only shipped out on the 15th. What the hell?

I think I'm going to email them asking for a refund. So what if I'm not within 30 days of purchase. People's cards are catching fire while the system is IDLE. I am not comfortable with that and I honestly don't have much faith in their band-aid solutions. I'll keep everyone posted here with what they say.

Edit: Contacted Newegg Canada first (where I purchased the card late August) and, unsurprisingly, was told to contact the manufacturer. And so I shall.
 

Soroc

Member
Did you have the default fan profile or a custom one set higher than the default?
I updated the bios, hopefully that helps a little but still waiting for the thermal pads to arrive. :/

Everything was pretty much default. Never got under the hood with it or pushed the card at all. I wanted to run it proper for a couple months to make sure it was stable, but looks like it wasn't.

If your card blew up and was idle, then all these cards are borked.

Yeah I usually leave my PC running all the time too so that I can access my plex when I travel to relatives, worried about putting the new one in on the 23rd and then going away for thanksgiving. I might have to just keep the PC powered down during the Holidays so I don't stress about it.

The general consensus is that the design of the cards is flawed. You can put thermal pads on them to patch up the problem, or flash a BIOS that runs the fans really loud to push more heat away. But in general the lifetime of these cards will probably be shorter than other cards from other manufacturers and when they die, they will probably do so spectacularly through self-immolation.

If you're within your 30 days return period, return the card and buy one from MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, Palit, or even a reference card. It's not worth the hassle of keeping these cards.

If you're outside your 30 days, you can try and convince the store to take it back because it's fundamentally defective. Otherwise you can just ride it out and buy a different brand in the future when the one you have now dies.

It's not clear why with many stories and Youtube videos flooding the Internet why EVGA refuses to just recall all the cards. They're doing wonders for their reputation by pretending there's nothing really wrong and issuing band-aid fixes like a BIOS that runs the fans really loud or thermal pads the owner has to install themselves unless they RMA the card. Meanwhile cards are exploding live on Youtube. Most people already know that the EVGA ACX coolers are pretty crappy compared to every other aftermarket cooling solution so also having fundamental design flaws isn't going to help future EVGA product sales.

I don't get it either, I've always been an EVGA customer, I've lived by their warranties and have rarely ever had to use one. Really surprised at them as a company and how they are handling this. If they send me a brand new one in the box I might have to consider selling it and going with another brand this time.
 
How much of a temperature difference can I expect after installing the thermal pads?
Also what type of thermal paste is included, for those who have already received your shipments.
 
I just realized that http://www.evga.com/thermalmod/ shows me a tracking number for the thermal pads. I requested them on November 5 and they only shipped out on the 15th. What the hell?

I think I'm going to email them asking for a refund. So what if I'm not within 30 days of purchase. People's cards are catching fire while the system is IDLE. I am not comfortable with that and I honestly don't have much faith in their band-aid solutions. I'll keep everyone posted here with what they say.

Edit: Contacted Newegg Canada first (where I purchased the card late August) and, unsurprisingly, was told to contact the manufacturer. And so I shall.

I feel the same way as you, very uneasy even if I add the thermal pads. I didn't buy this darn ACX 3.0 cooler for it to sound like a founders edition card. I bought mine back in August, I will try with Microcenter to see if they can let me exchange it for a different card. Worst case they say NO, and I'll just sell the card off and get something else. This has put a bad taste in my mouth with EVGA, first their 970 issue with the heat pipes and now this.
 

Vuze

Member
Okay, so I'm returning mine through Amazon. It's a 1070 SC. I'm looking for pretty much a direct replacement of this, any help?
The new MSI TwinFrozr as well as the huge Palit/Gainward coolers are great.
I don't know about Palit/Gainward support but I had to RMA my MSI 970 at the end of its time in my system and it took a few weeks as you need to go through your reseller (here in europe anyway) but it returned with a brand new cooler and ran fine.

Yeah, I'm selling this thing off and going MSI. What an absolute garbage response this has been. Never thought I'd see EVGA come to this. Now I know what I'm looking for on Black Friday.
You and me both lol.
 
Yeah, I'm selling this thing off and going MSI. What an absolute garbage response this has been. Never thought I'd see EVGA come to this. Now I know what I'm looking for on Black Friday.
 
The general consensus is that the design of the cards is flawed. You can put thermal pads on them to patch up the problem, or flash a BIOS that runs the fans really loud to push more heat away. But in general the lifetime of these cards will probably be shorter than other cards from other manufacturers and when they die, they will probably do so spectacularly through self-immolation.

If you're within your 30 days return period, return the card and buy one from MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, Palit, or even a reference card. It's not worth the hassle of keeping these cards.

If you're outside your 30 days, you can try and convince the store to take it back because it's fundamentally defective. Otherwise you can just ride it out and buy a different brand in the future when the one you have now dies.

It's not clear why with many stories and Youtube videos flooding the Internet why EVGA refuses to just recall all the cards. They're doing wonders for their reputation by pretending there's nothing really wrong and issuing band-aid fixes like a BIOS that runs the fans really loud or thermal pads the owner has to install themselves unless they RMA the card. Meanwhile cards are exploding live on Youtube. Most people already know that the EVGA ACX coolers are pretty crappy compared to every other aftermarket cooling solution so also having fundamental design flaws isn't going to help future EVGA product sales.


Well, shit. I don't know who the heck is going to buy those damn FTW cards now. I might just throw it away and try another brand. I don't know if waiting for the 1080ti is worth the risk.

Damn. I didn't want the 1080ti to be released that early, but now I do. Honestly, fuck EVGA and the way they handled the whole issue. I made a topic about it back in late July or early August (about ANOTHER issue with black screen+fan speed) and they are silent about it. They should just recall the cards before they start getting lawsuits; their product is simply dangerous and faulty by default.
 
The new MSI TwinFrozr as well as the huge Palit/Gainward coolers are great.
I don't know about Palit/Gainward support but I had to RMA my MSI 970 at the end of its time in my system and it took a few weeks as you need to go through your reseller (here in europe anyway) but it returned with a brand new cooler and ran fine.


You and me both lol.
I think I might go with MSI, but what are the difference between the versions of the 1070?
 

neoemonk

Member
I found out about this issue when my 1070 died in the middle of a gaming session on October 29th. I got my card shipped out to them the following Monday, and they received it on November 3. They didn't ship the new card until the 17th. I talked to their customer service and they told me they are swamped and bumped me up to three day shipping, so I'm scheduled to receive the new card on Tuesday.

A friend of mine did a cross ship with his 1080 and he already received his card, and says it's noticeably louder now. This whole process has really been a disappointment. I had a 670 before this so it was definitely time to upgrade, but like everyone else didn't foresee this mess.
 

Vuze

Member
I think I might go with MSI, but what are the difference between the versions of the 1070?
Simply go for the cheapest one that has the TwinFrozr VI.
600.png


Should be the Gaming X model.
 

LQX

Member
Good thing I decided to do a cross ship RMA a few weeks back. Seems like mine just got shipped out a couple days ago and I'm supposed to get it on Wed. Turns out my current 1080 FTW just blew white flames out one of the bottom vents and fried. PC wasn't even in use, just idle with the monitors asleep when it happened. Back to my 980 for the time being.

Wow! And just this week another 1080 owner reported on their forums his card also exploded. I think this will get way bigger. EVGA better step up and do a recall.
 

Iced

Member
Here's the thing with my card (EVGA 1070 FTW): it's not loud. Even with the bios update, I haven't noticed a sound difference, and I definitely should because my case doesn't dampen sound well at all (NZXT S340). And I am on the secondary bios, which in theory should be a more aggressive fan curve. The very fact that others are reporting theirs sound like a jet engine makes me thing something isn't right, and that eventually I will run into serious problems.

I should not I have afterburner on my system but it's only used to overclock. I don't touch custom fan curve settings.
 
My RMA is supposed to arrive on Tuesday and now I'm wondering if I don't just write this whole thing off and get another card instead.

The most recent reports of cards frying are on cards without the "optional" thermal pads so I'm not really sure what to do. I don't really want to drop another $600 because EVGA fucked up. I bought it back in June so there's no way to get a refund at this point.
 

mjc

Member
I have a 1070 that I requested a cross-ship RMA for a couple days ago. I'm hoping they just send me one of the new production cards with the thermal pads and BIOs update already on them.
 
Good thing I decided to do a cross ship RMA a few weeks back. Seems like mine just got shipped out a couple days ago and I'm supposed to get it on Wed. Turns out my current 1080 FTW just blew white flames out one of the bottom vents and fried. PC wasn't even in use, just idle with the monitors asleep when it happened. Back to my 980 for the time being.

That's terrible. I'm glad to hear you weren't hurt or the fire wasn't worse. This is inexcusable on EVGA's part.

I have an EVGA 1080 SC and applied the new BIOS and a custom fan curve in MSI Afterburner and it's running much cooler now, albeit louder. No thermal pads yet as I'm considering either doing a cross-ship RMA or just ordering the pads. But seriously, "it might burst into flames" shouldn't be even a remote possibility.

My RMA is supposed to arrive on Tuesday and now I'm wondering if I don't just write this whole thing off and get another card instead.

Most of the recent reports of cards frying are on cards without the "optional" thermal pads so I'm not really sure what to do. I don't really want to drop another $600 because EVGA fucked up. I bought it back in June so there's no way to get a refund at this point.

Wait, most? Has anybody with the new BIOS and thermal pads had theirs fry? I'm wondering the same about just getting a new card from a different manufacturer, but that wasn't really in the budget. I too bought mine in June so a refund is out of the question for me as well. But if there's a possibility of this thing burning out even with the BIOS and pads I don't want it running. Earlier I thought I would at least wait until the 11 series came out but that may depend on how bad this situation is.
 
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