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EVGA GeForce GTX 1080/1070/1060 BIOS Update

Vuze

Member
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.
Well, the cards have been running out of spec for months, so I imagine a certain amount of "damage" is already done.
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.
You could always try. It took some time, but EVGA rep granted me a refund RMA. Just waiting for the Watch Dogs 2 pack in or a good black friday deal before I send mine in and hopefully be done with this matter.
 
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.

I should rephrase that. I meant the most recent reports appear to be those without Pads. I'll edit it, came out all wrong.

You could always try. It took some time, but EVGA rep granted me a refund RMA. Just waiting for the Watch Dogs 2 pack in or a good black friday deal before I send mine in and hopefully be done with this matter.

I bought mine from Amazon. I know sometimes they make exceptions but I wonder if they'd let me return it after having the original one swapped out.
 

mjc

Member
Yeah the idea that these cards might go up in flames is mind boggling to me. What's the risk of them starting a fire if they have the BIOs update and the pads installed?
 

Tfault

Member
Pleased to report that the replacement 1080 FTW seems to have resolved my issues with 100%FBS :)

Have been running various benchmarks including 3Dmark and the card typically hits a max of 60 degrees C with a boost clock of 2000 without any issues so far, so pleased to say the least. Fans seem to hardly spin up.

Seems to be running around 10-15 degrees lower in temps than original.

So far so good.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
Wait I thought the BIOS update was all you needed to be "safe". I guess I should order the pads or RMA it. I tried ordering the pads but their website thing was not working for me.
 

Alxjn

Member
Well, the cards have been running out of spec for months, so I imagine a certain amount of "damage" is already done.

You could always try. It took some time, but EVGA rep granted me a refund RMA. Just waiting for the Watch Dogs 2 pack in or a good black friday deal before I send mine in and hopefully be done with this matter.

Did you buy directly from evga?
 
Glad I didnt go for an EVGA card this round. I would prefer to support the Asian companies anyhow, so anything from MSI or EVGA is off the books. Gigabyte, Palit and ASUS get the thumbs up.
 

Stevey

Member
My 1080 FTW is still fine.
Been playing ROTTR for 4 hours straight, at 99% GPU usage, not a single issue.
64C was the highest temp
They're not all faulty.
 

Vuze

Member
Did you buy directly from evga?
Yes.

btw, again: core temp is not the issue. The components that are having temp issues do not have a software readout so unless you have atleast a FLIR cam or probes attached to the spots or whatever, there's no way of knowing whether your card is "fine".
 
My 1080 FTW is still fine.
Been playing ROTTR for 4 hours straight, at 99% GPU usage, not a single issue.
64C was the highest temp
They're not all faulty.

I got mine in July and have never had a black screen issue or the temperature go above about 68C. I've had zero problems.
 

Heshinsi

"playing" dumb? unpossible
What sort of temperatures should I be looking for at idle with 1080SC SLI? When I checked this morning, card 1 was at 43C, and card 2 was at 31C. I've only had them for a month and a half, and have had them on a custom curve through Afterburner that I set up with my 9800ti.
 

Stevey

Member
I got mine in July and have never had a black screen issue or the temperature go above about 68C. I've had zero problems.

Same.
Think I got mine in August, I put the serial number in and they recommend the VBIOS update, but I know how to set a fan curve so not bothering with that.

Q. Does the VBIOS fix the temperature issues?
A. Yes, the VBIOS update will fix the temperature issues.
Q. Is my card damaged from running at a higher temperature?
A. No, but should any future warranty service be needed, EVGA stands behind its products.

I mean, do people just run GPUs without using Afterburner or whatever and not set their own fan curve?
I thought it was common practice.

What sort of temperatures should I be looking for at idle with 1080Sc SLI? When I checked this morning, card 1 was at 43C, and card 2 was at 31C. I've only had them for a month and a half, and have had them on a custom curve through Afterburner that I set up with my 9800ti.
Depends what your ambient temp is.
My MOBO is at 23C and my 1080FTW idles at 26C
 
I mean, do people just run GPUs without using Afterburner or whatever and not set their own fan curve?
I thought it was common practice.

I didn't always, no, not with this card. For a while while experimenting with temps/fan speed/noise, sometimes I would have mine on the stock curve even while gaming. But even before this fiasco I just decided to just leave the Afterburner curve on all the time.
 

Marmelade

Member
My 1080 FTW is still fine.
Been playing ROTTR for 4 hours straight, at 99% GPU usage, not a single issue.
64C was the highest temp
They're not all faulty.

I got mine in July and have never had a black screen issue or the temperature go above about 68C. I've had zero problems.

?
GPU temp was never the issue.
VRM temp is and there's no way using software like afterburner/gpu-z etc to know what it is for those models
 

Stevey

Member
?
GPU temp was never the issue.
VRM temp is and there's no way using software like afterburner/gpu-z etc to know what it is for those models

VRM temp hasnt actually been found to be out of spec, just nearer the top end.
A more agressive fan curve to cool the whole card down is all the VBIOS does, which you can do yourself.
 
I just called my local Microcenter and spoke with the store manager. She was aware of the issue with the EVGA cards having issues exploding. LOL! I explained to her I spend quite a bit there and that I didn't feel quite comfortable even with the thermal pads and updating a bios that makes this into a reference card sounding GPU + the possibility of these catching on fire again.

They ended up giving me store credit so I got the MSI Gaming X. I was going to buy the ASUS Strix OC, but neither of my cases (250D or Air 240) will fit that card. Hopefully the MSI is a good enough card after hearing about some of the Micron memory issues.
 

Iced

Member
My email to EVGA:
I would like to receive a full refund for this card. Up until now, I thought that updating the bios and applying the thermal pads (which still have not arrived, and I submitted my request for them over two weeks ago) would be an acceptable solution to the problem with these cards. However, I have recently seen more and more accounts of cards catching on fire. One report said the system was idle when it happened. I simply do not feel comfortable having this card in my system sitting next to other extremely expensive hardware, and I don't think thermal pads are going to change that.

With tax (but excluding shipping costs), I paid $672.34 Canadian for the card.

Please get back to me as soon as possible with what can be done about this. Thank you!


And their response:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us. We are sorry to hear that you are not satisfied with your purchase. As far as the cards catching fire, there have been maybe a handful of incidents, which are extremely rare. We have yet to have a case (as far as we know) of a card damaging another component in the system. Unfortunately, there are a lot of exaggerated claims and misinformation going around. You can read up on the matter more at evga.com/thermalmod.

In any case, we would be happy to assist you, but we cannot provide you with a refund since you didn't purchase the card from us. You will need to contact the original place of purchase for a replacement. Be wary of what you find online, because in many cases it's very difficult to know the full story. I know that for the one video that is going around and is on Youtube, that there are some questionable details. For one, both of the 8-pin connectors are not connected to the card, which is odd considering that this is supposed to be "normal use" footage. We cannot say that there was tampering for certain, but it's rather odd that it wasn't connected properly, and that the person happened to have a camera zoomed in on the card at that very moment as if expecting something to happen. Again, we cannot say for certain either, but we are conducting as much testing as possible to find out what is going on. So far our testing has shown that even under extreme usage these cards are operating normally, and within spec.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Regards,
EVGA SupportSupport



So yeah. Basically, roll the dice with an RMA refurb where we've applied a band-aid to fix an issue that could result in your card catching fire and hope for the best. And trust us, not them!

c4jt321.png
 

Stevey

Member

To be fair that video of that 1080 catching fire looks like bullshit to me.

I don't buy the reasons that he states the power cables weren't connected, and the whole thing doesn't ring true to me.

Also, that could have been a faulty component which does happen with electronics from time to time, no proof that it's related to the VRMs getting hot but still within spec.
 
It's not the VRAM, VRM stands for Voltage Regulator Module.

I don't get the black screen and fan issue when I run stock voltages. So it is a VRM issue after all. This is pretty stupid if true, considering the FALSE marketing of the FTW's OC ability that is supposedly supported by the 8+8 pins and cooling system, where in reality it has mediocre cooling and faulty Voltage regulation (funny how I have an exam on transformers in few minutes) that holds the OC ability of the card. Yeah it is silicon lottery, but it seems that cooler cards such as the Gainward models offer better OCs on average.
 
Excuse my ignorance with this buy, honestly, I have no idea if mine is okay or what. I have been using my 1070 since July with no issues. Played through all of the Doom campaign on Ultra in one sitting last month.
 
Excuse my ignorance with this buy, honestly, I have no idea if mine is okay or what. I have been using my 1070 since July with no issues. Played through all of the Doom campaign on Ultra in one sitting last month.

Your card is probably fine, but it is still susceptible to critical failures and reduced life-time to due the way VRM is cooled. Just install the new BIOS update and play normally; don't touch voltages and/or keep it at stock clock speeds.

I had the card since July; I played the shit out of it before September started and I only had the blackscreen/fan issue when I started to push the overclock settings (mainly voltage). It still runs fine (better) with stock voltages, but I installed the BIOS and ordered thermal pads. There is a possibility of the card dying (as some owners reported on EVGA forums), and in some extreme cases, it catches fire and FUCKS your other components.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Speaking of other components, I remember reading the warranty of my older Corsair PSU, where it states that Corsair doesn't cover the damage that the PSU might cause to your precious 2000$ components.
 

Leatherface

Member
Good thing this thread exists. I thought I was in the clear since most everything I've glanced at focused in on the FTW edition, but my super-clocked card is also affected! Since reading this I have since upgraded my bios and I'm now waiting on the thermal pads to arrive. Thank you so much OP. :)
 

IronRinn

Member
My thermal pads arrived at some point at the end of last week (was away). Will get to installing them this weekend, I guess. Hopefully I don't manage to fuck anything up (internet obsessiveness has given me major thermal paste anxiety).
 

deejay

Member
I might try the pads but I had to revert the bios update because the noise it was now producing was driving me insane.
 

Jebral

Member
I've applied the thermal pads and the bios update for my 1070 FTW. Dearly hope the card lives a long and healthy life now.
 
Your card is probably fine, but it is still susceptible to critical failures and reduced life-time to due the way VRM is cooled. Just install the new BIOS update and play normally; don't touch voltages and/or keep it at stock clock speeds.

I don't usually overclock anything because of me being scared as it is and yeah I went ahead and updated my BIOS anyway soon after my initial post. My card hasn't gotten much louder in my case.
 
As a consequence of finding this thread, EVGA has agreed to send me a brand new card to replace my June launch 1080 FTW (not a refurb).

If I hadn't happened upon this thread, I wouldn't have ever known that my occasional 100% fan + black screen issue was anything more than poor drivers and would have kept on living with it and the lack of thermal pads.
 

mjc

Member
As a consequence of finding this thread, EVGA has agreed to send me a brand new card to replace my June launch 1080 FTW (not a refurb).

If I hadn't happened upon this thread, I wouldn't have ever known that my occasional 100% fan + black screen issue was anything more than poor drivers and would have kept on living with it and the lack of thermal pads.

Good stuff, I'm glad you were able to see the news. I have a 1070 SC but I opted to contact them and request a new card anyways as well. (It helps that I bought it less than a month ago too.)
 
So anyone else notice the 1070FTW's fans running slower/lower RPM at idle and below 60C with the new slave BIOS compared to the previous and original or have I been on crazy pills? Maybe they run higher when temps rise above 60, didn't check that.
 
Just got my new 1070 SC replacement, they also sent me a brand new one even though I bought my original near launch and didn't register it until a week or so ago to get the RMA started. Definitely seems to run quieter than my previous one.
 
Just got my new 1070 SC replacement, they also sent me a brand new one even though I bought my original near launch and didn't register it until a week or so ago to get the RMA started. Definitely seems to run quieter than my previous one.

I also got a brand new 1080 FTW for my replacement card.
 
Yeah, bad capacitors probably is the primary problem. Still, that's some shitty temps even if it is in spec, EVGA fucked up not having thermal pads on there in the first place and the CEO (I think it was) admitted it was a stupid oversight.
 

Iced

Member
I'm gonna try to keep this in the back of my mind as the years go on, as I'm sure one day there's gonna be a form we can fill out to get x amount of dollars back as part of a settlement with EVGA.
 

Iced

Member
Will be installing thermal pads tonight. Watched a video for it online and it looks pretty straightforward.
 
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