Tag: nVidia

Gamer played on an integrated GPU for 4 years

Lukas Rox Games, Hardware , , , , , , ,
Gamer played on an integrated GPU for 4 years

Some Reddit user has just recently realized he’s been gaming on an integrated GPU instead of his nVidia GTX 1050 Ti.

Integrated GPUs, while not nearly as robust as dedicated cards, are getting increasingly more powerful. Alternative_Essay880 only realized he’s been using iGPU because he read about a similar issue on Reddit. So just in case he has checked behind his PC, and voila! He found out that his HDMI cable has been plugged into motherboard instead of his nVidia GPU.

How come he did not realized he’s been playing on iGPU all along? Well, most likely due to his budget setup:

  • AMD Ryzen 5 2400G
  • Integrated GPU Radeon RX Vega 11 Graphics
  • GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
  • 16 GB of RAM

While GTX 1050 Ti is way faster than RX Vega 11, the gamer did not know what exactly to expect from his nVidia card, so he’s been blaming poor performance on his budget GPU. He even added more RAM and replaced his HDD with a SSD.

The unlucky gamer played many games like Call of Duty: Warzone, GTA V, DOTA 2 or Civilization 6. And to be really honest, the performance was not so bad for an iGPU. On low and medium settings he often got up to 100 FPS. After connecting his Display connector to the proper card, his PC has gained a second life. Free upgrade? 😉

EVGA nVidia 8800 GTS 512 up in smoke!

Lukas Rox Hardware , , , ,

Yesterday my trusted GeForce died out of a sudden, showing me some red artifacts and corrupted fonts on the BIOS screen. Windows 7 booted fine, but in VGA mode.

nVidia 8800 cards seem to be prone to the problem with soldering, which breaks after many heat-cool cycles. Unfortunately it is hard to tell by the artifacts, which chip has broken solder. To remedy this problem, some people put their cards in oven for 6-9 minutes. Of course cooler, radiator and all plastic parts need to be removed first. The board should be placed on aluminum foil (chip side down) and the oven preheated to 180 degrees C (or 365 F).

People report mixed results, but since the card is broken anyway, it can be a good way to revive it.

WARNING: if you decide to treat your card in the oven, I am not responsible for any damage this may cause. Some parts can explode (electrolytic capacitors) or melt (plastics), so you do it at your own risk. Under no circumstances use microwave oven! It will induce lethal voltages inside chips on the board, wrecking the card beyond repair. Cooking a card is also likely to damage the microwave oven.

nVidia 8800 GTS up in smoke
nVidia 8800 GTS up in smoke