Problems with some 6600 GT AGP - next

A few days ago we spoke about problems encountered by 6600 GT AGP users. The first problem was the computer power supply as 6600 GT AGP graphic cards need a good power and a steady +12V line, and the second problem was the cooling system. This last issue only concerns a limited number of graphic cards, and it is hard to tell whether a manufacturer has 100% of functional graphic cards. However, according to our information, Point Of View’s graphic cards, which are a great success thanks to an attractive bundle (with three recent games), seems to have more problems than average. The reason of the higher amount of bad feedback may however be only because they have sold more graphic cards than other manufacturers

To find out the reason of these problems, we have studied several graphic cards available in shops and a couple of graphic cards returned to an after sales service. We wanted to know whether if it was an assembling issue or something else. And in fact the origin of his problem is rather simple and could have been easily avoided.

The contact between the GPU and its radiator is far from being optimum. The GPU radiator lies on 4 plastic bearing, but several graphic cards have a lower GPU core than expected and a small gap between the radiator and the GPU isn’t filled by thermal paste. We were unfortunately unable to determine the origin of this small gap (is it the GPU? the GPU soldering? the graphic card?) but the thing is that it is here.

To solve this problem you only need to dismantle the GPU radiator and remove all four plastic bearing. In practice these bearing aren’t really useful and removing them isn’t a problem at all. NVIDIA’s reference graphic card didn’t include any bearing. This operation isn’t difficult, but if you don’t like DIY, return backs your graphic card to the manufacturer.