New Poll about Videocards with Voltage options is up

[saaya]

http://www.xtremesystems.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=NS-Polls&file=index&req=results&pollID=10&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

many manufacturers have said they plan videocards with voltage options, some even anounced cards with it, but unfortunately they never made it to the market. i talked to many videocard makers and they were all worried about the acceptance of such cards and a high rma rate.

i hope this poll shows that there is a big interest in videocards with voltage options and that people are willing to pay extra money for such cards, so maybe a videocard maker will finally release a card with voltage options. maybe a limited series of cards at first...

to prevent the rma problems it should be possible to somehow limit the warranty... maybe it would be possible to do something similar abit did with their mainboards. some of their boards need a special bios to unlock the extra options, once you flash that bios onto the boards you lose all warranty afaik.

maybe this is possible for videocards as well?

please vote and let me know what you think about videocards with voltage options and if a limited warranty would be acceptable for you :toast:

[vapb400]

i was thinking about the ways you could limit the RMA's the other day.

[saaya]

its a tricky thing isnt it?
i wouldnt mind buying such a card without warranty, but then again i would be really pssed if it would die before i overclocked it or after i overclocked it but had it running at stock again for 24/7 or something like that...

but if the card had a good heatsink and would shut itself down or reset to default if the temps get too high there shouldnt be a problem actually... i dont see how such a card could get killed unless you block the security mechanism and the card runs too hot...

[STEvil]

do it by temperature monitoring.

Under a certain temp voltage and frequency will increase until it reaches say 50-60c. This could be enabled/disabled through special drivers or by unlocking the bios with a jumper on the card to let those who know what they are doing have their fun..

[saaya]

hmmm dont get what you mean, do you mean with an extra jumper or unlock via driver/bios you can run the card at higher temps?

[mr_knowitall15]

maybe they could have an adjustment knob that can change the voltage, with a little led readout like on oczs booster. and have a sticker on the knob that says warrenty void if seal is broken.

[saaya]

hmmm that should also work... adjusting it via an app in windows would be a lot sweeter though imo...
maybe a jumper or jumperblock like on the dfi nf4 mainboard to enable higher vdimm? and you have to change that jumper to enable the voltage tweaking options in windows through the app?
and the jumper(s) are sealed somehow and if you break the seal it kills the warranty?

[STEvil]

saaya - jumper would disable voltage limiting due to temperature.

Just put a seal on the jumper.

[saaya]

hmmm you mean vgpu will decrease the higher the temp gets and increase the lower it gets, and setting the jumper would change the temps it would decrease vgpu at automatically? that sounds complicated... a sealed jumper to enable the voltage options in windows sounds much easier and directly gets you what you want, the chance to set voltages to whatever you wantm, at whatever temps you want.:)

[STEvil]

almost..

frequency and voltage increase until a certain temperature is reached.

remove/change the jumper and the drivers would let you adjust them yourself without interference instead of doing it automatically.

[saaya]

hmmm so having voltage increases up to a certain point and to get to higher voltage bumps you would have to break the seal and switch the jumper... this sounds like the best option so far imo!

almost..

frequency and voltage increase until a certain temperature is reached.

remove/change the jumper and the drivers would let you adjust them yourself without interference instead of doing it automatically.

[Cooper]

Yeah that`s a great idea. But I rather prefer usual card and make a volt mod with some varnish. And if it burns i just switch things back and preserve the warranty :)

[Cooper]

This looks like some expensive work there Troman. In that case the additional price will be pretty high. And another thing: have you ever heard that Intel or AMD pretests their CPUs for high voltage ? ;) Don`t think that ATI or NVIDIA will allow this to video cards manufacturers or they could loose their agriements on shipping. If there were some sort o` socket on vga board and chips would be sold separatly that would be another thing - like with mobos.

[Cooper]

Yeap premade adjustment possibilities are very nice indeed and the Xtreme series idea sounds good as well. But they already have these Ultra and PE editions. I`m not sure is there already some volts added, but that Xtreme series would cost a fortune. Would you buy a card for $1k if you can buy it for $500 and voltmod it ? Also new cooling systems will be required. And that shouldn`t make card very heavy.

[Cooper]

Heh that`s a bit too small for that feature. This will require some changing in PCB layout for sure. And I doubt that this series (if it will come to market) gonna become mass. Even those Ultra and XT PE are just 1-3 % of all produced chips. But this is even more exclusive. Yeap maybe 1k is too much, but I would overpriced this product non less than 15-20 % or even more.
But never the less the idea is great indeed and it would be nice to see real cards with this new adjustments.