PC HFR: The Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 removed

[Tha Last Meal]

hi guys


We have to update the configurations HardWare.fr to remove - amongst others - the card Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 Gaming PC Power and More Power User.

Long we were back in October 2012 on the black screen problem encountered by some users of Radeon HD 7870 . After sending a card to AMD concerned, the manufacturer had to recall identified the problem which resulted from a concern for some quality ceramic capacitors present at the back of the GPU. The problem had already been detected by AMD has provided a new list of components to be used (BOM) in May 2012 card manufacturers based Radeon HD 7870, but some of Sapphire had apparently not been there more reactive to correct their production. Following the publication of our news and announcement of Sapphire correction of their production, we thought the problem was definitely part of the past. Unfortunately it seems that the latest revision of the Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 (11199-16 11199-19 or) do also own as you can see from reading the many reviews on Newegg , LDLC or on our forum .

The symptoms are generally the same and knowing that their cause had been identified, their return is equally astonishing that disappointing. Of course this problem is not systematic and it can be difficult to reproduce because the machine environment may affect the noise that affects the electrical signal. This time we will not try to get your hands on a defective card for send to AMD for analysis and we'll just simply advise you to avoid this model until further notice. It is really a shame for AMD Radeon HD because among the few models available 7870 stood out in our last test , and Sapphire in part because of its aggressive pricing. It remains HIS models, a bit more expensive, and Gigabyte, much more expensive and requires for re-calibration against a manual fan. From our side we decided in the context of replacing the PC HardWare.fr Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 PC Power Gaming More by upper range card, Gigabyte R795WF3-3GD, more expensive but also more efficient and silent. For the PC power user, to maintain a reasonable graphics card which would only limited use of the play, this is the MSI N660 TF 2GD5/OC, also used on the Power Gaming, who takes his place .

http://www.hardware.fr/news/12917/pc...0-retiree.html

damn you Sapphire

[RaZz!]

hi guys


We have to update the configurations HardWare.fr to remove - amongst others - the card Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 Gaming PC Power and More Power User.
[...]

What? Sry, but the language barrier seems to be strong with this one

[Olivon]

Hardware.fr, the biggest board in France, is partnered with LDLC (e-tailer).
They do several rigs with components strictly chosen by HFR team.
HD7870 was chosen for Power Gaming Plus and PC Power User but feedbacks from users were not good at all, several users reporting a black screen problem while gaming.
As a serious team, they tried to understand and had sent a bad sapphire card to AMD Canada in order to find the flaw.
The problem was identified later, that was due to bad ceramic capacitor quality on some parts. Not all the parts were affected but few ones yes.
Marc, the admin, said that almost 10% RMA on the Sapphire 7870 OC and 7% on Sapphire 7870.
So they decided 2 days ago to give up 7870 cards and replaced it with 7950 on one part and GTX 660 on the others.

[PedantOne]

and how is this a news?

[deathman20]

Thanks for that break down Olivon. Makes more sense now.

[herderien]

and how is this a news?

it's a news because if you have a 7870 from saphhire you might experience black screens due to a bad component, 7 and 10% RMA are not within standard margin.
So it might lead people not to buy such products and the manufacturer to take actions and correct this know issue that is not on AMD's side.

[bearcatrp]

So is the 7870 OC good or bad? Been crunching with mine for awhile with zero issues.

[kuroikenshi]

mine has this problem, I thought it was drivers issue, but its now heading straight for RMA

[Mungri]

More negatives about Sapphire's build quality

[Tha Last Meal]

More negatives about Sapphire's build quality

Sapphire......Dig its own grave

[Olivon]

SAPPHIRE Technology has confirmed that a technical issue has been identified in two models of its HD 7870 series graphics cards, specifically SKU numbers 11199-16 and 11199-19 that were manufactured before Jan 23 2013 and before serial number A130300061911.

This technical issue can sometimes result in the loss of the display and a "black screen". Based on our analysis, only a small percentage (estimated 2 to 3%) of cards may exhibit the problem. The batches of product at risk have been identified, and SAPPHIRE is making every effort to provide support to customers who have experienced this problem. As such, any user who has unfortunately received one of these impacted serial numbers and had experienced the problem can have it replaced at his/her place of purchase, or through SAPPHIRE support.

Cards with serial numbers after A130300061911 (ie A130300061912, A130300061913, etc) have already had the correction implemented.

This issue affects a very small proportion of SAPPHIRE's production volumes and the company is doing everything it can to address it. Failure rates of SAPPHIRE products are normally very low, and the SAPPHIRE brand has a reputation for quality and reliability.

Customer confidence and user satisfaction has always been highly valued by SAPPHIRE and, as ever, the company encourages users with any problems to contact SAPPHIRE support.

http://www.hardware.fr/news/12929/ra...e-corrige.html

[Mungri]

I tell people whenever I can to only go for MSI / Gigabyte if buying AMD cards. Alternatively Asus for top quality cards, but bad service.

HIS / Powercolor / VTX build quality is also faultless, just horrible aftersale support.

Sapphire just combine both terrible build quality and aftersale support.

Its also funny reading somewhere above that there was criticism for other brands being more expensive than Sapphire ... Maybe you get what you pay for.

[Tha Last Meal]

SAPPHIRE brand has a reputation for quality and reliability.

a............... bull

[Mungri]

Well, I'll just lump together all I've heard / experienced with Sapphire in the past -

'Overclocking is the No.1 reason for Sapphire card failure. Therefore we do not allow overclocking, and you cannot talk about it on our forum'
'User modification is No.2 reason for Sapphire card failure'.

<-- Buys a pair of sapphire 5770s anyway cos they were the cheapest and reference designs are all the same right? While running benchies and games, over 90 degrees GPU temps. WTH on such low power / cool cards? Removes heatsinks to replace TIM. Both heatsink bases are heavily and deeply scratched, and one had a hole through it. Replace coolers with aftermarket ones and <65 degrees o.O.

Other people getting Sapphire cards with faulty factory bioses. When they contact customer service, they are told that they modified the bios therefore warranty void. Sapphire cards didn't ship with the faulty bioses, it was all the users fault lol. (According to Sapphire 'amazing' customer support).

Buy a fancy sapphire vapor-x cooled cards. VRMs start cooking at 120 degrees. The GPU temps skyrocket to 90+ still, and are worse than a reference design. Erm, I don't even know how they manage to mess up with all those fancy coolers.

And don't forget, if you try to fix it yourself, it was all your fault and warranty void. Trololol.

Anyone that simply reads this or any other PC forum is likely more qualified for repairing and putting together a graphics card than the people that work at Sapphire.