Published in Graphics

Nvidia mobile issue is not as bad

by on08 September 2008

Image

So far there are no recalls


We spent
some time to figure out what is actually going on with Nvidia's notebook chip issue. We were told by multiple sources that the issue has been simply blown out of proportion and that the situation is definitely much better than most of the people believe.


We were told by industry sources that so far neither Dell or HP have recalled a single notebook using Nvidia GPUs. You might be aware that mostly notebooks with Geforce 7 and Geforce 8 mobile chips are affected, and so far there are no reports that Geforce 9 mobile series are having the same issue. The issue is related to a mobile chip packaging and obviously, someone used a wrong combination of materials that is leading to this issue.

Dell and HP have announced preventative software updates and extended warranty programs for affected models, but they and other OEMs haven't issued full widespread GPU recalls. Dell and HP are probably the most affected, simply as they are selling much more SKUs compared to anyone else. This should indicate that the mobile GPU problem is not a widespread epidemic.

We will keep our eyes open, but so far there has not been any big recalls of notebooks with Nvidia’s GPU and this is a significant detail that was not properly communicated with the market; but this is up to OEMs, as Nvidia has to keep its mouth shut due to the contracts it has with big OEMs. 

We were also told that the issue affects a small number of notebooks and it occurs mostly in some notebooks where the GPU and the rest of the machine is pushed to its limits, and even then it doesn’t happen every time. There will be more about this issue as it really caught our attention.

Compared to Sony's recent recall of 440,000 VAIO notebooks, the Nvidia issue really doesn't seem to be a significant one, as it has not forced a single vendor to recall a single unit.

Also read:

Nvidia gives OEMs $200 per bad mobile GPU

Last modified on 08 September 2008
Rate this item
(0 votes)