https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpxQaSjQclo
 
The Article
 
READ IT!
 
http://www.gamersnexus.ne...ture-test-and-analysis

Everons
 
So it seems that the early shipped cards could perhaps have bad capacitors. This makes sense when you look at all the pictures in social media of burnt out cards as the scorch marks seem to be where the caps are located on the cards.
 
Any response from EVGA on this article?
 
Well I guess we are "Awaiting Shipment" whoops!! I mean "Awaiting a Response"

Too early, the article was just posted at 440 pm today.

Maybe one of these should ship with cards. Just in case. LOL

http://www.gamersnexus.ne...ture-test-and-analysis
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpxQaSjQclo
 
Enjoy. Quite thorough testing as-well

The original thread is here.
 
http://forums.evga.com/Ga...s-Report-m2587196.aspx

R.I.P, sorry I didn't see them

Merging threads.

So basically the lack of thermal pads was an oversight, but not one that would lead to the type of catastrophic failures we keep seeing popping up all over multiple forums.
 
After extensive testing, Gamers Nexus seems to think it is very likely that these catastrophic failures are the result of poorly manufactured capacitors (maybe some, maybe all?) instead of a thermal issue which EVGA has claimed.
 
I'm not sure why anyone would feel a sense of relief after hearing this. It only means that the most likely issue with these cards has yet to be acknowledged by EVGA. Sure, a .02 failure rate is probably acceptable, but the card hasn't been on the market that long and so this number will likely increase dramatically.

HungryHamster
So basically the lack of thermal pads was an oversight, but not one that would lead to the type of catastrophic failures we keep seeing popping up all over multiple forums.
 
After extensive testing, Gamers Nexus seems to think it is very likely that these catastrophic failures are the result of poorly manufactured capacitors (maybe some, maybe all?) instead of a thermal issue which EVGA has claimed.
 
I'm not sure why anyone would feel a sense of relief after hearing this. It only means that the most likely issue with these cards has yet to be acknowledged by EVGA. Sure, a .02 failure rate is probably acceptable, but the card hasn't been on the market that long and so this number will likely increase dramatically.

So reading through the summaries,  EVGA insists the defect rate for their 10 series card is the same as EVGAs previous products and the Gamer Nexus piece is essentially saying EVGA put their own card on blast and amplified failures because they neglected to put thermal pads on the cards (due to an oversight), saw independent report of VRM thermals to be dangerously high, felt concerned, and went public about the high thermals due to lack of thermals padding and provided a fix, causing EVGA owners to report every little problem, including cards exploding, that may have happened anyways due to normal defects and not due to the high VRM.  Fair enough.
 
  This piece really hinges on EVGA's 200 per million defect figure being correct and that there is no creative accounting. And I'm almost certain it excludes the 3-4% defective VRMs that caused the black screen + fan 100% issue; As 2 cards had that exact same issue at my local PC parts retailer in a short span of time (I had one of these cards), and their own stated 3-4% defect rate would put the defective cards at much more that 0.02% for sure.
 
So there's some creative math, which is fine, as EVGA likely feels they weren't at fault for that issue as it was a supplier issue.  But the rest of the story is up to the eye of the beholder.
I feel like there's something we're missing here, but I'm very happy with EVGA's aftercare and they will have me as a customer if this RMA card lasts me to when I plan to upgrade with the 12xx series.
As I plan to invest big again and love the safety net they do provide.  I just hope it's not so much of a hassle next time.
 
One question I have is pictures of cards that combusted seem to always happen at the same area where the 'V' and 'G' is on the backplate.  What component other than VRM would be there?
 

Moving on to the torture test with the new VBIOS and thermal pads, the worst we got was about 82C on the PCB. That's mostly the thermal pads doing work, too, so don't listen to those comments saying that the thermal pads do nothing. They are utterly, completely false, and based on nothing. We've done dozens of hours of tests at this point, and we can confidently tell you that the thermal pads massively contribute to performance. Just looking at the fan speeds of those two charts, you'll see that we're even below the overall speed when we were manually tuning the cards for worst case scenarios
 
From Gamer nexus test.. so i guess ALL should stop calling Thermal pads as OPTIONAL... 

If the issue is not caused by the higher temps but by faulty components that means the cards dying, they would die anyway even if you installed the thermal pads and BIOS update?

Can someone make a resume for those who dont speak very well english ? 

Whats new for those who wont put the pads ? Seems good news no ?

i think it is safe to say now that EVGA should ship Tinfoil Hats instead of Thermal Pads.  
 
GG on the Internet Panic though.... 0.02% failure rate and people panic like we are looking at the next 33% RROD situation.