bcavnaugh

bsmegreg
I would assume that if someone says that their old card works and their new one doesn't, that they probably know how to install it properly. I just think that there's a problem with the card, like maybe a bad batch.

Maybe, but I have had users refuse to test with two PCIe Power Cables so what do you do then.
I have even see users using 4-Pin Molex connectors and expect their cards to work with 180 and 280 Watt Power Supplies.
All they come back with is this card is a piece of garbage. I even had one user try and force the card into an old ISA Slot and blamed the card for breaking the slot on his motherboard. So not all users can install a new video card. Sometimes I think users post made up stuff only to troll.

Ya, i agree with most of what you're saying. I believe there are more people out there that can assemble a PC, but are not able to fix it, than those that can assemble a PC and fix the problems that occure with it. However, there are way too many reports arising related to the FTW. It can't be a coincidence.

brahmzy
It's not a coincidence - the FTWs are screwed cards.

Yep, that much is clear. Some users only able to obtain a working card after 2 or more RMA's and most users able to get the issue resolved by underclocking it, makes this crystal clear to me. 
 
But of course it's probably the CPU/RAM/PSU/USERFAULT/EVERYTHINGELSE. Laughable.

djmorgan

bcavnaugh
 
Maybe, but I have had users refuse to test with two PCIe Power Cables so what do you do then.
I have even see users using 4-Pin Molex connectors and expect their cards to work with 180 and 280 Watt Power Supplies.
All they come back with is this card is a piece of garbage. I even had one user try and force the card into an old ISA Slot and blamed the card for breaking the slot on his motherboard. So not all users can install a new video card. Sometimes I think users post made up stuff only to troll.

You are unfortunately wasting your bandwidth on this LIMITED bunch of complainers, I too have tried to suggest it maybe a combination of elements, all I got was that not all users post the specs of their rigs, you would think that somebody really interested to prove a point would find out all the specs of those having issues by email or PM, but NO! easier just to bag the product. And the poster, showing a high degree of immaturity 
 
You could have asked those that complain the most here, are the complaints echoed in other forums by OTHER users, Google it and you will find the answer is NO! 
 
So like you I don't respond anymore, I don't need to as I have a perfectly fantastic GTX 980 FTW, maybe those having an issue have Karma at work 
 
David.

I knew the spec's of maybe 4 users with this issue, all different, therefore no correlation to the source of this issue except everyone had a 980FTW. Gee, i wonder what the issue is here. Probably not the GPU. The only thing immature here is STILL not acknowledging that these cards have an issue even though You posted in most of them where fact's are stated that something is fishy.
 
Examples like: VRM's not being cooled on the FTW's, which has problems, against being cooled on the reference model, which has none. Why would Nvidia cool them if it is not necessary and why doesn't EVGA?

Samsander
ok guys, here is a follow up. I didn't solve the black screen issue. So no good news there.
But here are my findings after taking off the GTX980 FTW cooler and front plate.
Sorry I forgot to take pictures so I will be using a GTX980 reference picture. The PCB layout is more or less the same.
 
Here is the comparison of the VRM & RAM cooling on the GTX980 Reference and the GTX980 FTW card.

In the picture above marked in red are the components that are being cooled with thermal pads by the front plate behind the ACX cooler on the GTX980 FTW.
In green are the components that do not have any thermal pads and the front plate is not covering this area at all.
 
Those components however are being cooled on the GTX980 reference card.
Here is a picture of the GTX980 reference cooler that shows thermal pads cooling the components on this area.

 
So... looks like part of the VRM module is not being properly cooled. What do you think? Design flaw?
 
P.S.
Since the cooler was already off I reapplied some MX-4. The original application was overkill as usual and the thermal paste even went over the frame.
While this didn't solve the black screen crashes here are the temperatures of before and after.
 
Before:
Idle: 38c / Load: 81c
 
After:
Idle: 35c / Load: 77c
 
 
Edit:
Here are some pictures of the GTX980 FTW that shows the location of the thermal pads and the area left exposed by the front plate. (Not my pictures, but this is indeed the FTW).

 

 
Or the fact that the hardware level voltage lock which is way lower than that of the reference model (even lower than the one mandated by Nvidia) or the superclocked "could" probably hinder the ability of the FTW models to be stable at their stock value.
 
FTW

 Superclocked 

But no way. Again You come in say everything is fine for You call us immature for repeatedly pointing out this issue and tell other people to ignore us. I don't get it. For sounding so smart with what You write it seems You are not. Why would people complain about an EVGA product anywhere else but here? If an issue can be resolved this is the most likely place that will happen.
A few are also likely to not care once it is stable by underclocking it never to complain at all or simply getting a refund from where they bought it.
 
There are also people like You who have no such problems and that's OK but not raising an eyebrow when people get the same issue with the same card that can be solved in exactly the same way or having the same issue even after multiple RMA's is blowing my mind, honestly.
 
Someone mentioned switching his 980FTW with his wife's card (780ti or something) and the issue appeared on her system now. How can anyone say it's not the graphic card after reading something like that for example has to be some kind of a joke and a bad one at that.
 
I even thought about it being bios/old mainboard related in the first place but as i saw multiple people having the same issue with way newer mainboards, the thought perished. PSU is not worth mentioning because i can use an overclocked 780ti just fine and it draws way more. All OC's stable and issue persists even on default values. A whole bunch of different nvidia drivers tested and no difference. So, honest question: What else could it be?
 
On top of that, if it was indeed a compatability issue, it would be even more mindblowing that it runs on Your system without any issue. 
 
 
 

I've had my GTX 980 FTW for about 3 weeks now and I've had no issues with it.

Jshiver90

bsmegreg
[Removed quote and further editing]
The thing is it does work for some people, possibly a majority of them, but to have NO ONE in the bad card crowd say an RMA fixed the problem suggests it's some kind of hardware incompatibility issue or maybe even some kind of unique software that you all have. I would imagine a large majority of the cards work flawlessly, but to suggest that NO ONE with the problem on the forums can fix it with an RMA just screams that it's their PC somehow and considering that the only fix is to change card models suggests it's an incompatibility issue.
[Edited]

 
While I partly agree with you, if that were the case, down clocking wouldn't remedy the issue if it was a compatibility problem. It also wouldn't explain why some people have no issues after 2-4 RMAs.

Exactly this. That's why it's not a compatibility issue.
 
 
 
Edit by Jedi:  Cleaned up quoted portions that were off-topic.

I own and have been enjoying the Witcher 3 on it with no problems. I'm getting driver crashes on the desktop with Chrome but that is to do with NVIDIA and their rushed drivers post 350...
 
The only time I've had black screens is when I have stereoscopic 3D enabled in the NVIDIA control panel and certain game's don't like it but that's not really an issue with the card, that's just compatibility. Is there a way to replicate the issue, maybe I can test some things for people?

bsmegreg

djmorgan

"So like you, I don't respond anymore, I don't need to as I have a perfectly fantastic GTX 980 FTW, maybe those having an issue have Karma at work" sigh 

The legend of the internet troll continues....

The thing is it does work for some people, possibly a majority of them, but to have NO ONE in the bad card crowd say an RMA fixed the problem suggests it's some kind of hardware incompatibility issue or maybe even some kind of unique software that you all have. I would imagine a large majority of the cards work flawlessly, but to suggest that NO ONE with the problem on the forums can fix it with an RMA just screams that it's their PC somehow and considering that the only fix is to change card models suggests it's an incompatibility issue.

In remembrance of djmorgan who took an oath of silence, am I right or am I right?

Well, I was in the bad card crowd, and like I said on the first page of this thread, the first RMA has no issues at all.
 
I'll quote myself -
 
"I got lucky with my first RMA. I was having the black screen issue, where my monitor would turn off and only way to get back was restarting my computer. This was happening while playing games, and doing also the 3DMark Skydiver test, a lot of stuttering as well. This new RMA has been flawless, working perfectly fine, no issues at all. I'm on the list for a Step-Up to the 980Ti and I'm scared of letting this one go and have issues with the new one... hopefully not."

BigBearSmokey
Just got back the RMA'd Gtx 980 FTW Card. Nothing has changed, I still get the black screen after a few minutes in GW2. Changed Physx in control panel to CPU instead of GPU and it was stable. Used EVGA Precision X and down clocked -100 mhz and it was stable. Did a diagnostics check on my PC, everything was 100 percent fine, did a RAM test and again everything was fine. Why is this GTX 980 FTW not stable at stock speeds in my machine? Everything is about 2 months old, my 290x Sli, 280x and gtx 970 sc works fine without a hitch but this FTW card seems to carry a very bad curse with it ("For the Win" huh, we sure won alright.)

CPU: i5 4690K
MOBO: Asus Z87 Pro
PSU: 850 Watt Bronze Label
RAM: 8GB Corsair
SSD: Samsung EVO Pro

If I were you I'd join the step up club.  That's what I did and I am only interested in the stock or reference version - no OC versions for me this time around since I am only using a single 2560x1600 monitor.  I've been lucky with the reference versions and that's what I am sticking with this go round.  If my 3rd FTW starts acting up, I will down clock and use it that way until my turn in the step up program.  As it stands, I will probably take a beating if I try to sell it at this point.
 
Just One Man's Opinion

Samsander

iycanthropy
I own and have been enjoying the Witcher 3 on it with no problems. I'm getting driver crashes on the desktop with Chrome but that is to do with NVIDIA and their rushed drivers post 350...
 
The only time I've had black screens is when I have stereoscopic 3D enabled in the NVIDIA control panel and certain game's don't like it but that's not really an issue with the card, that's just compatibility. Is there a way to replicate the issue, maybe I can test some things for people?

Loop 3dmark skydiver demo on default settings.
This is the most crashy benchmark on the FTW card I know.

Yep, just tested...
 
Failed. So i uninstalled MSI Afterburner, it still failed. I installed PrecisionX and put a higher voltage to the core, it got further but still failed. I decided to underclock it by 100mhz core and 10mhz memory and it finally passed! 
 
Looks like I have a faulty card but I'm also on step up for a 980Ti so I'm not too concerned now. It doesn't matter though because it seems these cards are not set at the factory correctly, this card is only 3 weeks old.

iycanthropy

Samsander

iycanthropy
I own and have been enjoying the Witcher 3 on it with no problems. I'm getting driver crashes on the desktop with Chrome but that is to do with NVIDIA and their rushed drivers post 350...

The only time I've had black screens is when I have stereoscopic 3D enabled in the NVIDIA control panel and certain game's don't like it but that's not really an issue with the card, that's just compatibility. Is there a way to replicate the issue, maybe I can test some things for people?

Loop 3dmark skydiver demo on default settings.
This is the most crashy benchmark on the FTW card I know.

Yep, just tested...
 
Failed. So i uninstalled MSI Afterburner, it still failed. I installed PrecisionX and put a higher voltage to the core, it got further but still failed. I decided to underclock it by 100mhz core and 10mhz memory and it finally passed! 
 
Looks like I have a faulty card but I'm also on step up for a 980Ti so I'm not too concerned now. It doesn't matter though because it seems these cards are not set at the factory correctly, this card is only 3 weeks old.

So the card you were playing Witcher 3 on without crashing at all started crashing?

For the record. My 980 FTW worked great. I thought it was a great card. I never had a single problem 

I've cleaned up the thread some from a great number of off-topic posts and discussion.  It is, admittedly, a sloppy edit job because a number of very on-topic posts have no context without leaving quotes of posts that were previously deleted.  As such, there will be the odd quote that won't show up elsewhere in the thread.
 
Regardless, keep the thread on-topic and don't stray back into criticizing members for troubleshooting they may or may not have done.  It's pretty clear that members are talking about their experiences with the GTX 980 FTW - for better or for worse - and any discussion over whether somebody is doing things correctly should only occur in a constructive manner, and not in a generalized suggestion that the members in this thread ought to have their PC's examined at a Geek Squad.
 
Carry on.

NordicJedi
 It's pretty clear that members are talking about their experiences with the GTX 980 FTW - for better or for worse - and any discussion over whether somebody is doing things correctly should only occur in a constructive manner, and not in a generalized suggestion that the members in this thread ought to have their PC's examined at a Geek Squad.
 
Carry on.

Never take your PC to Geek Squad, unless you want your PC to be a bigger brick than what it already was. lol

Sorry, I completely didn't even read your full post for some reason, shame on me.

Have you tried downclocking the card by 51mhz while playing GW2?  I have to do this while playing Elite: Dangerous and only Elite: Dangerous.  The game does not like the overclock while other games handle it just fine.  I have done rounds and rounds with EVGA (just want to RMA), Nvidia (doesn't think it's the card), and Frontier Developments (say that the game with the card doesn't handle the overclock well due to the constant changes from high to low usage and voltage changes).

The underclock has made the game playable and I revert it to the standard clock while playing everything else. 

jgonz

stalinx20

NordicJedi
 It's pretty clear that members are talking about their experiences with the GTX 980 FTW - for better or for worse - and any discussion over whether somebody is doing things correctly should only occur in a constructive manner, and not in a generalized suggestion that the members in this thread ought to have their PC's examined at a Geek Squad.
 
Carry on.

Never take your PC to Geek Squad, unless you want your PC to be a bigger brick than what it already was. lol

 
Wow I am really concerned with the lack of a real response from EVGA on the 980FTW issues. Down clocking a FTW card should never be a solution. Why bother paying a premium for a factory overclock that is not stable. 980Ti step ups are nice (if you had any in stock). I was just thinking of upgrading my 680s to something new and shiny. But not with this current generation. "Titan X with out thermal pads" and now 980FTWs. So come on EVGA step your game up, this is un acceptable.
 
A Concerned Customer

As far as I can tell they don't seem to know what the issue is.  What would you suggest they do?  A Recall?  What about all the people the cards seem to work fine for?  This isn't to say I don't agree, because I do.  There should be more information from them on what's going on with the cards 100%.