Hi Bit-tech. Long time since I've posted here, but glad to see things on the up again! I've got a potentially dead xfx hd6850 and was just looking to see if anyone else had seen these symptoms. It was working fine yesterday but when I tried to turn it on this morning not a lot happened display wise. Occasionally I do get something out of the display but there is corruption from the very first bios screen. and then it will occasionally boot in to a windows 8 recovery screen. The bootup scans report no issues but after about 3 minutes the display just starts flickering and then dies. so, 1st of all, is this a display card issue (I don't currently have the means to test in another machine or another card to test in the PC. I should be able to get access to a psu to test that soon) secondly, since this seems pretty likely to be a display issue due to the corruption even in the bios, what is a good replacement these days for an hd6850?! Bios information screen Windows 8 booting Windows 8 recovery screen Specs: Core i5-760 2.80GHz XFX R6850 HD CORSAIR DDR3 1600MHz 16GB GIGABYTE S1156 Intel P55 Thanks
Ok guys, thanks for confirming my fears. So, the question now is, what is going to be a decent replacement? Monitor wise I'm using a dell u2711 (2560x1440) over dual-dvi as well as another 19" dell in portrait also over dvi. I don't spend a lot of time gaming any more so I'm not looking to spend hundreds and it would be nice to have something quiet. Should I be looking at modern low end, low power eg http://www.ebuyer.com/616903-zotac-geforce-gtx-750-ti-2gb-oc-4-outputs-w-g-sync-zt-70602-10m or slightly older and further up the scale?
Definitely dead or about to die. You could bake it but that is a last ditch effort that may or may not work. Do you game on this rig? If not, any low end GPU will work. A 750ti is a pretty good bet I think.
I game very little (the last game I bought on PC was deus ex hr. Basically I don't want a downgrade from the hd6850. That did everything I needed it to
Please stop suggesting baking broken cards when there's scope for a refund or replacement! Have a read of my signature thread Nedsbeds as you might be covered by UK consumer law. Not as exciting as baking a circuit board but probably more effective!
Use the Sale of Goods Act to argue the case with the retailer. If the card cost £100 or over and it was bought on a credit card, Section 75 gives equal liability to the credit card company. Failures of this sort are not uncommon with graphics cards so a convincing argument can be made in your favour assuming it was well maintained in the owners care.
Suggested above a gtx 750ti might not be a 'speed demon', but is much faster than a hd6850: AnandTech Bench For instance an EVGA GTX 750 SC (factory overclocked version and nearly as fast as a reference 750Ti) is imho very nice and sexy looking card. It's based on Maxwell, has a DisplayPort 1.2, is 4K monitor ready and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
Interesting, I was under the impression the sale of goods act was three years (my card being 4 years old) Nice to know it is 6 I'm well aware of the baking solution, but would rather just have a reliable GPU rather than one that could potentially fail in another 8 months. I might throw Dabs an email and see what they say.
Use one of the template letters in my thread and just plainly state the facts without getting emotive about it. Like I said, assuming you took good care of the card in a well ventilated case then argue graphics cards can and do fail over an extended period of time. As you've owned the card for over 6 months the onus is upon you to prove the card was inherently faulty when purchased! Certainly does no harm to see how dabs respond! What was the original value of the 6850 and did you buy it on a credit card? If the answer is yes and it cost £100 or over then that opens up further options.
6 years is the absolute maximum. However, each product is judged on how long it would be reasonably expected to last. Something like a mobile phone you can argue it should at a minimum last the length of its contract, but a TV should last the full six. Something like a GPU I'd argue should also be in to the longer end of things.
According to the invoice it was £135 and yes it was on a credit card. So what is a realistic outcome? Replacement doesn't seem like an option (dabs don't list any 6850s anymore)
Assuming they accept responsibility under the Sale of Goods Act (SOGA) then realistically you'll be looking at a partial refund or replacement of equivalent specification. If a refund is offered then the use you've had out of the 6850 would be taken into account. Typically the 6 year limit of the SOGA is treated as the standard life expectancy. So in your case the equations would go... £135 divide by 6 years = £22.50 per year 6 years life expectancy of 6850 minus 4 years of use = 2 years of non use due to fault Multiply the two together for a partial refund of £45! I'd imagine there's 'months' to take into account as well however so run the numbers from the date it failed. If your lucky they might send a card of greater specification. Let us know how you get on anyway and if dabs don't want to know then you can always pursue Section 75 with the credit card company assuming you routinely pay it off!
