Hi GAF, just a heads up on anyone wanting to buy a GTX 780. I would stay away from the Gigabyte ones from now. They seem to have a problem with some of the cards (mine was the newest revision) that as a result of the bios is not compatible with some motherboards (I'm using a LGA 1156 board so it's old but its not THAT old). I've also discovered others complaining about this on newegg as well.
I had no problems with the Gigabyte GTX 770, for some reason it only happens to the 780, which is a pity cause I really liked the Gigabyte aftermarket cooler. Basically, it results in your computer rebooting in a continuous loop (with or without BSOD) after first install, which forces you to boot into safe mode and re-install the nvidia drivers everytime after a shutdown. Complete system restore had no effect.
I've switched over to the MSI GTX 780 OC Gaming Edition and it is working like a charm right out of the box. Just a note: had a hard time finding out if the latest edition of the Twin Frozr cooler was quiet, since the one I had on my 560Ti sounded like a jet engine on load, and this one is silent and great. Temperatures are on par with the Gigabyte one and might be 1 or 2 degrees higher on occasion.
A note About Scan.co.uk:
I bought my card from there and regret it. Don't know if its just bad luck or maybe I'm expecting too much, but I think I'm just going to stick to amazon from ow on. Basically this is what happened:
Event Date
Received GIGABYTE GTX 780 & Installed with latest Drivers 11/1/2013
"Next morning computer boots to windows then immediately crahses; This repeats continuously. Dumpfiles available.
nvlddmkm.sys nvlddmkm.sys+994074 fffff880`0f4ab000 fffff880`100e2000 0x00c37000 0x52676afe " 11/2/2013
"Clean install of latest nVidia drivers with complete removal of old ones; Same problem persists.
Note: Motherboard is already flashed to latest Bios. " 11/3/2013
Took day off work to do a Complete Re-install of windows fresh from the DVD with all data wiped; Problem persists. 11/5/2013
Tried with borrowed GIGABYTE GTX 770; No problems as with GIGABYTE GTX 780; Reinstalls GIGABYTE GTX 780 with latest nVidia driver, Problem PERSISTS. 11/6/2013
Took ANOTHER day off work to do a Complete Re-install of windows fresh from the DVD with all data wiped; Problem persists. 11/7/2013
Contacts gigabyte for tech support, found out this bios problem exists for some users with their cards and told to contact supplier for replacement 8/11/13 - 11/11/13
Contacts Scan for Replacement: Gareth 11/7/2013
Told to return card via collection 11/11/2013
"Told a full refund will be provided and I can order a new card first as I couldn't wait due to urgent need for workstation;
Ordered an MSI GTX 780 over the phone; scan called me. Told not to keep the free games and not return them and they would not be sent out with the new card" 11/11/2013
Received MSI GTX 780 and installed with latest drivers. No previous problems from the get go. 19/11/13
Confirmed collection date for RMA, wrong address provided to courier by Scan; 1 day off leave wasted 19/11/13
Reconfirmed collection date, finally returned to courier 21/11/13
Even so, they had the nerve to tell me after they received my RMA that the card was working fine and that they would deduct shipping costs from my refund, which left me at a loss of over 15pounds (yes I know this is nothing to some but as a student I'm broke all the time). Thing is, the card clearly wasn't working for me, Gigabyte admitted to the fault and I had proof of it and even sent it to scan. But they just kept telling me that they tested the card on Battlefield 4 for 3 hours and there were no problems so the card was perfect. That may be the case, but clearly if the card's bios is not compatible with mu own Gigabyte motherboard, something is clearly defective. I thought I was entitled the FULL refund, well apparently not. Never had such problems with amazon ever.
Do you think I might be asking to much/am wrong?
Cheers!
