The company promises a fix, but says it won’t come too soon

May 19, 2012 09:11 GMT  ·  By
Nvidia v-sync presentation graph as v-synk managing was supposed to be a feature
   Nvidia v-sync presentation graph as v-synk managing was supposed to be a feature

Video card IC designer Nvidia reportedly admits there is a problem with their new series of cards, the GeForce GTX 670, GTX 680 and GTX 690. They’ve identified it as being v-sync related and asks its customers to disable the feature.

It is quite strange to buy a 1000 USD video card and then discover that it is not working properly, but not because it is a defective sample, but because it was set up to behave like that.

When paying so much money for a video card, customers usually don’t expect just performance for the money, but also reliability and quality.

Nvidia’s video card shortage issue won’t be resolved this month and the company is really hurting because it can’t satisfy the demand for its high margins products.

TSMC promised that it would be resolved soon and while that’s nice coming from Nvidia’s main manufacturing partner, it is still not helping Nvidia capitalize on the “new king GPU” factor.

Technically, the problem seems to be a driver issue that results in visual tearing and image stuttering on some hardware configurations.

It is not a severe problem, but it won't help Nvidia's image or sales situation.

When inquired by different review sites and customers, Nvidia replied: “We have received reports of an intermittent v-sync stuttering issue from some of our customers. We’ve root caused the issue to a driver bug and identified a fix for it.

The fix requires extensive testing though, and will not be available until our next major driver release targeted for June (post-R300).

For users experiencing this issue, the interim workaround is to disable v-sync via the Nvidia Control Panel or in-game graphics settings menu.”

This is a way of saying, if it’s not working, then turn it off and don’t use it.

Lucky or not, Nvidia’s customers will be able to enjoy their powerful and expensive video card in a month or so.

It is better late than never.