I originally bought the revision 1.0 of this card new on eBay. After a little over one year of use, my old AMD motherboard died, and I though this card was still in working condition. I built my Intel system with this card 2600K and MSI Z68-GD80. It was getting video artifact when running any graphics application, even Warcraft III. I used WinDbg to analyze the crashes. It indicated that the video driver(nvlddmkm.sys) was causing the problem. The setup is very easy to do if you have any similar problem.



(1. Download and install Windows Debugging Tool, open WinDbg.exe)

(2. Open symbol path, insert this line SRV*c:\localsymbols*[...]

(3. find the memory dump file at windows/system32/minidump)

(4. At WinDbg, click "open memory dump file", follow the directory and open the file)

(5. The analysis won't take long, the report is very technical but you should be able to find out what driver is causing the problem)



I contacted Gigabyte for support via their Global Technical Service. Their technical support team had quite a lot of grammatical and spelling errors on their responses, but they do respond fast and have constructive advices. The nvlddmkm.sys crash is widely occuring, there is no single method will fix the problem. I have done couple things, such as reintalling the driver and flashing the VBIOS but problem persist. Finally, I RMA'ed the graphics card.



Gigabyte has very good communication. They email and informed me of every progress.



Gigabyte took two weeks to test the card which was reasonable. They found out that the card had one or more defective memory modules. They returned the card to me, I was thinking that they repaired the card. When the package arrived, they actually sent me a brand new revision 2.0 (the one on the listing) which was very generous.



Now, I have used the new card for 2 weeks, it is working great, 30C at idle and 60C at load using Unigine Heaven. I don't think there is any performance difference between revision 1 and revision 2 because the GPU clock speed and memory speed are the same. There are changes on video outputs, heatsink and fan design as far as I could notice.



Revision 2 has 1 single link DVI, 1 dual link DVI, 1 HDMI and 1 displayport. The video outputs are irrelevent to me, but I really like the new heatsink and fan design. The heatsink is a little less restrictive to internal exhaust, revision 1 had a piece of metal connecting the top fins. The fans are about the same, but the bracket they sit on along with the heatsink are shifted about 1.5 inch to the left. The four srews that hold the bracket are now accessible, you will not have to remove the heatsink in order to remove the fan bracket. This fixes the inconvenience in the revision 1 because removing the heatsink will break the thermal paste contact between the GPU and the base of the heatsink. You can always reapply the thermal paste, but it poses a risk that if you apply too much, it will damaged the nearby circuit and ruin your card; apply too little will reduced cooling performane. This new design allows you to remove the fan bracket and clean the fans easily; I normally use LCD wipes. I would not suggest using LCD wipe to clean the heatsink though because it might damage the PCB if you leave any fibers on it, I think compressed air should work fine.



My previous GTX 570 was probably damaged by dust and overheating because the case was part of the pre-manufactured case. If you buy lots of nice PC hardware, buy a good case as well.



By the way, this card is not very good for overclocking; it is 780MHZ which is higher than stock clock. I heard that MSI cards are better for overclocking, but I don't have one.



I hope this is helpful.