Nvidia Tells Partners, "Our Old Mobile GPUs Bad, Buy Our New GPUs Instead"

As we reported earlier this year, Nvidia GeForce 8M series mobile GPUs have seen an abnormally high failure rate . VR-Zone  and The Inquirer report that Nvidia has a solution for its OEM laptop partners: buy their new mobile GPUs instead.

The old GPU is known as the NB8E-SE, and is used, according to VR-Zone, in notebooks running the GeForce 8700M GT, 8800M GS, and GeForce 9650M GS. The new GPU, the NB8E-SET (aka the G84-751) uses Hitachi underfill packaging for more reliability.

If you're in the market for a new Nvidia-powered notebook computer, it's worth finding out from the laptop maker if they've switched to the new GPU already. However, what should you do if your new (or not-so-new) notebook has one of the old-design GPUs onboard?

Both Dell and HP have produced BIOS updates for affected models; the update provides improved cooling to help delay GPU failure. Unfortunately, some new laptops, including some examples of Apple's new unibody MacBook Pro with the 15-inch screen, continue to use problem GPUs.

If you have lockups or crashes when gaming or performing other graphics-intensive games on your Nvidia-equipped laptop, you may have an affected unit. Contact your vendor for help - and try to get a replacement GPU that uses Hitachi underfill material if you can.

Image courtesy Nvidia.