Update:
Well, let's just say it's at all not what I expected.
Package was well packed with lots of protective material.
The Asic qualities of the cards are 79.9% and 81.9% (the highest I've ever had in my hands), and that's about the good part.
First, you can definitely tell when you take the cards out of the protective material that these were refurbished cards, but not really a deal breaker. I was kinda expecting brand new ones but still OK.
Second, the fan shroud/enclosure of one of the cards really looked flimsy. Like it wasn't really put back together properly or in a hurry, still not a deal breaker but makes you kinda worry about other things.
So moving on to testing...
I tested the cards separately and each one seemed ok initially. The fans were not loud, the temps were ok, in short they worked fine when not under load. The Asic quality I was particularly excited about.
Fired up MSI afterburner, no overclocking or anything, just to monitor values and stuff. Fired up Dying Light and I swear just a few mins (under 3 mins) after the game scene loads (after clicking on Continue that is), I could hear the fans going loud, I looked at the temperature and it was hovering around 85-90C, within 3 mins. One of the card's fans was spinning so fast it started rattling.
I quickly stopped the game and back in the windows screen, the temps went back down quickly, so I know the heatsink and fans are doing their jobs properly. I fired up WatchDogs, same thing. Took cards out, re-seated them, tried again and still the same result. Note that I had to do this for both cards, not really how you want to spend a Monday evening after coming back from work and you just want to chill with the family.
This was the same result for both cards, which means I couldn't properly test the cards properly for fear of doing any damage. I took off the backplate of one of the cards and lets just say I was disappointed.
http://imgur.com/a/4RFDD
http://imgur.com/bo6Vb3B
After I saw the heat warping and what looks like burnt residue, I really couldn't be bothered any more and I just put the backplate back on and put both cards back in the parcel box they came with, I have no inclination nor time to try and fiddle around with it in order to try and salvage them. I was just hoping for something that worked right out of the box.
I've emailed dominik to let him know so hopefully he'll be able to sort this out. I've also opened another ticket with EVGA, still waiting for response (but that was only last night just before bed).