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It seems quite sad...

Ephraim

Ephraim

Ephraim

Associate
Joined
18 Jan 2006
Posts
209
...that one of the main criteria when choosing a card, is the quality of the manufacturer's RMA process. Is it really the case that so many gfx cards fail? If so, is it because the manufacturers are forced into abandoning quality for price? Or is there something else going on here?
 
I've only ever had one card fail, a cap on a ATi 9800 Pro. I've always been quite an avid gamer too so they've all had fairly hard lives. I've also owned a lot of GPUs too, practically every generation with various brands.

I've never once bothered overclocking GPU's though. I just see it as largely a waste of time. Maybe that's where people go wrong.
 
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Due to price these days you better believe rma policy's and warranty lengths are important. Especially for the poor souls who bought things like the titan.
 
I have never had a card fail (lucky I guess) and even when trying to kill an 8800GT by running Furmark on 320.18 drivers, it still won't bloody die :(

I still look for the best RMA and lack of downtime/customer service.
 
Yeah, I understand why its a good idea, just a bit surprised that reliability is sufficiently bad that it's an issue at all. I had to RMA my first ever gfx card (having had a fair few since the old Voodoo days) recently, and seeing everyone talking about RMA being a consideration set me to thinking. Idle speculation really.
 
I will get jumped on for this but I do notice a lot of the AMD cards need returning but that could just be coincidence.
 
Out of 16 graphics cards I've had since 1998, only 1 broke - it came with faulty memory, was a HIS Radeon X1900XTX IceQ 3 Turbo 512MB - OcUK replaced it within a few days.

I've had a 15 motherboards since 1998 - two Abit which were replaced within 3 days by Abit themselves, my Asus A8V Deluxe Rev 2 was sent off to Asus, and I never even recieved it back at all, or a replacement!

One set of G.Skill DDR 1 Ram went faulty, didn't get it back for 6 weeks, they probally a lot better now, was shipped to Taiwan, they have a Holland RMA centre now.
 
Scougar said:
Why is this sad?

This should be a critical part of buying almost any product.
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Absolutely, especially so when we're talking about products that cost multiple-hundreds of Pounds!

It's not that graphics cards are unreliable, but they are complex electronic assemblies that CAN go wrong in many ways. With all other things being equal, why wouldn't you choose a product from the manufacturer with the best reputation for fixing problems in a timely manner?
 
I'm not usually that bothered by RMA support, in the UK the supplier you bought it from has the responsibility for faulty goods which goes above and beyond the warranties often offered by the manufacturers, and if all else fails I always pay by credit card and they don't often argue if you make it clear you would be prepared to take it all the way to legal action

if I can get a brand with good warranty for the same price as one without then I'll go with the better warranty brand, but it's not the primary factor in my decision making

I tend to find with PC hardware in general that it either arrives faulty / dies very quickly, or it goes on for years beyond whatever warranty is on it anyway
 
It's the speed that matters I'd rather buy from someone that has a fast turnaround than someone that takes 4 -6 months to return a card
 
=XDC=FluphyBunny said:
The reason people mention the rma process is more due to the crads been offered are so similar from manufacturers that it comes down to after sales as the distinguishing factor.
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You see, that might actually answer the question. I guess given the relative performance of the cards, that customer service can be a factor.

I found it sad, because it seemed to me that the prevailing trend was towards unreliability, and hence the need for a good RMA process. If it's just that after sales is now more important in a more mature market, then that's probably a good thing.
 
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