Discussion Buyer beware. AMD.com sold Radeon VII only come with 1 year warranty + highly restrictive

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Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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I think you quoted my post in error? Did you mean to respond to OP?
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
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I think you quoted my post in error? Did you mean to respond to OP?

Nope. I was just agreeing with your points you made in your 2nd post, and acknowledging my other post was a little "blunt".

I quoted all I wanted from the OP that I wanted to address. It's time for me to listen to some Floyd and balance my chi again. :cool:
 

TheELF

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 2012
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https://www.nvidia.com/object/pre_07192016_warranty.html
WHAT DOES THIS WARRANTY NOT COVER?
Any problems that do not relate specifically to a manufacturing defect or hardware product failure, including, but not limited to, problems caused by abuse, misuse, negligence, act of God (such as flood), misapplication of service by a party other than an authorized service representative, software, shipment damages, etc.
Missuse=overclocking/volting
misapplication of service by a party other than an authorized service representative=this can include anything you do including the physical installation of the card...
LIMITATIONS OF WARRANTY
This warranty applies only to the original purchases of the Warranted Products from a retailer, mail order operation, or on-line retail store; this warranty will not extend to any person that acquires a Warranted Product on a used basis.
Non transferable...
SOME STATES AND JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW EXCLUSIONS OF CERTAIN IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY LASTS, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
This is the same for any company,your warranty will last for as long as your local law demands it to last,it doesn't matter how long each manufacturer tells you the warranty will last if your local law demands a longer period.
NVIDIA RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE ITS WARRANTIES AT ANY TIME, IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE WITH RESPECT TO FUTURE SALES AND DELIVERIES.
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
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Has anyone on this forum (other than me) actually bought a Radeon VII?

Yup! It's in my box right now. Fun fact, the fans run @ 3850 RPM when you jack them up to 100%. Neat huh?

1-year warranty? Um, okay. Thanks for letting me know OP.
 
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Dribble

Platinum Member
Aug 9, 2005
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Really sad how many are just in blind defence mode here. Clearly a 1 year warranty from AMD is not good enough on a $700 card when you can get 3 years from other people. Instead of trying to bury it why not put pressure on AMD to make it a 3 year warranty like their direct competitor offers. That is the best result for AMD users - just because it's AMD doesn't mean you should suck it up and take bad business practices. Surely what we want is a better AMD who provide a better service to it's customers?
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,583
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Really sad how many are just in blind defence mode here. Clearly a 1 year warranty from AMD is not good enough on a $700 card when you can get 3 years from other people. Instead of trying to bury it why not put pressure on AMD to make it a 3 year warranty like their direct competitor offers. That is the best result for AMD users - just because it's AMD doesn't mean you should suck it up and take bad business practices. Surely what we want is a better AMD who provide a better service to it's customers?

Okay. How do I make them give me a better warranty when I've already purchased the product?
 

Dribble

Platinum Member
Aug 9, 2005
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Okay. How do I make them give me a better warranty when I've already purchased the product?
Well you can return it and buy one that has a 3 year warranty saying why you are doing it. Personally I've had cards die just out of warranty (mine was 2 years, nvidia 970) and I was pretty annoyed. If your R7 dies at 1 year 1 month and that's $700 down the drain you'll be kicking yourself you didn't get a better warranty on it.

Really if enough fuss is kicked up then AMD will probably feel obliged to change it for the R7 and future cards.
 
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DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
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Well you can return it and buy one that has a 3 year warranty saying why you are doing it. Personally I've had cards die just out of warranty (mine was 2 years, nvidia 970) and I was pretty annoyed. If your R7 dies at 1 year 1 month and that's $700 down the drain you'll be kicking yourself you didn't get a better warranty on it.

Really if enough fuss is kicked up then AMD will probably feel obliged to change it for the R7 and future cards.

Heh. Radeon VII is sold out pretty much everywhere, again. So that isn't going to happen. Sorry.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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This is not a normal warranty
As I pointed out, by mentioning Sapphire and Diamond, yes it is.

If you think any warranty that is less "forgiving" than EVGA's, is "not normal", then I don't know what to say to you, you're biased and ignorant. (*)

AMD's warranty terms are mostly standard boilerplate.

And for those people that "bought cards", and "then were pissed that the warranty was so short" - well, they should have done better research, before they hit the "buy" button. Hey, it's happened to me too...

(*) Ignorant, as in "unaware". I believe that I am using this word correctly, and not as an insult.
 
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coercitiv

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2014
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Surely what we want is a better AMD who provide a better service to it's customers?
Sure we do, that's why people should avoid buying directly from AMD.com and buy the 2-year warranty products instead, that is if they really want the VII (not a good fit for most consumers if you ask me)

On the other hand the 3-year warranties for Nvidia Founder Edition cards will definitely not go to waste, considering their significant number of dying cards.

PS: personally I'm not a fan of neither AMD's nor Nvidia's self made cards, they simply lack the motivation to make superior products.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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A one year warranty on a $700 graphics card is utterly unacceptable. People shouldn't be excusing or defending such anti-consumer garbage.
No, if they really cared, they simply shouldn't be buying the cards, with a 1-year warranty. Eventually, AMD would get the picture.

But they are selling out, all over the interwebs, including ebay, which, with a non-transferrable warranty, means that the buyers are getting NO WARRANTY.

So, clearly, the majority of buyers of this card DON'T CARE.

Which is why this thread is largely pointless.

And the T&C's (non-transferrable, no 3rd-party coolers/cooler mods, no overclocking/undervolting, etc.) are basically industry-standard.

I don't see the big deal here.

Edit: PS. Post-mining-craze, many GPU mfgs reduced their warranty coverage, or carved out explicit exclusions to warranty, some for "block-chain-based applications", and some for ANY "compute-based" (non-gaming) applications. (Including distributed computing! Thanks miners...)

So, if someone is buying a card for those applications (mining, DC, etc. - things with a 24/7 compute load), they may not have any warranty ANYWAYS! So, again, the point of this thread is largely moot.
 
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coercitiv

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2014
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So, clearly, the majority of buyers of this card DON'T CARE.
People being careless at the time of purchase doesn't mean they don't care. You being overly generous on terms with some friend when selling a PC doesn't mean you don't care whether you eventually get paid or not.

For the sake of this discussion we should generally agree that cards sold with 1 year warranties are not worth buying and should be advised against on this forum.
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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For the sake of this discussion we should generally agree that cards sold with 1 year warranties are not worth buying and should be advised against on this forum.
I would tentatively agree with that, with the caveat that it should only really apply to cards that cost more than $500.

I would be perfectly happy with a 1-year warranty on a $150 RX 570 card, for example. I think that the warranty should probably scale with the investment that you make in the card. I would be less happy, for example, with a $200 RX 570 card, that included 3 years of warranty.

OTOH, that may just be my (strong) personal opinion.

I follow a similar train of thought about HDDs. For a 1TB 7200RPM spinner, I'm perfectly happy with a 1-year warranty (with the knowledge and experience that they generally still last 3-5 years). For a 10TB NAS HDD, that costs $300+? Yeah, I'd want maybe a 2-3 year warranty on those.

(And in actuality, price versus warranty does affect my purchasing decisions. I bought a pair of 10TB WD EasyStore external desktop HDDs, from BestBuy on ebay. Then I shucked them, voiding my warranty. But they were only $180 ea., rather than $300+ for a 10TB WD Red branded internal HDD. So, for the price that I would pay for four of the "normal" prices HDDs, I can buy like five of the externals and shuck them, and then I've got my own spare HDD.)

Edit: It may be just my cynical point-of-view, too, that I don't see warranty from the mfg as much of a value-add, having read MANY stories online about RMA issues, same item getting returned without getting fixed or replaced multiple times, items getting refused for "physical damage", when receiving the item for RMA, when someone has pictures of it in pristine condition before being sent., etc.

I figure that RMAs are virtually worthless these days, I guess, so I don't see any serious value in a warranty.

Similarly, I buy plenty of "Refurb" (mfg/factory) items, that have a reduced warranty, but I don't care, when I can buy multiple items for less than the full retail price of the "normal" (non-refurb) item.
 
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DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
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For the sake of this discussion we should generally agree that cards sold with 1 year warranties are not worth buying and should be advised against on this forum.

I don't know if I agree with that.

Radeon VII in particular is being sold mostly through amd.com . Vendors carrying third-party cards have very short supplies. Your position means that, effectively, nobody on this forum would buy Radeon VII for now or the foreseeable future.
 

IEC

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 10, 2004
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I don't know if I agree with that.

Radeon VII in particular is being sold mostly through amd.com . Vendors carrying third-party cards have very short supplies. Your position means that, effectively, nobody on this forum would buy Radeon VII for now or the foreseeable future.

@Mr Evil , @DrMrLordX and I have all purchased cards, apparently. I don't know about you two, but when I purchased my card it immediately went OOS, so I suspect they had somewhere between 1-2 cards in stock when I purchased.

I preferred the XFX card simply based on my previous experiences with XFX back in the R9 290 days when I had a fan fail. They sent me a whole new HSF unit in the mail. I didn't have to send the card back. Same reason why I prefer eVGA cards on the nVidia side - customer service is quite good in the rare event you actually need to use the warranty.

I would think AMD could easily bump up their warranty on the cards to 2 years+ as a sign of good faith. I don't think it makes much of a practical difference given the bathtub curve of failure rates (i.e "infant mortality"), but it would reassure some purchasers.
 
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coercitiv

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2014
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Your position means that, effectively, nobody on this forum would buy Radeon VII for now or the foreseeable future.
Foreseeable future?! The card just launched, let's chill a bit, maybe even use proper judgement.
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
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Foreseeable future?! The card just launched, let's chill a bit, maybe even use proper judgement.

How many do you think they're going to make? AMD has already made vague comments about third parties having the option to make their own custom boards, but they seem pretty vague about the whole thing.

I am fully expecting this release to be very low-volume for awhile, given the probable expense they went to to release these cards.

It seems probable that AMD wants to limit warranty exposure so that they won't have to do many replacements, period.
 

coercitiv

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2014
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I would tentatively agree with that, with the caveat that it should only really apply to cards that cost more than $500.
Edit: It may be just my cynical point-of-view, too, that I don't see warranty from the mfg as much of a value-add, having read MANY stories online about RMA issues, same item getting returned without getting fixed or replaced multiple times, items getting refused for "physical damage", when receiving the item for RMA, when someone has pictures of it in pristine condition before being sent., etc.

I figure that RMAs are virtually worthless these days, I guess, so I don't see any serious value in a warranty.
I disagree. It's not the cost that matters as much as the expected service life.

Last product I had die on me was a $100 external soundcard - chipset had a known weakness - died slowly in just under 3 years. Warranty was 3 years. Got replaced with a brand new product, which may actually be free of the previous flaw - new revision. Apart from the card mentioned above I still own and use a Creative E-MU 0202, which is probably more than 10 years old.

The moment I see a HDD maker trying to sell me a spinner with a 1 year warranty I immediately ask myself why was it expensive for them to offer 2 years instead - on a product that has a far longer expected service life. The answer is almost always that the drive is expected to have diminished service life either through handling (small external drives) or due to poor lifetime projections. The first reason is fair enough, the second isn't. See how SSD warranty periods have gradually increased on average towards 3 years and now 5 years to understand how manufacturer confidence matters and why it should also matter to you.
 
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coercitiv

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2014
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How many do you think they're going to make?
Personally I think you bought the rumor instead of the card. It's just an opinion (no facts other than we both know from the webs), so we'll have to wait a while and decide who gets to feast on some crow :meatbone:
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
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Didn't AMD make these changes to their direct sales warranty during the mining craze? Pretty sure its not new. Not trying to say its great or anything, just a why.
 

AtenRa

Lifer
Feb 2, 2009
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Hahaha, crap guaranty so to keep the OEM/ODMs happy.

Just dont buy directly from AMD if you dont like the guaranty they offer for their products.

Also, this only effects US customers.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,229
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See how SSD warranty periods have gradually increased on average towards 3 years and now 5 years
Actually, they've decreased. There used to be a number of companies offering SSDs with 10-year warranties. Patriot Torx and Samsung "Pro" SATA SSDs used to be that way.
 

kawi6rr

Senior member
Oct 17, 2013
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I've been buying graphics cards since 1999 and have never had a card fail within the first year from ATI, AMD, or Nvidia. This thread is a bunch of.... "enter your comment here"!
 

Mr Evil

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Jul 24, 2015
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mrevil.asvachin.com
Thankfully, here in the UK we have a minimum 2 year guarantee from the seller, as required by EU law, so it doesn't matter what the manufacturer offers. UK law extends that up to 6 years in some circumstances. That applies to any commercial seller, even on eBay.

...I follow a similar train of thought about HDDs...
I've never been able to return any storage device, because I won't let anyone else have one until I've wiped the data from it, which is hard to do when it's not working...