I actually have an EVGA card that is "grandfathered" with a true lifetime warranty inherited from my original GTX-8800.
When the 8800 went tits-up, they sent me a GTX-550ti... when the 550ti died they sent a GTX-950 which never worked properly. (refused to wake up) The replacement for that was an overclocked GTX-1650 Super!
Per the last agent at EVGA I've spoke with, they try to keep you with approx the same performance level as the card as the one that you RMA if they don't have the identical GPU. In my case the 550ti was only slightly faster then the 8800, but where I stand now the 1650 Super is nearly as fast as a GTX-1060... that's quite a bump.
SO 100% go for the RMA .... I wouldn't be shocked at all if they sent you a 980 or even a 1080. (which you should hang onto because lifetime warranty!)
One negative thing I've realized about EVGA though ... they may have the best customer service
BUT they need it because the cards themselves could be a lot better made. I've owned 11 EVGA GPU's... 4 just died suddenly and 1 weirded out with power issues.