Sacrifice Price/Performance Ratio or Customer Service?

[Eluros]

Greetings, all!

If you're simply here for the topic, jump down to where I say, "Here is the issue" in bold.

First, let me preface this by saying that this is not intended to be flamebait or any sort of trolling topic. I'd appreciate everyone maintaining civility and not letting this degrade into an NVIDIA v ATI slugfest. Rather, I think some intelligent weighing of pros and cons would really help the community.

I'm in the market for a new video card, and was planning on purchasing an HD 4870, most likely a Visiontek. However, my current video card (an EVGA 7900 GT) has been increasingly producing terrible artifacts, and I contacted customer service last night per the suggestions in this topic:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2214140&enterthread=y

I had an absolutely stellar time with one of the best CSR's I've spoken with in quite some time. This is important, because I myself work as a CSR at a technical support desk, and I can tell quality telephone support when I hear it. This changed my complete outlook on the current video card industry; while ATI certainly has the price/performance ratio down with stellar cards like the 4870 for cheap prices (and particularly the 4850s that can run as cheap as $140 after rebates), everything I've heard indicates that their customer service can't touch EVGA's, who as of now only works for NVIDIA.

Here is the issue: in your opinion, how much is customer service worth? If you have to pay an extra hundred bucks for the same quality product with EVGA as with an ATI Board Partner, but get lifetime quality technical support and RMA assistance, is it worth it? What about 50 bucks? I'm considering picking up an EVGA GTX 260, which currently runs for $310 with shipping after the rebate. Thoughts?

 

[AmberClad]

$100 extra bucks for EVGA-level support? For me personally, it wouldn't be worth it. I don't keep my parts all that long, and I haven't had anything crap out on me that I've needed to RMA. Also, $100 would go a long way towards a brand new, modern card, if it came to that (the card crapping out after a year or so). I think, depending on the specific item, NewEgg's got you covered for a year. After that, I'd be more inclined just to buy something new than to RMA.

Course, everything being equal, I'd pick the brand that had the better warranty.

It'd be different if it were something else, like a high end and expensive pair of headphones. That technology doesn't change that rapidly, so I'd treat that more as an investment and I'd like the lifetime warranty.

 

[smackguy]

Wait a week or so, and see if newegg.com has some deals. I was able to get my EVGA superclocked gtx260 for 199.99 after rebate. Looks like the price is jacked up again, but newegg is like that, up one week, down the next. I'd say go for EVGA if you can. Plus you can step up if they come out with a better card in 3 months or less.

 

[Klinky1984]

I would probably be willing to pay $10 - $20 more for eVGA or "higher quality" customer service. Beyond that I'd think you're wasiting money. Like AmberClad said $100 would go a long way towards a new card & by the time your card failed and was beyond whatever standard warranty you'd get, $100 could probably pay a large majority of buying a new card of same model or going towards a newer upgraded card.

Personally I haven't had a faulty video card, maybe I am lucky. I did "RMA" a new eVGA 8800GT but once the RMA arrived I figured out I had forgotten to plug in the +4pins on my ATX connector which was causing the instability, not the card itself. eVGA RMA was pretty painless though & had I had a faulty card I would have been very happy with their service.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: Eluros

Here is the issue: in your opinion, how much is customer service worth? If you have to pay an extra hundred bucks for the same quality product with EVGA as with an ATI Board Partner, but get lifetime quality technical support and RMA assistance, is it worth it? What about 50 bucks? I'm considering picking up an EVGA GTX 260, which currently runs for $310 with shipping after the rebate. Thoughts?

Well you could factor in other things like the GTX having more memory, CUDA, PhysX and a better heatsink on it.

Thankfully I have never had a problem with any of my video cards. So for me I have not had to deal with RMA.

Although I got my EVGA 260 for $225 so it kind of made my decision easier than yours.

$100 more for support seems a bit steep though. $50 maybe, I guess you could consider it insurance.

 

[TaylorTech]

Originally posted by: Eluros
Greetings, all!

If you're simply here for the topic, jump down to where I say, "Here is the issue" in bold.

First, let me preface this by saying that this is not intended to be flamebait or any sort of trolling topic. I'd appreciate everyone maintaining civility and not letting this degrade into an NVIDIA v ATI slugfest. Rather, I think some intelligent weighing of pros and cons would really help the community.

I'm in the market for a new video card, and was planning on purchasing an HD 4870, most likely a Visiontek. However, my current video card (an EVGA 7900 GT) has been increasingly producing terrible artifacts, and I contacted customer service last night per the suggestions in this topic:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2214140&enterthread=y

I had an absolutely stellar time with one of the best CSR's I've spoken with in quite some time. This is important, because I myself work as a CSR at a technical support desk, and I can tell quality telephone support when I hear it. This changed my complete outlook on the current video card industry; while ATI certainly has the price/performance ratio down with stellar cards like the 4870 for cheap prices (and particularly the 4850s that can run as cheap as $140 after rebates), everything I've heard indicates that their customer service can't touch EVGA's, who as of now only works for NVIDIA.

Here is the issue: in your opinion, how much is customer service worth? If you have to pay an extra hundred bucks for the same quality product with EVGA as with an ATI Board Partner, but get lifetime quality technical support and RMA assistance, is it worth it? What about 50 bucks? I'm considering picking up an EVGA GTX 260, which currently runs for $310 with shipping after the rebate. Thoughts?

Well you have to consider, how often do you feel you will need CSR's? Are you going to be doing heavy overclocking? I mean from what I've seen the 4870's have very low failure rate or overheating issues. I have had my 7800GT overclocked for like 2 years now running 24/7 and not a single issue, so it depends on how often you think you'll need them.