Warranty Replaced GF3 Ti500 Installing as Ti200

[funkpuppy]

My Gainward GF3 Ti500 burnt out from the fan stopping (no overclocking). I sent it back to the place I ordered it from and they sent me back a "new" card. It came back in the product box I had sent back with a yellow sticky note on it saying "Replace Brand New Video Card". When I opened the box, the anti-static bag had been already opened with fur on the sticker. I shrugged figuring they just threw in an OEM card or something. There was a Ti500 sticker on the card...

I installed it in my system and powered on... I am running Win2K. Win2K recognized the card as a Ti200 after login. I figured it was just being stupid, but rebooted anyhow. So I installed the latest drivers from Gainward v28.32. It came up as a Ti200 again, so I forced it to a Ti500. After reboot, Win2K did not like the card (16 color mode 640x480 came up) and rerecognized it as a Ti200.

The wierd thing is, it has core/mem speeds of 240MHz/500MHz and my 3dMark2001 is the same from when I had the Ti500 in.

What is going on here?

Thanks...

 

[ElFenix]

since its the right core mem speed i'd say its a 500. it is odd that it would say 200

and no one does warranty replacements with new parts if they can help it.

 

[spanky]

did u overlook the enclosed note that says all ti500s r really ti200s overclocked from the factory?

 

[funkpuppy]

Don't know where you get this info from... It is half correct... The core is the same in all of them, the memory is different speed wise. The Gainward Ti500 has 3.8ns memory compared to 4+ns for the other cards...

 

[funkpuppy]

bump...

 

[Drakkhen]

Well, I guess they could have gone into the bios on the video card and changed the default core and mem for a Ti200 to that of a Ti500. I am just suprised, if that is what they did, that they didn't change the bios to say that it was a Ti500.

I would definitely try it in another system, if you can, to see if it show up as a Ti200 there. If so, I would be giving them a call about it.

 

[Dre]

I'd call them and get a replacement for the replacement.