Which ATI brands have the best warranty?

[lopri]

I know there was a thread regarding this some time ago but can't find it. I'm ready to purchase an X1900XT (will probably wait for a few week till X1950 comes out) and it looks like warranty should be the #1 factor these days when purchasing video cards.

I've had great experiences with BFG/EVGA in the past but they don't make ATI cards, so I'm kind of blind when it comes to ATI brands. All I know is that BBA cards come with 1 year warranty and probably hassle-full RMA procedure. Any avid ATI customer can give me a piece of advice?

Thanks in advance.

 

[schneiderguy]

afaik powercolor and connect3d (? might not be connect3d) offer lifetime warranties. other than that you're stuck with a 1-3 year warranty

 

[lopri]

So Powercolor have lifetime warranty? That's a good news. 3-year warranty is enough, honestly, but I'd like the RMA process as prompt and as painless possible, if something goes wrong.

 

[Captante]

Powercolor Retail-box cards have a lifetime warranty... no experience with how good their RMA/support is.

Asus has a 3 year warranty which as you said should be plenty, & their RMA/support is pretty good.

 

[Bobthelost]

How many people here really leave their cards in a warranty viable state? After a couple of weeks to make sure the card isn't DOA my warranty goes out the window, quickly followed by the stock heatsink. Although information about how they handle RMAs is always nice to know.

 

[orangat]

I think there isn't a single ATI manufacturer who offers full lifetime warranty on all their products like BFG, XFX, EVGA for Nvidia cards.

Powercolor only has lifetime warranty _only_ for x1900 cards and _only_ for those living in the US or Canada. Connect3d is standard 1-2yr.

 

[lopri]

Thanks for your input. One more question: Has anyone actually experienced RMA procedure from any company? Captante mentioned ASUS' decent RMA but is it really? I know their motherboard RMA wasn't a pleasure to deal with. I'm looking at Connect3D, Sapphire, and Powercolor. I guess 3 year warranty is good enough. Has anyone actually dealt with above mentioned companies? How long did it take for your issue to be resolved?

Thanks.

 

[Avalon]

Connect3D has 2 year warranties on all their cards, although I did hear somewhere about them supposedly implementing lifetime warranties in the future. Don't know if or when that will happen. I had an RMA with them once, and it went pretty smoothly.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Avalon
Connect3D has 2 year warranties on all their cards, although I did hear somewhere about them supposedly implementing lifetime warranties in the future. Don't know if or when that will happen. I had an RMA with them once, and it went pretty smoothly.

Thank you Avalon. That's what I wanted to hear.

 

[JBT]

PowerColor's warrenty
The only thing it states that will void the warrenty is physical damage to the PCB, chipset or GPU. Doesn't say changing the HSF or OCing will void the warrenty.

This lifetime warranty is valid for the life of the retail product, as so long as the original purchaser owns the product, based upon the following conditions:

* PC Lifetime Warranty applies to all X1900 series retail Graphics Card Only
* Product must be with no physical damage to the PCB, GPU/chipset, or components
* Product must in retail package and have been registered with PowerColor.
* Offer is only valid in the USA and Canada .

While this seems pretty decent it doesn't say how well the RMA processes actually goes. And I havn't heard of an RMA stories so who knows at this point.