Which OEM graphics card maker, Will you never buy from again?

[OILFIELDTRASH]

How do people have so much trouble with video cards dieing?

I've had every known brand of video card over the years and can't think of any that died or had major issues.

Me too. You're probably like me. Card is always kept at moderate temps, computer gets cleaned with compressed air monthly, no extreme overclocking. I imagine a lot of it comes from having an extreme overclock on the card and gaming 14 hours a day playing WOW, and having cat hairballs in the fan shroud. Fact is most people don't take care of their stuff.

 

[dpodblood]

Sapphire. I didn't own one personally, but I had a friend who needed to return one for RMA and it too 3 months to get the card back.

 

[BTA]

Me too. You're probably like me. Card is always kept at moderate temps, computer gets cleaned with compressed air monthly, no extreme overclocking. I imagine a lot of it comes from having an extreme overclock on the card and gaming 14 hours a day playing WOW, and having cat hairballs in the fan shroud. Fact is most people don't take care of their stuff.

Pretty much; I gave up worrying about massive OC's and such long ago. I just want a stable PC anymore.

I have a friend who seems to always have issues with whatever video card he buys (or other PC hardware for that matter). He's always RMA'ing stuff.

I think it's just him.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I will never buy from his again after they denied the warranty on a new hd4890 card that went south. I will buy from evga, asus, xfx and possibly gigabyte.

 

[Idontcare]

I don't have any "blacklisted" vendors but I have had plenty of RMA'ed hardware that died on me.

In-field hardware failures are unavoidable. For me it is the response to those in-field fails by the manufacturer which determines my impression of the integrity of the company and the confidence with which I will purchase their products in the future.

I've had products that died from Intel, Asus, Gigabyte, DELL, Mushkin, EVGA, MSI, Segate, Western Digital, IBM, Epson, and Lexmark...but I've never felt the companies just took my money and told me to fob off so I will happily buy from them again in all cases. Warranty support is critical for me, maybe I've just been lucky so far.

 

[JimmiG]

If you're buying a reference card, they're all equal. RMA and customer service is just as bad with every OEM that sells cards in Europe, so if the card breaks, you're pretty much screwed regardless.

 

[nitromullet]

Evga or XFX. I refuse to pay more for a lifetime warranty when I replace my card at least yearly sometimes monthly. Biggest scam that fanboys just eat up.

The lifetime warranty is only part of it. With EVGA you get the step-up program as well, which I've used a few times now. Plus, when you have a problem with an EVGA card you can be sure that you will get a timely response from their support staff. EVGA, Corsair, and Logitech have some of the best customer service in the business, and that's worth a few extra $$ IMO.

XFX also has the double lifetime warranty, which helps resale value quite a bit. You pay a bit more for XFX cards, but you'll most likely recoup the funds when you sell your card. Plus, they usually sell much quicker than cards without a warranty you can offer to the buyer. I really wish EVGA had a similar program.

There's only one brand that I have had a bad experience with, and that's HIS Tech. Horrible RMA process.

 

[llee]

I've used one MSI, two EVGA, one PaliT, and three Sapphire graphics cards. The only one that required an RMA was EVGA's.

Overrated? I think yes.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I've used one MSI, two EVGA, one PaliT, and three Sapphire graphics cards. The only one that required an RMA was EVGA's.

Overrated? I think yes.

I don't think EVGA cards are meant to be of higher quality, a lot of them are reference designs after all. But, they are supposed to be top notch for customer service, and many of their cards have a lifetime warranty.

 

[sandorski]

BFGTech.

Because they went out of business and are no longer manufacturing video cards.

This. Except different company, STB. My STB Voodoo 2 and, technically, Voodoo 5 5500 were great cards, but alas they are no more.

 

[Burticus]

Gigabyte. They lost my video card during an RMA process and took so long to find it the warranty expired. I would have raised hell on them but it was a sucky card anyway, was basically RMA'ing it to resell. Geforce 6200 or some such cheapo card.

 

[nenforcer]

You also have to understand that people who purchase both

Mad Dog Multimedia (CompUSA)

and

3DFuzion (BFGTech Downchannel)

don't frequent AT forums. So this thread is not entirely representative.

 

[OCGuy]

Evga or XFX. I refuse to pay more for a lifetime warranty when I replace my card at least yearly sometimes monthly. Biggest scam that fanboys just eat up.

Huh? The base models are generally the same price as the rest of the cards. eVGA offers cards with 2 year warranties (AR v TR in the product code).

XFX having a "double" warranty is attractive on the re-sale market to some people.

Also eVGA covers overclocking in their warranty, which not all companies do.

I think you are a tad confused.

 

[nwo]

sapphire

I've also had the worst experience with Sapphire. I had an x1800GT? fail (artifact) after less than a month of use. Was never able to get in touch with them to successfully RMA.

 

[Phynaz]

Canopus

Number Nine

 

[Obsoleet]

xfx. their customer support was lacking in my experience too. i'll be using asus or msi personally.

 

[ivesceneenough]

pny screwed me over on a 7900gt from buy.com

wont buy from an etailer from that brand again.

did get a 465 cheap from best buy from pny. not the best card... but i can always instore exchange it. wheeeeeeee

 

[nitromullet]

I don't think EVGA cards are meant to be of higher quality, a lot of them are reference designs after all. But, they are supposed to be top notch for customer service, and many of their cards have a lifetime warranty.

This. I've owned a lot of EVGA cards. I've also definitely had my share of RMAs, but they've come through every time. The quality of all the cards whether they be from AMD or NVIDIA partners seems to be about the same IMO. The differentiating factor for me is how they handle the situation when things go wrong.