Would you RMA a video card that you killed thru overclocking/modding?

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: nick1985
no. i say hang people who are caught doing it. hell, ill kick the chair out from under 'em.

If you had a custom title it would be "RMA crusader" wouldn't it....

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: rbV5
Isn't it pretty rare to damage a card by simply overclocking? I have to believe that modding a card has far more potential to actually damage a card. You break it, you buy it.

Yes... that's what people don't seem understand. Just increasing the speed doesn't hurt anything directly. Increasing the voltage can, and it getting hotter can.

*EDIT* On the other hand... putting an nVidia heatsink on an ATI card which doesn't make contact with the core will definately damage the card and is pure stupidity and should not be RMA'd.

That's not entirely accurate Jeff- heat rises with frequency (speed) and can damage the cpu/gpu.

Electro-migration explained

Noticeably, the thermal output increases as the clock rate increases. For example, the AMD Athlon 1200 outputs a maximum of 66 watts of heat. To ensure the safety of the processor, this heat has to be dissipated quickly and continuously. Only a powerful cooler can handle such a task. Otherwise, electro-migration occurs in the CPU core, which can quickly destroy the processor.

 

[Robor]

Nope - If I deliberately toasted the card by overclocking it I'd have to eat it.

 

[MDE]

If I killed the thing by my own stupidity, I wouldn't RMA it. If the thing is only mildly overclocked and dies, it probably would have died non-overclocked.

 

[Megatomic]

Nope. Never have, never will.

 

[Avalon]

Dunno. I've always been careful running my hardware out of spec, and never had an issue in my life. If I physically modded something, which I would never do to begin with, then I guess I'd eat the loss. I don't think I can answer the poll.

 

[ss284]

Originally posted by: MDE
If I killed the thing by my own stupidity, I wouldn't RMA it. If the thing is only mildly overclocked and dies, it probably would have died non-overclocked.

My sentiments exactly. Do you penalize end users who have so much dust in their case that the fan dies and the card overheats? If it dies one day while within warranty, even if its mildly overclocked, I would still rma it.

-Steve

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: ss284

Originally posted by: MDE
If I killed the thing by my own stupidity, I wouldn't RMA it. If the thing is only mildly overclocked and dies, it probably would have died non-overclocked.

My sentiments exactly. Do you penalize end users who have so much dust in their case that the fan dies and the card overheats? If it dies one day while within warranty, even if its mildly overclocked, I would still rma it.

-Steve

Yeah, that's kind of how I feel.
Now, I wouldn't RMA it if I was putting a new heatsink on and chipped the GPU core, or if I OC'd my radeon "9700" straight to 380mhz/340mhz to see if it would run at 9800 speeds. Now that is stupid and calls for eating your own loss when it breaks. Not that I do either of those

 

[Cawchy87]

OC'd my radeon "9700" straight to 380mhz/340mhz to see if it would run at 9800 speeds.

got a good chuckle out of this one.

 

[ss284]

I run my radeon 9700 Pro at 100 core when I'm not gaming (makes a huge difference in room temperature). Does this compensate for the increasedelectro-migration from me overclocking it? I would say yes.

The funny thing is that clocking it below 80 causes it to freeze.


-Steve

 

[CRXican]

Originally posted by: McArra
Nope, If I break it I pay for a new one.

Me too. I know most people would RMA and that sucks for the people who have legitimate problems by no fault of their own. You break it you buy it.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: ss284
I run my radeon 9700 Pro at 100 core when I'm not gaming (makes a huge difference in room temperature). Does this compensate for the increasedelectro-migration from me overclocking it? I would say yes.

The funny thing is that clocking it below 80 causes it to freeze.


-Steve

Isn't that kinda like saying 'turning it off occasionally' compensates for overclocking, or am I missing something?

I also have a card that I can't under-clock as much as I'd like to though, I guess there's probably a reason, but I don't know what it is. It's nowhere near being slower than 66mhz (i.e. AGP bus), which I guess I could understand.

 

[Trikat]

I haven't really overclocked in the past, but with this new XFX 6800 GT I am OCing it with the "auto detect settings." It should go higher, but i'm not going to try for now.
If I wanted to OC my CPU I would have to put a better heatsink / fan and right now I don't want to mess with the thermal paste. A mistake would mean a fried CPU.

Never RMAed anything before. I have returned stuff, but they weren't broken and 99% of the time I return the item with the shrink wrap on / still sealed.

Regards,
trikat

 

[ss284]

Originally posted by: Trikat
I haven't really overclocked in the past, but with this new XFX 6800 GT I am OCing it with the "auto detect settings." It should go higher, but i'm not going to try for now.
If I wanted to OC my CPU I would have to put a better heatsink / fan and right now I don't want to mess with the thermal paste. A mistake would mean a fried CPU.

Never RMAed anything before. I have returned stuff, but they weren't broken and 99% of the time I return the item with the shrink wrap on / still sealed.

Regards,
trikat

Meaning you've returned more than 99 shrink wrapped items in your lifetime ?

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie

Originally posted by: ss284
I run my radeon 9700 Pro at 100 core when I'm not gaming (makes a huge difference in room temperature). Does this compensate for the increasedelectro-migration from me overclocking it? I would say yes.

The funny thing is that clocking it below 80 causes it to freeze.


-Steve

Isn't that kinda like saying 'turning it off occasionally' compensates for overclocking, or am I missing something?

I also have a card that I can't under-clock as much as I'd like to though, I guess there's probably a reason, but I don't know what it is. It's nowhere near being slower than 66mhz (i.e. AGP bus), which I guess I could understand.

Its just to say that the electromigration process largely depends on the situation. I'm to lazy too calculate, but I'm sure that, say, for example a 9700 pro mildy overclocked and used 6 hours a day would not come close (in terms of electron migration) to the 9700 pro that is run 24/7 at stock.

-Steve

 

[amheck]

Seems like most of you say you wouldn't RMA a product in this situation.

How about this one?
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=792361

Basically, you RMA a card, and get 2 new cards sent from the manufacturer. Do you keep both? Or inform them that they mistakinly sent two?

Aaron

 

[Schadenfroh]

in light of recent events, its time to ressurect this dead thread :evil:

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
in light of recent events, its time to ressurect this dead thread :evil:

And what a shock, my stance hasn't changed.

If you're going to overclock, at least have the balls to deal with the consequences. And then mod the snot out of it so you're not just breaking the warranty, you're obliterating it.

- M4H

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
In other words next time your house is robbed, remember that by claiming you had a brand-new plasma TV isn't 'hurting no one' it's costing your friends, family and neighbors several times the cost of your new TV to give it to you.:|

People really do that???

 

[futuristicmonkey]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
If you're going to overclock, at least have the balls to deal with the consequences. And then mod the snot out of it so you're not just breaking the warranty, you're obliterating it.

- M4H

sig material :laugh:

but seriously, what 3chordcharlie said sums it up for me:

Nope. That's why I never OC anything that still has a warranty.