XFX Silently Strips New Radeon Cards of 'Double Lifetime Warranty'
XFX Silently Strips New Radeon Cards of 'Double Lifetime Warranty'
Posted 01/26/2012 at 11:58am
| by Paul Lilly
8
Comments
Print
One of the big draws to buying an XFX brand videocard is the modder friendly warranty that lets users swap heatsinks and overclock their GPUs without voiding the so-called 'Double Lifetime Warranty,' which is marketing speak for a lifetime guarantee that's transferable to a second owner (provided you registere your card within 30 days of purchase). Now we're hearing that this awesome backing won't apply to AMD's new Radeon HD 7000 series.
Hardware Canucks claims it received reports of XFX including "Warranty Void if Removed" stickers over the top of screws holding the heatsink in place, seemingly indicating the cards are no longer modder friendly. According to Hardware Canucks, you can ignore the warning if you live in the U.S., but not in other parts of the world.
More troubling are the revised warranty terms, which ditches the Double Lifetime Warranty in favor of a two-year guarantee. It's a little confusing, but here's XFX's stance:
Regarding our revised warranty policy:
1) XFX will transition to a Two-Year Limited Warranty for all new XFX Radeon HD 7000 series models. The standard two-year limited warranty is on par or better than warranties offered by other brands in the industry. While we have had an increasingly small percentage of warranty related occurrences after the two-year mark, we have eliminated the extension and transferable options for these models. Simplifying the operational requirements will allow XFX to commit our resources on developing and manufacturing the highest caliber and best selection of graphics cards available.
2) For the new XFX Radeon HD 7000 series Double D models, we will continue to provide an option to extend as these products are geared for our top-tiered enthusiasts and XFX will continue to offer this benefit on our top products.
3) Most importantly, all XFX Radeon HD 6000, 5000, and 4000 series models also offer the two-year limited warranty as standard, and will continue to be supported by the optional Double Lifetime Limited Warranty (with registration within 30 days of purchase). Restrictions and limitations may apply and specific details are available on our website.
The landscape is changing, folks, and XFX went from havng arguably the best warranty terms in the business to being an also-ran, especially after BFG went out of business.
EVGA and VisionTek also have true lifetime warranty options, though theirs aren't transferable either.
More like this
TechLarry
January 30, 2012 at 8:51am
Usual load of corporate doublespeak bullshit.
It's a money grab to sell extended warranties.
And when a company spews crap like "we are in line with the rest of the industry" my only comment is "So, you don't want to do it better any more, you want to be an also-ran".
Screw em. Lots of other choices.
Jox
January 28, 2012 at 1:49pm
I bought a Sapphire RadeonHD 4870x2 back in 2008 and while Sapphire's warranty is what most would consider merely average (2 years, non-transferable), the card has run flawlessly since the day I got it.
I've had other (built by) ATI cards in the past, starting with the 9600 Pro, and they've all died prematurely, which is outrageous considering the cost of some of this hardware. Prior to that, I had exclusively nVidia-based cards (except for the old days when I was rocking a Voodoo2). Due to these bad experiences, I almost skipped ATI altogether when I when I was last in the market for a video card, but the reviews of the new hardware were all good and, after some investigation, I settled on the Sapphire version.
When it comes to reviews, there's really only one thing that counts: would I buy from this company again? Well, it's been a few years since my last hardware upgrade and I'm beginning to feel the itch. I'm looking at the 7970 from Sapphire (though I will probably wait until the x2 version is out), but yes - I will, in all likelihood, be buying from Sapphire again.
- Jox
LatiosXT
January 27, 2012 at 8:09am
XFX used to be the god tier of video card manufacturers. Now they're slowly slumping in with the "okay tier" level.
GoldenMonkey
January 27, 2012 at 1:40am
Now there's no reason to buy XFX anymore. I used to have their XXX version of nvidia's 8000 series, and having that double warranty helped me sell it off a lot easier when I upgraded my video card.
noobstix
January 26, 2012 at 8:02pm
I almost bought an XFX...then I took an arrow to the knee. All jokes aside, I was gonna buy an XFX Radeon HD 6870 BE until I noticed that at least 50% of people had major issues. I went with the MSI card (and was even able to get a price difference rebate on it a week later) and haven't looked back.
biggiebob12345
January 26, 2012 at 1:10pm
My XFX 5850 was such a disappointment that I won't be buying XFX again. No heatsinking of the VRMs, poor heatsinking of the memory chips, and it was hardware locked against overvolting. My next build I'm going EVGA 680 Hydro.
CHR15x94
January 26, 2012 at 5:16pm
Same goes for my XFX 6950 1GB. I bought it before there were a ton of reviews of it on NewEgg. God, I wish I hadn't purchased this PoS. It runs incredibly hot, even in my decently large and ventilated case, and it's defective, along with ~50% of the other people who reviewed the thing. Vertical stripes under medium load, and their customer support didn't even seem to acknowledge there was an issue with the card...
I bought their card thinking it would be higher quality product. Won't make that mistake again.
And not to be a grammar Nazi but: "...lets users swap heatsinks and overclock _ther_ GPUs...".
t.y.wan
January 26, 2012 at 12:41pm
Smart decision, but also a dangerous one.
Now-a-day, a lot things can no longer be hidden. Not announcing everything is almost as fatal as producing flaw products...
Connect with MaximumPC
Featured Content
We introduce Intel's latest class of tablet killers and review 4 of the first Ultra...
This month's issue
Feature
11 Hardware Hacks
Feature
Overclock Your CPU
How-To
Supercharge Your Smartphone
Build It
A Powerful $830 Rig
Most Commented Articles
Latest Max PC Tweets
- maximumpc: HUD-Sporting "Google Glasses" May Hit Streets This Year http://t.co/TDXjJowZ3 hours 9 min ago
- maximumpc: Nvidia Releases WHQL-Certified 295.73 GeForce Drivers http://t.co/NVMWruHO4 hours 43 min ago
- maximumpc: http://t.co/BVVfRA3B4 hours 43 min ago
