ATI is changing their manufacturer warranty to only 1 year. This will most likely not affect other AIB vendors, but I will surely buy an ATI card from an AIB and not ATI directly now. This is disappointing considering a lot of companies are offering longer warranties (such as EVGA). However, this supports ATI's long standing idea to stop selling it's own brand cards (or at least I thought they were trying to do this).
ATI changes warranty to 1 yr
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trinibwoy said:
Yea but ATI has been stated they are trying to get out of the board manufacting.. besides most electronics warrenties are a lot shorter...maybe it was time they moved to be more main stream in this mannor??? I agree not the best for the customer...but it was a good ride while it lasted...
Unless you need to provide a warranty provision for financial reasons, which I doubt in ATI's case, the financial benefits of reducing the warranty period from two years to one is likely not to come for, well, one full yearlopri said:
So I'm not quite convinced by that explanation tbh.Seems more like a weird long-term cost reduction measure. I personally don't see ATI completely stopping sale of self-branded products anytime soon. I would expect them to perhaps consider letting other manufacturers do ATI-branded cards for them (basically "selling" the label/brand), but that doesn't make a lot of sense considering many of those partners don't even manufacture their cards themselves *shrugs*
Uttar
My thought exactly. 90 nm...high temps...high potentials - could it be electromigration concerns? I assume they're still using Al and not Cu for interconnects. My guess is that the latest cards are being clocked to points where electromigration failure is more likely after the first year than before.
Nite_Hawk said:
Mize said:
No the 90nm process are using copper interconnectors and so does the 130nm process (atleast the low-k version). Electromigration failure should not be problem unless the voltage are way to high.
I think the real reason that they are cutting warrenty is that they are stopping selling Ati branded boards and they don´t want to handle RMAs years after they have stopped selling boards.
Yeah I think it's more down to cards today being far more difficult to make long-term reliable. These things put out as much heat as many CPUs. Developing tests to ensure multi year longetivity costs money, the testing itself costs money, and covering BBQ'ed boards costs money. Oh and it costs more to make boards that have a high longetivity.
And they may be considering the possiblity that most people who buy the ultra high end cards don't keep them around for long. Those people seem to need to always have the best and thus are constantly upgrading. I doubt that the low/mid range cards are nearly as likely to fail simply because they have far less physical strain put on them thru heat.
I have 3 dieing 9700s, btw. All of them have RAM that won't handle the default clock anymore. I had to customize the BIOS for a lower RAM clock to keep them from flipping out with strange artifacts or totally distorted WIndows desktops that require a reboot.
My Radeon 8500 runs only somewhat warm to the touch. If a fan dies on a 9700 the entire board will begin to burn. I've had it happen. The PCB was too hot to touch and definitely was smelling like burnt electronics.
And they may be considering the possiblity that most people who buy the ultra high end cards don't keep them around for long. Those people seem to need to always have the best and thus are constantly upgrading. I doubt that the low/mid range cards are nearly as likely to fail simply because they have far less physical strain put on them thru heat.
I have 3 dieing 9700s, btw. All of them have RAM that won't handle the default clock anymore. I had to customize the BIOS for a lower RAM clock to keep them from flipping out with strange artifacts or totally distorted WIndows desktops that require a reboot.
My Radeon 8500 runs only somewhat warm to the touch. If a fan dies on a 9700 the entire board will begin to burn. I've had it happen. The PCB was too hot to touch and definitely was smelling like burnt electronics.
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trinibwoy said:
Agreed
swaaye said:
I disagree. If you have good, future-proof parts (9700 Pro, 6800 Ultra, etc), I think people will be less inclined to upgrade in the near future, ie me. The way most people with budgets and the need for speed go is getting a top-of-the-line, wait 1-3 product cycles, then replace with another top-of-the-line. Without budgets though, I would agree with you swaaye.
Of course, the product cycles seem to be getting shorter and shorter, so a year could cover 2 product cycles.
Here's my take about this as I posted it on TR:
Visiontek, like XFX and BFG with their nVidia-based products, offers a "lifetime" warranty on its ATi-based graphics cards. In the case of the nVidia products, you cannot buy a card direct from nVidia in any event, with any warranty... These "lifetime" warranties are all offered by the AIB partners and *not* by ATi or nV direct.
Although ATi made its intention to gradually withdraw from the direct sales of its cards through retail known years ago, ATi has yet to withdraw. I would guess this is the first step in that withdrawal which, when complete, will mean that ATi just like nVidia will not be selling its products direct to the public, but only through 3rd-party AIB partners like VisionTek and Sapphire and PowerColor, etc. So, just like with nV, the ATi AIB partners will be setting their own warranties for their ATi-based products.
Even though ATi has just reduced its direct warranty, at least you can *buy* a product direct from ATi at present, which you cannot do from nVidia and have never been able to do. Seems odd to directly compare ATi's direct sales warranties to nVidia's AIB partner warranties without making mention of the fact that ATi also sells through its own AIB partners who offer warranties exactly like BFG's and XFX's.
My own PowerColor x800 XT AGP has been running splendidly since January of this year without recourse to the warranty...
Visiontek, like XFX and BFG with their nVidia-based products, offers a "lifetime" warranty on its ATi-based graphics cards. In the case of the nVidia products, you cannot buy a card direct from nVidia in any event, with any warranty...
These "lifetime" warranties are all offered by the AIB partners and *not* by ATi or nV direct.Although ATi made its intention to gradually withdraw from the direct sales of its cards through retail known years ago, ATi has yet to withdraw. I would guess this is the first step in that withdrawal which, when complete, will mean that ATi just like nVidia will not be selling its products direct to the public, but only through 3rd-party AIB partners like VisionTek and Sapphire and PowerColor, etc. So, just like with nV, the ATi AIB partners will be setting their own warranties for their ATi-based products.
Even though ATi has just reduced its direct warranty, at least you can *buy* a product direct from ATi at present, which you cannot do from nVidia and have never been able to do. Seems odd to directly compare ATi's direct sales warranties to nVidia's AIB partner warranties without making mention of the fact that ATi also sells through its own AIB partners who offer warranties exactly like BFG's and XFX's.
My own PowerColor x800 XT AGP has been running splendidly since January of this year without recourse to the warranty...
WaltC said:
And that's suppozed to be a good thing? What's the good side of buying a BBATI card? I've always heard that the quality from AIB's was better than ATI's.
WlatC said:
I didn't think anyone was saying that. A reduction in warrenty, without comparing to AIB's, isn't a good thing, IMO.
Nv500 said:
I think it has more to do with ATI getting out of the direct sales business (which they could do at any time, and just honor the remaining 3 yr warrenties). However, if AIB's begin to follow suit, then I'd worry.
WaltC said:
If ATI want to withdraw from direct sales, there are other desirable ways. For instance, they can stop stuffing CompUSA with their old graphics cards and just sell through their website. Yet, they don't seem too willing to lose that shelf space.
WaltC said:
You're the only person who brings NV in this thread. (what a surprise.)
WaltC said:My own PowerColor x800 XT AGP has been running splendidly since January of this year without recourse to the warranty...
ATI should extend their warranty to 10-year standard. Sure.
lop
P.S. Oh and I'm thankful to God for I can buy ATI cards directly from them.
I just hope they've figured out how to either include more reliable fans or make them easily user-replaceable. That's probably the majority of user complaints, and that costs them not just the few dimes for the fan, but the few dollars for return shipping--and manpower. I'd imagine many ppl would be willing to replace the fan themselves if it meant not being cardless for a few days.
Yeah, and what to make with all these nV vendors upping their warranty to lifetime? More intense competition? Less room for differentiation? Lower (partial) failure rates?
Yeah, and what to make with all these nV vendors upping their warranty to lifetime? More intense competition? Less room for differentiation? Lower (partial) failure rates?
Jimmers said:
And 90% of those are not even made by the AIB selling them. The honest truth is that most of the BBATI cards are made by Sapphire. ATi is moving to a similair way as Nvidia. They do not want to have to replace cards that die five years down the road, it makes complete sense to me.
This is a sign that ATi is moving to a similair scheme as Nvidia. I find it funny that so many people are making an uproar about this. If you bought a card earlier its still covered by the orginal warranty, and if you want a longer one now just go simply buy an AIB card then. Its not like you havent been doing that for ages with Nvidia cards, the way some people act about this I would think they would have beaten Nvidia to a pulp about it years eariler. If you do not like it, nothing is keeping you from buy an AIB's card, plan and simple, you have two options when it comes to an ATi card, ATi or AIB, with Nvidia you only have one.
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