EVGA and BFG vs. ATI AIB Partners

[sethk]

Hi,
The last ATI card I bought was a Radeon 9800Pro which I liked a lot. It was a retail Sapphire card, and eventually the fan on it died. I moved it to my old PC and replaced the fan with an aftermarket cooler (Arctic cooling) that now takes up 3 slots (AGP + 1 full PCI slot and just barely edges the 2nd PCI slot.)
Anyways, since then I've bought an EVGA card. I got to use their upgrade assurance and move to a higher spec card for the cost of shipping. It has a lifetime warranty. It's quiet and the fan doesn't look like it'll die tomorrow.
My question is, why don't ATI partners offer a similar level of assurance (lifetime warranty) and try something innovative like EVGAs upgrade program? Once upon a time Nvidia cards were big, noisy and hot, and now the tables have been turned. Two separate issues, but the net effect is I'm afraid to buy a new ATI card for these reasons, and not because of ATI's technology or price or performance.
What do you guys think?

 

[ANova]

There are quite a bit of people who have had the fans fail on nvidia cards as well. I wouldn't make any judgements based on one experience.

 

[Sxotty]

I won't buy a card that does not have a good warranty on it.

 

[sethk]

I had a fan fail on a GF4 4600ti as well - I would not be surprised if the fans failed on EVGA and BFG cards - but they have a lifetime warranty. I'm *lucky* the dead fan didnt cook my 9800, if it did I would have been SOL. As it is, I paid out of pocket to replace the fan with one that cost me a bit for an end of life card that I'm not that happy with because of space considerations (taking up 3 slots) - but I can't really buy ANOTHER fan for a 9800pro, wouldn't make any sense. If it was an EVGA card, I would have returned the whole card whether it was just the fan that died or the whole card, and got another one.
Do any ATI card companies have policies like BFG and EVGA?

 

[Razor1]

I had a fan fail on a GF4 4600ti as well - I would not be surprised if the fans failed on EVGA and BFG cards - but they have a lifetime warranty. I'm *lucky* the dead fan didnt cook my 9800, if it did I would have been SOL. As it is, I paid out of pocket to replace the fan with one that cost me a bit for an end of life card that I'm not that happy with because of space considerations (taking up 3 slots) - but I can't really buy ANOTHER fan for a 9800pro, wouldn't make any sense. If it was an EVGA card, I would have returned the whole card whether it was just the fan that died or the whole card, and got another one.
Do any ATI card companies have policies like BFG and EVGA?

Sapphire offers a life time warrenty but I don't think support overclocked with thier warrenty other then that its about the same as BFG and EVGA

 

[FrameBuffer]

Sapphire offers a life time warrenty but I don't think support overclocked with thier warrenty other then that its about the same as BFG and EVGA

haven't checked myself but saw this over at R3D:

"sapphire offers 2 years, asus offers 3 years, visiontek offers lifetime, and powercolor offers lifetime for x1900 series."

 

[Razor1]

haven't checked myself but saw this over at R3D:

"sapphire offers 2 years, asus offers 3 years, visiontek offers lifetime, and powercolor offers lifetime for x1900 series."

Oh yeah my mistake, , it was visiontek. Recent annoucement a few months back about that