MSI 1080 TI ARMOR RMA Issue

I sent my 1080 Ti Armor in for an RMA because of instability and heat issues. I was running waaaay too hot, about 180f even underclocked to 90%. After 2 weeks i finally got a response. They said they didnt have a replacement card, and offered a refund... of $595... WTF??? Is this common? Anyone else worked w/ MSI's RMA dept? I told them politely to GFY and that i was willing to pay the difference in a different 1080ti card.

Thanks!

LOL sorry about the card though I'm saving up when Volta drops....

I returned my MSI 1080ti armor to the store for the same issues. The original batches were way to hot. The second runs were only slightly better. Even undervolted I couldn't get keep the darn thing under 80 degrees C.

I can see why though don't want to send yours back into the wild. I would take the money or ask for a free upgrade. When I sent my Zotac 1070 amp extreme into RMA for a fan issue, they didn't have a replacement and gave me a 1080ti amp extreme instead. Needless to say, I was quite surprised and happy!

quiktake said:

I returned my MSI 1080ti armor to the store for the same issues. The original batches were way to hot. The second runs were only slightly better. Even undervolted I couldn't get keep the darn thing under 80 degrees C.

I can see why though don't want to send yours back into the wild. I would take the money or ask for a free upgrade. When I sent my Zotac 1070 amp extreme into RMA for a fan issue, they didn't have a replacement and gave me a 1080ti amp extreme instead. Needless to say, I was quite surprised and happy!

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The fuck. How do you get a TI. Getting a 1080 even seems insane for a RMA 1070. You got lucky.

I have the same card, followed all the day one crap on the MSI forums, and they've been really brutal with card owners about this situation, basically just telling them to STFU, that it's fine.

I almost sent mine back to Newegg and bought one of those Auroros Extremes from MD, but instead decided to go water cooled. FWIW, this card is absolutely killer if you watercool it. Mine stock OC's to 1924mhz, and with a EKWB full coverage block, which I found for the card on Amazon, cheaper than direct, hooked up to an Alphacool Eisbaer 420, on both the CPU and the GPU, I've never gone above 60C pushing the card to the max for hours.

Honestly, I'm looking for another off these cards to SLI, so if you don't want to watercool and don't figure out an issue, assuming yours is the OC model, get in touch, I'd be interested in it potentially, assuming it hits the same clock as mine.


I did see a post from someone somewhere that mentioned setting an aggressive fan curve in afterburner, to 100 before it hits 80C, then setting the max voltage to 117%, and max temp to 85C, not linked. This did really help my card, and I was able to run most things at 4k 60hz maxed, hovering around 84-85, but a little while ago running Shadow of Mordor, I found my GPU hitting 90, for some reason only in the pause screen, which seems to have some effect that really works it (like Dark Souls III seems to near a bonfire), and that's when I decided to go watercooled.


Assuming watercooled OC model, these cards perform excellently, have incredible stock potential clock, it's just honestly the stock cooler should *never* have been attached to these as a consumer product.

Considering the way MSI treated its customers regarding this, and continues to deny their is a problem, I won't be buying anything from them again in the future. It's egregiously unprofessional, bordering on fraudulent.

Wanted to add however; many sources, MSI especially, indicates that up to 85 degress isn't a problem, but I think that's the point it starts to throttle right? I wasn't worried about hovering there as long as the clock rate was staying there, definitely wouldn't worry about 80, but not sure what effect that'll have on the longevity of the card.

If you are running your card and letting nVidia's default boost configuration stand, your card starts to downclock by 13 MHz for every 4 C starting at 52 C. I don't have any overclock going on my card at the moment but it will immediately boost past 2K (2048 if I remember correctly) and then it will start the stairstep throttle after it hits 52 C.

Algrim said:

If you are running your card and letting nVidia's default boost configuration stand, your card starts to downclock by 13 MHz for every 4 C starting at 52 C. I don't have any overclock going on my card at the moment but it will immediately boost past 2K (2048 if I remember correctly) and then it will start the stairstep throttle after it hits 52 C.

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Good to know, I wasn't aware of that. Strangely mine would boost up over 1900 regularly even when I was at 80C, but would drop back down regularly. For whatever reason it's appear to stay at 1924 continually since I watercooled it, but I definitely haven't tweaked the config in afterburner yet.

I've been over a month w/o a card... "We take 4 weeks to process a refund, no exceptions". Worthless customer service.... I'll never buy MSI again, I don't care how good they are, i'm done! I'll gladly pay the EVGA tax if customer service is better... I bought EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC2 HYBRID GAMING, even though my refund hasn't processed yet. I cant deal with onboard graphics any longer!

My question is why are they only refunding $595 where can you buy a 1080 TI for $595!?

After complaining a LOT, i managed to get a full refund of $710.

Wow! Honestly I'm not sure what to think. I mean they offer a partial refund granted it's most of your money but still not all of it. Curious what was the reasoning for MSI offering $595 versus the full amount of $710 that you paid?

Typically they will claim the refund factors in depreciation and being a used card.

It doesn't normally make sense but they probably save a decent amount of money. For every Joe that gives them a hard time about it, their are probably 10 that just accept it. I would like to say it's a MSI thing but I have heard of companies like EVGA and Asus doing the same.

Interesting, I RMA a CPU to Intel a 7700K and they didn't have them in stock so they offered a full refund according to the receipt which was $324.xx

I'm surprised they're still selling them. GN blasted the card because they outed the card as literally a 1080ti with a 1070 cooler attached to it.

next time, buy EVGA

- 24/7 easy to reach by phone (5 minutes usually) free tech support
- cross-ship program
- highest standards when it comes to build quality
- gets highest resale prices on ebay

Oh, I'm done w/ MSI now.. And my EVGA SC2 Hybrid showed up yesterday. I wish I would have waited when i first bought, but MSI was the only one selling non-founder editions, and now I know why.