Is EVGA trying to screw me? (RMA)

ScretHate

[H]ard|Gawd
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I RMA'd my Geforce 8800GTS 320MB because I was getting artifacts. Well, they received it and now they're sending me a 9600 GSO 384MB as a replacement. The clock/memory speed are nearly identical but the memory interface is only 192-bit compared to the 320-bit one of the card I sent them.

What do you guys think? Is this a fair replacement?

Update: I called and talked to someone and now I'm getting a 9800 GT. EVGA is a nice company to deal with.
 
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I'm pretty sure the 8800gts out performs the 9600gso. I had an 8800gts, but I've never used the 9600gso. I wouldn't want the gso though.
 
8800gts 320 memory bandwidth:63.4GB/s
8800gs (rebranded as 9600gso): 38.4GB/s
Most other things shold be the same (SP count, etc).
Clocks are a lither off.
try asking on the eVGA forums for help.

This is, btw, the second time in a week I have heard of eVGA using the 9600gso to replace a better card.
 
they will usually upgrade you when they are oos of a particular model. that doesnt sound like an upgrade. iirc, you should be getting a 9600gt or a 9800gt. i would beef. i think there might still be an evga rep around the forum here. whats the point of paying extra for the card with the lifetime warranty if your are just going to get fucked over. i personally have never had a prob with evga rma service.
 
9800gt is the lowest card you should accept, since nothing else is near the same level, only below.
 
There are many drastically different versions of the 9600GSO. Just saying it's a 9600GSO 384MB doesn't tell me anything about its speed. Do you have a model number of the card they are sending you?
 
No they aren't 'trying to screw' you. Screwing you would be selling you an 8800gt and having it die a week later and not offering any kind of warranty protection. What EVGA is doing is offering a reasonable replacement for a defective product several years after its manufacture date. Very few companies in any industry will do that.
 
They are giving him a replacement that is over a year old though. Even though its new/unused, its still not NEW. I would have thought the minimum would have been a 9800gt/gts250. Call them and see if you can work some magic.
 
They are giving him a replacement that is over a year old though. Even though its new/unused, its still not NEW. I would have thought the minimum would have been a 9800gt/gts250. Call them and see if you can work some magic.
He doesn't need or warrant receiving something "NEW". His 8800GTS he has was launched in 2006, it's now 2010. He just needs something of equivalent or better performance. See my previous post, I think the 9600GSO likely fits that bill.
 
No they aren't 'trying to screw' you. Screwing you would be selling you an 8800gt and having it die a week later and not offering any kind of warranty protection. What EVGA is doing is offering a reasonable replacement for a defective product several years after its manufacture date. Very few companies in any industry will do that.

Correct.;)
 
I'll do some benchmarks when it arrives to see if it's equivalent or better.

But I don't see how a card with the same number of stream processors, same core/memory clock, but with much less memory bandwidth can be the same or better than my old card.
 
I'll do some benchmarks when it arrives to see if it's equivalent or better.

But I don't see how a card with the same number of stream processors, same core/memory clock, but with much less memory bandwidth can be the same or better than my old card.
There are are more variables to consider than raw clock speed and bandwidth. You can't generally make core count/clock speed spec sheet comparisons across architectures. They have other internal design differences/optimizations/etc.

Your old 8800GTS 320 is G80 core based.
The 8800GS/9600GSO is G92 core based.
 
There are are more variables to consider than raw clock speed and bandwidth. You can't generally make core count/clock speed spec sheet comparisons across architectures. They have other internal design differences/optimizations/etc.

Your old 8800GTS 320 is G80 core based.
The 8800GS/9600GSO is G92 core based.
So you think a die shrink will make up for the 25GB/s memory bandwidth loss?
 
It might not be an exactly equivalent performing card but it is a reasonable replacement. EVGA is doing you a favor.
 
It might not be an exactly equivalent performing card but it is a reasonable replacement. EVGA is doing you a favor.
How exactly are they doing me a favor? I paid more for the card with the lifetime warranty, so they are not helping me out of charity.
 
How exactly are they doing me a favor? I paid more for the card with the lifetime warranty, so they are not helping me out of charity.

The lifetime warranty they offer doesn't state you'll receive an exact replacement of your hardware. It say's "equal or greater performance" and you've been told several times in this thread that a 9600GSO is approximately equal in performance to your old card. What more do you want?
 
How exactly are they doing me a favor? I paid more for the card with the lifetime warranty, so they are not helping me out of charity.

agreed. He paid a premium for this warranty coverage. I guess as long as it does not perform worse than the 8800gts 320mb you cant complain.
 
The lifetime warranty they offer doesn't state you'll receive an exact replacement of your hardware. It say's "equal or greater performance" and you've been told several times in this thread that a 9600GSO is approximately equal in performance to your old card. What more do you want?
In this thread I've been told that it's worse, equal, and better.

Like I said, I will test it and see if it is in fact equivalent to my old card. But it is my hypothesis that it will not be, due to significantly less memory bandwidth.
 
I definitely would be contacting them and trying to get them to bump up the card a little.
I mean, you wouldn't RMA a GTX285 and accept a GTX260 RMA replacement.

The performance difference may not be a big deal to some people, but it surely would be if you were in his situation. You paid the premium for the warranty, you should be treated as a premium member. Its not like they are doing it out of charity.
 
I wouldn't be happy myself, on paper the replacement looks slower to the original card you sent in. So i would just try to get it straight with them. You paid $$$ more for a EVGA card back then, with time value of money you'd be able to get some nicer card now than the piece of crap they tried to cheap you down your throat.
 
hellz ya you paid $200 for a graphics card with the EVGA name on it 3 years ago!11 call them and demand a 280gtx. you deserve it!!
 
Complaining here on [H] will not do you any good, except maybe make you feel better.

I would recommend going over to the EVGA forums under GPUs and posting there about your recent RMA exchange.
They have a very active forum and believe me, someone of some authority will respond with an explanation of why you got what you got..................or email them, at their customer service address.
EVGA, if anything, has good service and they will at least give you the benefit of the doubt.
 
Complaining here on [H] will not do you any good, except maybe make you feel better.

I would recommend going over to the EVGA forums under GPUs and posting there about your recent RMA exchange.
They have a very active forum and believe me, someone of some authority will respond with an explanation of why you got what you got..................or email them, at their customer service address.
EVGA, if anything, has good service and they will at least give you the benefit of the doubt.
I recommend the same. But please post the response here as well, as I'd like to hear how this gets resolved. They should be giving you a 9600GT as the very least. If this is how they honor their lifetime warranties, it will make me reconsider purchasing from them in the future.
 
Yes, post on their forums and also call them and complain. You paid a higher price built into the product to get a replacement guarantee. Do not listen to the apologist shills telling you that you should be satisfied with whatever they send you if it performs well enough in the games you play. That's just laughable.
 
There are are more variables to consider than raw clock speed and bandwidth. You can't generally make core count/clock speed spec sheet comparisons across architectures. They have other internal design differences/optimizations/etc.

Your old 8800GTS 320 is G80 core based.
The 8800GS/9600GSO is G92 core based.

are you sure that the 8800GS is G92 based? I'm pretty sure the 8800GS was a castrated G80, the tell tale signs are the memory bandwidth and size, 384 / 192 is exactly half of the 768 / 384 8800GTX =p

even if it is G92 based, the G92's biggest "Change" was the memory architecture and a die shrink, NV Implemented some sort of memory magic to use a 256bit bus vs 384 and not have it reduce performance. So you could probably still compare it seeing as this card might / looks like it's using the older memory setup.
 
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9600 GSO has higher texture fill rate but lower pixel fill rate and is small fab (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units). It trades pros and cons with the 8800 GTS. I would say it's a similar performing card from those numbers.

There's a 1 row difference (which usually means not really noticeable) in this chart of graphics card performance:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2521-8.html

Up to you if you want to take them for their policy word for word.
Products sent in for RMA will be repaired or replaced with a product of equal or greater performance.
I would say it's an equal card but it's hard to get equal performance without getting the actual identical model. So it's up to you if you think further shipping fees are worth it.
 
are you sure that the 8800GS is G92 based? I'm pretty sure the 8800GS was a castrated G80, the tell tale signs are the memory bandwidth and size, 384 / 192 is exactly half of the 768 / 384 8800GTX =p

even if it is G92 based, the G92's biggest "Change" was the memory architecture and a die shrink, NV Implemented some sort of memory magic to use a 256bit bus vs 384 and not have it reduce performance. So you could probably still compare it seeing as this card might / looks like it's using the older memory setup.
As sure as anyone can be of wikipedia, see my links I posted here earlier.

9600 GSO has higher texture fill rate but lower pixel fill rate and is small fab (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units). It trades pros and cons with the 8800 GTS. I would say it's a similar performing card from those numbers.

There's a 1 row difference (which usually means not really noticeable) in this chart of graphics card performance:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2521-8.html

Up to you if you want to take them for their policy word for word. I would say it's an equal card but it's hard to get equal performance without getting the actual identical model. So it's up to you if you think further shipping fees are worth it.

I like that tomshardware page, potentially very useful. 9600GSO/8800GS in same block, reinforces what wiki was saying, and it shows that the 9600GSO/8800GS is indeed an upgrade to your old 8800GTS 320.
 
Cool, thats more clear cut better. How was the customer service? Was it difficult to convince them?
 
i sent in a 8800gts 640 and got an 8800gts 512 back with half the sticker falling off and remnants of the last sticker still on it. kinda shoddy...
 
My 8800gts 640 just recently died as well and I got back an 8800gts 512.
 
Grats on the upgrade, EVGA rocks! RMA'd a dead 7900GT and got back an 8800GT! Though, to be honest, the 9600GSO is on par with the 8800 GTS 320MB. I have both cards (well I gave the 8800GTS to my sister) and they perform roughly the same, yet I feel the 9600GSO is the superior GPU. It's newer, runs cooler and OC's like nuts, enough to outrun 9600GT's and nip at the heals of an 8800GT.
 
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