BFG 8800GTX or MSI 8800 GTS

[stinger608]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

To even be able to utilize DX10, you'll need to run Vista. Or find the hacked drivers for XP.

I wouldn't suggest MSI or BFG. I would suggest EVGA or XFX. Look at the warranties and how flexible they are compared to BFG...fairly limited, and MSI's...anal retentive.

With EVGA and XFX, you can overclock, change out the stock cooler...etc...and retain your warranty. Plud, EVGA has awesome customer support. I hear XFX does as well, but I only have experience with EVGA.

I had a customers EVGA 7600GS fan that took a big crap, overheated the video card and locked up very often. I contacted EVGA and asked them if I could purchase a after market cooler for this card, and there response was a flat NO!!!
If I did in fact install an aftermarket cooler, it would completely void the "lifetime" warranty!!!! I then asked if they could send a replacement cooler for the card, and there response was the exact same, and that I needed to ship the card to them for warranty! So, this is the 3rd and last time I will ever do business with EVGA!!!! EVGA!!!!

[Quakindude]

Originally Posted by stinger608

I had a customers EVGA 7600GS fan that took a big crap, overheated the video card and locked up very often. I contacted EVGA and asked them if I could purchase a after market cooler for this card, and there response was a flat NO!!!
If I did in fact install an aftermarket cooler, it would completely void the "lifetime" warranty!!!! I then asked if they could send a replacement cooler for the card, and there response was the exact same, and that I needed to ship the card to them for warranty! So, this is the 3rd and last time I will ever do business with EVGA!!!! EVGA!!!!

That was then, this is now.

I would still rather have the upfront warranty of EVGA or XFX. I just don't like to lie to anyone about anything. And not admitting to overclocking or swapping out a cooler to a company that expressly forbids it is lying. But that's just me.

Not saying I'm an angel. Not by a long shot. But I have to be in some highly unusual circumstances to compromise my integrity as I see it.

[stinger608]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

That was then, this is now.

HUH? It was about 5 weeks ago

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

That was then, this is now.

I would still rather have the upfront warranty of EVGA or XFX. I just don't like to lie to anyone about anything. And not admitting to overclocking or swapping out a cooler to a company that expressly forbids it is lying. But that's just me.

Not saying I'm an angel. Not by a long shot. But I have to be in some highly unusual circumstances to compromise my integrity as I see it.

Agree with you. If you try to rip-off a company by not mentioning you overclocked your card till it burned out to get a free card back, there goes the ethics.

[One4yu2c]

Use a moral compass - I'm not advocating being unscrupulous, but if a card dies while using a third party cooler, the card was going to die using the stock cooler. And if you kill a card with reckless overclocking and RMA it, you're contributing to overall higher prices, regardless if it's covered in writing or not. I refuse to pimp a company for marketing bullets, particularly when the competition's customer support is a notch or three above. Give them credit? Yes. Proclaim them superior? No.

Originally Posted by stinger608

HUH? It was about 5 weeks ago

But hey, at least you have a slightly better warranty on paper...

On a related note, about a year or so ago, I posed as a customer with a GPU problem and put each company's customer support to the test. My experience was very similar to yours, Stinger, in that the rep I spoke with wasn't jiving with the warranty policy. A less persistent customer would have given up at that point and been SOL, and upon bringing it to EVGA's attention in the forum, I ended up flamed rather than thanked for bringing the discrepancy to their attention.

There's more drama to that story, but because I believe (hope) it to be the exception rather than the norm, I won't rehash it in its entirety. The bigger point is that having dealt with all three companies (more than once), there's no way BFG ranks behind the pack.

[Capper]

I'll second that BFG rocks....some very good people.

[azianai]

my buddy RMA'ed his old BFG 7600GT before and had no problems. He said the turnover was faster than him sending his EVGA 6800GS for testing since it was bugging out. All of the big three have very good support, and with BFG offering stepup now, it'll only help to alleviate some of the higher pricing eVGA warrants for their stepup (btw #45 on the stepup queue for 9800GX2 now)

[stinger608]

I think BFG Rocks also! I have 2 of the 7600GTs in this system, and have never had any kind of issues with them, and also have an old out dated 6600gt in another system, and it has never failed me once