Son of a...

[evolution83]

You've GOT to be kidding me...

After I finally send my defective card in to BFG Tech, I just got an e-mail saying my RMA # was cancelled and will no longer receive support. To be honest, I should have seen this coming from the warnings given to me earlier by members of the board.

Here are the full details:

This email has been sent to inform you that BFG RMA number XXXXXXXXX, originally created on Jul 30th 2010, has been cancelled.

BFG Technologies, Inc. is winding down and liquidating its business. Unfortunately our major supplier would not support our business. As a result we are cancelling your RMA without being able to repair your product. We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you have already sent your product it, it will be returned to you.

BFG Technologies, Inc.
14048 Petronella Drive
Libertyville, Illinois 60048

847.281.3110

Ugh. Luckily, I only spent $5 to ship the damn thing out. I checked the tracking # earlier, and it looks like no one was available to pick it up, lol

Your item is out for delivery or available at a PO Box at 8:25 am on August 16, 2010 in AURORA, IL 60505

On THAT note, is there a brand of video card I can buy that is known to last a good amount of time? I saw an Asus GeForce 8400GS card but it has no fan, so I assume it's not good for high-end stuff without overheating.

Thoughts?

 

[Darician]

Asus, XFX, ECS, Sapphire, PNY are good brands.

 

[Hatashi]

That sucks man.

Its really frustrating to see how the people you paid not giving you the support you also paid for.

But yeah, out of all of those listed above, I would go with ASUS.

 

[stormy13]

I assume it's not good for high-end stuff without overheating.

Overheating isn't a problem, that card isn't capable of high end stuff.

Better question is what do you want to do with the card, and how much are you looking to spend?

 

[thefabe]

Really sorry to hear that makes you wonder why they even bothered to provide the RMA to begin with, probably a good thing their no longer in the graphics card business.an obvious case of the left not knowing what the right hand is doing.
I only recommend XFX and Evga since they have lifetime and double lifetime warranties. And with some of the Evga cards you can qualify for a step up program. Noted you must register these cards within the allotted time.
I've had excellent support from both of them in the past.
I always check on the warranty on any graphics card before purchase since they seem to have a higher rate of failure than just about any other piece of hardware.
I can't comment on other manufactures, but now that XFX is making ATI cards I'd look at them first for an ATI especially if their still offering a double lifetime warranty helps with re-sale when you go to upgrade all you need to do is unregister the card and the new owner can register it for their lifetime warranty makes them easier to re-sell and usually can fetch a little bit more money with the buyer knowing their covered.
ON the other hand XFX doesn't have quite the rep it used to (So I've heard)
So being an Nvidia guy I use Evga almost exclusively. JMO. Fabe

 

[Mellon Head]

Both of my 4670's are Sapphire, and I've had no problems. My wife inherited my ASUS 3450, and it's been going strong for about two years. I'd have no problem buying either brand again.

 

[Wishmaster]

Although there are a few really good brands, as already mentioned
If going to ATI, I really like & would recommend Sapphire without hesitation.

Especially the Vapor-X and Toxic Lines.



I can't really say how good or bad thier customer support is though.

I have never had the need to contact them .. so I suppose thats a good thing in and of itself

 

[RBIEZE]

EVGA all the way.

The warranty, service, and 24/7 tech support is second to none.
Also, the forums are active and loaded with nice helpful people.

The step up program will allow you to trade in your card to EVGA for full price if you decide to buy a newer card within 90 days of purchase.

You cannot go wrong with EVGA

Here's a gts250 for $79, EVGA | Products
I think its the best bang for your buck card right now.
And with 128 stream processors it will run Cuda enabled graphics applications very nicely.

 

[Everlong]

I'd say EVGA have the best RMA/support service from what I've read. I use ASUS for my graphic card at the moment, but never had to RMA it yet (touch wood). XFX have gone downhill over the last few years. I've tried to get support from them on 3 different occasions about my old motherboard, but I got no reply to anything I sent.

 

[evolution83]

I assume it's not good for high-end stuff without overheating.

Overheating isn't a problem, that card isn't capable of high end stuff.

Better question is what do you want to do with the card, and how much are you looking to spend?

At this point, I don't need anything that's over the top or with a high price tag, as I am on a budget. My last card (nVidia) was only $50 bucks for 512MB ram and it worked perfectly for everything I threw at it, so I plan to spend the same again.

I do play some games, which are mostly older made several years ago, 2007 and below, with some being arcade and console emulation. I also do photo editing with Photoshop CS5, video editing with Sony Vegas 9, watching online videos and HD movies, and other tasks that don't generally require a graphics card, but more a fast processor.

I've seen many of the brands listed here over at my local Frys, I was just never sure if any of them were good. EVGA always stood out to me as cheap due to their packaging, but then again, I was judging a book by its cover.

Keep in mind, I can only get a card that works well with a 300w power supply. Anything higher and I'll fry my motherboard.

I'll try out EVGA since I see a high customer satisfaction rating. I'll keep y'all posted to any new developments.

 

[thomas242]

I had a evga 9800 burn up on me and had a new one in my hands a week after i sent them the old one

 

[evolution83]

Since my graphics card was shipped back to me, I was honestly going to just dump it. Seeing as how the card worked fine except for the "dead" fan, I decided to just pop it back into my PC so that I have at least some form of entertainment in my room. (I go nuts without a PC)

Before re-installing my card I noticed there was some dust under the fan, and there was a good chunk of it. I didn't see this before when I had previously noticed the fan stopped working. I thought to myself, "eh, I'll try cleaning it in hopes that the fan works again." I popped the card back into my PC and I was expecting things to start slowing to a crawl like it normally does after several minutes of use.

Well, after an hour or so of use, I noticed my screensaver came on and was running at full speed, as by this point it's usually at a good 1 FPS. All I could think was, "give it a few minutes and it will slow down as usual."

Nothing changed.

I decided to take it a step further and open an emulated game, as the last time I tried this the emulation slowed down like it was on its last breath after three minutes. I played my game for a good 10 minutes without it stalling, so I figured something must be up.

I took off the case to my tower and examined my video card. The fan was spinning! lol it must have been the dust that had collected inside that stopped the fan from spinning properly. I remember when I initially started having this problem and looked at the fan, it dad make several attempts in trying to work, but it seemed to have given up, almost as if something was in its way.

Well, now my problem is solved (again) and at least I know I don't have to buy another card for the time being. When I do, I'll just go with Evga.

I did want to ask though, sometimes when I edit videos on my PC, I can hear the fan inside my PC turn up in volume, and sometimes it can get as loud like a vacuum cleaner is running. Is this normal or a sign of my card overheating?

 

[pparks1]

My vote goes to eVGA. I've had great luck with them. Be aware though..you have to register for their lifetime guarantee within like 30 days or something. If you don't, you get like 1 year or something. I use them both at home and at work and I've had 1 failure or a fan at work and it was taken right care of in a timely manner.

 

[thefabe]

Evga here as well, and yes you only have 30 days to register it to get on on the lifetime warranty.
Plus I haven't checked in a while but with some cards they have a step up program which allows you to send them the card and get full price for it towards an upgrade.
My second choice would be XFX now I've read that some people say it's no the quality company it used to be but I've never had any problems dealing with them,even their support tickets I get a reply within 24hrs. Once again you must register the card.
I have found over the years that one of the first things to do is as soon as you receive hardware register it (if required), I do before i even install it.
Also since XFX now is in the ATI card market that makes them worth a look as well.
As far as the fan sound it's just the fan speed increasing as the load on the card does, It's not necessarily overheating but getting warmer and the card is doing it's job by increasing th fan speed.
You can use Evga precision to see your temps, adjust your fan speed and clock speeds.
I know their are other programs for this as well but I like the Evga it's light and very easy to use. You might as well download it when you register the card or you can get it for here EVGA Precision 1.7.1 download from Guru3D.com My 2 cents. Best wishes. Fabe

 

[Lordbob75]

That is terrible. Great it is working, but the RMA thing sucks.

If you don't like the fan on it now, you could get an aftermarket cooler for it.
The fan spinning up is just that, spinning up. When I crank mine to 100% it sounds like a freaking jet engine, but it just plain doesn't need to be there (260GTX). With yours, it is just trying to cool off.

~Lordbob

 

[evolution83]

Since the fan is attached to the card, how would an aftermarket fan work? Would I attach it to the card or inside the PC?

 

[Lordbob75]

Since the fan is attached to the card, how would an aftermarket fan work? Would I attach it to the card or inside the PC?

You pull of the old fan and heat sink and install a new one.

~Lordbob

 

[evolution83]

Guess I'll be buying a new card. The fan stopped working again and cleaning didn't help at all like I'd hoped. Oh well.

Lordbob, I wouldn't mind buying a new fan, except I really don't see a way of detaching it from my current card.

 

[Lordbob75]

Just unscrew it...

~Lordbob

 

[adt]

wait so basicly when i bought my BFG gtx 285 it came with a 10 year warranty and i registered it on their website straight away. does that mean if it breaks down i wont get a replacement?