C'mon XFX

[Atomic Playboy]

I have an XFX 5870 that's been running strong for years. I recently got some artifacting, but that was my own fault for letting the case get so dusty. Cleaned everything out and it's still running strong. I'm looking into upgrading to a 7970 within the next few months, and was thinking I'd go XFX again; is there a better company to go with?

 

[hardhat]

My XFX 5850 has been performing flawlessly since purchase.

 

[Name User]

Their RMA service is pretty garbage.

I disagree, I think the service is excellent. I just happened to get two duds out of three. In my experience their premium dual fan cards seem to be better. But that's anecdotal.

These threads remind me of the WD vs Seagate vs Maxtor ones from 10 years back, before everyone figured out that all hard drives are on a suicide mission from day one.

Actually I "rented" (you know) an XFX "ONE" from Best Buy last week while waiting on shipping. That's an interesting demographic they're trying to target with that card. It's some kind of cross section of grandma and grapefruit, no concern for trivial things like model numbers, let alone performance. It was a brand new, unlabeled 5450 for like $80.

 

[Fallengod]

Its funny that others "rent" video cards from BB too. I used to do that when a video card failed waiting for a replacement. Now with IGP HD-3000, no more worries in that department. I love that 2500k feature.

lol. Well thats retail store prices for you. I always get a good laugh at that too. Bestbuy sells a 5450 for $80 but if you have patience online, you can find deals for those for around $10-$20AR.......

I really only go to bestbuy for specific deals. Every so often they do have something thats priced fairly decently I might be interested in.

 

[chaudx]

Sent back a 4850 a while back and they sent me a 4870. It wasn't going down to normal idle speeds, so I took a look at the BIOS and it had a non XFX BIOS on it. A quick ticket to support and I got the correct BIOS and all has been well since then.

I'll take a little extra effort for a free card upgrade! The 6870 I purchased since then had no such problems.

 

[Rambusted]

I just installed my xfx 6870 tonight, installation was very smooth, fan is adjusting itself nicely and temps are under control, games are running considerably faster than on my 4870. I dont like the placement of the pci power sockets though but thats a minor gripe. Overall I am incredibly happy with this purchase, $159.99 and free shipping. Bought it sunday night and it arrived at my house this afternoon, newegg getting it done. I dont believe anything for that price can compete with this card/gpu. Hopefully it will prove to be as durable as my visiontek 4870 which was running flawlessly when i took it out today.

 

[pandemonium]

XFX is probably the lousiest of the AMD GPU vendors, from what I understand.

This. Of all the red brands, I've had the worst experience with XFX.

 

[Synomenon]

If XFX is now the worst AMD partner, which one is the best?

I noticed they don't even have lifetime warranties anymore.

 

[pandemonium]

MSi. I think they're the best for both teams. Their Twin Frozr design has won my implicit approval and they use it on just about every major card now.

 

[Smartazz]

I just installed my xfx 6870 tonight, installation was very smooth, fan is adjusting itself nicely and temps are under control, games are running considerably faster than on my 4870. I dont like the placement of the pci power sockets though but thats a minor gripe. Overall I am incredibly happy with this purchase, $159.99 and free shipping. Bought it sunday night and it arrived at my house this afternoon, newegg getting it done. I dont believe anything for that price can compete with this card/gpu. Hopefully it will prove to be as durable as my visiontek 4870 which was running flawlessly when i took it out today.

I made a very similar upgrade(gtx260->xfx6870). Great card for the money, especially since I haven't been gaming as much as I used to.

 

[mkmitch]

I installed xfx 6870 2 gb on Sunday that I got on sale at the egg for 164AR, no issues whatsoever. Its shortsighted of anyone to decide either a company is good or bad based upon a few anectdotal postings to a forum.

 

[Rvenger]

MSi. I think they're the best for both teams. Their Twin Frozr design has won my implicit approval and they use it on just about every major card now.

I agree, MSI is top notch in the videocard dept. EVGA does well too.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Had a xfx 6750 and it was a beautiful card,jumped on a single fan 6790 and oh boy nothing but crap.

System lock ups during movies constantly but the card gamed good but a simple freaking movie is when i would have my issues,reading newegg reviews it seems a bad batch came about at some point and time.

Had it for a little over a week before i got a refund,the last night i had it i watched a film and 5 times the god damn machine locked up and i had a audience as well....canceled the film,boxed up the card and i kissed it and xfx good bye the following day.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I've only had 2 xfx cards so far, 5770s that I used in xfire. I pulled one out to give to my stepson because his monitor is only 1280x1024 so his rig doesn't need 2 cards. As far as I know, the other one still works (it's been sitting on my desk since xmas) and I'll prob. be selling it to my bro-in-law.

Even their customer service was great. Neither cards came with a xfire bridge so I emailed them to req. one and got a response within an hour and the bridge came in two days. This was almost 2 years ago though so maybe things have gone downhill since.

 

[exar333]

Boggles my mind how many RMAs folks seem to have. I have OCd every GPU I have owned since 1995 and never had an RMA. Just lucky?

 

[Rambusted]

If XFX is now the worst AMD partner, which one is the best?

I noticed they don't even have lifetime warranties anymore.

Thats not true I just registered my 6870 last night and here is their policy copied directly from their site.

Quote:

The following Graphics Cards are eligible for an extension of the standard two-year limited hardware warranty:

1. XFX Radeon HD 7000 Series Dual Fan (Double Dissipation Edition) Graphics Cards with Ghost Technology; a floating cover design that maximizes airflow by creating exceptional venting throughout the card.

2. XFX Radeon HD 7000 Series Graphics Cards with 10-digit model numbers ending in “R” (example: “FX-797A-TDFR”)

3. XFX Radeon HD 6000, HD 5000, and HD 4000 Series Graphics Cards

4. XFX GeForce GT 520, GT 430, 200, 9000, 8000, 7000, 6000 Series Graphics Cards purchased after April 17, 2007.

If you register any of the specified products noted above online at http://www.xfxforce.com/ within 30 days of purchase, your limited warranty will be EXTENDED for the duration of your life. Registration within 30 days of the date of purchase is a condition precedent to receiving the lifetime warranty.***

End quote.

Sounds like a lifetime warranty to me.

 

[Sunny129]

Most of their power supplies are just rebrands. I'm pretty sure I remember reading my XFX 750W is a Seasonic rebrand.

That's no different from most PSU brands. Antec and Corsair don't make their own PSUs, though sometimes they give some input as to what components be used, modular connector design and such.

you're missing the point, which happens to be that while XFX's PSUs are manufactured for them by a 3rd party, their video cards are not. furthermore, as someone already mentioned, XFX's ODM for PSUs is SeaSonic, the top PSU manufacturer our there with respect to quality and reliability, which makes XFX's PSUs look that much better than their video cards. if you assume the XFX's video cards will be top notch just b/c their PSUs are top notch, it might get you into trouble...

...not that i know for a fact that XFX video cards generally lack in quality - i've never owned or used one myself. so really i'm just referring to XFX's video card RMA service, which is what most folks here seem to be taking issue with. i don't know if anyone has had the same difficulties trying to RMA an XFX PSU (it may be a completely different, more pleasant process/experience, and their PSUs may actually get shipped to SeaSonic for repair).

 

[deadken]

MSi. I think they're the best for both teams. Their Twin Frozr design has won my implicit approval and they use it on just about every major card now.

Too bad I can't find a 7970 with a Twin Frozr HS/F. I went as far as to check the MSI website. They don't make a 7970 with TF.

But they do make a 7950 with TF. I hope they are making 7970 TF's and will release them soon. If not, I might just have to save $100 and get a 7950 TF instead.... That'd truly be a shame.

 

[GoStumpy]

I have a XFX HD6850, friend has the same, and other friend has a HD6790... All have been flawless

 

[pandemonium]

I installed xfx 6870 2 gb on Sunday that I got on sale at the egg for 164AR, no issues whatsoever. Its shortsighted of anyone to decide either a company is good or bad based upon a few anectdotal postings to a forum.

Conjecture my statements are not. I bought 2 XFX 6870's and they both ran very hot and very loud compared to my MSi 6870's. In fact, I've never had any GPU run as hot or loud as the XFXs did.

I have benchmarks and screenshots at home comparing how the 2 versions of the 6870 compared should you wish to see them.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Okay, so let's look at graphics cards as a whole. Most likely they fail at the fan. So if I'm one to replace HSFs and fans with the quieter Arctic Cooling VGA coolers, then perhaps XFX is still ok for me?

For the record one of their 6850 fans died on me a few months back, but they sent me a new fan in no time.

I do like how they honor overclocking and fan modification. That's a good thing for me. Not that I plan on OCing the hell out of any card. I just want a cool/quiet solution where I can't hear my VGA cooler over my CPU cooler.

 

[bononos]

I have an XFX 5870 that's been running strong for years. I recently got some artifacting, but that was my own fault for letting the case get so dusty. Cleaned everything out and it's still running strong. I'm looking into upgrading to a 7970 within the next few months, and was thinking I'd go XFX again; is there a better company to go with?

I think the fan/cooler solution is the big thing differentiating the brands nowadays. All(?) brands seem to have solid caps/multiphase vrms/etc now. You'd do well to inspect the heatsink/fan or check the reviews to see how well made they are - like the mounting holes seem to be in the right place to make sure that the contact areas are tight, fan looks big and durable, etc.

As far as XFX goes, I'm abit leery of the brand due to their past reputation for shoddiness which necessitated their lifetime cover. I also think XFX changed their manufacturing to include solid caps later than the others although I may be wrong.

 

[lehtv]

MSi. I think they're the best for both teams. Their Twin Frozr design has won my implicit approval and they use it on just about every major card now.

Gigabyte's and Asus's dual fan coolers are just as good really, and Gigabyte's triple fan coolers and Asus's triple slot coolers are better than twin frozrs.

 

[thilanliyan]

My RMA service for a 6950 2gb reference card went fine with XFX. They were fairly quick to respond to support messages. The whole process took several weeks but that is because I had to ship it to California and I live in Canada. I got a non-reference card back but all is well with it.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Gigabyte's and Asus's dual fan coolers are just as good really, and Gigabyte's triple fan coolers and Asus's triple slot coolers are better than twin frozrs.

LOL the triple slot coolers are of epic proportions and way overkill,cards like the 7970 and the 7950 of this generation will not even require them for good thermals or make sense having them.