Now you void your warranty if you go with an aftermarket cooler on your XFX 7970

[dajeepster]

VOID IF REMOVED: XFX Play Hard

just saw this on the back of my spanking new XFX 7970... the Core edition...

it's on the retention bracket for the cooler on the gpu.

my first thought was WTF!!!! D:

 

[Kenmitch]

First the no more double lifetime warranty, now the tamper seal. Looks like XFX is gonna be doing a downward spiral pretty soon. Most of the reasons of the past are no longer reasons to seek out their products.
.

 

[lavaheadache]

Nice, I see major backlash coming along with this.

Why you can't remove the cooler is beyond me. I can understand if you chip the core or something but that would fall under physical damage. If I want to pull the heatsink to use higher performing TIM I should be able to. I wonder if AMD were to use an IHS if that sticker would still be there

 

[superccs]

That's weak. Return it.

 

[Vesku]

Seems like they are looking to make some redundancies in their RMA department. Won't need as many people who can properly inspect a returned card.

 

[blackened23]

VOID IF REMOVED: XFX Play Hard

just saw this on the back of my spanking new XFX 7970... the Core edition...

it's on the retention bracket for the cooler on the gpu.

my first thought was WTF!!!! D:

Dude, ALL cards are like this. If you take it apart you lose the warranty. I don't even like XFX but your grandstanding on this issue is ridiculous.

 

[badb0y]

My 6950 had the same sticker and I called I contacted XFX support and they told me it wouldn't void the warranty as long as if I ever send it in to them I put the original cooler on.

 

[alachua]

My 6950 had the same sticker and I called I contacted XFX support and they told me it wouldn't void the warranty as long as if I ever send it in to them I put the original cooler on.

I bet they take a contrary position to that if you ever do have to send your card in.

What really chaps my ass more than them cancelling the double lifetime or the tamper stickers is the BS 'lifetime only if you register' nonsense that EVGA pulls. If I bought the card and have proof, why do I need to bother registering it? After they declined my friend's 8800gt warranty due to this I haven't bought a single Nvidia card. In total about a dozen cards between myself, my family and friends who rely on me for PC builds/advice all ended up with ATI/AMD cards of varying levels.

 

[Shmee]

pitty, the end must be nigh. O well, maybe another company will provide better service now.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Dude, ALL cards are like this. If you take it apart you lose the warranty. I don't even like XFX but your grandstanding on this issue is ridiculous.

Dunno about others, but XFX used to allow it. eVGA still allows it.

 

[Rifter]

Dude, ALL cards are like this. If you take it apart you lose the warranty. I don't even like XFX but your grandstanding on this issue is ridiculous.

You have no idea what you are talking about, XFX allowed this before, and EVGA still does.

EDIT, didnt read responses past quoted, rampantandroid beat me to it.

 

[OCGuy]

Dude, ALL cards are like this. If you take it apart you lose the warranty. I don't even like XFX but your grandstanding on this issue is ridiculous.

As others have pointed out.........no.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I know with my cards it's ok to replace the stock HSF (thank god - horrible as it is) so long as when you RMA you return it with the stock HSF reattached.

 

[Fallengod]

There are many brands that do not allow tampering with hsf. This actually used to be the case with all video cards, then evga changed their policy to allow it, and xfx changed theirs. A long time ago, everyone kind of knew you voided warranties on all brands by taking the hsf off but people still did it anyways.

I dont see that big of an issue with them removing it. Why would you need an after market HSF for GPU this day and age anyways? I guess for noise but, there was a time when heatsinks wernt doing their job, back maybe in the 6800GT/Ultra days, but....these days I think stock HSF is more than adequate. You shouldnt need to worry about heat with a GPU since if it fails, just RMA it. Thats how I look at it.

I dont worry about that stuff personally.... There was a time with 7900GT's, 8800GT's where I did use zalman heatsinks to help cooling and noise but now, I dont think it is necessary if you ask me.

To take their point of view, business wise, id bet they get a shit ton of vid cards rma'd that are obliterated due to inexperienced idiots doing piss poor install jobs that end up damaging the cards.

 

[dajeepster]

Why would you need an after market HSF for GPU anyways this day and age anyways?

watercooling..

 

[Fallengod]

watercooling..

Ive never had much need for considering watercooling, I guess some people still do that. The only thing I can suggest is, maybe you have to go with Evga only then so you can take hsf off and not void warranty.

Or just go old school like everyone back in the day did anyways, and just void the warranty and deal with it. People still did it when it wasnt allowed, I dont see how it changes much.

Consider it a negative aspect of going to watercooling.

 

[ViRGE]

If I want to pull the heatsink to use higher performing TIM I should be able to.

Could you even reasonably replace it with something better? AMD is using their silk-screened phase change TIM on the reference 7970s, I'm not sure how you can top that.

 

[dajeepster]

The only thing I can suggest is, maybe you have to go with Evga only then so you can take hsf off and not void warranty.

Evga doesn't make AMD cards.

I think you're missing the point. XFX used to allow this and encouraged it... now they've silently stopped. Just like they did with the lifetime warranty.

I've got plenty of XFX cards.. the main reason i used to go with XFX was because i remove thier heatsinks and not void the warranty, and because of the lifetime warranty.

I have a 6970, 6950, a coupl 5870, a few 5850.. all of which i've put waterblocks on.

Normally these "Void Warranty if removed" stickers are just on the pcb... You were allowed to do aftermarket heatsinks, as long as if you had to do warranty repairs, that the boards were sent back with thier original heatsink fans (attached).

The Visiontek 7970 that i have does not have these tamper proof stickers on the retention brackets. When my sapphire 7970 and powercolor 7970 show up, i'll check the brackets on those to see if they have tamper stickers on them.

plus i'm not your typical computer user.
Distributed Computing
i'm #1 on TeAm Anandtech overall... i haven't DC in the last 6 months though and have lost my #1 status on a few of the projects.

running water allows for a more efficient computer and quieter. running fans at a low rpm isn't an option because of the extra heat generated... watercooling is the only logical option for running computers 24/7 under full load for heat and noise management.