Limited Lifetime Warranty. Does it matter?

[palitusa]

Many countries do not have the luxury of Limited Lifetime Warranty. Heck, some countries don't even have warranty like the US/Canada do. Do you think it will be a big impact on your purchase or your loyalty to a brand? Or it is just a gimmick to suck you into buying?

 

[jasonpwns]

The warranty a company offers shows either

A. They are cocky that there product will rarely fail and offer a long warranty knowing that they won't have to replace much parts.
or
B. Companies may offer shorter warranties on products that may have a shorter life span where they don't want to replace tons of units in the future.

For me it isn't a gimmick. It helps me test the customer service of the company and how well they deal with customer issues and that they are willing to replace their faulty product if it goes bad.

Like say two people buy and use their new video cards on the same exact system from case, motherboard, memory, etc. Person A has his video card die within 1 year while Person B still has his running after a year then you know it is a defect but most companies don't honor that. If they honor problems like that and make reliable hardware and in some cases software I will buy from them the next time.

 

[roastmaster]

I think limited lifetime warranty is good to have. With all the video card brand being so similar.

Sorry I'm not rich to keep buying video card all the time.

 

[jasonpwns]

Also to add I cannot vote, I won't buy a video card with a warranty less than 4-5 years. At that rate Id just buy second hand.

 

[hunter315]

One year warranties for products in the US tell me you arent confident about your product, two years tells me there are atleast better than average parts, 3 years means you are confident that its not going to fail before it gets replaced, its probably going to live for 5 years or more.

The lifetime ones seem like a good choice for the company to me, most cards will live for 4 or 5 years without an issue and it encourages people to buy your card more because its got a good warranty. As long as you dont use crap parts the cards shouldnt be failing while still in use unless there was a manufacturing defect and most of those would show up in two years anyway. So while i dont consider a lifetime warranty a requirement, i find it encouraging that a company is willing to stand behind their product for as long as you care to use it.

 

[songemu]

I had an experience with my 3-year old 8800GTX dying. eVGA RMA'd it without hassle and in doing so, has earned my loyalty. Even though I'm sure all graphics cards are made well, more expensive ones and those more prone to dying (running hot) should definitely be warrantied. If I'd lost a $500 investment, I would've switched brands in a heartbeat.

 

[wolfram23]

Previously I would have said 2 or 3 years, but now I voted for 1. Why? Because I tend to void warranties, it seems. At least on my new PC I've probably voided CPU, heat sink, mobo, and both GPU warranties... so yeah.

However, a long warranty does show confidence in your product. So that's a bonus. Plus, it is comforting to have.

 

[roastmaster]

Well look at BFG. They had "lifetime warranty" but will they still service since they pull out of the graphic card business.

 

[hunter315]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/GPU-Graphics-Cards-GeForce-BFG,10452.html
They said they will still provide RMA support, but im not sure how long that can last before they have nothing to replace RMA'd cards with

 

[Soulreape]

I say 3 years warranty, I reckon thats long enough for any electrical equipment as it not only covers people who use their machines every day, but also those that are only able to use them every now and again, surrely any manufacturing faults would have arisen by then ? Plus if it (mysteriously *cough*) breaks after 3 years then its easy to convince the missus that you need a new one thus removing the need for any persuasion tactics and bribes :-D

 

[randomizer]

As every manufacturer/vendor must honour Statutory Warranty (which is rather arbitrary and depends on the value of the item) under Australian law, manufacturer warranties are merely a bonus to me. I like to have a 1 year warranty so that I don't need to go through the hassles of getting NSW Fair Trading involved, but it isn't a necessity because if I spend $300+ on a video card I will get my warranty honoured if it fails within an unreasonably short period whether the manufacturer (or at least the vendor) likes it or not.

I don't have the luxury of Lifetime Warranties anyway. All the manufacturers who provide them only do so in North America.

 

[flash_77]

No, my friend limited lifetime warranty is something u should not care about.
better u give importance to the hardware u r buying, whether it suits your need or not.
Brand such as ATI Radeon, Nvidia prepares their Video Cards in such a way that they can be used for a long period of time without any defect.
U just need to watch whether u r providing appropriate cooling and voltage (SMPS) to ur Video card.
That's it.

 

[rocky41]

Well i think limited lifetime warranty does matters. If you are getting an good quality gc and will have 1 year warranty who will buy that..
its better to have everything in proper order with more warranty period so that we can't have any problem in future...specially for budget gamers...

 

[LuckyDucky7]

Lifetime warranty does matter- especially the ones where overclocking is covered in the warranty (no physical damage).
3 years is fine, but lifetime is better. I had an ASUS mainboard (with a 3-year warranty) die two months out of "serial number warranty" (which is the reason my new board isn't an ASUS, by the way).
Lifetime tells you the manufacturer cares, and has faith in their product over the useful life of the product.

 

[3nn10]

Palit, the only thing stopping me from buying my 2x 460s from you instead of EVGA is the warranty (and maybe the EE, but...)

 

[mjsharma]

i think 3 years warranty is enough...

 

[bertimus]

Economically speaking, if two manufacturers are offering the same product at virtually the same price, and one offers more benefit, you would be considered irrational (by economists) to not buy the product with the advantageous benefits!

 

[asteldian]

3 year warranty that is not void when OCing. I may even consider 2 years for that.

Otherwise lifetime warranty is sensible. Plenty offer it for no real extra cost so if you don't offer it your card is less attractive.

On the other hand, given how much people like to OC these days, offering a shorter warranty but with OC covered could well sway a lot of people

 

[makwy2]

There is a reason I do not buy from anyone BUT XFX. Their graphics cards are well-built and well-designed and their special edition cards also tend to be very nice. I know I sound like a XFX commercial but after doing an RMA with them I don't feel frustrated or mad... I actually felt pretty well taken care of so far.

 

[borisof007]

Huge yes on the lifetime warranty. My 9800gx2 SSC burned out in 18 months, EVGA mailed me a GTX 285 as a replacement per my warranty.

Awesome!

 

[roastmaster]

Huge yes on the lifetime warranty. My 9800gx2 SSC burned out in 18 months, EVGA mailed me a GTX 285 as a replacement per my warranty.

Awesome!

18 months is only 1 year/6months.

Please share experience that is more than 3-5 years. I wonder if there is any that did RMA over 3-5 years.

 

[OvrClkr]

18 months is only 1 year/6months.

Please share experience that is more than 3-5 years. I wonder if there is any that did RMA over 3-5 years.

I have a 10 year old Nvidia GeForce2 GTS AGP that is still going strong and an 8 year old MX 460 that died about 4 months ago. All my other old GPU's were either sold or RMA'ed.

 

[borisof007]

18 months is only 1 year/6months.

Please share experience that is more than 3-5 years. I wonder if there is any that did RMA over 3-5 years.

I had a BFG 7800 GS AGP card that died, that had a lifetime on it. That was abooouuut... 4 years after I bought it. I just donated it to a school, didn't even bother with the warranty.

 

[Shirosaki]

Lifetime for graphic cards that are replaced after 3-5 years seems like a gimmick to me. I wouldn't care if a graphic card's warranty lasted more than 5 years. 3 seems optimal. If I had to choose between 2 graphic cards that were the same only one had a lifetime warranty and the other performed slightly better with a 3 year warranty, I'd choose the latter.

 

[JohnnyChrist]

My brand was BFG, I'm running on a BFG GTX 280 now. I hope to god it doesn't break.