Does Sapphire accept RMAs for coil whine?

[Murderotica926]

My 7970 has a god-awful coil whine. It's worst in game menus and intro sequences when the frame rate is uncontrolled and it goes extremely high - during those times it squeals like a pig. I could turn on Vsync to reduce it but I hate Vsync in any game due to input lag. Plus I shouldn't have to do that just because the card as low-quality ICs. But even at 60fps and lower, the coil whine is still there, and it's still loud and annoying. It's a much lower-pitch and it isn't screeching, but it's still a rattling noise. I've heard stories from both sides - sometimes they get a replacement for coil whine, other times the OEM says go suck it.

Does anyone know about Sapphire? How likely are they to replace a card due to coil whine at stock clocks at 60fps or lower? My old 6950 was always silent even when overclocked, the only time it made any noise was when it was tested in WEI. So adjusting to this new noisy GPU has not gone very well and I expect top-notch quality on a custom PCB, Ghz Edition, Vapor-X cooled card that I just dropped $450 on. Coil-whine is low quality in my book.

If Sapphire wont replace it I'm selling the damn thing on ebay and cutting my losses (and learning not to buy from Sapphire again). So, has anyone ever had their card replaced by Sapphire for coil whine, or know anyone who has?

 

[coozie7]

Where are you in the World? Warranties are handled differently in different countries.
Here in the UK it is the retailer who responsible for warranties, not the importer or manufacturer.

 

[daswilhelm]

Where are you in the World? Warranties are handled differently in different countries.
Here in the UK it is the retailer who responsible for warranties, not the importer or manufacturer.

interesting. so if something has a 5 year warranty, you'd still bring it back to the store, say, 4 years later? what happens if that store goes out of business? just curious really...

 

[neon neophyte]

i dunno about the uk but here in canada we have 2 types of 'warrenties." one is that any product can be returned to the retailer within 30 days, for any reason (outside of software.) 2nd is the manufacturers warrenty, which completely depends on how long the manufacturer sets it for.

western digital gave my black hard drives 5 years, sapphire gave me video card 3 years etc etc

 

[Murderotica926]

I'm in the US, it's the same as Canada. 30 day warranty with the retailer, after that you have the real warranty with the manufacturer directly. Sapphire is either 2 or 3 years, not sure. I've heard retailers will easily replace your card for coil whine, but I'm already outside of the 30 day window, so now I have to deal directly with Sapphire. That's why I'm wondering how they handle coil whine.

 

[coozie7]

Like I said: Warranties are handled differently in different countries, there's no point giving warranty advice for the UK if someone lives in Japan, the legal frameworks are different.
@ murderotica926: Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I'd start with a forceful phone call or E-mail, making it clear you're unhappy about the ear-splitting and distracting noise which is ruining your gaming experiences and causing great distress. After all you did n't purchase the card or it to be a loud distraction, did you?
@sadwilhelm: If it's an expensive item, yes, over here the warranty is enforceable in both UK and EU law and the Office of Fair Trading takes a very dim view of companies trying to avoid fair claims.
Not sure about the out of business bit though, although if a major retailer goes under the manufacturers usually honour claims made directly to them if a small one goes under you might be out of luck.