MSI Russia Reduces Some Graphics Card Warranties From 3 Years to 6 Months

GeForce RTX 3090 Ventus 3X 24G OC
GeForce RTX 3090 Ventus 3X 24G OC (Image credit: MSI)

In a shocking move, MSI Russia has has reduced the warranty period for 18 graphics cards, as reported by PC Gamer. MSI typically offers a 36-month warranty on graphics cards; however, the brand will only back the affected models for six months now.

MSI Russia shared the news on the company's warranty webpage but didn't share its exact reasoning. The list includes AMD Polaris and Navi cards, as well as Nvidia's Turing and latest Ampere products representing some of the best graphics cards for gaming. 

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Graphics CardEthereum Hash Rate (MH/s)*ArchitectureGPU
Radeon RX 570 Miner 8G31.31GCN 4.0Polaris 20
Radeon RX 580 Miner 8G32.74 GCN 4.0Polaris 20
Radeon RX 5500 XT Miner25.06RDNANavi 14
Radeon RX 5600 XT Miner37.68RDNANavi 10
Radeon RX 5700 Miner50.99RDNANavi 10
Radeon RX 5700 XT Miner54.28RDNANavi 10
GeForce RTX 2060 Super Gaming X RU37.74TuringTU106
GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z RU37.74TuringTU106
GeForce RTX 2060 Super Ventus OC RU37.74TuringTU106
GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus OC RU37.74TuringTU106
GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus XS OC RU37.74TuringTU106
GeForce GTX 1660 Ventus XS OC RU21.44TuringTU116
GeForce GTX 1660 Super Ventus XS OC RU26.64TuringTU116
GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X OC RU48.00AmpereGA106
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ventus 2X OC RU60.21AmpereGA104
GeForce RTX 3070 Ventus 3X OC RU61.79AmpereGA104
GeForce RTX 3080 Ventus 3X 10G OC RU97.88AmpereGA102
GeForce RTX 3090 Ventus 3X OC RU121.16AmpereGA102

*Data from Minerstat

MSI Russia didn't point to cryptocurrency mining, but it still comes to mind as a potential driver for the drop in warranty, especially considering the first six models are obviously tailored towards cryptocurrency miners, such as the famed Radeon RX 580 Miner. 

It's a bit surprising to see Ampere cards on MSI's list, since the Ampere SKUs are GeForce gaming graphics cards. But cryptocurrency miners have repurposed Ampere, such as the GeForce RTX 3060 for mining activities. 

Mining cryptocurrency takes a heavy toll on graphics cards, since mining farms operate 24/7. Graphics cards used for mining are more likely to suffer a premature death, which is particularly problematic given today's graphics card shortage. Graphics card vendors aren't eager to replace these cards, and, in fact, many vendors explicitly state that cryptocurrency mining isn't covered under their warranty.

Nvidia's answer to crytocurrency mining was to introduce the Cryptocurrency Mining Processor (CMP) product line. However, CMP options aren't very appealing to casual miners, considering their price tag and warranty. Although Nvidia never acknowledged it, many CMP devices are using rewarmed Turing silicon. For example, the CMP 30HX performs similarly to the GeForce GTX 1660 Super in mining Ethereum. We've seen the CMP 30HX on the market with a price tag as high as $723 with warranty periods up to three months. It's easy to see why miners would avoid the CMP lineup since the GeForce counterparts are often cheaper and feature longer warranties.

If the rumor about Nvidia giving its Ampere silicon an overhaul is accurate, graphics card vendors won't have to resort to shortening warranty periods to protect their GeForce products from mining. The chipmaker is reportedly reinforcing its anti-mining algorithm on the new Ampere dies, so that mining performance is gimped straight out of the box.

This shouldn't affect shoppers outside of Russia,  but we've reached out to MSI to see if the company can shed any more light and if we could see similar action in other countries.

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

TOPICS
  • sharkbaithohaha002
    It doesn't apply in my region anyways, but does it apply to existing products or newly purchased products since X date? I don't think they can unilaterally reduce my warrant for the price that I already paid.
    Reply
  • drdccd
    of course they will reduce the warranty.. Mining effect. CRYPTOs not only affect other gamers they affect as well other customers.
    Reply
  • Heat_Fan89
    No surprise that they did that. I wonder if Nvidia or AMD may follow? Ironically I was just reading a thread on the Alienware forums where someone used their brand new Alienware Aurora for mining and three weeks later the computer hard crashes every 30 minutes. Hopefully that person made back all that money from mining they used to purchase the computer in the first place.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    Heat_Fan89 said:
    Ironically I was just reading a thread on the Alienware forums where someone used their brand new Alienware Aurora for mining and three weeks later the computer hard crashes every 30 minutes.
    I've had my CPUs and GPUs at 100% load for years and never had any issues. I'd be thoroughly unimpressed by a presumably high-end system that fails after a few weeks of mining. Either a manufacturer cut corners they shouldn't have, there was a manufacturing defect or there is more to the story.
    Reply
  • Heat_Fan89
    InvalidError said:
    I've had my CPUs and GPUs at 100% load for years and never had any issues. I'd be thoroughly unimpressed by a presumably high-end system that fails after a few weeks of mining. Either a manufacturer cut corners they shouldn't have, there was a manufacturing defect or there is more to the story.
    I can't say if there is more to the story as that is all the poster mentioned. However I did buy an Aurora R10 recently on sale and they are not the best at heat mgmt. So I would not try mining on an Alienware Aurora R series. Inside the case it's tight and cramped with just one exhaust fan for the AIO and a lower fan to blow air at the GPU.
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    You can't really blame them, when its mostly miners buying the cards currently.

    I won't consider picking up a new graphics card with anything less than a three-year warranty though. I once bought a card with a one-year warranty back when that was still not unheard of (though two years was more common at that point) and it failed just a year and a few months later. At least if a card fails after more than three years it can be considered as an excuse to upgrade.
    Reply