Hi,
My gpu has been acting up recently - basically it starts lagging on games which used to run at 60 fps on high settings. It lags on these same games even at minimum settings… I have a video if people want to see it in action. I've tried multiple clean driver installs, and rollbacks, but the problem persists. I contacted Centrecom (where I purchased the card for $300 16 months ago), and they say since its out of the retail warranty period I have to pay for testing, and even after that there is no guarantee I'll get anything in return. I feel like I'm getting a bit ripped off here - 1 year seems to be nothing for a $300 card. I was expecting a solid 3 years or something. What would be my best approach here? Or do I simply buy a new card with extended warranty this time. Advice is appreciated.
All Gigabyte graphics cards and motherboards have a three year manufacturer warranty. Usually the reseller would/should honour the full three years and deal with the warranty claim on your behalf.
Unfortunately because you appear to have an indirect/intermittent fault you will probably have a tough time proving to the vendor that the graphics card is at fault here.
Some steps you could possibly take here before threatening Centrecom with your state's Fair Trading equivalent:
* Download and install HW Monitor - http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
- Inspect GPU temps while idle and then while under load. Confirm that graphics card is running at the correct temps and has adequate airflow.
* Remove card from computer, inspect fan/heatsink and confirm that it is adequately mounted to the PCB and is snug against the GPU core.
* Change the PCIE slot that the GPU is installed in on the motherboard, make sure it is installed in either a 16x or 8x capable PCIE slot.
* Swap the PCI-E power rails to another one on your power supply if you have a spare, or completely change out the power supply.
* Swap the graphics card out for another one, see if problems go away.
* Put offending graphics card into another computer and see if the problems follow it
* Swap out your primary OS HDD for a completely blank HDD and do a fresh OS install, see if problems persist.
To do a real battery of tests you need literally a whole other whole computer that you can swap and change components with (or a lot of spare components lying around).
If all else fails and you don't have the energy to deal with Centrecom you can contact Gigabyte direct however I think they may require you to ship your faulty parts back to Taiwan direct (expensive) after you have done a fair amount of testing that their RA department will ask you to do.