Graphic Cards ATi Slashes Factory Warranty Period

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Apex

Contributor
A sharp eyed reader over at extreme overclocking forums noted that ATi has slashed its warranty period for all products from as much as 5 years to 1, effective from August 31st 2005. This means if you purchased your (video)card before August 31st you will still retain the standard 3 year warranty that was present on the top level cards.

While NVidia in co-operation with XFX has started offering lifetime and double lifetime warranties on it's selected ranges of cards, one has to wonder how this helps ATi win customers to its own product range.

The new conditions state: "ATI warrants to the original purchaser of the hardware product, that the product is free from defects in materials or workmanship under normal use and service for a period of one (1) year from the date of purchase at retail." this applies to all videocards, while workstation products retain a 3 year warranty.

Good going ATi.

ATi.com said:
THIS WARRANTY IS FOR ATI TECHNOLOGIES INC. (“ATIâ€) PRODUCTS PURCHASED AT RETAIL AFTER AUGUST 31, 2005.

THE FOLLOWING WARRANTIES ARE ONLY APPLICABLE IF THE ONLINE PRODUCT REGISTRATION FORM AT www.ati.com/customercare/registration IS SUCCESSFULLY RECEIVED BY ATI WITHIN 30 DAYS FROM THE DATE OF PURCHASE OF THE PRODUCT.

PRODUCT WARRANTY

ATI warrants to the original purchaser of the hardware product, that the product is free from defects in materials or workmanship under normal use and service for a period of one (1) year from the date of purchase at retail. If this product is a Workstation product such as ATI’s FireGL™ or FireMV™ family of products, ATI warrants to the original purchaser of the hardware product, that the Workstation product is free from defects in materials or workmanship under normal use and service for a period of three (3) years from the date of purchase at retail. All cables and accessories provided with an ATI product are warranted to be free from defects in materials or workmanship under normal use and service for a period of for (90) ninety days from date of purchase at retail.

Warranty Statement & Conditions for products purchased prior to August 31, 2005

This page contains the following information:

* RETAIL Warranty Durations
* Products Damaged By Lightning
* Availability of ATI Components and Schematics
* Apple Power Macintosh Products from ATI
* 90 Day Warranty for Accessories Purchased from ATI Technical Support
* Warranty Terms Do Not Change as a Result of Service by ATI

RETAIL Warranty Durations
ATI Technologies Inc. warrants to the original purchaser of the hardware that the product is in good working condition, according to its specifications at the time of shipment, for a period of one to five years from the date of original purchase. The warranty term depends on the product. RADEON 7000 and newer products have a three year warranty. DV Wonder cards have a two year warranty. The Remote Wonder has a one year warranty. All other ATI products have a five year warranty.
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Source: Neowin
 
This is applicable only for BBA cards.

Sapphire, club3d, gigabyte, asus will continue to offer their own 3 year warranty.

Also Nvidia does not decide the warranty as they dont build their own cards. BFG has lifetime warranty and i XFX xtreme cards will carry lifetime warranty. Thats parther decision.
 
funkymonkey said:
This is applicable only for BBA cards.
Sapphire, club3d, gigabyte, asus will continue to offer their own 3 year warranty.
Also Nvidia does not decide the warranty as they dont build their own cards. BFG has lifetime warranty and i XFX xtreme cards will carry lifetime warranty. Thats parther decision.
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Yeah but BBA cards are the gold standard and generally are rock solid and have better quality control than sapphire. I would have bought a BBA over sapphire any day cos of this inspite of knowing that its built by sapphire anyway.
 
I think ATi will slowly step away from making BBA cards and just concentrate on their core business now that ATi has a lot of board partners who can supply ATi graphics cards in volumes.
 
@ Chaos BBA cards were the only choice some years back, but now we have plenty of quality add in partners offering ATI chips like Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, etc. IMO I would rate the cards by these add on partners on par with BBA cards.
 
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