Warranty on Gigabyte graphics cards?

[bhavv]

I managed to get the stock coolers off today - You need to heat them up first so that it softens to take them off, after the card cools down the stock paste solidifies.

I didnt change the cooler, there was no need, but I attached some copper ramsinks to the ram modules, and the results were astonishing -

Before I could run the ram stable and artifact free at 1050 MHZ. 1075 MHZ was stable in Vantage with noticable artifacts, but would crash in 3D Mark 06.

After installing the Ramsinks, the ram is now fully stable at 1100 Mhz in both Vantage and 3D Mark 06, with a few artifacts so it cant be used 24/7, but less artifacts than they had before at 1075 MHZ, plus they are more stable!

The improved memory clocks arent just because of the ramsinks, but because of the way the Zalman VF830 is designed - its air is blown through its fins and over the ram modules.

I will only use 1100 MHZ ram for benchmarking though, and 1050 MHZ should be good for 24/7 use.

Because I had broken the bond on the thermal paste, I replaced it with some of what was left over from my Asus paste which looks like MX-II, but load temperature on the first card went up to 78 degrees from 75 before oops. The bottome card however is cooler at 57 degrees under load, the first one is just cramped with little airflow, but this temperature should still be safe enough for 4870's, so I dont need to rush out and buy better thermal paste right away, but will add some to my next order.

[shawnhenry]

I believe that most warranty is from date of manufacture.

If the shop you bought it from has disappeared then ask Gigabyte if you can send it to them directly.

It may cost you postage to them.

Also which shop was it? They may have a parent company or wholesale supplier you could try.

[Badbonji]

Nice results, just be careful. Artifacts means the card is not stable, and long term damage may be caused to the ram and you could end up with corrupt memory with constant artifacts even at stock speed. I don't think the warranty covers overclocking, I could be wrong though.

[daisy06]

Well, I am new here and firstly wanna drop a hello to everyone. And yes brad it won't cover overlocking. and i hav some confusions bout the prob relates to drivers which has been sort out from ur discussions with bhavv. thanx

[bhavv]

Just to confirm that there are no void stickers on my cards, which is good because my first slot one wasnt very healthy with the stock cooler.

It is now running stable at a max of 79 degrees under load with the thermaltake S orb and an Antec Spotcool fan on full speed blowing over it, while the second is nice and low for a 4870 at just 68 degrees under full load. Turning my Spotcool fan up to full dropped it from 86 to 79 .

Also, if you have a Gigabyte card with the Zalman fansink like mine, then look at the new Zalman VF2000 which is an updated version with 4 heatpipes, 92 mm fan and blue light, I wish I had gotten those now, but the ones I have are working good with an extra fan blowing over the first card. I just wanted blue lights on them.   

I didnt see the model name of the Ramchips on my cards, but originally the Zalman cooled 4870 was shipped with Hynix ram that barely reached 3800 MHZ.

Mine were Qimonda and are artifact free at 4400 MHZ now with the extra cooling I put on them, it looks like they are the same second generation GDDR5 chips found on the 4890 and 4770 to be able to reach the magic clock of 1100 MHZ . I realised this from reading reviews, and also Gigabyte support asked me which ram I have, Hynix or Qimonda when I contacted them about newer drivers not working with crossfire. So if you get a new Gigabyte 4870, you are getting ram chips that may be capable of 4400 MHZ with extra cooling.

But I actually run them underclocked to 500 / 450 for 24/7 use to save power, and only overclock when benchmarking.   

I doubt they will have any problems, I did plan on upgrading to third gen 40 nm cards next year, but will try and skip upgrading untill 2012 if I can help myself now. Energy consumption is helped with underclocking through rivatuner.

If they do break, my problem will be getting the ramsinks off, but Ive never had graphics cards break before so dont think there will be any problems.

Nice cards, I havnt ever had so much luck with getting good memory chips in the past on other brands.     

[Badbonji]

2012? Good luck on that, you will end up 4 generations behind unless ATi manage to fall behind again with Nvidia using the same architecture for a few years such as the 8800GTX.
Nice overclock there, and I don't think void stickers are used much anymore, only on branded whole desktops usually and many laptops when replacing stuff.

Any benchmark results?

[Elevendy]

Hi there,

Sorry for necroing this thread but after searching for a while I could not find the answer to my question:

I recently bought a Gigabyte HD7970 and I am not too happy with noise of the stock cooler. I am thinking of replacing it with an aftermarket cooler, but I am not sure how it will affect the warranty.

What is Gigabyte's warranty policy regarding the installation of coolers on their cards? I tried to find an answer but no success so far. If this information is available somewhere, please point me to the right direction. I would prefer an official answer and not something " I think..."
The Gigabyte site does say something about modifications but that is quite vague.

I know that there is a factory overclocked version of the card by Gigabyte with a better cooler, but who knows when it will be available to purchase.

Thanks

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome.

I come across this quite often as I watercool all my systems and so that involves removing the stock coolers and replacing with waterblocks. Gigabyte like most manufacturers looks on it that the warranty is voided if you replace the stock cooler. So it is something that you must think hard about and then decide. The only thing I can suggest is to be very careful when removing it and keep it safe in case of having to replace it for RMA reasons.

[Elevendy]

Thank you for the quick answer. Not the best news, I should have asked this question before I bought the card.
I need to think about it twice then but it is really loud, so I need a solution.

Thanks again.