POSTED BY

Rob Beschizza

AT 9:35 PM
Sunday August 23, 2009

Games

PNY

PNY offers lifetime warranty on graphics cards

gtx295_pic.jpgPC peripheral maker PNY is offering a lifetime replacement warranty on its high-end video cards, and promises no guff:

The lifetime warranty kicks in once the original purchaser registers on PNY.com. When we say lifetime, we mean just that. So in 2015, when your GTX 260 has a defective part, then we'll replace it for the current comparable graphics card. ... the replacement would definitely be for a comparable model, and I'm certain by 2015 it will actually be an even better graphics card.

A layman's reading of the terms is enough to ascertain that you should not overclock or otherwise modify the card ("altered in any way that affects its performance"). You also pay for shipping and need the receipt.

The deal is good for the pricey GTX 295 1792MB, GTX 285 1GB, and GTX 275/GTX 260 896MB models. [PNY]

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7 Comments

lolbrandon

#1 – 11:49 PM August 23, 2009

But what if the card never goes bad? I usually upgrade my cards before they stop working. I'm not sure I've ever had a video card fail after the first 90 days. You might be stuck with that card for the next ten years, and then what? A suppose a dishonest person could try to cleverly break the card while making it look like a normal failure, but I suspect PNY knows the tricks and checks for them. Either way, assuming even a handful of fraudulent failures gets past PNY's testing, this is probably a really smart marketing gimmick that's going to payoff pretty well for PNY.

Rob Beschizza

#2 – 12:13 AM August 24, 2009

what if the card never goes bad? I usually upgrade my cards before they stop working.

That's what they're banking on!

Anonymous Anonymous

#3 – 7:24 AM August 24, 2009

I don't think this is a new policy. I had a first gen GeForce card go bad and they replaced it without any trouble something like 7 years ago.

Mazoola

#4 – 9:18 AM August 24, 2009

Be sure to register your newly purchased cards, though: Where currently the high-end XLR8 GTX cards carry a 3-year limited warranty expandable by another 2 years with registration, under the new plan the warranty for unregistered cards drops to a single year. (A single year expandable to life, of course -- but only with registration.)

Anonymous Anonymous

#5 – 5:26 PM August 24, 2009

evga already has a lifetime warranty, and if I'm not mistaken, so does MSI (either that or their warranty is absurdly long (I recently RMA'd a geforce 7950x2 and received a GTX 260 in exchange))

joe erlewein

#6 – 12:38 PM August 25, 2009

Just like their rebates, PNY will likely require you to send in a form with the UPC symbol from the box... which they will tell you they didn't receive, and you'll be screwed.

par for the course for them. just like their "no guff" rebate when I bought a PNY video card last month.

markfran

#7 – 7:34 AM September 5, 2009

I just had an 8800 GTX OC PNY card fail under the 3 year warranty. They sent me a refurbished GTX 260. No Box, no paperwork, only the card in a bubble wrap. I emailed them about this and they jumped all over me and slapped there fine print on me that they were no way under obligation to provide a new card. I don't even know if I can register it. I don't think I can because they say my warranty continues from the first failed card.

Well - the refurbished card is bad after just a couple of days. It artifacts - and the clock speeds of the card show much slower than they should be - and cannot be changed without failure. Example... core clock should be 576 - it runs @ 341. Memory is less than half it rated speed and so on.

Do not trust these people, don't know what they are going to do about this one yet.

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