Nvidia RTX 3080 FE RMA experience

[Whach]

Long story short, sent in my launch 3080 FE in for warranty repair for a dead DP. Got a replacement card in a week. However, the card is definitely inferior to what I had. Compared the serial numbers, the replacement is a RF2, which is refurbished (as was clearly labeled on the package lol). Its also made in China as opposed to Taiwan - if that even makes a difference. Tried similar OC setting I had before, the new card wasn't having any of it. Was able to do 160/500 peak @2100mhz all day long, now down to 130/300 @2025mhz. Doesn't really make a difference in real world use - could be an ex-mining card?

Anyways, in hindsight, probably should have just accepted the dead DP and kept my old card. Oh well. Crap happens. At least the process was quick.

 

[Ferris23]

Tough call, I'm not sure I would sacrifice a port for an overclock especially down the road when you go to resell. I wouldn't feel warm and comfy buying a card with a dead DP port out of the gate. I get ya though but thems the breaks lol

 

[techie81]

I use all my DP ports so I would have RMAed it.

Sucks that you got a lame card though.

 

[Whach]

Tough call, I'm not sure I would sacrifice a port for an overclock especially down the road when you go to resell. I wouldn't feel warm and comfy buying a card with a dead DP port out of the gate. I get ya though but thems the breaks lol

I thought that too at the time….whilst I face the realities of using my GTX 680 as my backup card lol should have kept one of my 980ti’s from my sLI setup instead of putting them in the family pc’s at home!

 

[Whach]

I use all my DP ports so I would have RMAed it.

Sucks that you got a lame card though.

Exactly why I had to do it. I think I was too late in the card’s market cycle for there to be any brand new replacement condition cards to be left since manufacturing stopped a while ago.

 

[Starrbuck]

I had a similar problem with replacement 2080 Ti's from EVGA in that I got two or three replacement cards with various issues. Eventually they allowed me to switch it to a Hydro Copper which I sold to get out from under it completely and on to a 3080. Still EVGA though so a little worried..

 

[mnewxcv]

I think most companies will replace an RMA card with a refurb card. That is what yours will become for the next person.

 

[Advil]

This has been standard practice for almost every company in PC part RMA since forever. You will almost always get a refurb part unless you are lucky enough that they literally don't have any and have to give you a replacement or upgraded model.

And "refurb" in my experience is the most abused word in the RMA world. Far too often "refurb" literally means that a bunch of RMA'd parts come in and sit on a shelf and some lacky if you are lucky does a superficial and inadequate test of other parts on that shelf to find one that seems to work properly and that gets sent out to as many people on the list as possible. If you are unlucky and the company or department is really unethical, they just play RMA shelf roulette and randomly send everyone parts from the shelf just to make it look like they replaced something but in fact everyone gets everyone else's part. The reason they do this is very sensible... loss prevention. That's because some percentage of those parts were RMA'd incorrectly and actually work. Some percentage of them have an issue that won't present itself to the next person and so it stays gone (Just as good for the company). Some percentage will go back out bad and the recipient just won't bother to RMA it again because it's too inconvenient (What does the company care about a repeat customer if they got someone to eat a multi hundred or thousand dollar loss for them... that's a WIN baby!)

And some remaining percentage will RMA the product a second or third time. Now, SOME companies will actually get around to sending you a good part the second or third time to stop THIER bleeding of shipping and man hours. But if you are unlucky they don't care and will just keep sending out bad parts from the shelf, or stop dealing with you altogether.

I know that sounds depressing, but if you are dealing with an unethical RMA department in the PC world, this is exactly how it works. Which is why you have to develop a sixth sense for the con and know how to read the signs after your first RMA attempt. You can tell when there's never going to be a resolution.

It's also why you have to decide before you send in anything for RMA if the better course of action is to just replace whatever it is and sell or gift the RMA if it happens to come back working.

EDIT - There are just as many ethical RMA departments that actually do try to get you working or replacement product and care about doing their jobs. The problem is there are so many of each you have no idea what you will get until you actually send something in. And it's not uncommon for the quality of one company's RMA department to swing wildly between great and horrible over say a decade.

 

[Whach]

This has been standard practice for almost every company in PC part RMA since forever. You will almost always get a refurb part unless you are lucky enough that they literally don't have any and have to give you a replacement or upgraded model.

And "refurb" in my experience is the most abused word in the RMA world. Far too often "refurb" literally means that a bunch of RMA'd parts come in and sit on a shelf and some lacky if you are lucky does a superficial and inadequate test of other parts on that shelf to find one that seems to work properly and that gets sent out to as many people on the list as possible. If you are unlucky and the company or department is really unethical, they just play RMA shelf roulette and randomly send everyone parts from the shelf just to make it look like they replaced something but in fact everyone gets everyone else's part. The reason they do this is very sensible... loss prevention. That's because some percentage of those parts were RMA'd incorrectly and actually work. Some percentage of them have an issue that won't present itself to the next person and so it stays gone (Just as good for the company). Some percentage will go back out bad and the recipient just won't bother to RMA it again because it's too inconvenient (What does the company care about a repeat customer if they got someone to eat a multi hundred or thousand dollar loss for them... that's a WIN baby!)

And some remaining percentage will RMA the product a second or third time. Now, SOME companies will actually get around to sending you a good part the second or third time to stop THIER bleeding of shipping and man hours. But if you are unlucky they don't care and will just keep sending out bad parts from the shelf, or stop dealing with you altogether.

I know that sounds depressing, but if you are dealing with an unethical RMA department in the PC world, this is exactly how it works. Which is why you have to develop a sixth sense for the con and know how to read the signs after your first RMA attempt. You can tell when there's never going to be a resolution.

It's also why you have to decide before you send in anything for RMA if the better course of action is to just replace whatever it is and sell or gift the RMA if it happens to come back working.

EDIT - There are just as many ethical RMA departments that actually do try to get you working or replacement product and care about doing their jobs. The problem is there are so many of each you have no idea what you will get until you actually send something in. And it's not uncommon for the quality of one company's RMA department to swing wildly between great and horrible over say a decade.

To be fair, there isn’t anything functionally wrong with the replacement card other than its OC ability compared to my old unit - but that’s the lottery of things. Nvidia were sharp in getting the replacement to me without too much fuss. Having said that, I’ve read of others getting brand spanking new units, but that was during the “shortage” so I can only assume they were being replaced with new units as they came in. It’s just a headspace thing, my card feels used, just not by me!

Anyway, first world problems. I was lucky enough to get the card at retail just after launch, so I’ll keep things in perspective.