Inno3D Warn Miners Of Possible Warranty Void on Their Graphics Cards

[RejZoR]

For me ZOTAC and AORUS were priced roughly the same. Europe that is. Which is why I picked AORUS because ZOTAC has weird fan bug and a bit weak VRM cooler. Otherwise I'd probably go with ZOTAC.

 

[dyonoctis]

in France Zotac is priced the same as budget brand and even the AMP! edition are less expensive than aorus or the strix one.

When I've buyed my R9 270x msi used to be a budget brand with a great cooler. The msi gaming where the cheapest good gpu that you could get. Now they are the priciest. I must have buyed it for 169€ when the direct cu were at 199-209€.

 

[haxzion]

If they haven't already done so in private, it shouldn't be very difficult or expensive for the industry to add something like the SMART feature for storage devices. Reporting simple metrics like total time powered on, average GPU workload, average GPU temperature, etc. would give the manufacturers some facts to base their warranty status decision.

Could not agree more....Who would want to buy a used card that was mining 24/7 ?

 

[GC_PaNzerFIN]

Stop making graphics cards with marginally good enough VRM and cooling. Then you have no need to make stupid threats about your products dying under heavy compute use.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I will not buy from this company or any company does anything remotely similar.

I honestly hope this company goes under... We just don't need stuff like this.

 

[megamanxtreme]

I will not buy from this company or any company does anything remotely similar.

I honestly hope this company goes under... We just don't need stuff like this.

Yeah, it's fine for us to brick a card and report it as faulty, so they can send a new one?
We need stuff like this, it hurts them since the specific users just abuse that right and get free card replacements. And if they try again and ask for another, when will that end? Then again, what if the card really broke down, 2 or 3 times, but it wasn't the user's fault.

It's a gray area, so it's hard to say what to root for.

 

[RejZoR]

Stop making graphics cards with marginally good enough VRM and cooling. Then you have no need to make stupid threats about your products dying under heavy compute use.

Except Inno3D is probably the only company which actually has a separate VRM cooling stack (iChill X4) that bypasses the main heatsink entirely. Unlike most others that either just stick some tiny aluminium heatsink on VRM which is "cooled" by hot air from main heatsink or it contacts very hot main heatsink directly.

 

[GC_PaNzerFIN]

Except Inno3D is probably the only company which actually has a separate VRM cooling stack (iChill X4) that bypasses the main heatsink entirely. Unlike most others that either just stick some tiny aluminium heatsink on VRM which is "cooled" by hot air from main heatsink or it contacts very hot main heatsink directly.

Actually, running VRM at the GPU temperature 70 - 90c is fine. I would not call that very hot, since many VRM designs actually run beyond +100 degrees celcius.
What is not fine is the completely separate VRM heatsink being overwhelmed when it gets blown already hot air from the main heatsink and is unable to share the heat with it via conduction.

I will give you an example which looked like reasonably ok solution but did not actually do its job during constant mining load.
Sapphire R9 280X Vapor-X (two fan version), VRM all the time+100c, oil leaks out of thermal pad between mosfets and things start to get very toasty.
Why was that? The VRM heatsink was isolated from the beefy main heat sink. GPU was running cool enough.

 

[ypsylon]

If for example card was equipped with some subsystem which is logging exactly what kind of exes are running I can see no way to enforce this claim.

And what about for example folding. My folding rig, all liquid cooled, temps oscillate ~45C when it is really hot outside. Try to prove that cards are not folding at full throttle.

Its just easy and cheap-o way to dismiss 99% of warranty claims outright. Period.

Buy established brands and forget about wannabes.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Yeah, it's fine for us to brick a card and report it as faulty, so they can send a new one?
We need stuff like this, it hurts them since the specific users just abuse that right and get free card replacements. And if they try again and ask for another, when will that end? Then again, what if the card really broke down, 2 or 3 times, but it wasn't the user's fault.

It's a gray area, so it's hard to say what to root for.

Mining shouldn't be considered abuse and it shouldn't kill the cards...
Forcing a product to perform at higher than designed levels in order to get sales should be considered abuse but they call it marketing.
Either the product can do what it's stated to do or they are selling bad products...
They know a certain percentage won't be able to do what they say it will and expect an estimated number to come back defective... I'm guessing Inno3d hit and has been hitting the high end of that and now wants an excuse...
Nope... People need to not buy from companies like this... so we don't have to put up with more of it..from more companies

 

[Evildead666]

Mining shouldn't be considered abuse and it shouldn't kill the cards...
Forcing a product to perform at higher designed levels in order to get sales should be considered abuse but they call it marketing.
Either the product can do what it's stated to do or they are selling bad products...
They know a certain percentage won't be able to do what they say it will and expect an estimated number to come back defective... I'm guessing Inno3d hit and has been hitting the high end of that and now wants an excuse...
Nope... People need to not buy from companies like this... so we don't have to put up with more of it..from more companies

I fully agree.

Inno3D has just opened themselves up for Lawsuits.
If the cards aren't meant to be run 24/7, then they MUST state what usage the card was designed for.
If the card is only warrantied for 3 hours usage a day (for example), their company is toast.

This really just smells of "we built these cards to such a tight margin, that we are not confident in them for 24/7 usage".
That looks like they cheaped out on the card/heatsink fab or components, and they know it.

 

[Chaitanya]

I fully agree.

Inno3D has just opened themselves up for Lawsuits.
If the cards aren't meant to be run 24/7, then they MUST state what usage the card was designed for.
If the card is only warrantied for 3 hours usage a day (for example), their company is toast.

This really just smells of "we built these cards to such a tight margin, that we are not confident in them for 24/7 usage".
That looks like they cheaped out on the card/heatsink fab or components, and they know it.

If I remember correctly none of the consumer stuff is rated for 24/7 usage, it's only enterprise devices that are rated for 24/7. I think it's 8hrs/day that consumer products get rated for.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Crystal Bollock Gasing
i See this Email coming

from
Inno3D
Dear Sir / madam
With Regard to your Warranty Claim and with Regards to our Updated T&C (Copy included as Attachment Your Screwed.PDF)
We have Analyzed your product usage via Telematary provided by nvidia Our partner and it has Been Determined that this Card has been extensively used for Cryptomining
Your Claim Therefor has unfortunatly Been Refused

Yours sincerly
out u hung
senior RMA Claims Advisor Inno3D

not far from a lawsuit for illegal spying.

 

[Krzych]

Objectively speaking, complete nonsense. They don't have a way to check if the card was used for mining, so basically any discussion ends here. There are also many other points. They simply don't have a right to limit the warranty like that, they will lose in court. Also by a common sense, GPU is meant for computing. And also, technically this is not their product, they are just partners for Nvidia and I am sure that Nvidia has very strict rules on what they can do and what they can't, certainly they are disallowed from restricting use cases for GPUs, they can't just say that this GeForce card cannot be used for something and you cannot buy it, this is not for them to decide.

 

[Evildead666]

If I remember correctly none of the consumer stuff is rated for 24/7 usage, it's only enterprise devices that are rated for 24/7. I think it's 8hrs/day that consumer products get rated for.

I think the distinction is between Server and Desktop products.
Server products are generally passively cooled, and evolve in sometimes very harsh and hot environments.
They need to be stable in whatever case, and generally have much more expensive components, to assure a long life.

Consumer grade desktop products just have to survive beyond their warranty, but afaik, are not limited to a certain usage per day.
It would be reasonable in that case to refuse warranty to anyone who intensely uses their cards in ambient temps above 30°C with stock cooling, for any amount of time.
That would be worse for the card, than 24/7 usage whist being very well cooled.

I'm going to check to see if the card suppliers have a time limit, but i'm pretty sure they don't.

 

[eidairaman1]

The reason cards die from mining is lack of cooling to them. So thermal buildup occurs, combine that with the rohs solder= failures, its like running furmark on cards that couldn't detect and throttle like todays cards can. Perhaps cards designed for gaming should throttle under mining and cards for miners are low model units but can run at higher speeds, basically have specific purpose cards, Sapphire i believe have miner cards now. They are only covering themselves so they don't start losing money due to such use.

 

[Vayra86]

Gpu utilization 99% for 24/7 is what these products need to be built for. Whether that is mining or gaming is irrelevant.

Given the fact that you'd run mining cards at an optimal perf/watt setting, there is no way they'll get as hot as one used for gaming at max utilization - and let's not forget we push a 10% OC on most AIB cards anyway if we game with them...

I love the people in this thread thinking a card used for mining is a write off - maybe Inno3D has a job for you?

 

[eidairaman1]

Gpu utilization 99% for 24/7 is what these products need to be built for. Whether that is mining or gaming is irrelevant.

Given the fact that you'd run mining cards at an optimal perf/watt setting, there is no way they'll get as hot as one used for gaming at max utilization - and let's not forget we push a 10% OC on most AIB cards anyway if we game with them...

I love the people in this thread thinking a card used for mining is a write off - maybe Inno3D has a job for you?

Ok so youre willing to pay 3 grand for a "Server card"

 

[Vayra86]

That's an exaggeration. All we have right now is high demand and low supply, that is it, and its a symptom of the GPU marketplace since like forever. Unless you design GPUs nobody really wants, in which case you relabel them a couple times to lose stock, or if you're on time, you just choke its production to death like Vega right now.

Thing is, IF GPU mining is going to be profitable for a sustained period of time, production capacity will adjust towards it, and pricing will stabilize again. If it is not sustained, demand will drop drastically, market will be flooded with second hand GPUs with plenty of life in them and a good price, and retail pricing will drop to normal levels as well.

All it needs is time. Relax.