Why NOT to buy XFX

[Oculate]

Nothing wrong with XFX, they make awesome products.

+1

Never had any problems with XFX graphics cards

 

[za_bullet]

In your third photo (it's not very clear), is that water marks on the underside of the board? Bottom left?

Not sure exactly what you're talking about....but no....all heat/electrical damage. No water....just crispy epoxy!

zb.

 

[Pada]

...

Also, they ran much hotter than the standard versions of the 7800GTs despite XFX shipping their standard 7800GTs at the same clock speeds. And the fan was stuck at 100% making it loud (why it was still hotter than the standard one is a mystery to me).

XFX never seemed to acknowledge the problem, replacing 'faulty' limited editions with ones that had the same problem.

Personally I managed to swap mine with a standard one, which ran cooler and achieved much higher clock speeds than the limited edition could handle.

I had the same issues with my Inno3D GTX 460 card that was a non-reference design. Luckily for me, I had a reference design GTX 460 from Inno3D too.
I contacted Inno3D numerous times and got like generic responses. Fortunately Prophecy Shop (where I bought both cards from) came to my rescue.

Out of curiosity: why did you go for 2x GTS 250 and not like 2x HD 6850 / 2x GTS 450 instead?

I really hope that you can still get the card swapped out!

 

[za_bullet]

Out of curiosity: why did you go for 2x GTS 250 and not like 2x HD 6850 / 2x GTS 450 instead?

I'm not a fan of ATI....just a personal opinion....it stems from the old "NVidia drivers are better"....but I'm sure that's not true any more (it certainly used to be true)....and that sorta just stuck with me....so prefer NVidia.

Benchmarks I saw on GTS250 vs GTS450 didn't show a huge difference and many put the GTS250 as better than the GTS450....so I went with the slightly cheaper GTS250. Its my work machine....and more about running 4 monitors with a little gaming on the side than about gaming.

zb.

 

[Pada]

Cool cool.

I have to agree with you on the Nvidia drivers being better, especially under a Linux environment.

 

[milomak]

Cool cool.

I have to agree with you on the Nvidia drivers being better, especially under a Linux environment.

yep if you run linux, buying ati is shooting yourself in the foot

 

[Pada]

yep if you run linux, buying ati is shooting yourself in the foot

I'm using an HD 5670 at my work with Ubuntu 10.04 and each time I update my Linux kernel I have to reinstall the AMD drivers.
The only advantage of the AMD drivers above the Nvidia drivers in Ubuntu is that you can rotate the screen without having to fiddle with configuration files!

 

[Lounger]

Well if XFX SA categorically stated they will not replace... or did that message come via the supplier rather than directly from them?

It has nothing to do with the 'supplier'. The person taking your money is responsible whether he takes it up with his supplier or not.