Gainward GeForce warranty.

[Anders]

Anyone know what sort of a warranty a Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4200 Golden Sample (Ultra/650 XP) would have? Just one year?

Thanks,

Anders.

<edit>
Ah ha, found out via Gainward.de website (for some reason the UK site, Gainward.net has nothing on). It’s three years, so phew.
</edit>

[Korky]

what did u do to it?

[Volcano]

Gainwards have a bad rep for going wrong

[Austin]

... and have disgustingly mis-leading names too. They also make many of their 'Golden Sample' cards only average, they make their normal cards below average so it would seem the Golden cards are better than they really are. It's a shame really as they were top notch in the days of the GF3.

[Agent]

Originally posted by Austin
... and have disgustingly mis-leading names too. They also make many of their 'Golden Sample' cards only average, they make their normal cards below average so it would seem the Golden cards are better than they really are. It's a shame really as they were top notch in the days of the GF3.

On what cards ?
All the golden sample cards i have had have been superior in overclocking, compared to their non GS counterparts.

[Skii]

My Gainward went fubar after 3 months - I returned it to Komplett and they sent me a Creative one instead. Shame, cos the Gainward was faster.

[Austin]

Originally posted by Agent
On what cards ?
All the golden sample cards i have had have been superior in overclocking, compared to their non GS counterparts.

Basically anything since the GF3 Golden Sample days has seen Gainward offer non-Golden Sample cards that are inferior to the average offerings from other manus and then Gainward churn out Golden Sample cards which are only average ... because their non-Golden Sample tend to be below par it makes their Golden Sample look better than they really are.

A good example from memory is their GF4TI4200. They made non-Golden Sample 4200's with 64MB using 250/444 instead of 250/500 which made the 4200-64MB pretty poo. They then made the Golden Sample 4200-64MB using the same clocks as all the other manu's (exc Evga) 250/500 and enabled users to use their 'enhanced' Golden Sample o/c (something like 270/525) but since practically ALL 4200-64MB could achieve 280/540 to 310/560 it made their 'enhanced' mode pretty pointless.

IIRC Gainward's 4200-128MB non-Golden Sample cards implimented 4.5ns RAM meaning they were running right on the limit at the standard 250/444 (IIRC some people found 250/400), this meant they had virtually no o/c'ing room at all in them. Practically ALL 4200-128MB cards came with 4.0ns and often achieved 500mhz RAM or faster. Just another example of how Gainward made their non-Golden Sample crap in order to make the Golden Sample seem better. In the GF3 days their TI200 non-Golden Sample was equal to any other GF3TI200 while their Golden Sample TI200 had TI500 RAM and very good cooling meaning they often exceeded the then top-of-the-range TI500 when o/c'ed. That is what Golden Sample should mean ... not 'better than our std cards' but 'better than other manu's offerings'. When you see the likes of Albatron's, Abit's, Asus' and Suma's truly enhanced 4200 cards you see what Gainward's Golden Sample should have been.

In the GF3 days Gainward's cards had the top build and image quality but it was clear in the early GF4TI days when many of their cards suffered basic build defects, see here ... http://www.overclockers.com/tips00230/

Just to elaborate on my final beef with Gainward, they often use very mis-leading names like 'GF4 PowerPack Ultra 650 TV GS' for their GF4MX440 (LOL), 'GF3 PowerPack TI 450 Golden Sample' for their GF3TI200 64MB and finally 'GF2 TI 450' for their GF2PRO (now that is blatently mis-leading).

[Bindibadgi]

Originally posted by Volcano
Gainwards have a bad rep for going wrong

Only the Ti4200s from bad caps and/or memory. Ever since theyve been fine i think.

Its all about their marketing with the namemclature, its what sells their products. They dont have to advertise it as an MX in the name they want to give it, as long as they state its powered by an MX chip then that's fine. It cant be helped if stupid people dont know what the cards codes mean when they buy them.

Both Ti4200s i had clocked from 250/515 which was stock, to 315/620 and 320/630 on stock cooling and volts.

MOST Ti4200s on the market used 4ns memory, Gainward used Eurotech 3.6ns on their standard and XP models and then 3.3ns on their TV models.

They werent that bad, they just bought a load of crap caps - same as quite a few mobo manufacturers (abit etc).

Their non-goldern samples were a bit cheaper than their GS ones and you got a few extras in the GS boxes too.

/me puts on flame proof suit and throws gainward cards at Austin.

[Austin]

Nah that's cool, I just get fed up with companies welching on the good name they made and trying to pull the wool over people's eyes (not that that's uncommon anymore). Just fancied like a rant I suppose, I stand by what I said but Gainward are still decent enough cards.

Very few 4200's use 4.0ns RAM now, that was the rec'd spec for the 4200_128MB, it ensured stability at stock speeds and allowed some headroom for o/c'ing too. That RAM should not have been used on 4200_64MB nor should the even slower 4.5ns have found its way onto 4200_128MB, that's what I dislike about some of Gainward's non-GS cards. Regardless of manu 4200_64MB, 4200-8X_64MB and 4200-8X_128MB should all use 3.6ns (or better) with 250/500(ish) stock and a likely o/c around 300/560 to 300/600. Anything faster than 3.6ns is pointless unless you impliment BGA (almost all 4200 used TSOP) and ideally use an 8 layer PCB (almost all 4200 used 6 layers). GF4TI days are diminishing now but it is a good example of how one company can use the wonderul rep they built up in the GF3 days to sell off mediocre offerings as 'Golden'. Regarding the GF4TI4200, sure non-GS were cheaper than GS but still generally higher priced than the superior std offerings of other manu's ... and the price for the GS versions were often way over-priced making a truly enhanced 4200 (as mentioned earlier) or even a 4400 the better choice.

[Anders]

It is a Gainward GeForce4 PowerPack! Ultra/650 XP Golden Sample 128MB, that’s the Ti4200 in case you are wondering. It was a good card performance wise when it worked, never really overclocked it much though. I’ve heard a lot of other people have problems with these cards, something to do with faulty bits on them? Can’t remember what though. I’m glad it has a three-year warranty, and not just a one-year one, hope they replace it.

Might be an excuse to get a new card I suppose while I wait and sell the replacement, do graphics card generally have three-year warranties? As it happens, my old GeForce1 256 32MB DDR still plays all the games I want to currently play fine (although not tried Vice City).

[Anders]

Scan said that all their products only come with a one-year warranty. Useless.

So I’ve tried contacting Gainward through their websites, I’ve tried the UK and World sites, but they never even replied. Any ideas how I do get them to reply? Talk about damn rubbish customer services, not even replying is just plain rude. I’ll never be buying from Gainward or Scan again.

[KAIN]

Makes me wonder how my little TI4200 is doing, that was a blinder of a card. One of the very first Abit Siluro 4200's and it did 325/650 straight out of the box and 370/710 modded. I loved that card I was in the top #20 in 3dmark2k1 for long enough, about 15th I think ahead of loads of TI4600's hehe