I don't know if it is just me, but after my 4870X2 died I looked on here and it has happened to a good number of other people. I bought mine on launch in 2008 and I'm wondering if there is like something going wrong with the X2's 2 years after launch? Is the failure rate normal for the number of cards sold? Or is it strange they all seem to be failing about the same time? Or is it my perception and not really what is going on? Anyone else had an X2 die on them, if so when was it and what sort of problems did you have, and when did you purchase it?
Coincidentally, I also bought mine close to launch (October 2008). It hasn't been overclocked since Jan 2009. I figured the performance boost from 50 MHz more core wasn't worth it... what's the difference between 91 fps and 101 fps So it had been running at stock for a long time. Did you get your RMA back yet? If so, what did you get?
Ordered my 4870x2 back in October 1st 2008..sent it on RMA February 24th 2010 and got a 5870 in exchange (Although I had to pay a bit for it.). I didn't run it overclocked and it started to give me system instability and square artifacts. The card was a Club3D Radeon 4870x2.
I rma mine in march and I got a 5870 for replacement. I didnt have to pay anything. Powercolor was the brand.
Hmmmmm, never oc'd my card but was playing crisis the other day and got serious artifacts. The mission before you enter the mountain, corruption all over the place. Whats the warrenty on these cards (sapphire) ?
2 years for sapphire, they have an email and then you get referred to a company in California (because I think Sapphire is in Hong Kong) after that you need to fill out a form from them. Putting your serial number and all that stuff and you also need to send them a copy of your sales invoice to verify your sale. (I just went to newegg and printed it off) After you fax it all they give you an email with further directions, which is where I am now. Waiting for monday to go to UPS to ship the card.
I've had mine probably a year and a half. No issues, but when it goes, it'll probably be the VRAM, which get nice and toasty. Don't think I'll be able to RMA it after having installed an aftermarket cooler...
This is making me worried. I bought mine shortly after launch in August 2008. I've had heat issues, but that was due to dust, etc. So the RMA is two years, even if I bought it off Newegg? Hopefully it won't die (knock on wood), but if it does, what replacement do you tend to get? Can they tell if you opened it up to clean it and apply better thermal paste? - PR-0927
If you say knock off a capacitor, they could tell and reject your RMA. Otherwise, unless they have some sort of "void if seal broken" thing, they wouldn't be able to tell that you took off the HS.
Just saw another thread where someones 4870 X2 is dead, if the Vram is what is dying (someone suggested this) does that mean it is the GDDR5 has longevity problems? http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=323851
I'm having to RMA my second Sapphire 4870. It's not an X2 but it's the second and I'm hoping I won't get another one of these damned cards back. For some reason, overnight the GPU temperature shot up to 100C, fan at 100% and there's no way to get the temp down apart from running at lowest clocks. No idea what's causing this but this isn't a VRAM problem. Also never buying Sapphire again.
Yeah I've had heat problems with mine a few months after purchase. I think I'll stick with eVGA, ASUS, and XFX for now on. - PR-0927
