Their step-up program is a joke. I bought my 320MB 8800 GTS 3 months ago hoping that within that time the 640MB would at least drop somewhat. Considering ATI's cards are finally out and you can buy a retail 640MB 8800GTS for around $330. Well, no such luck from Evga. Sure they have to stay in business, but still having the price at $440 for a 640MB 8800GTS is ridiculous. It would be cheaper for me to sell mine on eBay and just purchase the 640MB version... Sorry for the rant but this is one step-up that will expire useless.
I'm almost at the same point as you are...I have until June 15 before my step up expires...hopefully the 640mb will drop before then. Anyone who has done the step up program before...how long does it take from the time you send your card in until you get the new card back??????
Step up is a waste. I'm not in the US or europe so I don't even use that as a point in buying their product. I go with performance and goodies.
Who cares about step-up when you've got a Lifetime warranty that covers voltmodding, overclocking, and changing the cooler!
Yeah i was thinking of using the Step-up program to upgrade to 8xxx but when i saw the difference in prices i simply did not even bother with it.
They give you full retail value for the card your sending in at the cost you paid. So its only fair that the cost of the new card stays that way too. If you paid 400$ for a 320mb version and it cost 240$ now. Would you want only 240$ credit for the purchase of somthing on the step up program? They give you that full value even tho its a used card. I dont see whats so bad. evga is the best company ever IMO, I have had nothing but great things from there customer support, and as mentioned above they have hands down the best warrenty.
I also agree that eVGA is one of the most top notch companies out there. My last 2 have been through them and so will my 8900 series purchase.
$440 for a 640MB 8800GTS? Be happy that you can get it that cheap because around here on average it's MINIMUM $520 +14% = $592.8 from a standard store which carries it (and there aren't many which do). That's almost $550 USD.
I had a great experience with the step-up. I bought a 6800GS agp from newegg for $200 at the time, and when I found out how much the MSI Neo2 Plat was going for on ebay (which is what I had) I decided to upgrade. I sold my old board, got the SLI board for ~$20 more. Then the step-up from the 6800GS to the 7600GT was only $23.
I really don't see how evga can be pissing you off by offering something that NO other company does. It is an option, not a necessity. I used evga for my last 2 cards. The only reason I have a msi card is I bought a 7900gt (for a sli set-up) off ebay to pair with my evga 7900gt. The msi card came doa & msi sent me a 8800gts as a replacement(ya for me). If & when I buy a new card, it will be from evga. I had knocked a capacitor off my old 7900gt co(my fault) & they replaced it with a 7900gt ko, no questions asked. Great customer service!
In some countries the prices are crazy, too crazy like in your case, FireKnight. In Germany you can buy 8800GTS 640MB for less than 290€ or 389.59$: http://www.alternate.de/html/shop/productDetails.html?artno=jbxtga&baseId=9700 Here in Finland you can buy 320Mb version for 279€ or 376.10$ and 640MB version for 360€ or 485.30$. So yes cards are really expensive in Europe and I don't think that this can be explained by taxes.. :smack:
Seems like the problem was you not doing the research and not realizing that their MSRP on cards doesn't change, so 3 month's later, like you said, you can buy the card for $100 less on the street, and would be better off financially just selling your card on ebay. The only time step-up really works to your advantage is when a new card comes out during those 3 months that you'd like to step-up to, because then the street prices and the MSRP are usually very close. Unfortunately in your case (and mine too, I was hoping the much-rumoured 8900GS would come out during my step-up window) nothing worthwhile was released. As long as all your games are performing at a good level at the resolution you play at, just stick with your 320 till the next-gen of DX10 cards come out, there aren't any DX10 games anyway... If you play at a really high resolution, well then, you should have ponied up the extra $50-60 and bought a 640 in the first place...
