Are re-certifed Gtx 1080's safe?

[killastrra]

I am Rma'ing my Evga gtx 1080 Sc due to the annoying sounds it makes and I am paranoid something is wrong with it. They said it will be a refurbished or recertified product in exchange. Is this safe to get and will work ?

 

[Random_G33K]

99.9% of the time they are just as good as brand new ones, but they shouldn't give you a refurbished one back if you bought your brand new. They are much cheaper and usually have shorter warranty time. But are you sure that the sounds were from the graphics card? Power supplies also make those high pitched noises (coil whine).

 

[RobCrezz]

The noises your current one makes is probably just "Coil Whine". Which is fairly normal for graphics cards. It doesnt harm the card or effect performance, but it can be annoying if its loud.

 

[photonboy]

*Would you like to comment further about:
a) type of noise, and
b) how frequent it is?

If it's just the occasional coil whine I would not return the card.

1) Coil whine is usually inherent in the design of the card itself, so RMA'ing may not help. It's simply a circuit, and surrounding board material that oscillates in the audible range. Basically acting as a mini speaker.

Coil whine is avoided in the design, but it can be hard to completely eliminate.

2) If it is coil whine then it's usually more obvious in high-FPS scenes such as a load screen running 300FPS+ (no VSYNC on). Often it's a high-pitched "screeching" sound that is varying in frequency.

3) *first comment said they "shouldn't give you a refurbished one back" but that's not my understanding. i believe what happens is they give back refurbished or one returned that are not actually defective.

You'd only get a NEW one if they have nothing older that is used.

4) Refurbished is fine. In fact, since the cards are fairly recent they couldn't have been used much anyway. Even the fans wouldn't have been used too much since they can turn off.

5) Other noise might include the FAN, but that's quite a bit different. You might have one with bad bearings or whatever.

*My EVGA GTX1080 (ACX3.0 fans) makes a slight "clunking" sound sometimes when the fans start to spin up, as well as a slight whiny noise when the fans are spinning between 600RPM and 800RPM roughly.

My fan noise is pretty rare though, and I could avoid it completely if I wanted by setting the fan profile to never drop below 800RPM.

 

[photonboy]

Update:
I see the "SC" also has the ACX3.0 fans. Let me know if it sounds more like coil whine or whether it's likely the fan.

I only get coil whine when the FPS is really, really high. (BTW, you can also max the FPS in EVGA Precision if you want, mainly if you think it's high FPS that's causing coil whine. If so, perhaps set to 144FPS.)

*Also, does your card have the potential overheat issue?

MY FTW model does, and while it's not really an issue if you don't overclock more AND have adequate case cooling, I will be manually adding the Thermal Pad material when it arrives. Not sure when it's shipping out.

If you SWAP your card you should get one with the thermal pads applied.