Have any of you paid for out of warranty GPU repairs?

[alrobichaud]

I bought a second R9 290 for $45(non functioning, of course) with intention of taking the nice ASUS DirectCU II cooler and using it on a reference model that is for sale locally for $250. I have been searching ebay for about two months and that price is about where it should be based on what is for sale. There have been a few cheaper options appear but when you factor shipping and Ebays new importation charge, a $250 gpu comes to over $300 pretty fast.

I contacted ASUS and they do out of warranty repairs at their facility about 400 KM from where I live in Canada. I am willing to take a chance and have them repair the GPU if the price is reasonable. Obviously, anything close to what I can buy a used one for is going to be too much.

Have any of you ever paid for out of warranty service and how much did they charge?

 

[dextermat]

In my experience, they wanted to repair a motherboard at some point but would charge the original price (160$).
I could buy the same mobo for 120$ on newegg.

Since the GPU is older technology, put the money on a newer more efficient card.
The problem is that they need the card to make an estimate on how much the fix will cost.

 

[Bo Lee]

Not going to be worth it. You can get a GTX1050Ti with similar performance as that R9 and get it for less than $150.00.

 

[alrobichaud]

In my experience, they wanted to repair a motherboard at some point but would charge the original price (160$).
I could buy the same mobo for 120$ on newegg.

Since the GPU is older technology, put the money on a newer more efficient card.
The problem is that they need the card to make an estimate on how much the fix will cost.

I do have that concern. I am expecting something like $60 an hour with a 2 hour minimum and hoping it doesn't take too long. Buying used, It is going to cost $250-$300. It's not as simple as getting newer tech. I could get something like an RX 480 but new or not, it isn't any faster than the r9 290x that I have now.....I would need two to get similar performance to crossfire r9 290x and r9 290. Now we are talking $220 US x 2 plus tax and shipping....probably $500 CAD. In comparison $200 CAD in repairs isn't so bad. Shipping is $16 CAD so I might just send it in and see what they say.

 

[alrobichaud]

Not going to be worth it. You can get a GTX1050Ti with similar performance as that R9 and get it for less than $150.00.

Are you sure? Sounds too good to be true to get a card for $150 that has the same performance of one that still costs $250+ used.
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti-vs-AMD-R9-290/3649vs2171

Keep in mind I have a perfectly functioning R9 290x now. This is to crossfire so I can quadbox diablo 3 at 1920x1080 with better than minimum settings. I may have left that out.

 

[Bo Lee]

Not going to be worth it. You can get a GTX1050Ti with similar performance as that R9 and get it for less than $150.00.

Are you sure?
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti-vs-AMD-R9-290/3649vs2171

Keep in mind I have a perfectly functioning R9 290x now. This is to crossfire so I can quadbox diablo 3 at 1920x1080 with better than minimum settings. I may have left that out.

Pretty sure. There are some aspects where one is better, others where the other is. Here are a couple of sites comparing them and these comparisons are not nearly so lopsided as what you linked.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-290-vs-GeForce-GTX-1050-Ti
http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=3669&gid2=1859&compare=geforce-gtx-1050-ti-4gb-vs-radeon-r9-290

But, since you are wanting to Crossfire them, it is a moot point really. You will have to get a R9 to Crossfire to the one you have. When I was card shopping 3 months ago, the R9 290 was way cheaper back then. It may be one of the cards with the prices being jacked up with the mining thing right now. In which case, it will come down at some point. But if you have to have that R9 for Crossfire, than it might be worth it. Did you see if they had a flat repair fee or not? If so, that would make it easier to make a decision.

 

[alrobichaud]

Not going to be worth it. You can get a GTX1050Ti with similar performance as that R9 and get it for less than $150.00.

Are you sure?
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti-vs-AMD-R9-290/3649vs2171

Keep in mind I have a perfectly functioning R9 290x now. This is to crossfire so I can quadbox diablo 3 at 1920x1080 with better than minimum settings. I may have left that out.

Pretty sure. There are some aspects where one is better, others where the other is. Here are a couple of sites comparing them and these comparisons are not nearly so lopsided as what you linked.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-290-vs-GeForce-GTX-1050-Ti
http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=3669&gid2=1859&compare=geforce-gtx-1050-ti-4gb-vs-radeon-r9-290

But, since you are wanting to Crossfire them, it is a moot point really. You will have to get a R9 to Crossfire to the one you have. When I was card shopping 3 months ago, the R9 290 was way cheaper back then. It may be one of the cards with the prices being jacked up with the mining thing right now. In which case, it will come down at some point. But if you have to have that R9 for Crossfire, than it might be worth it. Did you see if they had a flat repair fee or not? If so, that would make it easier to make a decision.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I had seriously considered just going with new tech and selling my existing R9 290 X but all the benchmark reviews that I have read on the green and red side keep saying that I would need to purchase a mid/high tier card to equal the performance of the r9 290x.

I just wanted to touch on the GTX 750 ti again, breifly. The r9 290 has nearly 3 times the shader processing units and 3 times the memory bandwidth of the 750ti. It also comes with 1 or 2GB of VRAM depending on the model vs the 4GB the 290 has. Looking at real world comparisons in games like BF4, which I do own and play at 5750x1080, the 750 ti does score fairly low in comparison. The review below compares the 750 ti with the r9 280X and their is a fairly large gap in FPS between the two. The cheaper 750 ti at newegg only have 3 video outputs and I am running 4 monitors. 3 for 5760 x 1080 and one for afterburner and GPUz so I can monitor things while I am gaming. The 750 ti ranges in price from $150 up to $300 CAD depending on the model and options. If I didn't already have a 290x to crossfire, I would certainly go with newer tech.

They will not give me any kind of estimate without the card and they do no have a flat repair fee, unfortunately. I am going to ship it out today and see what they say. If it is going to cost too much, I will look into other options. I never considered mining driving prices up....that's a good point.

https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6551/asus-geforce-gtx-750-ti-2gb-oc-edition-video-card-review/index11.html

 

[alrobichaud]

I just wanted to update this thread in case anyone had a similar question. It looks like ASUS Canada has a repair facility in Markham, Ontario with a drop in option. They have a $120 CAD flat rate repair fee. I have read some bad things about ASUS RMA online but so far my experience has been good. Honest answers with fast response times. I sent the card in on Tuesday and it was delivered on Wednesday and in their system by Friday. I was then sent the invoice on Friday with the estimated repair time of the following Tuesday. I will update again when I actually get it back. Looks like the card is going to cost less than $200 CAD including purchase price, shipping and repair cost. This is cheaper than my idea of buying a cheaper reference model and replacing the cooler. I am anxious to get it back to see if it can be flashed to the 290x.

 

[Bo Lee]

I just wanted to update this thread in case anyone had a similar question. It looks like ASUS Canada has a repair facility in Markham, Ontario with a drop in option. They have a $120 CAD flat rate repair fee. I have read some bad things about ASUS RMA online but so far my experience has been good. Honest answers with fast response times. I sent the card in on Tuesday and it was delivered on Wednesday and in their system by Friday. I was then sent the invoice on Friday with the estimated repair time of the following Tuesday. I will update again when I actually get it back. Looks like the card is going to cost less than $200 CAD including purchase price, shipping and repair cost. This is cheaper than my idea of buying a cheaper reference model and replacing the cooler. I am anxious to get it back to see if it can be flashed to the 290x.

Awesome. I mentioned that it might be a flat repair rate. For 120 CAD I say go for it. It is definitely worth that.

 

[alrobichaud]

I just wanted to update this thread in case anyone had a similar question. It looks like ASUS Canada has a repair facility in Markham, Ontario with a drop in option. They have a $120 CAD flat rate repair fee. I have read some bad things about ASUS RMA online but so far my experience has been good. Honest answers with fast response times. I sent the card in on Tuesday and it was delivered on Wednesday and in their system by Friday. I was then sent the invoice on Friday with the estimated repair time of the following Tuesday. I will update again when I actually get it back. Looks like the card is going to cost less than $200 CAD including purchase price, shipping and repair cost. This is cheaper than my idea of buying a cheaper reference model and replacing the cooler. I am anxious to get it back to see if it can be flashed to the 290x.

Awesome. I mentioned that it might be a flat repair rate. For 120 CAD I say go for it. It is definitely worth that.

You were correct. You were also right about the crypto mining. I bought two XFX DD 7970's back in 2012 and watched as a year later in 2013, AMD cards were in short supply and priced quite high. It did work to my advantage as I sold my 6990 with an afte market cooler for $475 which was much higher than I thought I would get. When you mentioned mining again, I hadn't heard anything about the latest resurface. A few days after you mentioned that, I got my latest edition of Maximum PC in the mail and the very first artical was titled 'Where are all our GPU's?' It detailed the latest etherium mining craze and how high end AMD cards have skyrocketed in price for new and used models.

The latest craze explains why I spent two months browsing ebay and saw so many used high end AMD cards selling for such high prices. Apparently, even retailers like newegg have raised priced by 20-30% over a year ago for the same gpu's....which are all out of stock. If you search ebay today, you will see r9 290's going for $300, $400, and $500 plus shipping and import fees to Canada which is nuts. The $250 that I quoted seeing was typically the bottom of the barrel pricing for a reference model. Even locally on kijiji, there are only 6 r9 290's for sale and they are all between $275 and $400.

 

[alrobichaud]

This is the last time I will update this thread. I just got the RMA'd card back from ASUS today. They sent me an R9 290x Direct Cuii as a replacement. I certainly wasn't expecting that. Just ran a few benchmarks and it is working just fine.

 

[Bo Lee]

This is the last time I will update this thread. I just got the RMA'd card back from ASUS today. They sent me an R9 290x Direct Cuii as a replacement. I certainly wasn't expecting that. Just ran a few benchmarks and it is working just fine.

Outstanding! Happy gaming!!!!