Today is a sad day

I feel so naked, lonely, empty inside. I had, tonight, my first graphics card blow out. I got to witness my GTX 780 literally catch on fire. I've read stories, heard rumors of this kind of thing happening but ya never really think it could happen you.

Anyway, playing WoW tonight my computer just shut off and then a second later saw two little flames come up off my card. It had to happen on a Friday... but lucky for me it happened 1 hr before Zotac closed for the weekend so I contacted someone and got the RMA info out. Thank god I built my fiance a computer about a year ago...

I've never actually had to RMA a card before. Are the cards one receives normally new, used, the same model? I've heard people sometimes get a model above their card. Could I end up with a TI or a 970? I think I've RMA one other thing in my span of 13 years building computers. So not knowledgeable in this process.

Anyway, breaking open the Jameson to forget about this scaring imaging.

fires??? Ive set a few alight with my everclear, great fun to watch the little woman go screaming out of the house!!!!!

what you get depends on what they have in the buffer, luck of the draw.

Man, that sucks.

That said, Newegg/Amazon/TigerDirect are out of stock on your GPU. Pretty good indicator that you won't get a new one.
That leaves you with either refurb or upgrade.

ATMINSIDE said:

Man, that sucks.

That said, Newegg/Amazon/TigerDirect are out of stock on your GPU. Pretty good indicator that you won't get a new one.
That leaves you with either refurb or upgrade.

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I like my odds. Hopefully its a 970. I was actually thinking about grabbing another 780 - but if its a 970 that would be even nicer to SLI. Needing a little more juice these days for some games.

What blew? Did you take the card apart and find the culprit? Was the card horribly overvolted? Really dirty? Power spike?
I've never heard of a GPU running off a good PSU and not at insane voltage just popping like that although I suppose anything's possible.

I feel your pain and that was a very respectable GPU you lost. You'll be without a card for quite some time as RMA takes a while but I think it is likely you will get a 970 back instead of a 780.
I haven't seen any 780s around in a while which makes me think your GPU OEM won't have any for RMA either.

I had a 7900 GS do that to me back in the day.

So update - I am going to RMA the card. Zotac has been fricken awesome and this experience will most likely keep my a customer. I got a call from a Rep after normal business hours on a Friday, got everything approved late Firday and sent the information for RMA today. Furthermore, the rep told me that I would most likely receive a GTX 980 AMP! edition if they are in stock. Regardless of what I receive, it will be an upgrade from my current card.

@Theocnoob - I don't know enough about circuitry to tell you exactly what blew but it was something small on the back of the card that you could clearly see was burned. They were in groups of 4. I honestly was not really doing much I ran it at 106% but didn't manually overclock anything. I swapped an old 6970 in there and every booted up fine. I'm thinking it was just a fluke... no idea. Cards only 12 months old

Man, that's an AWESOME update!!!

+1

Zotac stepping up their game, good to hear

Undoubtly that is one heck of an upgrade, and congratulations
Its always awesome to see when manufactors takes their end.

If they give you a 980 you have to stick with that company for life. That's like... a serious Xmas gift.

Wowowowow, from 780 to 980? +1 on Zotac's part

umm...
780 was top of the line card, i would expect to get another top of the line card back from rma, even if there is a new series of top of the line card out.
i would be disappointed to get anything less.

Theocnoob said:

If they give you a 980 you have to stick with that company for life. That's like... a serious Xmas gift.

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Yeah - crossing my fingers that 980 AMP! is in stock. I would be happy with any 980 from them but the fact that they said it was the AMP! edition got me even more excited.
http://www.hardwareluxx.com/index.p...orce-gtx-980-amp-extreme-edition.html?start=9

dyckah said:

umm...
780 was top of the line card, i would expect to get another top of the line card back from rma, even if there is a new series of top of the line card out.
i would be disappointed to get anything less.

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I don't know that I would ever go into it "expecting" anything more than a card of equal value. With that said I honestly thought they I would initially get some form of a 780, either a used or new 780 or 780TI.

But hey, maybe when you are dealing with the customer who just had your product catch fire in his case - you don't want him talking to the internets about xyz company's card catching fire in their case. Shush money errr...GPU in the case....

GatorChamp said:

Yeah - crossing my fingers that 980 AMP! is in stock. I would be happy with any 980 from them but the fact that they said it was the AMP! edition got me even more excited.
http://www.hardwareluxx.com/index.p...orce-gtx-980-amp-extreme-edition.html?start=9


I don't know that I would ever go into it "expecting" anything more than a card of equal value. With that said I honestly thought they I would initially get some form of a 780, either a used or new 780 or 780TI.

But hey, maybe when you are dealing with the customer who just had your product catch fire in his case - you don't want him talking to the internets about xyz company's card catching fire in their case. Shush money errr...GPU in the case....

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you bought it a year ago, they know that, so really the only card of equal value they could give you is another 780, a 780ti, or a 980.

UPDATE:
Well - they oversold the situation quite a bit and it seems I got a bit unlucky (I guess). So it seems I am going to end up with another GTX 780 AMP! edition. Zotac notified me last week that I would be getting a replacement for my card and when I asked what the card would be, they let me know today that it would be the same card. They said they had one in so they will be replacing it with the same card. I guess I would not have cared if this was clearly stated from the get-go, but when customer service says "regardless of what you get it will be an upgrade" and it turns out to be the same card - it's a pretty big letdown. I'm not sure if it was some new guy that was just trying to keep customers happy or an honest statement at the time. Regardless it's a HUGE letdown and an oversell of expectation which would be a big letdown for anyone.

Overall the timeliness of their responses of questions was good, their customer service was friendly, the process started on the 12th of December and the card should be shipping back to me soon. I can't help but knock them for getting hopes up with a pretty bold statement and then letting a customer down. Nothing in this experience gives me an overwhelming desire to stay with Zotac - don't hate them don't love them. They had a chance to keep someone hardcore Zotac for life and kind of blew that. Just another graphic card company I guess.

So long as you actually get a functioning card, that's what would matter to me despite how long this has taken. Kind of disappointing though that a rep told you a 980 then..... this.

you bought it a year ago, they know that, so really the only card of equal value they could give you is another 780, a 780ti, or a 980.

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As for card value, the value doesn't have much to do with it... Otherwise it would be like me purchasing a 780 Classified, it dying, then asking for a GTX 980 Kingpin Edition card because it's the "top of the line".

In my eyes, if they told you you'd be getting an upgrade, you should get an upgrade. I would demand one and send them a CC of the email that states you will be getting one.

sobe said:

So long as you actually get a functioning card, that's what would matter to me despite how long this has taken. Kind of disappointing though that a rep told you a 980 then..... this.




As for card value, the value doesn't have much to do with it... Otherwise it would be like me purchasing a 780 Classified, it dying, then asking for a GTX 980 Kingpin Edition card because it's the "top of the line".

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Yeah this pretty much sums up my thoughts. I just want a working card, but don't dangle this awesome card in front of me and then be like JK we just got a 780 in.

GatorChamp said:

Yeah this pretty much sums up my thoughts. I just want a working card, but don't dangle this awesome card in front of me and then be like JK we just got a 780 in.

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Don't deal with them again, and send them an email telling them that you won't be dealing with them again because they mislead you.