Inno3D Warns that mining can break Warranty on their GPUs
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schmidtbag
I'm a bit surprised others haven't come up with this solution sooner, and I agree with Hilbert where I'm not sure how they're going to prove what you were doing. I don't think the warranty should be completely revoked, but rather limited. For example:
* Only be able to RMA up to 4 GPUs at a time (enough to fill up a gaming PC with GPUs, but not enough for typical miners)
* Reduce the warranty length. Nowadays, the only thing that usually kills processors comes down to the user.
* Be more strict about return reasons. So for example, if you owned the product for more than a month but it is still under warranty, you would have to provide proof that it was defective. That would assume it isn't defective due to water damage, BIOS manipulation, overclocking, faulty PSU, or awful ambient temperatures.
The thing is, there are some people who buy gaming GPUs for gaming, but do mining to fill up idle time. Usually if these people need to RMA their product, it's because the product was defective due to a design flaw, and earns the right to be replaced.
chronek
solution: then just do not buy Inno3D cards...
ObscureangelPT
Ye, sure.
And how the hell they know if I have been mining, playing for 8 hours, or leaving Niko stopped in GTA IV for 1 entire week (This last one happened, I forgot to turn off the pc and was out of the house for one week).
My GPU have been doing this for 5 years now, mining 24/7 for some days, I only disable the mining to play or do any activity that requires GPU Power.
It's still alive and fine.
It's logical that if somebody is using the GPU at 100% all the time, or gaming for more hours than the average joe, that the card will be under more stress, and that might impact the life time of the card. But if a GPU breaks just because mining for less than 2 years, then probably your card is lower quality and if things were that linear, it could die in 3 or 4 years in gaming life with no mining. Anyway I don't trust Inno3D either. XD
Tequila
Most major manufacturers have added this by stealth to their warranty agreements, for example, PNY:
THIS WARRANTY SHALL NOT APPLY WHERE PRODUCT(S) ARE USED TO ANY DEGREE, OUTSIDE OF NORMAL INTENDED USE, WHICH SHALL INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO “MINING” (e.g., Cryptocurrency, Data Mining, Mining Farms).
http://www.pny.com/support/technical-support/geforce-graphics-cards/warranties-policies
http://www.pny.com/File%20Library/Support/PNY%20Products/Warranties/GeForce%20Graphics/3-Year-Limited-Warranty.pdf
I think surely this would also make 'gaming' GPU's used for Machine Learning (or CUDA programming) also void of warranty, but as others have stated, I would find this difficult to prove.
Olievlekje
I guess they came to the conclusion their cards break a lot and just want the less warranty claiming gamer
So better not use their cards for rendering or similar applications do you get the same warning if your using them for a video rending farm or are one of those sleepless streamers that are online almost 24/7
Reardan
Impossible to enforce garbage. There's no way for them to know what you've done with it, it won't prevent anyone from buying. Waste of time.
viliu24
really? what about those internet cafe's where gpu's have sometimes a harder life than a miner gpu (most of miners have proper cooling and psu's) , what about the fact that when i was a student and i was living and a room with another 4 students in campus and i had a gaming rig that was 24/7 used for gaming.... That's just another reason added to already existing ones to refuse a warranty. No worries , other producers will jump in the hype train. At this point Inno3d tells me that even their engineers know that their products are not up to the standards and QC is at it minimum required - the card powers on? then QC pass and sold with 3 years warranty but only to be used as a display item.
Olievlekje
for most small miners its not a problem just the big one`s trying to Rma 50 cards at once will looks elsewhere
Darr
The next question is how long before the other GPU manufacturers start applying this and will they also apply it to those of us that use our GPUs for scientific computing? Our GPUs also run 24/7 at high clock settings.
anthos
All this will probably achieve is having people that their gpu just broke for whatever reason be denied their warranty and be accused that it broke because they were mining.
nhlkoho
There's a difference there and that's why Nvidia makes the Quadro professional cards.
Remember that it wasn't long ago that overclocking would void your warranty. I'm sure that all these companies will introduce variations of their cards specifically targeted towards miners.
DES_MX
I can tell what happens: after roughly 6 months to a year the once stable overclocks start degrading (just like on CPU), fan bearings start to give in (up to total degradation and stopping of fans even with frequent lubrication). However, I've never had a GPU die outright on me, even after a year of mining.
Embra
At some point are we going to have to prove we are not mining??
RzrTrek
Another news drought filled with mining rumors?
maize1951
I can see it all now, software built into the video cards that alerts the manufacture by internet that the card is not being used for it's intended purpose thus voiding the warranty (not a bad idea) .
Solfaur
Yeah they should make something similar to what they use with car diagnostics, to see the mileage and other signs of usage. 🙄
JamesSneed
Do they think there sales are going to go up or down because of this policy? This is such a stupid move on there part to put a policy out that will decrease sailes for something they can't really enforce. There are games using a lot of the same functions mining does anyhow so I just don't get the point here. I get the intent is for the big mining shops using the RMA process to cover there 24/7 mining which gaming GPU's were never intended so i'm guessing RMA's are up.
chronek
so when your card will die on game they always can say that it was due mining (even if you not mine), will they ship lower quality cards what will die easly? Just do not buy nvidia cards....
Embra
It's not a bad PR move buy Inno3D actually. I am sure they would rather sell to gamers, but a sale is a sale. Miners will buy what ever they can. Inno3D gets sales just the same.
chronek
They said in thread that most major manufacturers have added this for nvidia... It means that you have no warranty cause they always can say "it died because of mining, because it should not die in normal work" how you can prove them that you were not mining?
Btw im playing mmorpg and my game run 24/7 cause energy restore even when i am afk, so they say that nvidia cards are not for mmorpg games
