Bad RMA experience - R9 290X MATRIX Platinum

[Unknown_soldier]

Hello everyone,

I must share my bad experience with ASUS Deutschland.

I have MATRIX R9 290X Platinum and it's not working properly. The problem is temperature, the card reaches 94 degrees Celzius under just 5 minutes of 3D load, like games or Unigine Valley. When it reaches this temperature it starts downclocking all the way down to 925 - 950 MHz, which results with lower performance, in range of stock R9 290. Stock speed is 1050 MHz but the card can't maintain those clocks, because of the heat. And, to make the matters even worse, the cooler is really loud (with stock fan curve it goes up to 62 - 64 %) while it dosen't manage to cool the card at all. I'm not a video card noob and I have tried everything that I know to prevent this from happenning (all drivers AMD released in last year, running fans at 100 %, different case, running tests with side panel open, even running on an open test bench) but results are allways the same, like described above. The cooler is just faulty. Didn't fiddle with changing the termal paste because of the sticker on one of the screws, but I doubt it would made any difference.

When I realized that I myself can't do anything to solve this, I contacted ASUS support, described them problem above, and they told me there is nothing I can do and that I need to RMA the card to shop where I bought it. I contacted the shop and they told me that they will send the card to ASUS because they can't test it themselves.
I send the card to them and they shortly after forwarded the card to ASUS, then they gave me RMA number so I can track progress online, after few days I saw that the RMA status has changed to "dealt with, ready to be shipped" with description "there is nothing wrong with the graphics card" ! I contacted them shortly after that and they told me that those temperatures are normal for that graphics card and they can't do anything about it !

Wait, what ? Then, why did I bought this "overclocking card" with super cooler just to have the same card like the reference? I'm loyal custmer of ASUS products for over ten years, and even currently I have motherboar, monitor and notebook made by ASUS, but I'm affraid that this is my last product from them.

Now I'm stuck with this card because:
a) I can't use it because of the heat and the noise cooler produces while doing nothing to cool the card;
b) I can''t sell it because nobody wants a vulcano it their PC case.
At least it looks good so it can be an ornament on my shelf.

Sorry for the long post and bad english, greetings from EU.

[Unknown_soldier]

Any ASUS employee here ?

Does this look like "there is nothing wrong with graphics card" ?


After 5 minutes of Unigine Valley (stock fan speed):





After 5 minutes of Unigine Valley (100 % fan speed, no difference just much more noise):

[Arne_Saknussemm]

Hey there Unknown soldier 🙂

ASUS employees not so frequent here

I don't know what to suggest. The thing is those cards are famous for being hot runners so probably the card is "within spec" if they sent it back. Of course you are well within your rights to complain...don't get me wrong.

Being pragamatic... I would take off the cooler myself. I'd even suggest getting an AIO watercooler for the card or something like that....at the very least I would change the TIM. This would of course technically void warranty I repeat this is just pragmatically what I'd do.

I have seen a few of these cards where contact with cooler was loose/or TIM was not good...solved with new TIM and tightening cooller down a bit

[tacobender5000]

They don't care if they release crappy products. You'll spend hours on hold just to get nowhere. Good luck. Not sure what happened to ASUS.... they used to be the best.:mad:

[etihad]

Could it be an issue with the temp sensor? Asus repair in the UK are no better. I think they send them all to one place in Europe. My 980ti Matrix platinum was faulty, under any load it would just turn off, in windows its fine but under any load it would just black out. It was tested by CCL online (where I bought it) and they said it's faulty. They sent it to ASUS and told me normally with such a expensive card ASUS would just send me a new one. After a whole month they sent it back *repaired*. Anyway it wasn't, it wouldn't work in sli, fuzzy lines on the screen etc. I took it back to CCL, they tested it and said they are really sorry and refunded me the money because they didn't have any in stock.

I went to buy another 980ti matrix platinum from a different vendor 90Miles away (overclockers UK) when I got home, it was faulty and this was BRAND NEW. Called overclockers UK the next day and they said bring it back and they will give me a brand new one. There RMA was amazing, no testing or anything they didn't even check the box, just took the old one and gave me a new one. Touch wood this wont develop a fault, so far seems perfect.

Asus have an issue somewhere. I have so much ASUS ROG products, 80% of my computer is ASUS. Am sorry about your issue mate, id try the water cooling method as suggested.