Bundle, presentation and warranty
The box is the size of a small African nation. Well, not quite, but large enough to contain far more than just the card.
| Items |
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (full game) Race: The WTCC game (full game) Futuremark 3DMark06 Drivers CD Manuals CD Quick-start guide Faux-leather CD wallet 1 x DVI dongle 1 x 6-pin PCIe-to-Molex power connector HDTV-Out (component) cable |
|---|
We're impressed with the inclusion of GRAW. It's an excellent game that's does push ASUS' bundle ahead of many others'. ASUS' bundling might also sees Race: WTCC included, and should you want to - and we wonder why - you can see just how many marks it scores in Futuremark's 3DMark06.
I wondered how long I could go in this review without mentioning DX10. It seems about this far, really, as we'd love for a DX10 game to be bundled in packages, to show just how capable current high-end graphics cards are at rendering high-quality visuals at decent framerates.
The bundle is above average and it's important it be so. It remains one of the areas in which a larger AIC, through economies of scale, can beat out competition from smaller firms who, like everyone else, are required to use the same reference design, albeit with the option of clocking their cards in at differing speeds.
Warranty details
ASUS' graphics cards are backed up by a 3-year warranty that starts on the date of purchase, as per the customer's sales invoice. The warranty is based on the card and not on the individual initially purchasing it, so as long as the original invoice is kept and handed on over to subsequent buyers during the 3-year period the remainder of the warranty is valid.ASUS quotes a maximum turnaround time of 14 working days for a SKU that's found faulty and guarantees to replace any defective hardware with a part that is at least equal to, if not better than, the original spec. Warranty claims are handled by ASUS U.K. and all returned goods are sent back to a U.K. address, rather than to H.Q.
The maximum 14 working days translates to almost three weeks, which, in our opinion, is too long to be without a graphics card.
You always need to factor in the quality of a warranty when evaluating similar products; that's just common sense. ASUS's 3-year transferrable warranty and U.K.-based service centre makes it one of the best currently available, we reckon, although the lengthy turnaround does take some shine off it.
