Hrmm, its been over a week since I last heard from XFX,

My brother is getting frustrated with the situation... I've tried to explained its an EOL Sku, and that they prolly have next to nothing in their warehouse the 1 week after Black Friday.

If i dont get a Response by tomarrow night Im gonna email them. Hopefully they offer a Steam Download Code or something to make up for not having the card for about a month now, shipped Nov 11th.

the last 2 responses from support:

One month is too long, holiday season or not.

I would hope they compensate you/him somehow at the least. Did you have to pay shipping for the RMA?

Shipping was $15 or so, i sent it insured from the East East Coast all the way to the West west coast...

I emailed them earlier today, but I never hear from them before 5 PM EST so...

Update:

they shipped a package to me that left Tuesday, via FedEx Smart Post (thats a new one on me,lol)

Scheduled delivery is Monday.

Well, Got my box from XFX from my RMA.

They replaced my brother's 5830 with a 6850.. debating on whether its a performance jump or not,.

Well,

So Far,

The 6850 idles 10c lower than his old 5830,
The 6850 Sends his audio through HDMI to his monitor (that surprised me as I forgot about that feature, the 5830 didnt)
The 6850 has 960 shaders vs 5830s 1120 yet it outperforms the 5830 by over 10%,

Runs everything I threw at it in tests, beat the 5830s benchmark scores in FurMark, 3d Mark, Hawx2, FinalFantasyXII, etc.

So... I figured it was a downgrade because of the shader count, but i guess these shaders work better?

Clocks were i think 800 Core/1100 Memory, Black/Grey Heatsink shroud (which isnt listed on newegg, new eggs's BlkGry is 775/1000)

Will post model#.

So was this card supposed to be better than his 5830?

Also Running the latest drivers (from 4 days ago.)

Yes, it was supposed to be better. The shader model is different.

Glad to see they replaced with "something as good or better" than the original. Smart customer relations to do it that way.

On one hand, XFX seems to get a few more "complaints" in customer comment sections (though I've had no problems with GPU and PSUs). Yet, on paper, many of their products have among the best warranties when things do go wrong. Your experience seems to confirm that.

yeah, they apologized for the long delay..

i guess i need to register this one on XFXforce.com as it doesnt show up on my registered devices. (Still shows my 583x)

im in my office so i dont have the Model # available to me right now (will look when I get home).

they also sent an ENTIRE Box Set. the brown Shipping Box contained the actual 6850 Retail Box w/ the Discs, Card, Power Adapter, Do Not disturb door knob thing, instead of just a card in a static bag.

This Card Uses 1x6 Pin connecter vs 2 6 pins of the 5830?

No download codes that I saw, but i didnt open/look at the cd envelopes,
and TBH i dont care about free games, lol, my brother will prolly be abusing Skyrim this weekend.

Edit: going by specs i saw, and the 1x6-Pin requirement, and the "upgraded heatsink" i could see through the shroud.

I believe XFX Sent me a:
AMD Radeon™ HD 6850 - 800 Mhz Core 1024 MB DDR5 DisplayPort XXX Edition - HD-685X-ZNDC

I dont remember the Fan color, or seeing a "remove protective film before use"

the only complaint i would have, is the delay.. But... having worked in retail for Walmart and Shopping Malls, as well as a few PC shops..

Sending an RMA of an EOL SKU on the Same weekend as BlackFriday/Cybermonday.... yeah.. that's asking for a delay as Im sure their warehouses are bone dry empty.

This was their last Support Ticket response before someone else posted the tracking info:


I guess the upper management bit the bullet and sent out the nearest equivalent card they could. But as far as I can tell, this one is better, so that makes up for the delay.