This is the same reason we don't do a lifetime warranty. Just like the trade-in program it's a bunch of marketing crap that doesn't help you, the person that bought the card.
Let's say six years ago you bought a Palit card and it went bad today. That puts you outside of the warranty period so you buy a new card. But if it had a lifetime warranty we would have to replace/repair it. No one is going to repair that card, they're going to replace it.
But that six year old card is an AGP since PCI-e hadn't been invented yet. I'll give you three guesses at how many AGP cards we carry right now and the first two don't count.
Yup! ZERO.
So now I will exercise my option to replace your card with another card of equal or greater value. Well, performance is a factor in value (I did say value and not price) so if I look at my currently available cards to see what would compare to your six year old card I'm thinking something along the lines of an 8500GT.
Now picture yourself, replacement card in hand, as you see you just got a major upgrade for free. Now picture yourself buying a whole new computer because you can't push hard enough to get that PCI-e card into your AGP slot.
So what did that lifetime warranty do for you?
But wait! It gets even funnier. There is one company that actually has a DOUBLE lifetime warranty. So it is possible (I'll give you unlikely) that I could buy a card in 2000, retire it to my file server in 2005 and there it sits for 20 years. I pass that down to my son who keeps it for another 20 years before it finally dies. Who is going to RMA that card?
I have some 6 year old cards sitting around the shop. No idea if they work but I can't imagine trying one out and then sending it in when it didn't work. That is ridiculous.
And I think the idea of telling someone that we will replace your card for the rest of your life is st00pid. I also think that, if people actually used the warranty it would drive that company out of business.
Think about that. No card is supposed to live that long. I can't imagine a card still working after ten years. So if even half of the people returned their cards after they died how could a company replace them all even by using a currently available low-end card? No one expects people to return them.
That sounds surprisingly similar to the way mail in rebates work doesn't it? Sure, we'll give you $50 off but we're going to make the process of getting that money so difficult that most people either don't do it at all or give up along the way.
now this i gotta dissagre with, i got cards that are 10+years old that work just as good now as they did back then.
as to lifetime warr, well if somebody sends in an OLD ass agp card, and you dont have agp, and its not someting as simple as a clearly bad cap or the cooler needs a new fan(easy fixes for anybody with a small ammount of sill) then u have to give a pci-e card, the person cant use it, but looking at it, if the whole systems that old, it was time to replace it anyway, so they get a new pc, stick their new card in, use it for a while, and realise its holding the rest of the system back, who do you think they are gonna think of first when they go grab a new card?
i know who i think of, the company thats given me good service in the past.
its why i like powercolor and asus videocard(but hate asus mobo support)
both companys have treated me VERY wekk and even rma'd at no charge cards that where slitly out of warrinty(couple weeks to a month out)
and no i didnt expect an upgrade, sometimes i got one, and i was happy, then, when i desided i needed a new card, who did i think of first? see above.
yeah its a bit of a marketing ploy, BUT it works, and it gives you steller word of mouth, and i dont care what anybody says, word of mouth is more powerfull then any other marketing scheme, word of mouth can KILL a product/company or lift it high into the sky.
so where i agree with some of what you said, and the ideas silly IF you take it to extreams like 20+20years, its not if you look at it from a more realistic point of view.
see XFX cards resell for more, because they have that dbl life time warr, you can sell the card to a buddy or online and the new owner can reg for a full lifetime warr, say your like many gamers and u get a new card every 1-2 years , or 3 at the outside, if you can get alittle extra from your old card to put into getting your new one thanks to the warrinty, well that sweet, and your much more likely to buy another card from that same company, and give them alot of good word of mouth.
so it is marketing, but its good for users like many of us who constantly are changing hardware(not me, i tend to upgrade when i feel its needed)
oh on a side note i really wish palits cards had been avalable when i got my BFG 8800gt, my cards good but, well i love everything WileE has said about the cards hes had from you guys!!!!