Why I'll Never Buy Anything Gigabyte Again.

[Bill_Bright]

Well, I certainly like ASUS too, but I have experienced a fair share of problems with their boards and cards (and a router) too. And while I have used ASUS, MSI, and other brand boards if the client expresses a preference, I use Gigabyte in almost all builds with no regrets.

Have you all forgot about the motherboard revision downgrade scandal too?

That was not a "scandal". "Scandal" was a word chosen by yet another wannabe tech journalist seeking to sensationalize headlines with exaggerated claims. And it was not exclusive to Gigabyte either. Note if it really was a scandal, the news of such would be all over the place!

To read about this so-called scandal, see http://www.c3magazine.com/buying-into-remorse-gigabytes-motherboard-revision-scandal/.

This just goes back to the bottom line I said above - do your homework before buying! Just did a new build using R7 370 graphics card. Went with MSI over other brands because the reviews pointed out the fans stop when temps are low. Gigabyte's fan always spins and since was going into a HTPC, that would not do. Nothing about quality.

 

[BiggieShady]

so-called scandal

Scandal was real because most often you don't know which revision number you'll get when you order ... and the last revision has lesser mosfets or less phases or no secondary bios for example

 

[Ferrum Master]

so-called scandal

Actually it is one shady practice and they got the treatment. How we can do the homework, if we order the same model motherboard, and really in the coffi... I mean box is another revision with cheaped out parts, I would be also angry... and the RMA/FAN issue, that I also experienced is just a sign of poor service spread as a rule overall the globe... Had on percent more strange issues with GB than anyone actually. Asus is the first in books, then MSI/Asrock and only then GB... so it has become.

Why do you take it so personally... we have here a chap named @GigabyteFanBoy... I could believe he could do that

 

[Kanan]

I don't agree with that assessment at all. I put Gigabyte on equal grounds with ASUS and just about everything else a notch below that.

That said, it is just not fair to judge an entire company and all their products based on one model, one sample of one model, or a single incident - not when they sell millions and millions of products every year.

Pick any product and you can find an unhappy customer making an inordinate amount of noise about it. For example, if you do just a little research, you can find MANY upset users with ASUS ROG products - a line you expect to be top quality every time.

That said, a loud fan is not an indication of poor quality, a defect, or reliability. Ticking yes, but not loud. Loud can easily be an indication the fan is moving massive amounts of air - a good thing. More importantly, the choice of a fan on a graphics card has absolutely nothing to do with Gigabyte quality for their motherboards or other products.

Bottom line is, do your homework before buying. Research and read the professional reviews, then decide where to spend your money.

I never said their quality is bad, I never said he is "unhappy" and I never said my assessment is solely based on 1 product, all these are just your assumptions.

What I said, and you should read my post again, was, that GB is "wannabe premium", and thats still a fact with me. Their products are really "good", but never really premium - no I don't see them at all on one level with Asus, and I was just talking graphics cards here. Their mainboards are rather premium, but still not as good as Asus and maybe Asrock and MSI too. Just this isn't about mainboards - the topic is centered around graphics cards because OP made a bad experience with a graphics card.
Also my friend is not "unhappy" but he would choose real premium brands next time when he buys, with better solutions compared to the Windforce one. EVGA, Asus, Sapphire, MSI, these are better brands at graphics cards if you ask me, and I'm pretty sure it's reflected in reviews world wide. I know for sure it's a fact within 980 Ti cards, the "Gaming 6G etc (MSI)" and "Strix etc (Asus)", "ACX etc (EVGA)" and "Tri-X / Nitro (Sapphire)" (within R9 Fury/R9 390X/390) are all better than "Windforce" or "G1 Gaming" and that new Xtreme stuff which is almost just a rebrand. Also that latter one is a reason why GB feels not premium, they use the same design (Windforce 3x, just Xtreme is a bit bigger, 2,2 Slot solution) with cosmetical differences on 3 different 980 Ti products. Asus has whole different products, they have DCU II (20th Anniversary/Matrix named), Strixx and ROG Poseidon, these are totally different coolers, especially the ROG Poseidon is something GB doesn't have, as it's a hybrid cooler with optionally attachable water cooling. So pls, don't waste your time explaining to me how GB is anywhere near the level of Asus in graphics cards (all these Asus cards are btw. better than any GB card). Semi-premium is GB, and that's probably all they are interested in, or else they would design more and not just 1 relatively cheap design + 1 design which is just pumped up. It's almost the same with their mainboards. They simply don't have the money or guts to do it better I guess. GB is a brand that never felt really premium to me, and in this sector, feeling is ~everything. If something doesn't feel premium, it's not (at least not to me, but my reasoning is standing for itself).

 

[Bill_Bright]

Scandal was real because most often you don't know which revision number you'll get when you order ... and the last revision has lesser mosfets or less phases or no secondary bios for example

No, it is not a real "scandal". For (1), it is NewEgg's or TigerDirect's fault for not showing the revision numbers, or not shipping the same revision numbers advertised, not the makers. As noted in that article, Gigabyte showed clearly on their websites what was included with each revision.

And (2) scandal implies intentional deception. Volkswagen was scandalous when they intentionally rigged their diesel cars to cheat on emissions tests. Gigabyte never tried to cheat or cover up anything.

I say put the blame where it is due! And put things in perspective. Again, if this was a big scandal, it would be all over the place with more and more wannabe journalists scrambling for their own bylines. And again, that did not happen.

I never said their quality is bad

No, but you said, "their quality and service is wannabe" - implying it is not top quality. And I am saying no maker makes nothing but top quality. They have lines of products from entry level to top tier. But a key element of quality is reliability. And Gigabyte is not known for making products that fail pre-maturely or at a faster rate than ASUS or other brands. Nor do reviews show they use lessor quality parts, construction, or compliance to specs than competing products.

Why do you take it so personally...

I don't! Why did you just make it personal with a personal comment like that?

I just want products, companies, and individuals treated with fairness. I say keep it technical and realistic. No company can make perfection 100% of the time. And the more products a company produces, and the more popular a company becomes, the more examples of those shortcomings we will see. That does not mean the company makes lousy products, or that they are a scandalous company.

We are here in the trenches. It is easy to get a distorted view of the big picture from here. I point out the person who visits a Honda repair shop and sees nothing but broken down Hondas all over the place. He could easily start to believe Hondas are lousy cars when they clearly are not.

I've made a long career as an electronics technician supporting electronics and computer systems. Not as a hobby or an enthusiast but, as noted by the link in my sig, as a way to feed and shelter my family. I have no personal or financial ties to any company or brand (including Microsoft, in spite of what many believe displaying my MVP status means). Have I seen failures with Gigabyte products? Of course! But definitely not at a higher rate than any other brand - including ASUS.

 

[Estaric]

I never said their quality is bad, I never said he is "unhappy" and I never said my assessment is solely based on 1 product, all these are just your assumptions.

What I said, and you should read my post again, was, that GB is "wannabe premium", and thats still a fact with me. Their products are really "good", but never really premium - no I don't see them at all on one level with Asus, and I was just talking graphics cards here. Their mainboards are rather premium, but still not as good as Asus and maybe Asrock and MSI too. Just this isn't about mainboards - the topic is centered around graphics cards because OP made a bad experience with a graphics card.
Also my friend is not "unhappy" but he would choose real premium brands next time when he buys, with better solutions compared to the Windforce one. EVGA, Asus, Sapphire, MSI, these are better brands at graphics cards if you ask me, and I'm pretty sure it's reflected in reviews world wide. I know for sure it's a fact within 980 Ti cards, the "Gaming 6G etc (MSI)" and "Strix etc (Asus)", "ACX etc (EVGA)" and "Tri-X / Nitro (Sapphire)" (within R9 Fury/R9 390X/390) are all better than "Windforce" or "G1 Gaming" and that new Xtreme stuff which is almost just a rebrand. Also that latter one is a reason why GB feels not premium, they use the same design (Windforce 3x, just Xtreme is a bit bigger, 2,2 Slot solution) with cosmetical differences on 3 different 980 Ti products. Asus has whole different products, they have DCU II (20th Anniversary/Matrix named), Strixx and ROG Poseidon, these are totally different coolers, especially the ROG Poseidon is something GB doesn't have, as it's a hybrid cooler with optionally attachable water cooling. So pls, don't waste your time explaining to me how GB is anywhere near the level of Asus in graphics cards (all these Asus cards are btw. better than any GB card). Semi-premium is GB, and that's probably all they are interested in, or else they would design more and not just 1 relatively cheap design + 1 design which is just pumped up. It's almost the same with their mainboards. They simply don't have the money or guts to do it better I guess. GB is a brand that never felt really premium to me, and in this sector, feeling is ~everything. If something doesn't feel premium, it's not (at least not to me, but my reasoning is standing for itself).

Gigabyte is not a perfect company as no one is. I agree they are not the best brand but they are stepping up there game. Especially with some of there new stuff. There gaming mb's are amazing and there really getting amazing with there xtreme gaming gpu's

 

[Ferrum Master]

I just want products, companies, and individuals treated with fairness

That's the point. Lately they have stepped into something more unfair. Yes everyone have failures, but not everyone gimp their boards and screw around their customers even billing them for postage for a obviously defect card, GB itself lately seems to track off the usual quality curve. In my books Gigabyte soon enters the tomato board section due to instabilities, unstable, buggy bios(my encounters as a repair technician also and complaints from people selling PC parts), poor support and idiotic RMA rules. And we all say that here and share our bad experience about GB, so only bad things are here... I won't even start to mention those crap Gigabyte mobile phones....

Gigabyte is not a perfect company as no one is. I agree they are not the best brand but they are stepping up there game. Especially with some of there new stuff. There gaming mb's are amazing and there really getting amazing with there xtreme gaming gpu's

Speak of the devil... About those extreme series... well you read that cooler master gave them the old flawed Fury AIO's to watercooled GB 980ti's

 

[GhostRyder]

That was a comical part of the conversation. First they didn't even know what fan to send me.

Tech: Which of the 3 fans needs to be replaced?
Me: Umm...my card only has one fan.
Tech: ....Oh....Uuuuuuhhhh...how many wires does it have?
Me: Seriously? 3 Wires.
Tech: Oh, ok, we'll send the fan out.

So now I really am crossing my fingers that they don't send the wrong fan.

If they manage to screw up the only fan I am going to be impressed since its the MITX version of the GTX 970 which is a very specific model... It should pretty easy for them to figure out which fan to send lol.

 

[Bill_Bright]

but not everyone gimp their boards and screw around their customers even billing them for postage for a obviously defect card

Oh? I disagree completely. The major GPU makers are constantly bringing out previous years models with new model numbers, pretending they are new. And I don't know of any maker that does not charge shipping at least one way.

Yes, this example where a supposedly repaired board was still bad should have been shipped back for free - but this is a unique case and again, not fair to judge an entire company and all their products on the actions a repair center.

 

[Estaric]

That's the point. Lately they have stepped into something more unfair. Yes everyone have failures, but not everyone gimp their boards and screw around their customers even billing them for postage for a obviously defect card, GB itself lately seems to track off the usual quality curve. In my books Gigabyte soon enters the tomato board section due to instabilities, unstable, buggy bios(my encounters as a repair technician also and complaints from people selling PC parts), poor support and idiotic RMA rules. And we all say that here and share our bad experience about GB, so only bad things are here... I won't even start to mention those crap Gigabyte mobile phones....



Speak of the devil... About those extreme series... well you read that cooler master gave them the old flawed Fury AIO's to watercooled GB 980ti's

But they are trying to make there cards better and better instead of not trying at all

 

[Ferrum Master]

Oh? I disagree completely. The major GPU makers are constantly bringing out previous years models with new model numbers, pretending they are new. And I don't know of any maker that does not charge shipping at least one way.

Yes, this example where a supposedly repaired board was still bad should have been shipped back for free - but this is a unique case and again, not fair to judge an entire company and all their products on the actions a repair center.

Mate I had the same with my older 7970. I mailed them about the problem, and they told that it is not a RMA case, either the card is dead or live with a rattling fan... well... I consider this not a coincidence.

But they are trying to make there cards better and better instead of not trying at all

My heart bleeds only about the 700Euro bill paying for my G1 980Ti, for not making it better already at the start

 

[Estaric]

Mate I had the same with my older 7970. I mailed them about the problem, and they told that it is not a RMA case, either the card is dead or live with a rattling fan... well... I consider this not a coincidence.



My heart bleeds only about the 700Euro bill paying for my G1 980Ti, for not making it better already at the start

I honestly dont know what you expect out of a company. But for me i like gigabyte because iv had a great time with there products and did not have an issue when my old gtx 750 ti black edition came to me with broken fans and they sent me a new card. I think its a matter of opinion here. Im positive that everyone has some sort of complaint for every company.

 

[Ferrum Master]

I honestly dont know what you expect out of a company. But for me i like gigabyte because iv had a great time with there products and did not have an issue when my old gtx 750 ti black edition came to me with broken fans and they sent me a new card. I think its a matter of opinion here. Im positive that everyone has some sort of complaint for every company.

Well I work and make my money in RMA business... I know routines for HTC, Apple, Microsoft, ZTE, Huawei, Asus, LG, Samsung and even more manufacturers as technician, so I know the claim rules how to report a warranty claim and get paid for it, so well... I have kind of a objective look on the thing... Gigabyte seems to be over the edge...

 

[Bill_Bright]

Im positive that everyone has some sort of complaint for every company.

If they have enough experience with them, then no doubt that is true. Even Rolls-Royces have had recalls. That does not mean they are lousy cars.

 

[cdawall]

If they have enough experience with them, then no doubt that is true. Even Rolls-Royces have had recalls. That does not mean they are lousy cars.

Actually Rolls-Royce is know for having QC issues. Welcome to the human factor.

 

[64K]

If you build or upgrade your own rig then you are bound to get a defective component occasionally. I don't know of a company with a perfect track record but it's how a company treats a customer when there is a problem that makes a big difference. The OP is getting poor customer service with Gigabyte so he's pissed. I understand that. Been there, done that. Sometimes I get routed to a customer service tech in India and it takes a minute or two to communicate the issue but one time in particular, after spending a while fruitlessly trying to pronounce words slowly and spell out words the CSR couldn't understand even the spelling and asked me to use Military Alphabet Code (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc) to spell the words. People who were not in the military don't know that code. I had to demand to speak to her supervisor to finally get somewhere. I politely let the company know by email what their outsourced customer service was like and never heard from them. I won't say the name but it's a big company. Won't be buying from that company again. Sometimes it just takes once.

 

[R-T-B]

All I have to contribute to this thread is that I generally like my ga-z170x-ud5. It's been a pleasure overall, but it has gpu load feedback in the form of a slight "humm" on the onboard audio out. I understand that is not unusual with onboard however, so I just use an external DAC.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Actually Rolls-Royce is know for having QC issues. Welcome to the human factor.

You just made my point. And the reason Rolls-Royce gets attention for QC issues is simply because you don't expect any QC issue with a Rolls. So any QC related issue, no matter if it is a single mosquito bite scar in the leather, gets publicity.

No company is perfect.

Aston Martin recalls cars for breaking gas pedals.

Lexus Recalls

And BTW, more and more companies have or are bringing their call centers back from India. That still does not mean you will not get someone who doesn't understand English, or cannot speak it without a very thick accent.

Sometimes it just takes once.

And I understand that too. But for me, it would have to be pretty egregious and intentional for me to boycott all products from a major corporation forever. In fact, that just has not happened.

I have boycotted all Sony computer products because they had a company policy of installing rootkits on systems via their CDs. But I still bought a Sony TV.

 

[Kanan]

No, but you said, "their quality and service is wannabe" - implying it is not top quality. And I am saying no maker makes nothing but top quality. They have lines of products from entry level to top tier. But a key element of quality is reliability. And Gigabyte is not known for making products that fail pre-maturely or at a faster rate than ASUS or other brands. Nor do reviews show they use lessor quality parts, construction, or compliance to specs than competing products.

But their quality IS wannabe compared to the likes of Asus etc. Just look at the graphics cards, how cheap they look. What exactly is quality for you? For me is how it looks, how it feels, seems irrelevant to you? Well isn't to me. Also "quality" is for me, when a company is able to do with 2 fans better, what another tries with 3 fans and fails (noise, cooling power). That applies at least to Asus + MSI, both have real premium solutions for premium graphics cards, but you can also buy a 20$ cheaper 980 Ti and have a cheapo fan on a Gigabyte card that's used on cards that aren't worth the half of an 980 Ti graphics card too. This is quality and they fail to deliver premium quality. All what I'm saying is this. They use their Windforce design now for many years, I think it started with GTX 400 series, since then it didn't change a lot. More than obvious which companies are premium and which are not. Frankly its quite obvious to me that they don't care much about their graphics cards whereas Asus releases new designs every generation and improves on it, Gigabyte uses the same for many years with slight changes here and there.
This isn't about failure rate btw. you can't have a perfect record on graphics cards anyway, no matter how good quality is, but Asus is using robots now to manufacture their graphics cards which is a clear advantage to quality. You can't deny that. Asus is at least 2 classes higher compared to GB (1 class compared to the other premium brands) and 1 class higher on mainboards. You can talk all the day I won't change my opinion on that, but I respect your opinion nonetheless, because the other points you stated are valid and true, just we have different opinions about what "quality" is, also I think you are overrating GB a lot, or not admiring what Asus is doing compared to GB and other companies. Generally GB mainboards are very good, but their graphics cards ... I'd just buy them because they are the cheapest of the good brands, not because they are anywhere comparable to Asus, MSI etc. - same reason my friend bought his 980 Ti G1, it was the cheapest of the "good" models, Asus, MSI etc. would have cost him +50 bucks. That's the big plus of GB, else I wouldn't care about their graphics cards much.

 

[Filip Georgievski]

I don't know about GB, never bought anything their made.
But as above stated, ASUS, MSI, Sapphire are very good companies to rely on.
I got 3 GPUs from Sapphire ( 1 5670HD and 2 6770HD), 2 MBs from MSI (P55M - GD45 and P45 - C51).
All these parts are 2 to 5 years old and they still work perfectly.
I have trust in them for years and I wont plan to change that.
Ouuuuuu..... and for the record, never sent any of these parts for RMA so this proves their quality

 

[HTC]

If you build or upgrade your own rig then you are bound to get a defective component occasionally. I don't know of a company with a perfect track record but it's how a company treats a customer when there is a problem that makes a big difference. The OP is getting poor customer service with Gigabyte so he's pissed. I understand that. Been there, done that. Sometimes I get routed to a customer service tech in India and it takes a minute or two to communicate the issue but one time in particular, after spending a while fruitlessly trying to pronounce words slowly and spell out words the CSR couldn't understand even the spelling and asked me to use Military Alphabet Code (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc) to spell the words. People who were not in the military don't know that code. I had to demand to speak to her supervisor to finally get somewhere. I politely let the company know by email what their outsourced customer service was like and never heard from them. I won't say the name but it's a big company. Won't be buying from that company again. Sometimes it just takes once.

I agree (bold part).

It's why i stopped buying ASUS products. I no longer recall the exact situation but i was having issues with a board and they pissed me off so much that i replied something like this: " congratulations: you've just lost a costumer". Until that point, with the exception of my 1st board, all my boards had been ASUS: around 10 boards.

The way a company takes care of it's costumers when something goes wrong with a product of theirs makes all the difference, in my book.

It's why i value companies like Noctua (though i never had a RMA with them before) for practices like providing, free of charge, new mounting upgrade kits for their already sold CPU coolers, such as the kit referred to in this topic. When a company knows how to treat it's costumers, the costumers keep returning!

 

[Bill_Bright]

What exactly is quality for you? For me is how it looks, how it feels, seems irrelevant to you? Well isn't to me. Also "quality" is for me, when a company is able to do with 2 fans better, what another tries with 3 fans and fails (noise, cooling power).

This isn't about failure rate btw.

Yeah - we have a totally different concept of quality. Look and feel take top billing for you? I think that is sad. A pretty face does not mean quality. Two fans over 3 does not indicate quality either. How they perform does - and that might mean 1 fan will do better than 2. A loud fan does not mean poor quality. It just means a loud fan - even perhaps a poor design "choice". But a loud fan does not mean it won't last as long as a quiet one, or that it will not cool as well. In fact, a loud fan typically means it is pushing more air - the primary function of a fan.

If the single, double, or triple fan setup fails to cool properly, that is a poor design. If a fan fail prematurely, that particular fan was of poor quality. If there is a trend where many of the same fans fail prematurely, then that indicates an even greater quality issue. So of course it is about failure rates. To say quality isn't about failure rates is simply naïve and ridiculous.

I already said what quality means but I think you only read what you want and skip past the rest. Quality means reliable, long lasting parts, good construction and compliance to specs. You also seemed to skip over the part where I said I like ASUS too and even used a MSI graphics card in a recent build.

And note I said a long time ago in this thread Gigabyte's failure to satisfy the customer after he notified them the fan was still making noise was most egregious.

Now that it seems folks are not really reading what others are saying and just being argumentative. I think it time to move on.

 

[cdawall]

You just made my point. And the reason Rolls-Royce gets attention for QC issues is simply because you don't expect any QC issue with a Rolls. So any QC related issue, no matter if it is a single mosquito bite scar in the leather, gets publicity.

No company is perfect.

Aston Martin recalls cars for breaking gas pedals.

Lexus Recalls

And BTW, more and more companies have or are bringing their call centers back from India. That still does not mean you will not get someone who doesn't understand English, or cannot speak it without a very thick accent.

And I understand that too. But for me, it would have to be pretty egregious and intentional for me to boycott all products from a major corporation forever. In fact, that just has not happened.

I have boycotted all Sony computer products because they had a company policy of installing rootkits on systems via their CDs. But I still bought a Sony TV.

I really hope you aren't trying to compare gb to rolls...they are more of a deawoo.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

never had issues from GB or any other PC vendors aside from a small number of end-users who constantly lament a product for not being able to "satisfy" their "demands".

 

[PP Mguire]

I honestly dont know what you expect out of a company. But for me i like gigabyte because iv had a great time with there products and did not have an issue when my old gtx 750 ti black edition came to me with broken fans and they sent me a new card. I think its a matter of opinion here. Im positive that everyone has some sort of complaint for every company.

I don't have a single complaint with eVGA or ASRock in the 50+ builds I have done in the past two years. My only real complaint of the aesthetic kind towards ASRock going with that sky blue shit, but in the sense of the thread is not a real complaint.

I've had issues with GB, Asus, and MSI since 2007 when I had to switch my brands due to XFX going ATI/AMD and DFI dropping out of the board game (although DFI had their own batch of problems us enthusiasts just called challenges.......). Despite my beef with MSI I'm highly considering one of their X99 boards, and my recently brief experience with a GB 7970 Windforce was stellar but I only had that card for 2 months. I got my Asus board off fleabay for pennies so no complaints there even if it dies and I can't RMA. I still think I'll stick strictly to eVGA for GPUs though. Nothing but love for that company and their CS department.