RTX 30 and 40 series GPUs from GIGABYTE have been reported to suffer from PCB cracking issues that are not being covered under warranty leaving users with damaged GPUs.
GIGABYTE PCB Cracking Issues
The issues surrounding GIGABYTE PCB’s cracking were first shared by Louis Rossmann (Via VideoCardz) who is a known advocate for self-repair laws and has a long history of standing up to companies surrounding repair issues. Rossman shares that many users have been having problems with GIGABYTE GPUs suffering from physical damage all of which feature a crack in the same area near the PCI interface which destroys the PCIe lanes effectively turning the GPU into a paperweight. I look through damaged GPUs on eBay and I have seen this issue a couple of times always with GIGABYTE cards. Below is a US listing for an RTX 3080 Eagle which features this issue which is just one of many I’ve seen after searching.
Not Covered By Warranty
In both of the pictures I’ve included there are red arrow stickers which point towards the crack in the PCB which have been applied by GIGABYTE after an RMA claim. Now the reason these cards are on eBay and not back into their systems is that GIGABYTE’s warranty doesn’t actually cover this damage which is forcing customers to resell the cards as faulty to get some money back. It’s a bit disgusting that this issue isn’t covered especially as it’s glaringly obvious with the consistency that it is a GIGABYTE issue.
Possible To Be Fixed
(UPDATE) Unfortunately, I’ve been informed after posting this that my claim of an “easy fix” is incorrect and the fixes shown are not “easy” and in fact have a 10-20% success rate and make the cards unsafe to use horizontally according to Jérémie who blew the whistle on this problem leaving a comment underneath Videocardz article. I apologise for my misunderstanding of the situation.
On the bright side, however, this is something that can be fixed by someone with the tools and expertise. In Rossman’s video, he shows the process that someone has gone through to repair the traces which is possible for someone who works with PCBs. A step-by-step guide has also been created on repair.wiki for the process.
Avoiding GIGABYTE
It seems as though I’ll personally be avoiding GIGABYTE for now considering this quality control issue, and I suspect some people may still be doing so after the explosive PSU drama.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
I am the Phyro/Jérémie who brought this issue forward with “receipts”. I wish there would be a “Confused” option to the “What do you think?” menu since clearly this article was written without investigating the problem described. In the repair.wiki article you linked I clearly state these repairs are extremely hard (if it wasn’t already clear enough with the tools required) and have very low chances of success yet you use that as a heading, “Easily Fixed”. These are some of the most hardcore repairs one can do with graphics cards and I can list the people who are skilled enough to pull this off on top of my head. It’s easier to remove the GPU core from the board and put it on a pristine PCB. The videocardz article which you seemingly based your article off and stated was done by Rossmann was written without my involvement and Louis’ and I also felt like I needed to address editorial mistakes with this one in the comments.
What this article doesn’t mention is that this kind of damage is most likely caused by horizontal installation of graphics cards without a support. It happens to all cards. Cards are getting bigger and heavier and the PCB just can’t handle that kind of strain. Three fans and large heat sinks are just too much for it. This has been an issue for years and isn’t limited to Gigabyte cards. Either install your card vertically with an adapter (and a case that supports that) or get a card support if you want it horizontal.
This sounds like a design flaw and should fall under the warranty as it is a manufacturer defect. Unless there is some kind of proof this was user created, not honoring the warranty is just bad business.