Article by Dave James
Graphics card and motherboard manufacturer, EVGA, is offering the chance to upgrade any product you buy in Europe from it for up to six months after purchase. As part of its standard Step-Up program, folk that register their new EVGA graphics card, or mobo, have the option to trade in for a better model and just pay the difference.
Normally you're only able to take advantage of the service for 90 days after purchase and only if you've bought into the extended warranty, but EVGA is upping the ante and doubling that to 180 days and waiving the warranty shenanigans. The offer is only running until the end of December, but that does mean you're looking at being able to swap out your graphics card anytime up until June.
Now I know that's got to seem a little decadent, buying one card now and spending more in six months time, but it does kind of take some of the worry out of buying an expensive graphics card right now. There's always a concern when you drop a hefty chunk of cash on a component and most of that is the knowledge that inevitably something will rapidly turn up to supersede your latest purchase. Such is the fickle finger of technology consumerism.
With the next raft of graphics card releases set to arrive sometime around April or May next year you can bet that if you're buying a GPU now something better will be released around then. And the way graphics card pricing goes with generational upgrades means that prices of like-for-like cards will generally remain pretty consistent.
So if you buy a second-tier GPU now, if the next generation of second-tier cards comes out before the end of June, you're going to be able to upgrade to the newer tech for a relatively negligible price. Now that's got to be a good reason to upgrade now.
And that's obviously what EVGA is hedging its bets on - trying to get people to make the upgrade now before the holidays. It's got a bit of a recent history of going the extra mile with its aftercare, really trying to make sure people stick with the brand. After all, brand loyalty isn't something that's necessarily always considered in buying a reference-design graphics card. Well, generally not beyond the usual AMD vs. Nvidia bunfight anyways. So if you can start fostering some good feeling as a board partner that's got to be good for the company.
And hell, if it means good things for us folk looking for blistering frame rates in the latest games, then I'm all behind more of this sort of stuff.
Check out the EVGA website for more deets.
