14 DAY TRIAL // AMDs' Radeon HD 6990, the Antilles dual-GPU and “world's fastest” graphics card, has just been revealed, and it seems that a couple of problems related to it have already emerged, possibly threatening future sales of this card.
So, according to a report by Kitguru, it would seem that the AMD product warranty will not cover any overclocking attempts whatsoever, even when done via the company's own software or the Dual-BIOS function.
In other words, this move will more ore less render the BIOS 2 mode useless, especially for those users who're really keen on not voiding their card's warranty.
Of course, there's still no word on the warranty provided by AMD partners, but given the fact that the GPU manufacturer has adopted this policy, it's quite likely that they'll follow it.
While AMD's not officially commented anything on the reasons behind their decision, there might actually be several reasons why they've decided to void warranty for the OC mode, mostly related to the fact that, when in BIOS 2 mode, the card's TDP records a very serious bump up, one that might actually not be supported by most PSUs out there, as well as the fact that, while the Dual Vapor Chamber cooling system will work quite well in normal mode, long-term overclocking might affect it in a seriously adverse manner.
However, we really hope that AMDs issues an official response as to why they've decided to leave the OC mode out of the warranty, because, otherwise, quite a lot of potential Radeon HD 6990 buyers (most of which can be easily included in the “enthusiast” and “power-user” categories) will certainly be disappointed and perhaps decide to postpone their possible purchase (or who knows, perhaps cancel it altogether).
After all, paying 700 US dollars (or 600 or so Euro) for a card that's only “half” covered by the warranty is not exactly a pleasant thing, is it now?