Graphics Graphics card bundles - do you care?

If a good game is in the bundle for less than the cost it normally would be eg a crysis bundle and i want that card anyway I am likely to go for that.

 

I'd prefer a white box. the warrenty usually get voided, and the cables left in the box!

RwD

 

Card and cables for me, if they must bundle a game with the card then I would prefer a voucher to select a game of my choice (even if it was only from a small selection) as having two copies of Company of Heroes isn't much use to me.

 

Well, it depends. A decent warranty is a must, and cables are good since you never know when your setup is going to change.
Heck, I didn't need my DVI>Hdmi connector, but I just got an HDTV yesterday, and I had spent some time looking for that adapter.

 

For a gaming card, I want just the connectors.. drivers, i can get online. For a media center pc, I want the connectors, but also the codec's included for watching dvd's and listening to all my favorite music/video. Even if the codec info is downloadable from the Mfg's website with a key or whatever, but that is what I want. The added games,, just collect dust. When I buy a video card for gaming or the media center pc's I build, I have already re-searched what cards I want, and I go by what the price is with what warranty.

 

When I got my card The standard was the cheapest
Then they has the SC with Crysis bundle or the SSC without any bundle at the same price I rather took the faster version of the card

 

i'd even go one step further, have the card without a cooler, only a very short warranty (enough to test if its doa (after that it gets oc'd anyway), the games they inlcude are msotly rubbish, so they might as well leave them out, i mean if they would give you something like orange box, oh wait, allready got that, so no thanks to bundled games, manual? whats that good for anyway, it's simple to put a graphicscard in your pc anyway and someone who truly needs one will probably get frustrated by the 200 pages of garbled text in 38 different languages of which 90% are warnings on what not to do. As for the cables... well, you only need so many.

I'd like to have the option to choose between oem and retail (naming scheme stolen from hdd's) just like with harddisks, i mean there i get to choose if i need the waste with it or not, so why not with graphicscards?

 

Give me a white box and a reasonable (1 year) warranty for a bargain price.

After all, provided the card works flawlessly after 30 days, I'm bound to stick a water block on it and attack it with a soldering iron

 

I don't consider warranty to be part of the bundle (as it's intangible) but it's important to me. Otherwise, put in as little as possible and keep it cheap.

 

Want the card. Adapters/cables are sometimes needed, sometimes not, depends on why (or who) I am buying it for. A lengthy warranty is good. Bundled games rarely if ever even get tried.

 

Some of the bundles these days are stupid, all i want is a card and a decent warranty, at a low price.

 

Warranty is good but it all comes down to the price for me, besides the way I abuse most of the components in my system I instantly invalidate most warranties anyway.

 

The games that are usually bundled are poor or I already own. I have bought so many video cards in the past that I don't need or want any more connector adapters. I probably have 10 DVI->vga adapters, I have about 5 component breakout cables from ATI cards and I have several DVI->HDMI adapters as well. I also watercool my cards so the warranty is voided the moment I strip off the stock cooler.

As such, I would prefer just the card in a white box. I don't even want the crappy driver CD with 6 month old drivers. I will just buy the cheapest card available, regardless of what is bundled or warranty.

 

there is no option of "yes - if the game is worth wild"

 

I prefer bundles not include games, but I expect a good warranty and all non standard cables or adaptors. I also tend to lean towards uprated coolers designed for quiet operation whenever the price premium isn't unreasonable - I believe there's more added value for more people in a better cooler than a game that only some people would want.

If your given a choice of game rather than have one title forced on you, its slightly better, but really I'd rather save a few quid and not have a bundled game.

 

I voted "No - Give me a white box with just the card." before fully reading the poll.
It should have been "Yes - But I only want the required cables/connectors. I don't want a game bundle."

And all the talk of warranty, in the UK you have a standard 1 year warranty with the retailer anyway regardless, after that time the graphics card is worth about 25% of what you paid in the first place.

 

I only care about cables and connectors, but really, those things are what? £5 to produce a couple of VGA-DVI converters and breakout cables? They can't be that expensive. They should be basically included as freebies.

Games are pointless IMO, usually they're not all that great, but sometimes you get one you want, but that's more a happy coincidence.

Warranty is nice, but you get a year minimum in the UK anyway, and usually, if it's faulty, it will break within that one year.

TBH though, if it reduces the cost by say, £30 or more on a high end card, I'd be happy with just the card in a brown cardboard box (with sufficient protective packaging of course). One thing I think card makers waste a lot of money is on the boxes, I don't know many people who buy GFX cards off the shelf now, I don't know many people who are influenced by mascots and fancy packaging with lots of details about it's hyper realistic pixel ****.

This doesn't just apply to GFX cards though, my mobo came in an overly fancy box, as did my CPU, it's just not needed as most people aren't sold by packaging anymore when it comes to this stuff.

 

I was thinking the same. The only other thing in the box, other than the card itself, that I bother with is that 'new card smell'.

The main factors when buying a new graphics card for me are; low power consumption, good image quality and speed balanced against cost. I'm not loyal to any particular manufacturer and don't care for bundled games.

 

I agree with the whole post but especially the quoted part.

For me the factors, in order of importance, are:

1) Performance / Price
2) Cooler performance / Noise
2) Warranty & company reputation
...
...
4) Special features
5) Cables etc.
...
...
...
dead last) Games & box ornamentation. A keychain / sticker / ... would be as useful / useless.

 

Though I haven't bothered to install the copy of UT that came with my 8800GT yet, I did buy it because it was the same price as another edition with no game. It has to come with the cables for me to be interested, and a good warranty is real important.