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Originally Posted by Ballast  Selling qualifying hardware,used for testing purposes,as new not only is unethical it's criminal. |
That is very true, Ballast. It is not only selling a used component as a new one, it's also trying to pass off an experimental piece of equipment off as a production line component too.
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Originally Posted by Ballast Do you honestly think that pre-production silicone will be able to run at 100% load for ten years like retail silicone? They are samples used for validation. Proof of concept to some degree and are pron to errata that is worked out before retail steppings are released. Its just wrong to pay for a retail part and receive a Inferior sample. |
It might or might not on this. ES processors, especially qualification samples, are very near production silicon and sometimes the very same stepping does make it into the production line, if no outstanding errata that have to be fixed are found. They are otherwise built to production silicon standards. But you are very right in that companies that are selling ES product as retail product are some shady operators, to say the least.
If I were in RockM66's shoes right now with an ES video card, I wouldn't even try to mess with Monarch on this issue. I would try to get in touch directly to Nvidia and explain the situation to them and point them to several of the forum threads around the web on Monarch's problems and see what they would do for me. I would also explore the legal angle about them selling me used, experimental parts and passing them off as new parts. Although by the time this would be going to court I imagine that they would have shut the doors already.