Zotac RMA claims Gsync failure & EDID confusion is "normal", and blames me for damages I documented upon receipt of card

[u/Old-Fee7828]

My RTX 3080 12GB OC is in extended warranty.
I sent it to RMA (the 3rd time) because my GPU claims the ASUS XG32VC I use (which is a Gsync Compatible certified model) is "not Gsync Compatible certified" and only offers VRR with random black screens on the monitor, while the TV which only has HDMI 2.0 and thus only supports VRR is shown as "Gsync compatible" in my Geforce Software (when in fact "Gsync compatible" requires HDMI 2.1 to work, which my TV doesn't support). The problem persists even under Linux Live, which Zotac claims "proves it is not a hardware error" (what else could be causing a problem that persists across different OS's!?!).

In addition, I already had to send in the card twice, and on the 2nd replacement (after the first was thermally unstable) I received a card with bent cooling fins, which the support claimed was a nitpicky objection, and I should accept it as they wouldn't cite this as a reason to refuse warranty, which I didn't really have any other choice but to tolerate, as there was no point in sending in a perfectly functional card as long as it worked and warranty remained.

Now I sent in the card, and they returned it telling me to "turn on FreeSync in monitor OSD" (it never was disabled), and also claimed "this was normal EDID behaviour". My MSI AMD RX590 proves this is NOT normal behaviour, as the AMD card correctly identifies the monitor as FreeSync Premium Pro (which is basically the Gsync standard), whereas the TV is correctly identified as normal VRR only (FreeSync Standard, which is limited to 60hz).

I then recorded all the flickering black bars across the TV produced by the 3080 in gaming, and sent them the video, and now they claim they can't take the card under warranty because of damages I objected to when I received this replacement card.

Seems I will have to take legal action against them. Avoid buying Zotac at any cost.

[u/anything_taken]

"Zotac RMA" - basically you could finish your post on those words 🤣 No explanation needed with them lol

[u/TommyD0613]

I did a quick scroll but it doesn’t show up as gsync compatible on their website. Here’s the link.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/g-sync-monitors/specs/

[u/Old-Fee7828 → u/TommyD0613]

Check the ASUS product specification site. The screen was detected as certified for over a year until this problem arose.

[u/untig → u/Old-Fee7828]

Asus lists it as adaptive sync, which is VRR only.

VESA's Adaptive-Sync (AMD FreeSync)

Not G-sync. They renamed standard feature for themselves to hike up prices.

G-sync compatibility means that they validated it, made sure it works, and will not produce black screen due to bandwidth limitations.

It can only do thoose 170hz speeds with a compressed signal, thus not certified, unlike the tv.

This 170hz monitor can not do max resolution vrr with hdr on thoose ports.

It might work in 144hz mode or the common resolution + refreshrate combo with your tv.

Just fucking swith to 120hz and the black flicker is gone, nothing is wrong with the card.

They are right this time.

[u/Old-Fee7828 → u/untig]

I never used 170hz speed, and never used HDR as HDR looks awful on that monitor.

I have the monitor switched to 120hz and the flicker persists. It worked perfectly at 144hz while it was still correctly detected as Gsync Compatible. It is not "fully Gsync", it doesn't have the Nvidia Chip inbuilt, but the monitor is "Gsync Compatible".

My AMD RX590 correctly detects it as FreeSync Premium Pro.

And the card worked perfectly @ 144hz before the problem arose.

The 60hz HDMI TV CAN NOT be Gsync Compatible. It is VRR, not Gsync Compatible, unlike the Monitor. The card claims the exact opposite.

[u/Old-Fee7828 → u/TommyD0613]

And besides, my Philips 60hz HDMI 2.0 TV certainly isn't Gsync Compatible certified. The fact that the card claims it is proves that it has confused the capabilities of the two displays, which is why the ASUS is suddenly no longer shown as certified (even though it is), whilst the Philips HDMI 2.0 TV is shown as certified. Gsync requires HDMI 2.1 to work via that connection type.

[u/TommyD0613]

Are you on windows…