I just received my GTX 1070 FTW from the vendor I purchased it from yesterday. I got the serial # off of the box (have not opened the EVGA box yet) and plugged it into the EVGA site which indicated that my card needed both the bios and the thermal pad updates. I ordered the thermal pad kit via the EVGA website after registering my card.

My question is this. Should I do the mod myself or do an advanced RMA with EVGA for a new card with the mods already in place. The reason why I ask is,although I am not at all concerned doing the work myself, it MAY be faster to do the RMA from what I am seeing with the time it takes to ship out the pads to the customers after they make the request.

Do I have to pay shipping to exchange the card? What is the turn around time? Would it be possible to get a replacement unit before the Holidays? Can I get a signature required upon delivery? (Concerned someone might steal the package off of the doorstep) Any insight into the RMA process would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

What you need to do first is to determine when your card shipped.
If it was after Nov 1st you do not need to make changes as they are already done at the factory.
 

Why not just open the box and check?

Here's what I would do...
 
Place the order for your thermal pad kit and install your 1070 and have fun with it.  Setup a custom fan curve for better cooling using MSI AB or PrecXOC or flash the latest vBIOS with a more aggressive fan profile or both.
 
Install the thermal pads when they arrive...
 
This is assuming your GPU doesn't already have the applied updates.

Ok, I started an RMA for the card. Once it's approved and I give them a credit card number they will ship one to me via 3 day shipping. I was informed that the approval process can take a few days so with that and the 3 day shipping it is going to be close. I did check to make sure they have them in stock and they appear to (at least for now) so we'll just cross our fingers and hope for the best. 
 
I have to say, that to this point the customer service has been expeditious and excellent. Good work EVGA!

DSP1

stephan28

DSP1
What you need to do first is to determine when your card shipped.
If it was after Nov 1st you do not need to make changes as they are already done at the factory.
 

It was shipped from a vendor (Amazon) to me on the 5th of December. I have no idea when it was shipped from EVGA to Amazon. According to EVGA's site when I enter the serial number it states that they recommend the Bios update as well as the thermal mod. My assumption is that if it already had the modification done it would not have stated that. Is that a bad assumption?

Where you entered the serial number just indicates whether your particular model needs them. If however the card shipped from the factory after Nov 1st it does not.
I believe that if you go to the RMA page and enter you number there under guest RMA it will tell you the ship date.

I believe this is a wrong information. If your serial's check says it is recommended it means that the card isn't from the recent batch and none of the updates have been applied.

bdary
Here's what I would do...
 
Place the order for your thermal pad kit and install your 1070 and have fun with it.  Setup a custom fan curve for better cooling using MSI AB or PrecXOC or flash the latest vBIOS with a more aggressive fan profile or both.
 
Install the thermal pads when they arrive...
 
This is assuming your GPU doesn't already have the applied updates.

This ^ exactly. What I had planned to do when I bought a 1080 FTW, but when I entered the serial, pads were already installed. This whole thing is blown out of proportion because of a bad batch of resistors or whatever it was exploding on some cards, and I believe that wasn't limited to EVGA cards. Basically a separate problem. EVGA isn't even saying that pads are required.

 

Nice video!