hapkiman
Ok, my blood pressure is back to normal again. Sorry for the initial rant. 
And I have to give major props to Hudson at EVGA.  He's going to get another card to me and was very helpful.  Outstanding customer service.  I realize now this is why I buy EVGA.
 
I'm sure this next card will be good to go. 
 

Result

You can't blame a whole company for a worker.
Yes they should have tested the card. But when you pay people to do their job, they have to do their job.

mrtommymxr
You can't blame a whole company for a worker.
Yes they should have tested the card. But when you pay people to do their job, they have to do their job.

Edited: due to being edited by a mod

Everyone, cursing and swearing isn't allowed on the EVGA forums. Such posts will be edited or deleted. 

Big thanks again to rjohnson for getting my RMA through the supply backlog. looking forward to receiving it on Wednesday via ups!
 
Terrified now that EVGA is raiding the parts/RMA bin and just throwing out any old card, in any old, untested condition. Clearly this one wasn't tested, the thermal pads just stuck on and thrown out the door.
 
EVGA may have outstanding customer support, but I can't help but feel, they wouldn't need it if their QC was a little more... controlled!

Hi carb1de,
 
I can confirm that this is not the case, we are updating new inventory and testing prior to shipping.  We are also producing all of our new cards with these updates.  I am not sure how this card shipped without thermal paste and we apologize to this customer for any inconvenience, but I can confirm that this is highly abnormal and not something that anyone should need to worry about.
 

carb1de
Big thanks again to rjohnson for getting my RMA through the supply backlog. looking forward to receiving it on Wednesday via ups!
 
Terrified now that EVGA is raiding the parts/RMA bin and just throwing out any old card, in any old, untested condition. Clearly this one wasn't tested, the thermal pads just stuck on and thrown out the door.
 
EVGA may have outstanding customer support, but I can't help but feel, they wouldn't need it if their QC was a little more... controlled!

if you had no coil whining, I would've installed TIM myself instead of getting another RMA risking that perfect fan, or..swap the fan, but then you'd need to apply the TIM again.. so yeah..
hope you'd get situated. playing games on this card is amazing.

EVGATech_ChrisB
Hi carb1de,
 
I can confirm that this is not the case, we are updating new inventory and testing prior to shipping.  We are also producing all of our new cards with these updates.  I am not sure how this card shipped without thermal paste and we apologize to this customer for any inconvenience, but I can confirm that this is highly abnormal and not something that anyone should need to worry about.
 

I think the main concern was that, after these first batch(s) of cards came out, and got opened up to see VRAM thermal pads weren't touching, we (I) am hoping that the replacement card we get will be new, not someone elses replacement that has been running with high VRM/VRAM temps and suffered possible long term electromigration from the raised temperatures. we are confident (especially now that the thermal pad mod testing has been made public) that the thermal pad mod and VRAM pad thickness upgrade are the fix all for these issues, but it's disheartening to see a clearly second hand card arrive back with a customer that bought brand new. Even more worrying to see the lack of core TIM - the unit obviously wasn't tested through whatever test bench EVGA has set up, so it may well be worse than the example sent in.
 
Can we have some kind of guarantee that we can quickly and easily use the advanced RMA (EAR) should we end up with a sub par replacement card?

relevance
if you had no coil whining, I would've installed TIM myself instead of getting another RMA risking that perfect fan, or..swap the fan, but then you'd need to apply the TIM again.. so yeah..
hope you'd get situated. playing games on this card is amazing.

 
I considered doing this and keeping the card, but the fact that it hit 99C or probably even >100C before it locked-up and I could power down made me worried that the card was now permanently damaged.  And since I started with a brand new card, this wasn't an option once I thought about it for a minute.  I didn't want to take a chance and keep that card.
 

carb1de
Terrified now that EVGA is raiding the parts/RMA bin and just throwing out any old card, in any old, untested condition. Clearly this one wasn't tested, the thermal pads just stuck on and thrown out the door.

I don't think this was the case.  After talking with EVGA I think it was an isolated incident.  A mistake, or an oversight.  Small oversight?  No.  But I could see how it might happened if several hundred cards are coming in for RMAs.  They treated me fairly when I called them, and offered the EAR so all is good.  Still waiting on my "new" card, but I'm not going to be impatient this time.  And I will double check to make sure all is right as soon as I get the replacement.  I did not mean to bash EVGA in my OP.  Not at all.  I was just frustrated.  I still want this card for my rig, and would buy from them again.  I've had ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte cards before, and there is a reason I bought EVGA.  If you have a problem, they will make it right.
 
Just so this thread doesn't keep going on and on, you can now lock it if you would please mods.  My issue is being addressed and I'm satisfied.

Good to see EVGA being on top of it. I hope the new card works well for you. I am sure it will.