The joy of being buried at work is that I missed the boat.  What are the chances they will be offering this again?  Is there any particular reason they didn't send any email notifications to existing registered owners of the eligible cards to let them know this was even an option?
 
Sad panda is sad. :(
 
Referring to this if the post is not clear:  http://www.evga.com/icxupgrade/
 

I received email about the upgrade back on Feb 10.  It was titled EVGA iCX Technology.  While the beginning of the email was describing the cooler and sensors, it then said:
 

I'm sorry to hear you missed out, but I'm pretty sure this was a one-time-only thing.  If such a thing were to occur again, perhaps it'd be for an eventual iCX successor.

Cool GTX
 
Far as I know EVGA has never done this type of Upgrade before outside of the Step-Up program

 
Actually, back in 2007 or 2008. Can't remember which year. Evga did an upgrade program of the 780 to 780i motherboard. I know this, because I was one of those people.    

g80sli
IMO the upgrade program should have been longer. It kinda not fair.

 
Considering EVGA did not have to offer any upgrade at all, I wouldn't classify missing the upgrade due to ignorance of the program "unfair". 
 
EVGA threw the offer out there for the world to see, it's not their fault some people didn't see it (or disregarded the communication all together only to find out they should have paid attention). 
 
IMO, it's pretty unfair that people are disgruntled at EVGA for their own unawareness.  Props to EVGA for even offering the program in the first place.  No other company does this.
 
It sucks that people missed it, I feel for them.  But it is what it is.

I can relate to what you are saying. I am not in much of a dissimilar situation as you. I found out via a Facebook post from EVGA while I was on the toilet hiding from my kids...and wife for that matter.

The good news is the FTW product you bought last week is fine. There is nothing wrong with it as it works within the spec parameters. The FTW cards that had the problem were a fairly small batch of specific cards in the grand scheme of their product line. I know because I had one of them, which they promptly replaced when I contacted support. I too am a loyal EVGA GPU buyer because they have the best customer service in the business. Did they screw up? Yes, but any company can and will. But the difference with EVGA is they rectified the problem without hesitation. No other company will do that without some hoop jumping. Because of that, they will continue to be my go to company.

The so so news, depending on your preference...Is the icx better? Yes and no. There is no performance increase at all. But it does run slightly cooler, which theoretically means you can over clock it more...but those cards are pretty much at max over clock as it is and any increase would be insignificant, unless you put a water block on it...even then it is questionable. So you aren't missing out with a bad product in the acx ftw by any means.

With that said, I agree I wish everyone could have jumped in on the "upgrade". But as a number of reviewers like gamer nexus said, it actually wasn't worth it as there is a net gain of zero performance increase. Most of the people that did it only did so to reset their expired step up window to get the Ti (me included). The fact I bought my original FTW last July and now have an option to get the Ti...sign me up. The iCX FTW2 was nothing more than a stepping stone.

If anyone recently (withing 30 days or so) bought an ACX FTW and feel like you absolutely got screwed (which you didn't as you probably paid a lot less for a perfectly great card then the people that actually did get screwed), I would suggest returning the card where you got it and get the iCX...or step up to the Ti via evga's site. But ultimately, no matter what...you got a great GPU.