EVGATech_ChristianJ
I had our RMA manager review the pictures and unfortunately, this would be considered damaged and not covered by the warranty.

VirtualUnreality

nathen2832
I don't know anything about arcing, but it was perfectly fine one night and the next day it decided today was the day it's going to show me how much it loved green lines.
 
I'm still going to try to send it in, have to try every angle. I don't have $1000 to drop with everything that is going on with the GPU stock shortage and crypto craze. 

Sorry to to see the negative outcome I'm a bit surprised, as although there is quite a bit of wear there as you stated from a lot of swapping the card, I thought there was a good chance EVGA would cover it since it appears there's a decent chance that the wear is not the issue causing the artifacting as you also stated, or at least suggest you could send it in for inspection before committing to cover it with you having to pay return shipping if they said no.  I'm not sure that EVGA offers pay-for-repair service at the component level, but you can ask.  I understand EVGA's making the disappointing judgement call, but perhaps there is still a middle road which can accommodate both parties;  What about appealing to the RMA Mgt. once more and asking them would they be willing to ignore the PCIe connection PCB trace wear?  Meaning that if EVGA will agree to bench it as is and see if the PCIe connection is truly an issue or not, and diagnose components as they would to see if something onboard like VRAM is causing artifacting?  Perhaps there is a possible component repair option, and you can agree to accept that repaired card with the existing PCIe connector wear as is as.  If indeed, connector is too excessively worn and that's the issue you can pay return shipping and explore other options below.
 
  Secondly, there's a surprisingly busy trade on sites such as Ebay and that ilk in cards that are classed as "Non-Operable"/"For Parts only", at surprisingly high prices, so perhaps you'd be able to recoup some of your investment that way in the event the above is a no-go, or get in contact with someone who can perform component level repair on a pay-for basis ( Someone must be doing it, or why are so many inoperable cards selling(?), or swap you a repaired lesser card on spec.
 
  Thirdly, if you search under "PCB trace repair", you'll see some possible options that are a bit tricky and time consuming but inexpensive, if you'd care to attempt to see if that wear is truly involved or not on your own.  I'd suggest if you do, you use a very old Motherboard you don't care too much about to test ( You sound as if you might have one around  ) as you may run the risk of damaging the PCIe slot if you attempt that.
 
  I hope something I or someone else contributes will help you solve your issue, and I wish you the very best of luck!.