My GPU says Engineering Sample.

Leekay07

Why?

I bought a retail powercolor Crossfire master card. When I lifted to heatsink to light up for a replacement cooler im surprised to find the chip has R580 Engineering Sample stamped on it.

Tipstaff

A lot of the cards that get reviewed on the net by websites are sent back to the manufacturer. Those that are fit will be resold into the market, either as an OEM card, or retail card. As well, sometimes the very last engineering sample batch before the final retail batch are also fit for selling. It's quite possible that you've gotten one of these.

What is the date of the sample? Does it say something like 0545AAY just above the "TAIWAN" listing, or something similar? The reason I ask is that the last eng. samples were dated the 45th week, which would make it November. Any Eng. Sample produced in early November was around the time the commercial chips started to be produced, which started shipping at the end of November (if memory serves).

If you are unsure about your card you can always call Powercolor, and check the validity of your warranty. Just don't tell them that you removed the heatsink. Let them know that you were made aware that it might be an engineering sample, and you are not sure if the warranty is still good.

It should be noted that the final engineering sample boards are "nearly" identical to the final consumer product. The only "real" differences might be that you have a blank GPU cooler (no ATI or PowerColor logo), or that the board itself might be a different color. Infact, sometimes they will use better capacitors on the board for the sample. Otherwise they are pretty much the same.

H3X4D3C1M4L

Yeah if its working fine just count yourself sort of luckyish