Bundle and warranty
Box - cardboard, rectangular. We were shocked.
The holes mean you can sort of see the card inside but not properly. Thankfully, a sticker clears up the confusion of what lies within.
Around the back are typical marketing messages in a green-and-black colour scheme - very NVIDIA.
While we always base our buying decisions on which product has the prettiest packaging some stick-in-the-muds like to judge a product on the box's contents. More fool them! They'll never have a house filled with Hello Kitty merchandise.
| Items | Driver and manual CD |
|---|
Inno3D has seen fit to include a full copy of Race along with the user manual and driver CD.
[advert]Race is a bit of a strange choice, being developed by the same team as the excellent GTR2 and a fairly hardcore simulation. It certainly won't appeal to everyone but actually makes a fairly strong addition to the collection of any real driving fan.
It's well suited to the card, though, not being overly taxing on the graphics side and instead demanding a decent amount of CPU grunt to keep the AI and physics engines happy.
S-Video-to-composite and HDTV-out leads along with a single DVI adapter. Not exactly exciting stuff but we'd complain if they were missing.
Inno3D is, for a limited time, also bundling the card with a gift box containing an iChiLL-branded pen and key-chain, plus a 3D sticker.
Unfortunately, our sample did not include these goodies, so we were unable to test the tactile feedback of the pen, the bling-rating of the key-chain or the all-important bumpiness of the sticker.
Warranty
The Inno3D iChiLL 8600GTS XStrike3 has a three-year warranty that's handled through the retailer - so make sure to pick a retailer that you trust will be around for the duration.
Depending on the retailer's policy, a return might involve you waiting while the card is returned to Inno3D before a replacement is dispatched. And, since Inno3D has no European office, that might take up to three weeks - the card has to go to Hong Kong.
In some circumstances - such as if a product is not repairable and a direct replacement is not available - customers may receive a market-price credit note to be redeemed against an alternative Inno3D product.
Summary
Inno3D's decision to include Race is slightly odd. The card is entering a very competitive market place and this somewhat esoteric title is likely to have limited appeal. So including it is unlikely to significantly boost sales of the card whereas the extra expense could put off some buyers.
Beyond this, the bundle is what you'd expect, the usual cables, manual and CD, just as you'll get with any other card based on the 8600GTS.
The warranty is a bit of a sticking point. We'd really like to see a quicker turn around time, regarding three weeks as unacceptable.
When you add the potential extra delay of having to go through the retailer and the time within the postal services, you could find yourself without a graphics card for a month or more.
