The phrase 'RMA' is likely to send shivers down many a spine, especially when it concerns something like a graphics card. Returning a faulty component can often be a 'cross your fingers and hope for the best' kind of deal, so naturally I am pleasantly—very pleasantly—surprised to hear Asus has enough of a heart to not only give one lucky Redditor an upgrade but also get the colour right.

According to the Redditor's original post about the issue, they sent their white Asus ROG Strix RTX 4080 Super OC in for RMA and were sent back a black Asus TUF Gaming RTX 5080 when they discovered the former couldn't be repaired. That's a win, right? Well, not fully, because the Redditor wanted a white one, like their original RTX 4080 Super, to match their all-white build.

So, what's to be done about that? Naturally, asking for them to swap it: "After about 6 weeks of emails and escalating the case to higher-level management, Asus finally approved the exact card I asked for: the ROG Astral RTX 5080 White OC. I sent the TUF back, and they even upgraded the shipping to FedEx Standard Overnight at no extra cost. The card finally arrived!"

This is an RMA result, if ever I've seen one. It might seem a bit much, but to be honest if you have an all-white build and an expensive GPU that fails, I can see why it makes sense to at least attempt to get a replacement just right.

Funnily enough, I can speak to this very kind of issue with a much cheaper product. A few years ago, I sent my cream-coloured Sennheiser HD 599 headphones for RMA, and they sent back a new pair... except they were black, not the lovely cream colour I sent off. But being the non-confrontational and lazy weasel I am, I just accepted my fate, and those are the headphones I use to this day.

Comparing the real-world gaming performance of the RTX 4080 and RTX 5080 Super at 1440p resolution, using upscaling and frame gen when possible.

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 4080 Super

121

94

RTX 5080

132

116

037.575112.5150

The RTX 5080 performs at least as well as the RTX 4080 Super, and often noticeably better at 1440p.

To give just a glimpse of how difficult and frustrating RMAs can be, consider the fact that we recently discovered that a faded serial number could scupper your chances of being able to RMA your Founders Edition card. So yes, Asus swapping an RTX 5080 out just to get the colour right is pretty sweet. I can only assume the Redditor must have been very persistent. And fair enough, because it worked.

This is all on top of the performance improvement they received, too, of course. As you can see from the chart above, the RTX 5080 performs better than the RTX 4080 Super, and it has access to more of the latest and greatest DLSS tech. Just don't go breaking your 40-series cards and trying the same. Who knows what the RMA gods will have in store for future requesters.

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Jacob got his hands on a gaming PC for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He swiftly realised the local PC repair store had ripped him off with his build and vowed never to let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Jacob the hardware junkie was born. Since then, Jacob's led a double-life as part-hardware geek, part-philosophy nerd, first working as a Hardware Writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working towards a PhD in Philosophy for a few years while freelancing on the side for sites such as TechRadar, Pocket-lint, and yours truly, PC Gamer. Eventually, he gave up the ruthless mercenary life to join the world's #1 PC Gaming site full-time. It's definitely not an ego thing, he assures us.

Extracted and lightly reformatted for readability. · Source: pt