Solved Zotac 10gb RTX 3080 - engineering sample

Hi all

Had an issue with my PC and took it into the local repair shop to get fixed. All getting sorted but the guy told me he was surprised to find my graphics card is an engineering sample. He said it’s very rare to see them in the wild and it either means it could cause issues or it could be better performing than a retail model. He ran tests and said it’s in good health and there’s no concerns.

To be honest, I’d never heard of an engineering sample and it kinda worries me. I bought my PC as a custom build from a large UK specialist company so I was surprised to hear this. I just wonder if I should contact them about it (I mean I paid good money for the PC and I have received a pre-production graphics card) or if it’s not giving me bother and is in good health, just leave it. I got it in Jan 2022.

Can anyone explain to me if I should be concerned for the life shelf of it or do I not need to worry?

xrobwx71 said:

Yes. That's the first thing I would do.


You have no way of knowing what this card was put through. I would contact the supplier.
Download GPU-Z and run it, I'd be interested in seeing the first page if you can screenshot it.

Click to expand...

I’ll do this when I get my PC back. Collecting it on Friday.

I’ll get in contact with the retailer. Didn’t think it was right to have paid money for a new system that came with something that has been used for testing. Thank you.