AMD has repeatedly stated that they are "focused on developers and content creators" and they have some special driver optimizations specifically for those use cases. Other than offering a "game mode" in the drivers, they are not focusing on that for reasons that only appear obvious. In benchmarks using those pro applications, it is "up to 70% faster than the GTX Titan Xp for less money" and that's the narrative they want to own.
The problem is that NVIDIA markets the Titan Xp as a halo gaming card, where AMD has created this artificial bubble in which they can beat the Titan Xp in select situations where a Quadro or FirePro card would be most appropriate and effective, but still lose gaming benchmarks to the Titan Xp (based only upon limited FireStrike scores). The other problem is that gamers have been foaming at the mouth for Vega and now it shows up with possible issues and so-so FS benchmarks. AMD needs to get control of the narrative again before Vega is written off as a failure in its entirety - some of you are already banging that gong.
If this marketing move by AMD proves successful and Vega FE starts to make a dent, NVIDIA can just release equivalent driver updates for the GTX Titan Xp to accelerate the same applications while also keeping its performance advantage in games. That's a sucky place for AMD to be, I think. For now, I'm going to assume we're looking at poor driver optimization and very unscientific benchmarks.
Hey, if Vega truly ends up as a disappointment at least Ryzen was a home run. Every once in a while, you have to bunt.