[engadget] Origin PC drops AMD graphics options due to feedback, support woes

[Carfax83]

Now I'm even more [redacted] angry. I've been dropping frames as well?
It doesn't say anything about dropping frames on the boxes and I'm starting to feel like a whole 'thread' of my life just disappeared and I was unaware of it!

Yeah, all those professional reviewers which found the same pattern of dropped and runt frames with Crossfire were all delusional.. And AMD releasing a "frame pacing driver" to address the issue must have confused..

I suppose I can't blame you for your ignorance though. If sliced bread is the only bread you've eaten your entire life, then that's all you know..

Warning issued for personal attack.
-- stahlhart

 

[linaaslt]

The one time I tried AMD back in the day I had a ton of issues. Two Asus HD 4870 Dark Knight video cards in Crossfire.

Flickering textures in the Witcher and Neverwinter Nights 2 and GPUs not down clocking in desktop was what forced me to return them. Also, I could only get one of my cards to overclock in Crossfire mode, instead of two.

Needless to say that left a bad taste in my mouth. But that was a long time ago, so I'm sure AMD has improved a lot since then..

However you can't convince me that AMD has the same support as NVidia. The fact that Crossfire has been broken for so many years is proof of that imo..

AMD needs to change their image, and even though Origin PC isn't a big PC vendor, this doesn't help at all.

i used to have 4850cf for two years and had minor issues with them. that was a good experience. now i own 6970 since release and it works like a charm.

 

[amenx]

Never heard of them but heres their site.

http://www.originpc.com/

p.s. seems AT did a review of one of their machines. 'Triple Titan Terror', lol.

http://anandtech.com/show/6910/origin-genesis-review-triple-titan-terror

 

[BoFox]

Battlebox for Origin, and then this announcement at the same time - chances are, it's probably more than a coincidence..

 

[BoFox]

I still remember switching from ATI to 6600 and to 8800GTS and being in shock at how awful NV's 2d IQ was.

That makes me wonder when NV will ever go back to perfectly angle-independent AF like BEFORE the Geforce 6xxx series?!? Like the Radeons have been doing for 4 years now?

 

[Gikaseixas]

Obvious damage control. I've used CF configs both mobile and desktop (in fact i'm using 7970 CF as we speak) and never had those issues some people say they there after reading website articles and trolls alike.

 

[monstercameron]

Obvious damage control. I've used CF configs both mobile and desktop (in fact i'm using 7970 CF as we speak) and never had those issues some people say they there after reading website articles and trolls alike.

all the x-fire issues that are not performance/compatibility issues are perception based.

nice points with a bit of flame
http://semiaccurate.com/2013/10/05/much-nvidia-pay-origin-pc-drop-amd/

 

[Despoiler]

The Engadet "article" is worthless. The below article at least as some numbers. All of this is being highly sensationalized IMO.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2052...ion-to-so-publicly-dump-amd-video-cards-.html

Big red and green flags go up for me when

A) we aren't provided who the manufacturers are of the AMD or Nvidia cards that failed. All manufacturers are not created equal
B) we aren't provided the specs of the rigs that these cards failed in. Are these stock clock failures or overclocked by Origin? Did they isolate if the the customer overclocked?
C) we aren't provided anything that suggests they did any root cause analysis on their build quality. Were the ones that failed the ones that had water blocks installed? Were they installed properly? Did the customer cause the liquid cooling to fail or degrade?

 

[n0x1ous]

all the x-fire issues that are not performance/compatibility issues are perception based.

nice points with a bit of flame
http://semiaccurate.com/2013/10/05/much-nvidia-pay-origin-pc-drop-amd/

Ah good ol Charlie. Every article ends with 'game over nvidia'. Such a reliable unbiased fellow. Everything he says is worthless

 

[Pariah]

A) we aren't provided who the manufacturers are of the AMD or Nvidia cards that failed. All manufacturers are not created equal

I don't care enough to research it myself, but it shouldn't be too hard to google what cards Puget Systems puts in their computers. Considering they sell computers to consumers with windows in the case so everyone can see the hardware, the omission of the exact cards was not likely an intentional act of deception.

B) we aren't provided the specs of the rigs that these cards failed in. Are these stock clock failures or overclocked by Origin? Did they isolate if the the customer overclocked?
C) we aren't provided anything that suggests they did any root cause analysis on their build quality. Were the ones that failed the ones that had water blocks installed? Were they installed properly? Did the customer cause the liquid cooling to fail or degrade?

The company was just giving overall numbers, it wasn't meant to be a exhaustive breakdown. These numbers were not from Origin, the company that dumped AMD, and despite the higher AMD failure rates said they would continue to use them, so this wasn't intended as a smear campaign against AMD.

That said, nearly 8% failure rate for AMD would seem pretty high to me. The more than 3x higher failure rate in the hands of customers than NVidia seems pretty damning as well.

 

[AnandThenMan]

”Not sure who told you that, but I would definitely like to comment on that because we absolutely do not want anyone to get that impression. Our decision is based on the overall experience we provide to our customers. We work with many manufactures and they all provide us with support for technical support, marketing, qualifying products, etc. We are aware that Nvidia works with other system builders along with ORIGIN PC and Nvidia is not providing anything exclusively to ORIGIN PC.”

Nothing in that statement actually says no, we did not receive any financial compensation. I'll say this, if Nvidia is really going that low and more or less paying off builders to drop AMD graphics, it will come back to bite Nvidia.

Something smells about the whole thing that's for sure.

 

[blackened23]

all the x-fire issues that are not performance/compatibility issues are perception based.

While AMD has fixed it for single screen resolutions, It certainly was not a mere perception issue - AMD Crossfire required a lot of work with 3rd party software such as radeon pro, among other things, to make usable. I know this because I used 7970CF - to be clear, I had no issues with stutter and I liked the 7970CF while I used it - but I *did* have to use 3rd party software to remove stutter. If I had not used frame limiters, I definitely would have had stutter issues which generally doesn't occur with NV's software. I had to use strict frame rate limiters at 59/60 fps to ensure smoothness. Not a big deal, but this should be the case. Fortunately, AMD has fixed this aspect of CF. But I completley disagree it was a perception issue; it was a real issue that was objectively measured by various websites. Then AMD decided to fix it.

That said, AMD still has not fixed eyefinity CF. These are also the kind of systems the Origin sells - they sell water cooled multi GPU systems *designed* for surround gaming. Therefore it isn't hard to see why nvidia would be preferred in this case.

I remain optimistic about the R9 290X. I think it will be a killer GPU if AMD prices it right. Heck, higher than GTX 780 performance for 600$? If that happens, I think it will be an awesome GPU for sure. I just want badly for AMD to get their stuff together on the software side - they have made significant strides in the past year, but they aren't on NV's level just yet. And they need to be on their level if they want to command NV type price premiums. Until AMD makes strong strides in terms of software, they don't have the brand strength to price their wares on the level of NV.

 

[Mastercommander]

Lol @ Crossfire just to cap at 59 fps


For the record I am now running crossfire myself, though of course it doesn't work in BF4 yet

Several good things happened for AMD this year that led to dramatic improvement in the viability of crossfire. Namely, frame pacing, and just this summer, Lightboost now working with AMD cards

Fanboys could benefit from knowing that I would never have made the switch without these features

 

[Keysplayr]

Lol @ Crossfire just to cap at 59 fps


For the record I am now running crossfire myself, though of course it doesn't work in BF4 yet

Several good things happened for AMD this year that led to dramatic improvement in the viability of crossfire. Namely, frame pacing, and just this summer, Lightboost now working with AMD cards

Fanboys could benefit from knowing that I would never have made the switch without these features

You made a switch? You mean you went from Nvidia which already offered frame pacing and Lightboost to AMD. So, that wasn't a reason to switch if they both offered it. Why then did you really switch? Just curious cause you made little sense in your comment.

 

[blackened23]

Lol @ Crossfire just to cap at 59 fps


For the record I am now running crossfire myself, though of course it doesn't work in BF4 yet

Several good things happened for AMD this year that led to dramatic improvement in the viability of crossfire. Namely, frame pacing, and just this summer, Lightboost now working with AMD cards

Fanboys could benefit from knowing that I would never have made the switch without these features

I have gone back and forth between AMD and nvidia myself. With regard to 7970CF, just to be clear, I played then and still play at 1600p, and during that time I generally always maxed games out (I don't really care so much anymore). So i'm not sure about your condescending "59 fps" remark - There were plenty of situations where games were well under 60 fps at the time on a single card only, so yeah, a 60 fps limit in a dual GPU config was not a big deal. I did not use lightboost obviously, since I prefer high resolution IPS screens over lightboost or 144hz. Aside from this, being that I like IPS high res over lightboost, it goes without saying that I generally use vsync or adaptive vsync (since i'm using NV now). So with that being the case I like a rock solid steady 60 fps at all times with no dips, and that is generally what I get. I don't need 85 fps steady since i'm not using lightboost.

My first point is that 3rd party software workarounds should not be required. Period. I made the 7970CF work and I enjoyed using it when I did, they were great cards. But all of this stuff should be built into AMD's drivers. Neither I nor anyone else should install 3rd party software to get an optimal experience. Secondly, like I said, AMD has made improvements but they're not quite there on NV's level yet. I would like for them to BE on nvidia's level. The best hardware in the world is worthless without software to back it up - again, AMD is making progress but needs to do more work. Especially with eyefinity CF. Hopefully that will be fixed with the 290X. I'm pretty excited and optimistic about the 290X so long as the price is 600$. If it's 700$+, well, screw that.

 

[InfoTiger]

Just wonder how many of us bought PC from them?
Like we care?

 

[rgallant]

Nothing in that statement actually says no, we did not receive any financial compensation. I'll say this, if Nvidia is really going that low and more or less paying off builders to drop AMD graphics, it will come back to bite Nvidia.


Something smells about the whole thing that's for sure.

I agree
I had emails on this from nv on this gaming pc box [buy buy] should have added
4k when 2015 give me a clue that nv are not idiots or just pissing on amd after their 2 year consumer gpu's rape on mid range gpu's for highend $$$ love the 760-770 re spins
if in fact amd comes out with titan equal and nv adjust their cost SUB amd to this builder per agreement could be a big issue.

 

[chimaxi83]

I agree
I had emails on this from nv on this gaming pc box [buy buy] should have added
4k when 2015 give me a clue that nv are not idiots or just pissing on amd after their 2 year consumer gpu's rape on mid range gpu's for highend $$$ love the 760-770 re spins
if in fact amd comes out with titan equal and nv adjust their cost SUB amd to this builder per agreement could be a big issue.

Umm... say what?

 

[alkemyst]

I agree
I had emails on this from nv on this gaming pc box [buy buy] should have added
4k when 2015 give me a clue that nv are not idiots or just pissing on amd after their 2 year consumer gpu's rape on mid range gpu's for highend $$$ love the 760-770 re spins
if in fact amd comes out with titan equal and nv adjust their cost SUB amd to this builder per agreement could be a big issue.

Spaceman, is that you?

 

[tential]

You really think two Titans can't beat any single card? Are you kidding dude?

Just to put things in perspective.
2 7870s beat a Titan in a some GPU benchmarks and match in most.

2 Titans vs any Single card.... lol.

Honestly, if a person wants to say AMDs card can beat it fine. I say they put their money where their mouth is though.

 

[alkemyst]

 

[tential]

I had well documented HDMI issues with my 7970. It required a registry hack to get them working right. Swapped to 760 and haven't had any issues. My 470 and 680 never had issues but I remember problems with my 4870 before those. I'll probably be sticking to nvidia.

Is this the registry hack with the sound problem from AMD through HDMI?
Because I CANT FIND IT and I need to do it again. Right now, no one can watch anything other than WMC player on my hTPC because of AMDs stupid HDMI Audio issues. VLC will not display audio until I play WMP in the background (and mute it ofg course). Then the AMD card decides "Hey, I should probably play Audio!". It's so annoying.

 

[Phynaz]

10/5/2013

Lol @ Crossfire just to cap at 59 fps


For the record I am now running crossfire myself, though of course it doesn't work in BF4 yet

Several good things happened for AMD this year that led to dramatic improvement in the viability of crossfire. Namely, frame pacing, and just this summer, Lightboost now working with AMD cards

Fanboys could benefit from knowing that I would never have made the switch without these features

9/12/2013

My Galaxy 660 Ti is so beastly I just can't justify upgrading. Temptations, temptations. Next gen it will have to be

That's a big change in perspective in a couple of weeks.

 

[aigomorla]

holy cow.... someone tell origin next gen consoles are AMD. :\

Origin just stated all there console release will BLOW hardcore...
Or all our console ports will suck hardcore..

 

[lopri]

I was and still am skeptical but this kind of obviously co-op'ed "news" makes me wonder if the R7/R9 are real deals. I hope that $139 card in the slide (260X?) is a decent upgrade from my aging HD 6870.