News RIP Beyond3D

[Saylick]

Not much to say besides RIP. Time to pour one out for another forum that bit the dust. Let it be a lesson for us to cut out any kind of toxic behavior.

It's been a hell of a ride. It has reached a stopping point for many reasons, a small part also related to lack of resources to properly maintain. The most prominent reason being the toxic behavior exhibited by so many, where the behavior has not changed in the least and actually gotten worse over the past year.

I do appreciate everyone who has ever put so much into the site, with their time, effort, devotion, and passion over the years. It wouldn't have been possible without them.

Beyond3D is now closed.

The closure of Beyond3D.

It's been a hell of a ride. It has reached a stopping point for many reasons, a small part also related to lack of resources to properly maintain. The most prominent reason being the toxic behavior exhibited by so many, where the behavior has not changed in the least and actually gotten worse...

forum.beyond3d.com

 

[branch_suggestion]

Writing was on the wall ever since the HW forum shut down, that was the best place to talk about technical aspects of GPUs and it wasn't even close.
Site lost what was unique after that, no point to beat a dead horse any longer.

 

[itsmydamnation]

Yeah sad, there was so much gas lighting in that place over the last 3-5 years I can understand why they pulled the pin. I mostly pulled the pin when NV added logic for sparsity to there matrix units.

So much BS being sprouted by people who didn't even understand the links they were pasting. Trying to engage meaningfully about architecture was pointless as they had no hostesty/ integrity, just wanted to win the internet arguement ,so I didn't.

I would check in occasionally, same people still doing the same things so I'm not surprised.

I didn't even touch the console forums, I'm sure that sucked just as much.

 

[CouncilorIrissa]

Par for the course given the quality of GPU discourse of the recent years in general, not even talking about the forum itself

 

[Ajay]

Wow. How long was that forum around for? I remember discussions with folks there about early consumer 3D video cards. So much easier to understand back then - and really helpful people to explain what various new aspects of an architecture would add. RIP B3D

Edit: well it used to be a website w/forum back then.

 

[DavidC1]

Writing is on the wall for text services. AT coming up next

Or should I say, Writing is on Stream.

 

[Ajay]

Writing is on the wall for text services. AT coming up next

Or should I say, Writing is on Stream.

Especially with all the networking problems this site has been encountering lately. I think ATF got put on a spare 20 yo server in someone's basement.

 

[eek2121]

Writing is on the wall for text services. AT coming up next

Or should I say, Writing is on Stream.

Not everyone wants to watch a video or listen to audio.

Many of us prefer text format.

Gamers Nexus recently redid their website and began focusing more effort there.

 

[SPBHM]

that's very sad, I haven't been active in there for over 5 years but I used to access daily and was blown away by the knowledge at display by some users, what a shame.

 

[MoogleW]

Architecture and Products - Subforum Guidelines

Allowed thread topics Pre-release microarchitecture and product speculation Post-release product review roundups Post-release microarchitecture, chip and product spec discussions Microarchitecture performance analysis and analysis tool development Product performance analysis Physical design...

forum.beyond3d.com

A new post in the architecture speculation forum outlineing the updated rules about what is and is not allowed. This was posted yesterday

 

[igor_kavinski]

A new post in the architecture speculation forum outlineing the updated rules about what is and is not allowed. This was posted yesterday

A step in the right direction to improve the informative quality of the posts. But I hope it doesn't get implemented here. A little chaos is good for some popcorn munching time.

 

[MoogleW]

Beyond3D has fully been reopened. New forum rules too

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Smart moves all around. Shutting down sent a message to the shills and trolls. Also, It fostered a little drama and went viral, driving new traffic.

 

[Ranulf]

Yay, I guess.

 

[moinmoin]

ever since the HW forum shut down

Being completely out of the loop, when and why did that happen?

 

[branch_suggestion]

Being completely out of the loop, when and why did that happen?

It was just over a year ago, and the reason was a handful of people constantly starting brand vs brand debates in technical threads, about why x is superior and y can never compete or why you have to value one use case over the other.
Basically it spread from the Industry forum which has always been horribly tribalistic over to the tech forum.
To put it completely bluntly, it was a few NV diehards who would take every possible opportunity to post 'gotchas' in AMD threads presenting the most favourable NV data and constantly attacking AMD's weaknesses like they are the only relevant workloads in computing. They didn't even care that much to post about NV, more about how AMD is bad, mkay.
They even took the chance to start new threads with extreme levels of pettiness and good old passive-aggressive snarkiness. The most obvious trait was basically blatant shilling of every single thing NV has done or is better at, and starting threads or jumping in threads with purely condescending comments. There are plenty of examples still around, and it hasn't fully stopped either.
The reverse happened rarely, every AMD thread eventually divulged into semantics with no reasonable discourse possible, so they pulled the plug. Especially with RDNA3 being an execution miss, that really ended any chance of rationality.
Until now, let us hope those responsible will leave well enough alone.

P.S. mentioned already ITT is that the final blame is on the moderator for allowing it to happen for a long time.

 

[moinmoin]

Thanks @branch_suggestion, I only know Beyond3D from the occasional links and quotes where it appeared to have some members offering quite some great amount of insight in technology. It's always sad when communities end up drowning out such precious contributions to the point that those are no longer made.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Trying to remember if that was one of the sites I saw some of the trolls that used to post a lot on here gloat about trolling on here (while on here they'd play dumb and complain they were being called trolls), while they simultaneously whined about getting in trouble for trolling here (while they acted like they were duping the mods on here). Hope this doesn't mean they'll be posting on here again.

 

[beginner99]

P.S. mentioned already ITT is that the final blame is on the moderator for allowing it to happen for a long time.

reading your entire post, yeah why not just ban these people? Would be trivial.

 

[DavidC1]

Not everyone wants to watch a video or listen to audio.

Many of us prefer text format.

Gamers Nexus recently redid their website and began focusing more effort there.

I prefer text too. Especially since it allows you to skim, and skip to the relevant points. Second, if I want to see things in detail. Video is endless talk. Best case in point: RGT. Most of his videos don't even have things in bullet points, forcing you to watch, meaning I don't watch.

Literally 1000x the hardware of 20 years ago, and we are offered LESS information.

But trends are trends whether we like it or not. The change suggests the average goer moving to stream is enough to make it difficult.

Good to see B3D still on life support though. Gone are the days when they used to be basically 3D graphics version of RWT. Even RWT has lost pop.

 

[Gideon]

I prefer text too. Especially since it allows you to skim, and skip to the relevant points.

Text is objectively *vastly* better for many-many things (HW analysis for sure) it isn't even a competition. Some informative 3D-modeled explanatory shorts can be better to digest on some subjects than text, but usually it works the best in tandem (leaning more towards text).

Provided that the person can actually read of course. If one can read even half decently, one can also read faster than the narrator of the video can speak (not to mention skimming non-relevant parts)

The problem isn't that it isn't better. The problem is that younger people don't / can't and won't read, therefore there is less and less traffic. It's also harder and harder to monetize effectively as you need many times more page-clicks vs views for the same income.

But don't worry, if you think this is bad, just wait a generation:

People that have the attention span to watch 10 - 20 minute YouTube videos are already old too and that market will start to shrink in another decade (the latest). 15 - 25 year olds, more often than not, have maximal attention spans for 1 min TikTok videos (of which they usually bear 5-20 seconds at most)

 

[delta-v]

But don't worry, if you think this is bad, just wait a generation:

People that have the attention span to watch 10 - 20 minute YouTube videos are already old too and that market will start to shrink in another decade (the latest). 15 - 25 year olds, more often than not, have maximal attention spans for 1 min TikTok videos (of which they usually bear 5-20 seconds at most)

While I agree in general, I have a difficult time only blaming the younger generations on this one. My parents, who are in their 60's, have the same problem whenever they are on their computer/iPad/phone. Printed media is a completely different story, but they have a very hard time paying attention to any one thing on any electronic device. From what I have observed of them, and others in their generation, is that it seems like those who have had to use a computer regularly for work or hobbies have a much longer attention span for anything on a computer than those who did not. Perhaps this is only anecdotal, but it seems relevant. Based on this, it appears to me that the total population that appreciates comprehensive written work on the internet is shrinking from both sides of the age spectrum. Which is very unfortunate as I also greatly prefer this type of information exchange.

 

[Gideon]

While I agree in general, I have a difficult time only blaming the younger generations on this one.

You talk a lot of sense!

I must admit it was partly a deliberate exaggeration. An "old man yells at cloud" moment - partly driven by the anger that there is no oversight for the dubious algorithms feeding people content on TikTok and Youtube (and the myriad of social issues these bring)

And partly driven by the fact that I'm classical hypocrite - watching YT myself a lot more than I would like (and have done just a few years ago). Doesn't it feel good to lecture others at online forums (rather than try to be better yourself)

 

[delta-v]

And partly driven by the fact that I'm classical hypocrite - watching YT myself a lot more than I would like (and have done just a few years ago). Doesn't it feel good to lecture others at online forums (rather than try to be better yourself)

Oh, I am just as much of a hypocrite regarding youtube! It is definitely fun sometimes to lecture others (online or otherwise), and I am just as guilty of it, but it also doesn't hurt to become a bit more aware of what we are doing, even when it isn't easy.

Anyway, back on topic, B3D's downward spiral is a royal shame. I remember reading about Dx9, the 9700, and lots more back in high school when I could afford none of what tech being discussed. It is partly what got me into GPUs and wanting to build my own PC in the first place. It was also how I found the Tech Report and was a loyal reader there until Wasson left... I miss that site too.

 

[Gideon]

Oh, I am just as much of a hypocrite regarding youtube! It is definitely fun sometimes to lecture others (online or otherwise), and I am just as guilty of it, but it also doesn't hurt to become a bit more aware of what we are doing, even when it isn't easy.

Anyway, back on topic, B3D's downward spiral is a royal shame. I remember reading about Dx9, the 9700, and lots more back in high school when I could afford none of what tech being discussed. It is partly what got me into GPUs and wanting to build my own PC in the first place. It was also how I found the Tech Report and was a loyal reader there until Wasson left... I miss that site too.

Spoiler: Last OT on the subject

We are of similar age then and partly similar interests. Beyond3d, Techreport, Anandtech were (and continued to be long after) my go-to sites for HW info during that time and long after. Even now, when I try to search for for a performance summary of a recent GPU in techpowerup, i sometimes write "techreport" instead.

Regarding the 9700 PRO. I was so impressed by it, that I started saving money for a new GPU already in late 2002, worked the entire summer of 2003 and was finally able to buy myself a 9800 PRO in early 2004. It was a bit overkill on my Athlon XP 2100+, but It performed very well. I still remember being blown away by the DX 9 tech-demos.

Back to topic:

Luckily the forum seems to be alive again, but it's quiet. Let's see how well it's moderated and lasts in its current form.