The GPU Vendor Bias Admission Thread

[railven]

Compared to the poll in the CPU forum, we get a very clear anti-NV backlash.

On the CPU side, Intel dominates the marketshare, so they have a lot of users who are Intel biased, but interestingly, a lot more are neutral, no favoritism due to AMD being an underdog, but simply going for the better CPU.

On the GPU side, NV dominates the marketshare, but most people are either against NV or neutral, due to the often cited reason of "NV's shady business".

Why?

GameWorks has angered a lot of gamers, even NV ones, you notice this on steam, reddit and other forums, where GW is dismissed as being poorly optimized, made to gimp performance and shove planned obsolescence at gamers.

Despite this backlash, NVIDIA is doubling down on even more shady tactics, now aimed at discrediting DX12 with two very shoddy/broken sponsored DX12 ports: GOW and Tomb Raider.

It seems they will only get the message when it affects their bottom lines. I look forward to the next gen, will put my $ where my ethics align to and go with Polaris.

This is only true for this forum, which is not unexpected. Post the same poll say at NeoGaf, watch AMD get CREAMED.

Hell, i was reading a thread there with people openly saying they're waiting for the next Titan. Haha. These are the type of customers AMD wishes they could get.

 

[thesmokingman]

This is only true for this forum, which is not unexpected. Post the same poll say at NeoGaf, watch AMD get CREAMED.

Hell, i was reading a thread there with people openly saying they're waiting for the next Titan. Haha. These are the type of customers AMD wishes they could get.

Then why the heck are you here? Why are you not with the rest of your brothers in arms?

Warning issued for personal attack.
-- stahlhart

 

[Game_dev]

It's amazing that so many people support AMD and yet they are still going bankrupt. Reading this forum you would think AMD was dominating. I can't figure out how a company with this much support has virtually no market share and loses money every quarter. It can't be any sort of bias.

 

[tential]

This is only true for this forum, which is not unexpected. Post the same poll say at NeoGaf, watch AMD get CREAMED.

Hell, i was reading a thread there with people openly saying they're waiting for the next Titan. Haha. These are the type of customers AMD wishes they could get.

It's still a win though for AMD to get someone. AMD didn't have this forum that's for sure. Polaris is really everything. If AMD can't break into the mainstream gamer segment with Polaris, it's grim for them.

To me, it's all first to market. Both vendors will look good in comparison to the past on a new node. So whoever releases first will get more attention. AMD desperately needs that attention/sales. It's hard to convince people to wait for the underdog...

What evidence do we have that gamers are patient people.....

 

[AnandThenMan]

This is only true for this forum, which is not unexpected. Post the same poll say at NeoGaf, watch AMD get CREAMED.

Hell, i was reading a thread there with people openly saying they're waiting for the next Titan. Haha. These are the type of customers AMD wishes they could get.

This forum is made up of much more informed users. And think about the tech articles here over the years, they are for people that really want to dig into the tech and get educated. Casual and ill informed buyers mostly want to slap each other on the back and talk about how great their toys are and how awful the competitors stuff is.

 

[Pariah]

It's still a win though for AMD to get someone. AMD didn't have this forum that's for sure. Polaris is really everything. If AMD can't break into the mainstream gamer segment with Polaris, it's grim for them.

To me, it's all first to market. Both vendors will look good in comparison to the past on a new node. So whoever releases first will get more attention. AMD desperately needs that attention/sales. It's hard to convince people to wait for the underdog...

What evidence do we have that gamers are patient people.....

It certainly looks like both these companies are rushing to get to market first. What do you think that is going to do for product availability at launch? How many months did it take for US customers to be able to buy a Fury X? The race isn't to see who gets to market first, it's who can get enough product to market first to be able to fulfill market demand at MSRP. Releasing first will only infuriate customers if they can't buy the product. The last few years has given us reason to have less faith in AMD being able to get enough product to market, especially if they rush to market just to release first.

 

[3DVagabond]

It's amazing that so many people support AMD and yet they are still going bankrupt. Reading this forum you would think AMD was dominating. I can't figure out how a company with this much support has virtually no market share and loses money every quarter. It can't be any sort of bias.

Are you thinking that most of the video cards in he world are sold to AT forum members?

 

[MangoX]

Voted AMD. But I'm not totally biased, just a general preference for them.

 

[railven]

Then why the heck are you here? Why are you not with the rest of your brothers in arms?

Cuz then I can't bug people like you

It's still a win though for AMD to get someone. AMD didn't have this forum that's for sure. Polaris is really everything. If AMD can't break into the mainstream gamer segment with Polaris, it's grim for them.

To me, it's all first to market. Both vendors will look good in comparison to the past on a new node. So whoever releases first will get more attention. AMD desperately needs that attention/sales. It's hard to convince people to wait for the underdog...

What evidence do we have that gamers are patient people.....

Again, this place has always had a strong AMD presence. Just look back at the Bulldozer fiasco. You had an AMD employee literally getting posters banned because they questioned his info. And of course he turned out to be wrong.

You had an AMD advertisement page dead center of the website's front page. AMD owned AT for a while. You had the AMD advocacy running around with a lot of members not revealing their involvement (not going to get into shill conspiracies).

I only posted on this tech forum because as an AMD GPU users it always felt balanced. Even when NV had their own marketing schemes going on, you had strong counter-points to their shenanigans. However, mainstream forums I visit (even little pocket forums with niche topics/hobbies) NV DESTROYS AMD. Not even close. I wouldn't even post pro-AMD GPU stuff in some of those forums.

This forum is made up of much more informed users. And think about the tech articles here over the years, they are for people that really want to dig into the tech and get educated. Casual and ill informed buyers mostly want to slap each other on the back and talk about how great their toys are and how awful the competitors stuff is.

True, but these informed buyers are sticking with <$250 Hawaii's and not upgrading to Grenada/Fiji's while AMD's cash reserves are dried up.

Again, AMD would love to have supporters like some of the ones I've seen on NeoGaf (note, I don't agree with their decisions, but I'm not going to insult them either ).

 

[Eric1987]

I just prefer the better bang for the buck. Green or Red is no difference to me.

 

[iiiankiii]

Cuz then I can't bug people like you



Again, this place has always had a strong AMD presence. Just look back at the Bulldozer fiasco. You had an AMD employee literally getting posters banned because they questioned his info. And of course he turned out to be wrong.

You had an AMD advertisement page dead center of the website's front page. AMD owned AT for a while. You had the AMD advocacy running around with a lot of members not revealing their involvement (not going to get into shill conspiracies).

I only posted on this tech forum because as an AMD GPU users it always felt balanced. Even when NV had their own marketing schemes going on, you had strong counter-points to their shenanigans. However, mainstream forums I visit (even little pocket forums with niche topics/hobbies) NV DESTROYS AMD. Not even close. I wouldn't even post pro-AMD GPU stuff in some of those forums.



True, but these informed buyers are sticking with <$250 Hawaii's and not upgrading to Grenada/Fiji's while AMD's cash reserves are dried up.

Again, AMD would love to have supporters like some of the ones I've seen on NeoGaf (note, I don't agree with their decisions, but I'm not going to insult them either ).

I agree. At the end of the day, AMD is in trouble because they're not catering to the less informed gamers. They out number the people on these type of forums by a large majority. Those are the people that are bring the company the big bucks.

Inform gamers, like you said, are sticking to the 2-3 year old 290/x. That's not helping AMD in any way. Fortunately, things are starting to turn around somewhat. I am starting to see people recommending and accepting 380/x and 390/x cards in those casual forums (Youtube, Neo Gaf, etc.). So, there might be hope for AMD.

As if Fiji's flop hasn't been bad enough, Polaris is going to be AMD's breaking point. Killed or be Killed.

 

[jackstar7]

I'm not sure how to vote. I'm running a 980ti, but before that I had a 7990. I suppose I'm neutral, but I honestly think I currently favor AMD because I'd like to take advantage of Freesync (over G-sync). So I am anxious to see if Radeon can deliver with this next gen so I can make the switch.

For me, features are king. Used to be Eyefinity for me, and now it's Freesync looking most interesting. But there was this gap in between where nV just had the most interesting card for my needs, so I got it.

 

[AtenRa]

Inform gamers, like you said, are sticking to the 2-3 year old 290/x. That's not helping AMD in any way.

AMD also has to bring new products in order for customers to buy their Graphics Cards. No new $300 GPU since Hawaii was released in 2013 and Fury is not what people were expecting because of the lack of DX-12 games. Everyone now is waiting for the new 14nm.

 

[crashtech]

Inform gamers, like you said, are sticking to the 2-3 year old 290/x. That's not helping AMD in any way. Fortunately, things are starting to turn around somewhat. I am starting to see people recommending and accepting 380/x and 390/x cards in those casual forums (Youtube, Neo Gaf, etc.). So, there might be hope for AMD.

I am one of those 290 owners. The reason AMD gets my support currently is because their mid/high range cards seem to stay somewhat more relevant as time passes, as opposed to, for instance, the 780ti. Where is that former 290X competitor in the benchmarks now? Not often seen, it seems. But that works in Nvidia's favor, to produce cards that top the charts initially but fade away over time, driving sales as a form of planned obsolescence.

 

[Game_dev]

Are you thinking that most of the video cards in he world are sold to AT forum members?

The poll just shows that there is a heavy bias here that is not representative of the real world.

 

[3DVagabond]

I agree. At the end of the day, AMD is in trouble because they're not catering to the less informed gamers. They out number the people on these type of forums by a large majority. Those are the people that are bring the company the big bucks.

Inform gamers, like you said, are sticking to the 2-3 year old 290/x. That's not helping AMD in any way. Fortunately, things are starting to turn around somewhat. I am starting to see people recommending and accepting 380/x and 390/x cards in those casual forums (Youtube, Neo Gaf, etc.). So, there might be hope for AMD.

As if Fiji's flop hasn't been bad enough, Polaris is going to be AMD's breaking point. Killed or be Killed.

AMD's future is tied to Zen. They can't do what they want to without the CPU side being healthy and profitable. I'm not sure if they could go on long enough to take another shot at it with a new future design.

 

[3DVagabond]

The poll just shows that there is a heavy bias here that is not representative of the real world.

No kidding.

 

[Silverforce11]

Inform gamers, like you said, are sticking to the 2-3 year old 290/x. That's not helping AMD in any way. Fortunately, things are starting to turn around somewhat. I am starting to see people recommending and accepting 380/x and 390/x cards in those casual forums (Youtube, Neo Gaf, etc.). So, there might be hope for AMD.

I've seen that since the 390/X release, it was a slow rebuild of perception, but for the past few months, on reddit subs like buildapc, where it used to be blasphemy to recommend a 290/X over the 960/970, its often always a 390 over anything else or "wait for next gen". There's the same vibe on steam forums, which is truly casual masses.

Big youtubers who used to be very pro-970, have no problems recommending the 390 over the 970 as well. So there's been a shift.

What's surprising is the power usage is not a big factor from people's comments. It's the noise/temps that really matters. I see a lot of "my GPU is running at 80C, is that safe?!" comments! haha

 

[Silverforce11]

AMD's future is tied to Zen. They can't do what they want to without the CPU side being healthy and profitable. I'm not sure if they could go on long enough to take another shot at it with a new future design.

Very much so, for many generations now, AMD's GPU business has been keeping them afloat despite massive losses from the CPU division.

Zen needs to be competitive. It will open doors for them on the server market with bigger margins, 16 and 32 core zens with +40% IPC gains if true, should definitely bring back competition. It also opens the door for some great Zen APUs, without being a CPU bottleneck for dGPUs, and potentially using Polaris iGPU to do hybrid CF or DX12 iGPU co-processing.

I would definitely buy a high-end Zen APU, with a good Polaris iGPU and HBM2 ram (no more system ram bottlenecks). Would make for a killer SFF mITX gaming rig.

If Zen flops, they are gone. GPU revenues aren't enough to sustain major losses and they will have to break up RTG.

 

[Maverick177]

I don't think the GPU division had been keeping AMD afloat.

 

[Silverforce11]

I don't think the GPU division had been keeping AMD afloat.

Firepros gained major marketshare last year. As did GPU IP semi-custom wins worth a few $B for mobiles.

The revenue of console wins also helps.

AMD's CPU/APU revenue has been falling massively, along with major losses.

You are free to think whatever you want, but we've seen the reports.

 

[Game_dev]

I don't think the GPU division had been keeping AMD afloat.

It's not. They bleed money from every division. Computing and graphics division lost $99 million last quarter and $181 million the previous.

 

[ZGR]

Who liked seeing those big AMD banners on Anandtech's site?

I thought they were a terrible idea. I hope that many of us go to Anandtech for their relatively good hardware reviews and not for favoring one vendor over another. AMD, Nvidia, and Intel are incredibly cutthroat and will do everything in their power to stay on top.

It is a waste of time to have a long term bias towards one company. It is nearly impossible to remain neutral once you own one of their products however. I bet theres a lot of us who buy from all 3 vendors quite regularly.

I do believe in the concept that there are no bad products, only bad prices. All 3 major silicone manufactureres have simultaneously released good products and bad ones.

Currently, I favor AMD GPU's for the Desktop, Nvidia's GPU's in Mobile, and Intel's iGPU's for power efficiency at load.

But let me ask this:

Who here wants AMD to go under? Nobody should. The only way us consumers have fair prices is competition. AMD has been living on the edge for quite some time. A lot of us on this forum are aware of this and have been praying for them. I certainly want AMD around, but just as much as I want NV and Intel around.

Both Intel and Nvidia are quite financially stable -- at least on the short term. Would it be safe to call them less interesting than AMD? It is sort of like watching a car accident when driving past; you can't look away!

Seeing such a large AMD bias on this forum isn't that unusual. What is strange to me is the recent driver gains from AMD. I never would have expected to see the GTX 780 ti to age rather poorly along with the strange 970 design choices. Whenever we get burned from a manufacturer, we tend to stay sour at them for a year or two. Nvidia has probably learned their lesson and Pascal/Polaris will hopefully be a fanboy bloodbath.

 

[Rezist]

AMD's prices in Canada have always been way better then nVidia's. Still very happy with my 7950B. I'd buy AMD CPU's if they were competitive but there not, don't look for any records just all out bang for buck.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I don't think the GPU division had been keeping AMD afloat.

Semicustom is. CPU revenue for PC has dwindles, so as dGPU. Semi-custom using the little Jaguar cores and a ~HD7870 is literally the only reason AMD is not bankrupt at this point.