[TR] Retail Radeon 290x cards may be slower than press samples - 11/7 AMD SAYS FIXED

[MeldarthX]

This is about out of the box performance, not water cooled or BIOS flashed.

The thread title is the article title.

As Gibbo says himself.

Absolute rubbish about press cards being golden samples.

We had a press sample card, it did OK, we then got an Asus card and a Sapphire card form our warehouse stock, they both beat the press card in all our benchmarks as they hit higher overclocks. None of the cards experienced any throttling issues.

So without a doubt, complete BS.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18555210

did you not also see; I said only some are flashing; and this is on stock coolers; where did I say anything on watercooling?

btw its the standard asus bios they are flashing with; nothing custom.....so again they does pertain.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

As Gibbo says himself.

After which he said, click here to buy.

 

[itsmydamnation]

Making the fan speed the point of reference is ludicrous. My performance shouldn't change during summer.

thats not what was said, what is ludicrous is you bull faux rage. if you stopped to comprehend what was said instead of walls of dribble(stuff you have made up) you would understand that currently the Fan speed is being controlled based off Pulse width modulation this is causing a variance in fan RPM between different boards. They(AMD) are working on a driver update to make the Fan speed based off FAN RPM.

its pretty simple.

the fun thing is i linked dave from AMD post in this thread , yet you completely ignore it to.

The Core speed should be the constant, witth the fan adjusting around it. Just like every other card.

why? because you say so . I would rather not leave performance on the table like you want to. The issue here is the stock cooler performance not the fact AMD is using a far more advanced (10~ ns vs 100ms interval) system to keep the GPU as close to the leading edge of target specification as possible.

 

[OCGuy]

As Gibbo says himself.

Absolute rubbish about press cards being golden samples.

He is basing that off of personal experience, so is everyone else.

Everyone should agree that these variances are worth a closer look, and now this story has enough legs to get that look.

I am very suspicious of anyone who assumes conspiracy automatically, or dismisses the variances out right.

 

[Granseth]

There needs to be a base clock, because the things you mentioned change based on case, ambient temp, etc. Everyone should expect the same performance out of the box, except for any boost, which is a lottery.

I agree that there needs to be a baseclock, but I was asking about maximum boost clock, why not just let the gpu boost to max TDP/Temp(regulated by cooling and inderectly noise)

 

[OCGuy]

Fudzilla now chiming in on performance variance, with graphs. No comments on golden samples because they haven't been able to find a retail card.

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/33066-toms-finds-retail-r9-290x-card-runs-much-slower

 

[MeldarthX]

He is basing that off of personal experience, so is everyone else.

Everyone should agree that these variances are worth a closer look, and now this story has enough legs to get that look.

I am very suspicious of anyone who assumes conspiracy automatically, or dismisses the variances out right.

Please - tom got a bad card - as I said; another here reporting the exact same issues; found it linked to vsink - yet people dismiss what he said completely as he doesn't know what he's talking even though he's got the damn card.

Owners of the cards are reporting the op of what is being reported. Since Balla is trying to imply he just wants people to buy here. I'll say these websites are trying to make a storm in a tea-cup to create more hits to their site.

Titan throttled; but did we see a sub like this for the issue? Nope; will there be cards that throttle more than others; of course or broken cards; again of course. That's the varible between systems; how well they are set up for airflow; how warm the rooms are.

But to attempt to claim all cards are doing this or there is a major problem with at most 1% of cards out there showing this problem....means there isn't a problem. AMD looking at it from a PR situation; because people are making into a storm in a tea-cup they are looking at and doing *something*

Hell its a hell of a lot better than Nvidia did with bumpgate *yes I had 3 laptops affected by it* Nvidia never did truely admit anything there; or releasing drivers that killed video cards.

Both have had issues with cards - that is nature of the game; until this reported wide spread....it really is a non-issue...

 

[Erenhardt]

On the matter of review samples:
One reviewer said in his youtube 290X cooler (yes, cooler - because that was the main point of review) video review, this:

"I don't know if I got just a bad [290x)] sample [...], but one thing I will say is when nvidia send samples out to the press, they were so [profanity] blatently cherry-picked its unbelievable [...] so I'm little bit underwhelmed that AMD have not been [..] this stuff aswell"

(not going to post link, time stamp @34:40)
Discuss!

 

[gradoman]

Funny I read that post from a guy that was like OMG my 290x is underperforming! It's not staying at 1GHz! If this is mostly that then there's really nothing wrong in my opinion.

I guess I'm the only one that enjoys seeing the voltage and clockspeed going down when it's not needed. (forever alone)

 

[MeldarthX]

On the matter of review samples:
One reviewer said in his youtube 290X cooler (yes, cooler - because that was the main point of review) video review, this:

(not going to post link, time stamp @34:40)
Discuss!

I'd link or you'll have people going bs....just saying...

 

[iiiankiii]

OP is pushing this issue hard. He's linking to other websites that are linking to THGs story. It looks like he's trying to create an illusion the problem is widespread. In the end, only 1 real source to push his agenda; tomshardware with 2 faulty cards.

 

[MeldarthX]

After which he said, click here to buy.

Wow; seriously I quoted what he said and no he didn't. and even if he did; so what?

I'd take word of actual owners of the cards over one website....specially since several other websites/owner again report the op....

 

[SirPauly]

I dont know who loved boost. Because I have always been against it. And I showed the problems on nVidia cards before the 290/290X launches. Even on CPUs thats much higher quality than GPUs it cant be trusted.

I liked Boost based on its efficiency -- more performance while under the power/thermal/acoustic thresholds!

 

[Erenhardt]

I'd link or you'll have people going bs....just saying...

Linking would be against the rules. And I don't really want to generate traffic for him .

Most people saw OC3D :sneaky: review on youtube anyways, so they know what I'm talking about

 

[blackened23]

I am very suspicious of anyone who assumes conspiracy automatically

Oh? Really? You don't say...............................

 

[Vesku]

Boost clock says up to. Meaning its not garanteed. So please, show me AMDs officially garanteed baseclock for the 290X. Thats the only clock you can RMA on legally. While partners might RMA it anyway, they are not legally bound to do so. Meaning you as a consumer, is purely is the mercy of companies.

In the US there is no universal right to a return of something purchased at a physical store, it will vary by state. For delivered purchases there is a 3 business day rule: http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0176-protections-home-purchases-cooling-rule

So in the US an out of state online retailer is only bound by the 3 business day rule and whatever policy they themselves advertise.

TLDR - Not much is "garanteed" in the US. It's premature to bring up all this RMA business until consumers report being denied.

Thoughts on OP - Hilarious that all the links just regurgitate the same cards from THG. *Grumble* Sample size *Grumble* Is this just web hit farming by sites to generate some holiday cash?

 

[BrentJ]

I've posted a lot on all this in our hardforum thread, i don't want to repost it all, so for those interested, I'm going to leave all my discussion on this topic there if you wish to read it - http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1789735

 

[GaiaHunter]

After which he said, click here to buy.

He also sells NVIDIA cards and Intel CPUs.

He also sells modded cards, including modded 290X and 3rd party coolers.

Claiming the stock cooler wasn't that good to promote their in the house cooling solutions would actually benefit him more.

 

[Gikaseixas]

OP and apologetics alike seem to be pressing hard on this when there’s only a single source claiming this. Pretty telling when OP posts a FUD article that’s based on Toms (again)

 

[blackened23]

OP and apologetics alike seem to be pressing hard on this when there’s only a single source claiming this. Pretty telling when OP posts a FUD article that’s based on Toms (again)

It's pretty funny because every so-called article is merely a link to Toms' story. Toms had 1 card that had performance anomalies, i'm inclined to think it was a defective card as AMD mentioned, since other places have noted no performance variances. Of course, if there is an issue that warrants a story it will come out at some point. But it is telling that every article in this thread is merely a link to tom's story. So we have 1 card that had performance anomalies. And 7 other "articles" that didn't actually test cards, but link to the toms story. Sweclockers and OC UK noted no performance variances between press and store bought cards.

TH stated they bought one card from newegg, and apparently this card that TH supposedly bought is being acquired by AMD for analysis. I'm inclined to think it was defective, but depending on your bias it could be the scandal of the year. One sample with performance anomalies, and yes Toms' only had one card from newegg. One bad card! Damning evidence indeed! Scandal of the year! (Insert hyperbole here).

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I've posted a lot on all this in our hardforum thread, i don't want to repost it all, so for those interested, I'm going to leave all my discussion on this topic there if you wish to read it - http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1789735

Hopefully AMD releases a driver to fix it, much like the stutter issue which was denied religiously until after the fix came out but not like the whispered release of a driver with a memory subsystem rewrite that was never seen.

I imagine the driver fix will be nothing more than allow more fan speed though.

 

[SlowSpyder]

OP is pushing this issue hard. He's linking to other websites that are linking to THGs story. It looks like he's trying to create an illusion the problem is widespread. In the end, only 1 real source to push his agenda; tomshardware with 2 faulty cards.

Yea, I'd wait to draw any conclusions. A lot of sites are simply linking back to the original Tom's article. Can we hold back the conspiracy talk until we know something is going on? Oh yea... this is the internet and AMD vs. Nvidia is like Democrats vs. Republicans. I forgot it is all about your 'team' winning, not the merits of what the two companies actually put out as products.

 

[blackened23]

Check this out from the Forbes review of the 290:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonev...activity&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=20131105

First comment from a fellow named Jeff Wycoff:

Other hardware reviewers are pointing to the vast inconsistency of the card and its unsustainable performance. It’s recently been revealed that the 290x and 290 both drop clocks due to thermal throttling after several minutes of gameplay – something that doesn’t show in synthetic benchmarks which don’t last long enough for the card to heat up. Other reviewers are citing up to nearly 25% performance loss due to heat.

I’m interested to hear your follow-up on sound. TO hear Forbes call this card disruptive while Anandtech and Tom’s hardware both issue “do not buy” reviews is an interesting inconsistency.

Reply by author of Forbes review, where he calls out Jeff Wycoff for being an nvidia social media employee:

Nvidia social media employee. Well, that makes sense. AMD has been guilty of such posts on this blog as well…

Jeff Wycoff reply where he ADMITS to being an nvidia social media employee:

Guilty as charged, though if I’ve said anything non-factual I’ll be happy to correct myself.

I dunno man. Looks like nvidia's social media employees are intentionally spreading this story around.

 

[Vesku]

Check this out from the Forbes review of the 290:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonev...activity&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=20131105

First comment from a fellow named Jeff Wycoff:



Reply by author of Forbes review, where he calls out Jeff Wycoff for being an nvidia social media employee:



Jeff Wycoff reply where he ADMITS to being an nvidia social media employee:



LOL. I dunno man. Looks like nvidia's social media employees are intentionally spreading this story around. I wonder what Jeff Wycoff's username on this forum is....

Yet more confirmation of the kind of stuff that goes on in the name of marketing. Flood on the internet along the lines of "This issue with BrandX is vitally important, everyone spread the word" then 6 months to a year later when the issue crops up with BrandY "Meh, that's a very minor issue. Why are you even posting?"

 

[parvadomus]

NV viral marketing again, they butt must hurt. Should we start similar BS threads but NV cards?

Curent boost algorithms leads to this kind of things, sadly not every chip is has the same leakage, and with a reference cooler at its limits, the minimum leak variance will cause throttling. The same thing happened to a lot of NV cards GTX680, Titan, whatever.