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

[blackened23]

edit: dp

 

[Erenhardt]

^ What Blackened posted. (Edit: post before the one above)

Next thing we will know is how nvidia loosened bolts on 290X before donating it for TPU to tests

Conspiracy works both ways

Infraction issued for thread crapping.
-- stahlhart

 

[blackened23]

I'm sure AMD does the same thing in terms of marketing. Absolutely sure - every tech company of note these days does this type of thing, in fact - Samsung was fined for hiring students in asia to badmouth HTC on internet forums.

Anyway, to be clear, i'm not starting a witch hunt or anything here or pointing fingers, i'm sure the vast majority of people are just enthusiasts and normal people. Please don't misunderstand. But, I am just hesitant to call this a "story" with 1 bad sample. Although i'm sure if there is a story behind all of this, it will come out at some point. I'm not saying that this story doesn't have substance - it could very well be a real issue. But 1 sample doesn't make it a real issue, yet - PCPer has bought multiple cards and if something is amiss we'll find out soon enough. Just, the hyperbole being spread around about 1 sample is just..mind boggling, you know?

I'm not dismissing the story. Nor am I saying it's factual. I'm just saying, it's 1 bad sample. We'll find out soon enough. PCPer is in the process of testing more cards, and other websites are as well. We'll see soon enough.

 

[Grooveriding]

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....

Wow, so more nvidia viral marketing.

I am for a ban on the OP of this thread for continued trolling and obfuscation of reality to distort information and spread FUD. Taking liberties with this forum and treating it as a child does a sandbox at the park for their own selfish amusement.

This is a continued bizarre behaviour pattern we see repeated every time there is a video card launch and bears closer scrutiny.

Warning issued for moderator callout.
-- stahlhart

 

[blackened23]

Well, maybe I went a bit far in the prior post - Let's not point fingers or anything. OP has a right to his opinion as everyone does, it's not awfully different than picking sides and teams as a sports enthusiast. My main point here is that it's one bad sample. If there's a real story here we'll find out soon enough - I just find 1 bad sample with multiple articles merely linking to TH to be far from damning evidence.

PCPer is in the process of testing multiple cards as we type. Again, if there's substance to this we'll find out real soon.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Wow, so more nvidia viral marketing.

I am for a ban on the OP of this thread for continued trolling and obfuscation of reality to distort information and spread FUD. Taking liberties with this forum and treating it as a child does a sandbox at the park for their own selfish amusement.

This is a continued bizarre behaviour pattern we see repeated every time there is a video card launch and bears closer scrutiny.

But aren't you an AMD marketeer according to some review site?

Warning issued for thread crapping.
-- stahlhart

 

[Cookie Monster]

But aren't you an AMD marketeer according to some review site?

Shhh dont say that. AMD doesn't even know what viral marketing is

Warning issued for thread crapping.
-- stahlhart

 

[Vesku]

Hey everyone, my Nvidia cards are not meeting their minimum advertised boost clocks. I've talked to Nvidia and they think my cards might be defective but I think there might be an issue of them sending golden samples to reviewers. Please link to my post in other forum threads and websites so I can then say there is a "real and concerning issue regarding Nvidia cards". /s

Here is my current setup:

Warning issued for thread crapping.
-- stahlhart

 

[DooKey]

I have a couple of 290s coming in tomorrow. I'll definitely post my experience and let the cards fall where they may.

 

[DooKey]

Wow, so more nvidia viral marketing.

I am for a ban on the OP of this thread for continued trolling and obfuscation of reality to distort information and spread FUD. Taking liberties with this forum and treating it as a child does a sandbox at the park for their own selfish amusement.

This is a continued bizarre behaviour pattern we see repeated every time there is a video card launch and bears closer scrutiny.

There's enough AMD and NV viral marketing going on around here. Let's not pretend it's only one company with their shills on all the forums.

It definitely makes the forums a litter box.

 

[AdamK47]

Guys I can almost guarantee this is vsync or framerate limiting happening. I saw it happening in the latest Batman specifically due to the fact that it is vsynced and can't run faster than 60fps anyway.


You can reference my other thread, but any game that puts a cap on the framerate or if you cap the framerate or vsync yourself you'll see this exact same thing happen in both the GPU usage graph and the clock graph with the 290x. Anything that is "uncapped" will use all the mhz and max out the GPU usage. I spent a day trying to figure this out myself

No. Not in this case. If you line up the temperature and clock speed graphs in the MSI Afterburner screenshot you can see everything under 94C is at full boost. Right at 94C the cards starts throttling significantly. It also stays at 94C and doesn't go lower despite the throttling.

 

[krumme]

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

Guys this is a good read with lots of nice info from Brent instead of this usual repeating forum trolling we get here in these weeks. I especially like his predictions about the future where clock freq may be rendered useless. Go read!

 

[Grooveriding]

There's enough AMD and NV viral marketing going on around here. Let's not pretend it's only one company with their shills on all the forums.

It definitely makes the forums a litter box.

I agree it's coming from all sides now, whether compensated or just done out of emotional devotion.

I respect the way the forum is moderated on blatant and easily highlighted violations of rules, but with the pollution we see from certain sources, I'd like to see obvious trolls who skirt around looking to cause as much annoyance without crossing the line dealt with regardless.

 

[HurleyBird]

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

To be fair, the author also stated that he's caught AMD employees commenting on his blog as well.

Given that:

1 There has been a fair amount of variability in the review samples and the frequency that different sites reported hitting,

2. One reviewer is claiming that his retail models clocked better than the review sample, and

3. There is a reasonable explanation for the more extreme variances and a fix is on it's way.

The majority of evidence is pointing towards AMD giving reviewers a random sampling of cards without cherry picking. Unfortunately, I don't think the same can be said for previous Nvidia launches. Will the OP remain consistent when the 780 Ti launches if the review samples hit much higher boost clocks than retail cards?

 

[Atreidin]

Viral marketing sucks hard, but people eat it up, so it isn't going to stop. Some people eat it up because of confirmation bias.

I think when a "value leader" in any segment releases something performance-competitive to go up against a major competitor, especially when that competitor has a larger marketshare, there will be a big backlash from brand loyalists. Larger than ever before now that viral marketing is so pervasive. People want to feel justified for spending more money than they would have otherwise, for various reasons. Marketers are really good at manipulating you. They know what you want to believe and what you want to hear, and they learn more all the time about manipulating you.

 

[Stuka87]

Wonder what the ambient temp for the rooms are when these tests are run. For either the reviewers or the guy earlier in this post.

If one room is 80F, and another is 65F, that could result in a huge speed variance.

 

[AnandThenMan]

Viral marketing sucks hard, but people eat it up, so it isn't going to stop. Some people eat it up because of confirmation bias.

It's really bringing this forum down.

 

[96Firebird]

I am for a ban on the OP of this thread for continued trolling and obfuscation of reality to distort information and spread FUD.

LOL, Groove, get over yourself. Thank God you aren't a mod around here, you'd ban anyone who disagreed with you!

As for the topic, I'm reserving judgement until we get more data. We all know the cards run hot, and if that is causing throttling that is a problem. Sounds like AMD is pushing the chip to it's limit. I would never buy the crappy reference cooler anyways...

 

[Attic]

This is one of the biggest reasons I can't stand nVidia.

As a company their low knows no bounds and I personally find their die hard supporters much more insufferable than anyone who bleeds red around here. However with the successful results of the 290x this behavior, conflation and obfuscation and deceitful attempts to change the landscape of AMDs newest release,...was anticipated. Great card, awesome performance, and cheaper than nVidia. This type of OP has been splashed around all over the net and in review comments on an individual level rather than anything consensus like.

The question is, is this type of OP and other similar hogwash from their viral marketers something you want to support or not by buying into the nvidia brand?

Given Ryan's knowledge and proximity to these cards and companies it would be interesting to hear his thoughts.

BrentJ from HardOCP posts make the most sense and clean up a lot of the misinformation that gets spread. Most of what we try to do here is limit misinformation, but for some reason the forum gets blasted by a few folks who try and spread it. It's obvious why debates get contentious.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I like how people are pretending Toms is a shill site for Nvidia to discredit their findings, last I checked Toms didn't have an AMD Zone on their front page.

We've seen this tactic before though, eventually this thread will get (already has) so bad it will be locked. Same tactic will be employed for however long it takes AMD to release a driver with a higher fan speed algorithm.

 

[AnandThenMan]

LOL, Groove, get over yourself. Thank God you aren't a mod around here, you'd ban anyone who disagreed with you!

You know very well (at least I hope you do) that is not even close to what Groove is saying. It is very clear that certain members here have a pattern of behaviour not exactly conducive to civil discussions, and jump on any bandwagons that paint their beloved company in a good light and show the competition in a bad one.

 

[OCGuy]

As for the topic, I'm reserving judgement until we get more data. We all know the cards run hot, and if that is causing throttling that is a problem. Sounds like AMD is pushing the chip to it's limit. I would never buy the crappy reference cooler anyways...

Absolutely. More data is on the way, from AMD and independent 3rd parties alike, and I will be happy to post it in the OP as it comes out. Current OP includes the main non-AMD rebuttal, and I expect more.

To suggest this is something we shouldn't discuss here, as it is being discussed everywhere else, and after AMD comments on the issue, is silly. Hopefully it is cleaned up instead of locked, as there are good contributions from Brent and others.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

You know very well (at least I hope you do) that is not even close to what Groove is saying. It is very clear that certain members here have a pattern of behaviour not exactly conducive to civil discussions, and jump on any bandwagons that paint their beloved company in a good light and show the competition in a bad one.

Yes there is quite clearly a pattern of users who do exactly that, but the forum rules basically enable these people so what are you going to do?

 

[lavaheadache]

nothing good comes from racking up your post count in threads like this. They end up being nothing more than "I hate you threads". There isn't enough information out for anyone to conclude anything remotely accurate.

I will add that I think this whole "boost" thing has to go.

 

[AnandThenMan]

To suggest this is something we shouldn't discuss here, as it is being discussed everywhere else, and after AMD comments on the issue, is silly.

Healthy discussion is one thing and is welcome. But posts like this filled with inflammatory language, something else entirely.

The scandal that Toms exposed is huge....I recommend everyone considering a 290x or 290 read it. It is spreading now that two major review sites have called these cards into question.