Link
"EDIT: I did something really stupid on this story. Some of the site people I talked to were fairly annoyed at ATI telling them it would be available on launch day. Several of them as it turns out are planning to call ATI on their promises and lack of action, either publicly or privately, but have just not done so yet. One of them, Scott Wasson of The TechReport was unfairly lumped in with the 'patsies'.
For the record, I do not consider him one of those, his site is one of the few that I consider not to be a sellout, and I do respect his opinion. I apologize for anything that I did to lump him in with those sites that do not have the same ethics as he does. CD
ATI MESSED UP with the Crossfire launch, and most web sites played patsy for shiny things, sidestepping their duties for toys. Yes, ATI more than paper launched Crossfire, they went ahead and told the press that it would be out on launch day, which is one step beyond putting it out and being a bit nebulous about availability.
Nvidia set the bar pretty damn high, two of the highest end parts, usually the hardest to find on the open market, available on day one, from multiple vendors, in quantities.
ATI knew it had to respond, and did. Several web sites contacted by the INQ told us that ATI had promised availability on day one. Some even say so in the reviews, so I am guessing they didn't all drink the same tainted cool-aid separately. No, the impression, or more solid info was planted by ATI. But it failed to deliver.
So what can you find out there? Well, I went to all the usual suspects, stating at ATI itself. Nothing there, an extraordinarily bad sign. Then on to the usual other suspects, Newegg, Monarch and all the big boys. Nothing there either, hmmm, if they don't have it, I am guessing Ralph's Corner Knitting Supplies and ATI Shop does not have them either. So far, nought out of 2.
Aha I thought, there is one page about pre-built PCs, since you need a new mobo also, it might be a good place to trickle them into the market. Let the smart guys do the hard work at first. Nope. If you look at the partner page here, none of them have it on their sites several days after the launch. Heck, none of them are even taking pre-orders. To be honest though, I stopped looking after going to only the ABS, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Velocity and Voodoo web pages, I guess I should have gone to the others also. Nought out of three.
Now I was thinking that I was getting paranoid, so I figured that I would ask an ATI partner, personally. One of them, listed on the partners page sent me the following, names scrubbed of course.
"[Company Name] has never seen a Crossfire part, not even a working sample. We don't know if it's any good, all we can do is hope that ATI contacts us eventually and shows us some samples. I was surprised they launched it - but how can you launch something when the very market you're trying to target hasn't seen or touched a board? Until then it's unlikely (make that impossible) that we'll add it to our systems."
The one real source for the cards, ATI, itself, doesn't even have them, but it wants us to believe that they are available.
But forget ATI for a moment, because the online review community blew this one big time. I can forgive them for thinking it would be out on day one, ATI told them they would. What annoys me is these patsies didn't follow up after that. This week is a miserable one for the hardware community, corporate PR, and users in general. [You're just jealous because you're not partying in Ibiza. Ed.] µ"
Funny isnt it. Think about the reliablity on ATi actually having those R5xx cards in "quantity" at OCT 5th.
"EDIT: I did something really stupid on this story. Some of the site people I talked to were fairly annoyed at ATI telling them it would be available on launch day. Several of them as it turns out are planning to call ATI on their promises and lack of action, either publicly or privately, but have just not done so yet. One of them, Scott Wasson of The TechReport was unfairly lumped in with the 'patsies'.
For the record, I do not consider him one of those, his site is one of the few that I consider not to be a sellout, and I do respect his opinion. I apologize for anything that I did to lump him in with those sites that do not have the same ethics as he does. CD
ATI MESSED UP with the Crossfire launch, and most web sites played patsy for shiny things, sidestepping their duties for toys. Yes, ATI more than paper launched Crossfire, they went ahead and told the press that it would be out on launch day, which is one step beyond putting it out and being a bit nebulous about availability.
Nvidia set the bar pretty damn high, two of the highest end parts, usually the hardest to find on the open market, available on day one, from multiple vendors, in quantities.
ATI knew it had to respond, and did. Several web sites contacted by the INQ told us that ATI had promised availability on day one. Some even say so in the reviews, so I am guessing they didn't all drink the same tainted cool-aid separately. No, the impression, or more solid info was planted by ATI. But it failed to deliver.
So what can you find out there? Well, I went to all the usual suspects, stating at ATI itself. Nothing there, an extraordinarily bad sign. Then on to the usual other suspects, Newegg, Monarch and all the big boys. Nothing there either, hmmm, if they don't have it, I am guessing Ralph's Corner Knitting Supplies and ATI Shop does not have them either. So far, nought out of 2.
Aha I thought, there is one page about pre-built PCs, since you need a new mobo also, it might be a good place to trickle them into the market. Let the smart guys do the hard work at first. Nope. If you look at the partner page here, none of them have it on their sites several days after the launch. Heck, none of them are even taking pre-orders. To be honest though, I stopped looking after going to only the ABS, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Velocity and Voodoo web pages, I guess I should have gone to the others also. Nought out of three.
Now I was thinking that I was getting paranoid, so I figured that I would ask an ATI partner, personally. One of them, listed on the partners page sent me the following, names scrubbed of course.
"[Company Name] has never seen a Crossfire part, not even a working sample. We don't know if it's any good, all we can do is hope that ATI contacts us eventually and shows us some samples. I was surprised they launched it - but how can you launch something when the very market you're trying to target hasn't seen or touched a board? Until then it's unlikely (make that impossible) that we'll add it to our systems."
The one real source for the cards, ATI, itself, doesn't even have them, but it wants us to believe that they are available.
But forget ATI for a moment, because the online review community blew this one big time. I can forgive them for thinking it would be out on day one, ATI told them they would. What annoys me is these patsies didn't follow up after that. This week is a miserable one for the hardware community, corporate PR, and users in general. [You're just jealous because you're not partying in Ibiza. Ed.] µ"
Funny isnt it. Think about the reliablity on ATi actually having those R5xx cards in "quantity" at OCT 5th.