Newegg Launches Official & Unofficial AMD Radeon R9 Game Bundles

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• chizow - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link

  Wrong as usual, no surprise for AMD fanboys. Fine pic though, selfie? lol.

• silverblue - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link

  I'm not sure how Manch's purchase quantifies "doing your part". Maybe it's the cheapest method of getting a specific level of performance, and Manch happened to have the PSU and cooling to handle them.
  
  The fact they ran out of codes when they had them at time of order isn't AMD's fault. I know you want him to take them back and get something that isn't from the red team, that's clear to see, but the retailer shouldn't offer something it cannot provide. Fact.

• chizow - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link

  Sorry didn't mean to ring the AMD Butthurt Patrol hotline, but now that you've answered, there's nothing to get your panties in a bunch about.
  
  I simply said that's great that he is actually a person of action, because far too often you get these AMD cheerleaders and activists screaming from the rooftops about how great a value and yada yada AMD is and how everyone should be buying and then when you ask how many of those cards they own they tell you they are waiting for a better deal to upgrade their 5850. lol.
  
  And then they wonder why AMD is getting slaughtered in the marketplace and can't turn a profit. Just sayin.

• silverblue - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link

  It's just that you are starting to get a bit of a reputation, chizow (some say that horse may have already bolted, taking its stablemates with it). I think you do need to bear in mind that even if somebody doesn't buy a product, they can still use information from various sources as well as retailers to make an informed opinion about performance/dollar. You have an issue with Creig, obviously, justifying your argument with the fact that you have recently bought a pair graphics of graphics cards. This isn't a political argument - just because somebody may not have bought something recently doesn't disqualify them from having an opinion in the same vein as somebody who didn't vote cannot complain about who is in power.
  
  By the way, 2004 called, they want your vocabulary back. Seriously, even "douchebag" is less stomach-turning.
  
  I'm not going to engage in a flame-fest, so if one looks to be starting, I'll just go and do something else more interesting.

• silverblue - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link

  Been having some trouble with this keyboard to the point of frustration... superfluous 'graphics' in the third sentence.

• chizow - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link

  Uh, right, again nothing to get all butthurt about, certainly a touching moment to see you come rushing to his aid though! I was simply pointing out how refreshing it was that someone who advocated all the benefits of this amazing price:performance AMD offered actually putting their money where there mouth is and actually acting on their own advice (since you see so much of this teeth-gnashing and angst when referring to Nvidia's "anti-consumer" methods, with inevitable threat to vote with their wallet).
  
  Just saying, if more people did as this person did and voted with their wallet in favor of AMD, they wouldn't be left for dead in their current financial situation because all their fanboys are waiting to save a few pennies before they maybe crack open that dusty wallet and buy something.
  
  Its not just Creig though, its pretty much every AMD fan that loves AMD for being the inferior, value option that they know they can get for a lot cheaper if they just wait a few months. He's just one of the worst offenders, because he has repeatedly demonstrated he's willing to recommend products he has no experience with without remorse or hesitation, despite some very real and serious concerns about their functionality.

• silverblue - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link

  I doubt that most of the people who buy graphics cards even care about NVIDIA's methods. As for my Prince Charming moment, I was simply reading the article. I doubt Manch needs help and it would be a little patronising to suggest that it was required to begin with.
  
  AMD's current financial situation is partly down to poor management, and partly down to being late with a new product line. Meeting the Maxwell 2.0 launch head on would've negated some of its effect.
  
  Be careful now, just because you got your 980s for full price doesn't make you a different breed or class of enthusiast. Most people don't have the money and opt to wait for the inevitable price drops. As regards Creig, it sounds like you simply don't agree on a point. You've not given much indication of any sort of favourable opinion towards the 2XX series or FreeSync, which is your right, but to actively discourage people from buying into either whilst at the same time owning brand new high-end products from the competition is going to make people butt heads with you. Not everybody has the best part of $2000 to throw at a pair of 980s and a high-end GSync display, yet they feel they're only entitled to an opinion if they do the same. Do you get where I'm coming from?

• chizow - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link

  Really? You'd be surprised, all I see I guess are the vocal minority crying about how Nvidia is competing too hard making it difficult for AMD to flourish by offering great new features for people who buy Nvidia products. As if they should care! Then they turn around and try to downplay those features as if they don't care about them because they suck.
  
  Man, those people sure do waste a lot of energy crying about features they don't care about or don't seem to think exist!
  
  I never said I was a different breed of enthusiast, but as I've said many times, I am someone who actually owns and uses these products, so differentiating features ARE important to me. The ones who seem to dismiss and claim the differences are irrelevant or worst, equivalent, more often than not are speaking ignorantly about products they don't use, or don't have any experience with. When someone then tries to claim these products or features are equivalent, of course I'm going to take issue, especially when that results in a dishonest account.
  
  AMD and their users are often forced into these predicaments simply because AMD loves to run their mouth rather than present solutions. Creig is just one example of this type of AMD fan. I mean he was actually claiming FreeSync was better than G-Sync MONTHS ago specifically citing that bogus AMD specsheet frequency of 9-240Hz. And that is just one example. He systematically tried to apologize for a laundry list of AMD BS during this whole FreeSync run-up.
  
  NONE of that would have been necessary if AMD didn't run their mouths until they had an actual spec and product, see the difference? One company produces product, solutions, results and shows it when it is ready. The other produces slide decks, bullshit, excuses, and dishonesty. I don't buy into the latter, and I wouldn't recommend it with my own money either, especially when we are talking what I consider, very minor differences in cost of ownership for similar raw performance, and a lot more features in favor of G-Sync.

• silverblue - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link

  Hmm. AMD does appear to see something that NVIDIA has and, on occasion, look to provide an alternative, though you need to ask yourself whether we should be paying an extra sum for something like GSync when the monitor manufacturers should've thought of something like this a long time ago, and implemented it. As it is, they didn't, and NVIDIA have gleefully jumped into that niche to fix a glaring issue, and whilst it's not perfect, it's certainly an improvement over what came (or rather, didn't come) before. FreeSync is a different take on things, and both technologies appear to have their upsides and downsides. AMD should've been more heavy-handed with the manufacturers in terms of adhering much closer to the adaptive sync spec; it's not FreeSync's fault that nobody is providing panels that work below 40Hz. To be honest, it feels a little bit like the treatment AMD gets from OEMs when they throw APUs into trash laptops and then wonder why they don't sell. Personally, I don't see why I should have to pay a premium to NVIDIA to fix somebody else's daft bug.
  
  From my point of view, AMD said that consumers shouldn't need to pay for adaptive sync, but not because it was doing everybody a world of good, but because it was designed to show NVIDIA up. Had the displays appeared at launch that actually fully adhered to the spec, they might actually have achieved that. Like frame pacing, they were late to that particular party because somebody else showed it to be a problem, though admittedly this time they didn't sit around waiting for the complaints to build up.
  
  You can blame AMD for running its mouth, you can blame them for not properly supporting VCE and TrueAudio, and you can blame them for developing things like TressFX when they should've been working on something a little more productive, but I'm not sure FreeSync deserves quite the same level of bile. As for AMD not baking in something into their drivers to resend frames when the framerate drops below threshold, well, I'll give you that one.
  
  I'm still not in agreement about the very minor differences in cost of ownership for similar raw performance as you've mentioned. A pair of 290Xs is far, far cheaper than a pair of 980s, frame pacing is much more under control now for the former, and CrossFire scaling has generally been equal to or slightly ahead of SLi for a bit now. Better FreeSync monitors will appear down the line that actually do adhere much closer to the spec instead of providing a small window of operation, and don't show anywhere near the level of ghosting, but you don't have to take my word for it - just keep an eye on the market.

• chizow - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link

  And the first paragraph is a lot of what is wrong with AMD and their user's mentality. AMD don't want to hold their partners accountable for product THEY sign off on, its anybody's problem but their own. AMD user's don't hold AMD accountable and thus, they get away with this behavior and mentality repeatedly. Ask yourself this, who is the driving force behind bringing these FreeSync panels to market? AMD probably begged these companies to bring them to market promoting the same BS of being cheaper, industry standard, widely adopted but now that actual products hit the market and are riddled with bugs and high RMA rates. You think these partners are going to trust AMD again when they turn around and throw them under the bus at the drop of a hat? LOL.
  
  And the bit about the tech should've been on the market by mfgs decades ago? Seriously. That's an incredibly naive point of view. I guess it doesn't tike resources and some strokes of briliance to innovate and invent new tech huh? It should just spring out of a hole in the ground for free and once it graces us with its new tech presence, everyone should just get it, for essentially free? No. That's why the meme regarding competition being necessary is a farce, especially in capital and R&D intensive markets like technology. Money and manpower drives innovation, and multiple weak companies struggling to make a profit do not have the kind of money to take risks and invent new tech like G-Sync. But I guess we can keep wondering why Matrox or 3Dfx or Realtek didn't invent this tech a decade ago.
  
  But thank you for admitting AMD jumped the gun and was dishonest/misleading with their entire FreeSync run-up. The point of it was they were trying to steal Nvidia's thunder and didn't have anything to show in its place, because as Nvidia has said many times, getting VRR right is hard. AMD's only reason to do so was to try and slow adoption until they had a solution on the market, which is actually the opposite of what Nvidia does by just unapologetically innovating and inventing new tech, and bringing it to market. The biggest problem however was they did so dishonestly so now, even today, you get their army of fanboys repeating all the nonsense they've said and you know they will for YEARS, it just doesn't go away. So yeah, you can see its easy to get behind the company that constantly brings this new tech to market, vs. the one that is constantly making excuses and trying to catch up.
  
  As for last paragraph, Nvidia is always going to charge a premium. The 980 costs more than 290X CF, but it is also faster, draws much less power, and has of course, Nvidia's entire ecosystem of features as additional benefits. And let's not forget that at launch, the 980 cost only 10% more at $550 than the 290X at $500. Of course the real AMD killer is the GTX 970, which is what you should be comparing it to at $330. While it is slightly slower, it is generally faster in newer games while still using much less power, still enjoying the benefits of Nvidia ecosystem. And of course all these considerations are before Nvidia sweetened the pot significantly with their 2 game bundle. The unofficial AMD/Newegg bundle with GTA5 is good, but still not even close to what Nvidia is offering.
  
  Also, if you're going to bring CrossFire scaling into the equation you must of course acknowledge FreeSync CrossFire is still broken, and that AMD users still fully rely on driver updates in order for profiles to address multi-GPU compatibility. They haven't released a WHQL update since December, so yeah, that kind of shows you where you are if you are fully dependent on their profiles to manage CF.