[updated] The Tech Report won't receive a R9 Fury Nano for review

[6God]

If AMD doesn't want to send sites a card or at least ensure that a existing reviewer forwards their card to the next reviewer, that is 100% their right. 

 

 

Just as it is the right of reviewers to ask WTF is going on and why they aren't getting one. 

[bogus]

Well this is interesting...

 

A few issues are related to this. A few notes on this, are required, for clarity...

 

1. When it came time to do the Fury-X reviews, the graphs at Tech Report showed "GTX 980 Ti" when in fact the card used was an aftermarket overclocked model.
2. Tech Report Fury-X review, therefore, showed drastically different numbers than all of the other websites which reviewed the card.

 

Do I think AMD is doing the right thing? No. I think that, despite this lack of journalistic integrity on the part of Tech Report, AMD should have still sent them a card.

 

That being said, there is a rather large lack of journalistic integrity PC Gaming Review wide. Reviewers have become, and are nothing more, than 3rd party Public Relations agents for the large tech firms. They tend to, with the exception of a few notable examples such as David Kanter and Joel Hruska (ExtremeTech), lack the critical thinking skills required to question Public Relations and Marketing material being fed to them.

 

A prime example is in how the GeForce GTX 970 memory issue was not discovered by a reviewer, rather, it was discovered by a user. The current big controversy was discovered by myself. What controversy? The controversy surrounding Asynchronous Compute/Shading support on the Maxwell 2 series of GPUs from nVIDIA.

 

Why is it that we, the consumers, have to do all of the heavy lifting? Why do we, the consumers, have to discover these issues? Why aren't those who claim themselves to be journalists doing their jobs?

 

Journalists have always been the guardians of Liberty. They're tasked, and entrusted by the public, to look into various claims being made by those in positions of authority. Tech Reviewers act as the journalists of the Tech world. While I understand that most of them are looking for celebrity and fame, which relies on the acquisition of review samples on day 1, I find it rather curious that their own profit motive is placed before the needs of their viewers and readers.

 

I can't speak for AMD or nVIDIA... but I can speak for PC Gamers and Techies the world over... for consumers. A lot of us are getting tired of this. We're tired of throwing upwards of $1000 on hardware which doesn't function as advertised. We're tired of Tech Journalists acting as 3rd party Public Relations agents in order to retain access to the latest and greatest gadgets. A lot of us want accountability.

 

I'm speaking in general terms. Make of it as you will.

 

Peace.

 

One of the best posts I've read here - thank you.

 

Stick around, we need actual pro consumers around here. There's this huge elephants in the room and you pointed at one: tech journalism is getting worst by the day... latelly I've been unsubscribing more channels on Youtube then I'm adding them...

[MrRavens]

Can I borrow it AMD aren't sending me one either and my tech channel is amazing with all 3 videos and 57 subscribers

 

6, all 6 videos. Plus 86 subscribers. You're moving on up dude!

[Trik'Stari]

I'll reach out to Scott and see if he wants to borrow ours.

^a god amongst men.

[KeltonDSMer]

I feel like people have short term memories and are giving Scott W. a hard time with little reason to do so. Sure, his words are a little tangy stating he was not receiving a review sample, but this guys and his team IMO are at the top of tech jornalism. Scott could have done a lot of different things as a career, claiming he reviews PC hardware for the money is crazy (surely he makes a modest living).

 

A prime example is in how the GeForce GTX 970 memory issue was not discovered by a reviewer, rather, it was discovered by a user. The current big controversy was discovered by myself. What controversy? The controversy surrounding Asynchronous Compute/Shading support on the Maxwell 2 series of GPUs from nVIDIA.

 

Why is it that we, the consumers, have to do all of the heavy lifting? Why do we, the consumers, have to discover these issues? Why aren't those who claim themselves to be journalists doing their jobs?

 

 

Actually Scott W. questioned the 970 memory structure MONTHS before the big shit show, no one seemed to notice or care until it was popular to do so. He got no praise for bringing that up, but now gets crucified for being a little salty over not recieving a review smaple?

 

By the way, have you gotten any sleep in the last week Mahigan? I have seen you everywhere from reddit, [H], OCnet, B3D....and more . I have enjoyed reading the hundreds of pages your recent posts have stirred up this past week  B)

[Slinkey]

I know these samples are scarce. But not giving it to HardOCP? Kinda weird.

[TheMissxu]

I know these samples are scarce. But not giving it to HardOCP? Kinda weird.

HardOCP gave AMD's 390X, Fury, or Fury X cards a silver award or no award at all.

[carolkarine]

You guys act like handing out cards is an obligation. Everybody and their dog has a tech blog or something, people are going to get left out. This problem is only exacerbated by the incredibly low yields there must be on the nano. Just think. It's a fully fledged Fiji die. It's binned to perform well at low voltage. And it's got 4GB of hbm.

There is no way in hell there's a lot of these cards and AMD can't exactly hand things away for free the way their finances are going. I know it's a drop in the bucket, but...

[ShadowCaptain]

6, all 6 videos. Plus 86 subscribers. You're moving on up dude!

 

Thats where all my money comes from obviously, ill be ordering my pink lambo next week

[vXhanz]

IMHO I don't think these companies send out samples expecting an objective review.

 

I'm new to a lot of these tech review sites, but something I've noticed even in the woodworking scene is a company sends "X" product out for the person to "review" and demo, and damn near every one of them give a glowing review. They won't bite the hand that feeds them though, as they want to keep making reviews and want to keep getting those items that keep their digital doors open. 

[Agosto]

You think they should give away these products for free to reviewers, so their actual customers cannot buy them? These cards are limited after all.

It's a marketing fail, if you don't give stuff to reviewers who are used to get it, they'll make people know that you (AMD) are afraid of bad reviews

If less people review a product, less people buy it

[Notional]

It's a marketing fail, if you don't give stuff to reviewers who are used to get it, they'll make people know that you (AMD) are afraid of bad reviews

If less people review a product, less people buy it

 

Who are "they"? If you mean the reviewers, then that's basically blackmail. If you mean AMD, then nah. Reviews will still come out.

[Agosto]

Who are "they"? If you mean the reviewers, then that's basically blackmail. If you mean AMD, then nah. Reviews will still come out.

 

That's not blackmailing. As you can see, Techreport ( and HardOCP, both rather big hardware sites ) isn't going to get a Nano from AMD and they are looking for someone who could provide them the card.

They're not saying "booo amd is shit because we don't give us the video card" but as a reader I'm disappointed with AMD because that's not a good move ( just like it happened with the Fury X and Kitguru ).

Any reader can think: "Why aren't they giving it to a reviewer who was used to get cards on release date? Are they afraid of bad reviews?It is probable that AMD only wants to provide new cards mainly to reviewers who usually give them better opinions, in order to sell more"

At least it's what I think. It's just a bad marketing move IMHO and I don't like the way AMD is trying to get on pair with nvidia. Lots of hype, multiple announcements of the same card, low stocks and high prices. I'd really like AMD to get on top again, but they're not going to make it if they continue on this way

[ivan134]

That's not blackmailing. As you can see, Techreport ( and HardOCP, both rather big hardware sites ) isn't going to get a Nano from AMD and they are looking for someone who could provide them the card.

They're not saying "booo amd is shit because we don't give us the video card" but as a reader I'm disappointed with AMD because that's not a good move ( just like it happened with the Fury X and Kitguru ).

Any reader can think: "Why aren't they giving it to a reviewer who was used to get cards on release date? Are they afraid of bad reviews?It is probable that AMD only wants to provide new cards mainly to reviewers who usually give them better opinions, in order to sell more"

At least it's what I think. It's just a bad marketing move IMHO and I don't like the way AMD is trying to get on pair with nvidia. Lots of hype, multiple announcements of the same card, low stocks and high prices. I'd really like AMD to get on top again, but they're not going to make it if they continue on this way

You're all conveniently ignoring the 2nd half of your non-argument: Are the sites who are getting one pro AMD?

[Agosto]

You're all conveniently ignoring the 2nd half of your non-argument: Are the sites who are getting one pro AMD?

 

 

I don't know, but this isn't that important after all, it's a marketing thing. Why some sites are getting one and some aren't, even if they used to receive cards from AMD before?

[CTR640]

AMD refuses to send TR a R9 Nanao because TR favors nVidia or...?

[marldorthegreat]

Obviously these full fat Fiji chips are scarse. AMD has to pick and choose sadly. People are putting too much into this.

I feel bad for the engineers. They should have just had fiji with gddr5. And had HBM next year.

[marldorthegreat]

AMD refuses to send TR a R9 Nanao because TR favors nVidia or...?

They dont favour anyone. 

[Notional]

That's not blackmailing. As you can see, Techreport ( and HardOCP, both rather big hardware sites ) isn't going to get a Nano from AMD and they are looking for someone who could provide them the card.

They're not saying "booo amd is shit because we don't give us the video card" but as a reader I'm disappointed with AMD because that's not a good move ( just like it happened with the Fury X and Kitguru ).

Any reader can think: "Why aren't they giving it to a reviewer who was used to get cards on release date? Are they afraid of bad reviews?It is probable that AMD only wants to provide new cards mainly to reviewers who usually give them better opinions, in order to sell more"

At least it's what I think. It's just a bad marketing move IMHO and I don't like the way AMD is trying to get on pair with nvidia. Lots of hype, multiple announcements of the same card, low stocks and high prices. I'd really like AMD to get on top again, but they're not going to make it if they continue on this way

 

You're still ignoring that:

1. Production is very limited
2. AMD wants the consumers to have the cards
3. Several cards have been given out to reviews. Just because your fav reviewer hasn't gotten one, doesn't mean AMD dun goofed

Honestly with the overwhelming pro nvidia bias in the reviewers industry, I honestly think neither AMD nor NVidia should give cards for reviews. Only third party vendors, like EVGA and ASUS should.

[AlwaysFSX]

You're still ignoring that:

1. Production is very limited
2. AMD wants the consumers to have the cards
3. Several cards have been given out to reviews. Just because your fav reviewer hasn't gotten one, doesn't mean AMD dun goofed

Honestly with the overwhelming pro nvidia bias in the reviewers industry, I honestly think neither AMD nor NVidia should give cards for reviews. Only third party vendors, like EVGA and ASUS should.

AMD doesn't make the cards..

[Notional]

AMD doesn't make the cards..

 

AMD branded and given to reviewers by AMD PR. What the OEM of the actual card is, is irrelevant.

[AlwaysFSX]

AMD branded and given to reviewers by AMD PR. What the OEM of the actual card is, is irrelevant.

Doesn't mean it's AMD making the card. Sapphire has enough money to literally give away a card to every tenth person. AMD doesn't want to because AMD is afraid of what might be said about the card, not that it's a "limited supply."

[typographie]

2. AMD wants the consumers to have the cards

 

That's very altruistic of them and I'm sure they have nothing but the most innocent of intentions. But it's pretty important that those consumers have third-party professional opinions on whether or not said cards are worth their money. Third-party review helps the company if the product is good, and it hurts the company if the product is poor.

 

The press has a pretty important role to play, and at the very least the optics are bad when an entity tries to cut them out of the process. No one should be the least bit surprised that this generates a bit of negative PR.

[Notional]

Doesn't mean it's AMD making the card. Sapphire has enough money to literally give away a card to every tenth person. AMD doesn't want to because AMD is afraid of what might be said about the card, not that it's a "limited supply."

 

And what are Sapphire going to do with that money, if they have no Fiji chips to put in the cards? AMD has given plenty of cards away for reviews, so that argument simply doesn't hold up. So far Linus, PCPer and Jayztwocents has a card. Those are just American youtubers I know of. What about all the ones I don't? All the non American reviewers out there? They could just ask third party vendors for a card then.

 

That's very altruistic of them and I'm sure they have nothing but the most innocent of intentions. But it's pretty important that those consumers have third-party professional opinions on whether or not said cards are worth their money. Third-party review helps the company if the product is good, and it hurts the company if the product is poor.

 

The press has a pretty important role to play, and at the very least the optics are bad when an entity tries to cut them out of the process. No one should be the least bit surprised that this generates a bit of negative PR.

 

I agree, but AMD did send out cards for reviews. If they refused to send out any cards, I would be worried. But that is not the case.

[Agosto]

UPDATE:

They aren't going to give it to Techpowerup... 

http://www.techpowerup.com/215776/amd-radeon-r9-nano-review-by-tpu-not.html

 

 

AFAIK HBM production has good yelds, I don't undestand why Fiji chips are so few

 

Just like the first comment under the TPU news says, 

 

 

So let me get this straight. They don't even have enough cards for reviews and at the same time expect us to believe we will be able to buy them shortly!? Sound a lot like a bunch of BS.

 

That's what I think. Moreover, when AMD announced the Nano for the first time ( june ) they said it was going to be available in August. Probably the stocks won't be enough until october.


This is a serious problem. TPU is big, AMD should have waited a bit more before relasing it. Bad marketing.