AMD Withdraw KitGuru's Fury X Sample over "negative stance towards AMD" (Updated with response from AMD)

[jbslayer]

Agreed, that was a bad move. And let's not kid ourselves, this video by Leo is the reason why KG was denied a review sample.

What AMD should have done is give kitguru VIP status precisely because of the "negativity" expressed by Leo.

Some conjecture as to what actually happened: Marketing personnel saw the video, heard the quote about "press being lied to" and the 3xx rebadge remark. This person probably has a business oriented background/education and is likely a noob when it comes to technical aspects and GPU releases history. If they weren't a noob, they would have known that Leo was actually taking a stab at Nvidia (wood screws anyone?) but they didn't know this and they made the wrong decision based on that.

Interesting. I didn't know he was referring to nVidia when he was talking about the fake product. And you're right it would've been good PR to give a review unit specifically kitguru to show he was wrong and the Fury X can compete with the 980ti and titan X.

[Linusinium]

That is still speculative on your part.... to a degree.

It is, yet I can't find anything else recent on kitgury that might have "provoked" such a reaction.

 

Keep in mind that AMD initially informed KG that they will be sending them a sample, so as of June 11, AMD didn't know of "negative bias" by kitguru towards them. Since then, Leo uploaded that video, which is the only AMD "negative" coverage in recent KG history.

[stconquest]

It is, yet I can't find anything else recent on kitgury that might have "provoked" such a reaction.

 

Keep in mind that AMD initially informed KG that they will be sending them a sample, so as of June 11, AMD didn't know of "negative bias" by kitguru towards them. Since then, Leo uploaded that video, which is the only AMD "negative" coverage in recent KG history.

 

Bah, that video is not even close to bad. 

[ThreePinkApples]

Okey guys, don't be too fast a drawing conclusions here.

 

First, I have almost never been on Kitguru, so I don't know how they have behaved towards AMD, but I saw one post early in the thread talking about how they were overly nitpicky and sounded negative in a review, so I guess that's something.

But we have an important piece of information you seem to forget. The person at AMD who wrote/talked to Kitguru said they had limited product, so they already had to drop some reviewers from their normal list. If you were a company, and had to dismiss some of your regular reviewers, what would you look at first? Well I would look at people that had beheaved unfairly and unnecessarily harsh towards my company's products. When you have limited supply, you don't want some of the limited number of reviews be from someone that possibly will give an unfair negative review. 

And what I see here, is that is what AMD has done.

Now I don't know Kitguru myself, but what I heard seems like they have a tendency to talk in a more negative way, even when they like the product. 

 

Easiest way we have to prove that AMD weren't just "You have talked bad about us once, we don't like that" is if Linus has gotten as sample, or others that gladly talk negative about products when there is negative to say. Pcper is also one of them. Just wait and see, don't go on this fit rampage just because this happened to one reviewer

[Grrizz]

Bah, that video is not even close to bad. 

Yea especially when he made it quite clear it was an opinion piece and was full of speculation.

[Linusinium]

Bah, that video is not even close to bad. 

Maybe not to you or me, but someone with a business degree without genuine interest in tech and not knowing the history Leo was referring to...

 

 

Okey guys, don't be too fast a drawing conclusions here.

 

First, I have almost never been on Kitguru, so I don't know how they have behaved towards AMD, but I saw one post early in the thread talking about how they were overly nitpicky and sounded negative in a review, so I guess that's something.

But we have an important piece of information you seem to forget. The person at AMD who wrote/talked to Kitguru said they had limited product, so they already had to drop some reviewers from their normal list. If you were a company, and had to dismiss some of your regular reviewers, what would you look at first? Well I would look at people that had beheaved unfairly and unnecessarily harsh towards my company's products. When you have limited supply, you don't want some of the limited number of reviews be from someone that possibly will give an unfair negative review. 

And what I see here, is that is what AMD has done.

Now I don't know Kitguru myself, but what I heard seems like they have a tendency to talk in a more negative way, even when they like the product. 

 

Easiest way we have to prove that AMD weren't just "You have talked bad about us once, we don't like that" is if Linus has gotten as sample, or others that gladly talk negative about products when there is negative to say. Pcper is also one of them. Just wait and see, don't go on this fit rampage just because this happened to one reviewer

 

Let's assume the limited supply explanation is legit. KG was still set to receive a sample. Someone in marketing didn't get the memo about TPS reports, saw the piece by Leo and decided to "cull" the list.

[dimitriianghelov]

What?... Where in the world did you get that notion? KitGuru have been around for ages and are one of the most reputable sources I know of.

 

On Topic:

I really hope AMD retracts their stance on this, it would be SUPER bad PR for them if they start going down this road.

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/2xgiml/were_thinking_of_adding_source_quality_dots_to/

 

(kitguru most reputable source :lol: )no bias in your sentence at all

[infamous_last]

AMD probably didn't like this video from KitGuru:

Seems like a critical, but not unfounded point of view.

 

His analysis seems to be based on fact & reason, for anyone that's watched this, do you disagree with any of his points?

All seems reasonable to me.

[jaggysnake57]

if you cant see how this is bad i give up, if AMD had said sorry your just not big enough, we are short on samples, and need to give them to bigger publications then fine but to mention there views on amd.....its a dick move

[marldorthegreat]

it makes sense, after that video last week I believe they would be too biased

[Techhog]

Welp, that confirms that AMD's chart was BS. I'll say 10% slower than 980 Ti on average, and can match a stock 980 Ti when overclocked.

[stconquest]

Welp, that confirms that AMD's chart was BS. I'll say 10% slower than 980 Ti on average, and can match a stock 980 Ti when overclocked.

 

See, people will believe anything... no offense intended... it is just a suitable example.

 

Why are you making predictions?  Benchmarks will arrive, and your predictions will just as pointless as they are now.... sorry. 

[Techhog]

Seems like a critical, but not unfounded point of view.

 

His analysis seems to be based on fact & reason, for anyone that's watched this, do you disagree with any of his points?

All seems reasonable to me.

Well, his console comments were kinda either lies or ridiculous. There are hardly any 720p games on the current consoles, and expecting 4k gaming in a $400-500 console in 2012 is just plain stupid when you can't even get a truly 4k-ready graphics card for that price in 2015.

[carolkarine]

So long as TTL and Linus get them I'm not worried about bias.

[dragosudeki]

I'm not too sure about kitguru, I thought they weren't bad. This may be related to eteknix, who obviously just go against AMD in a lot of ways. 

http://www.eteknix.com/things-go-from-bad-to-worse-for-reviews-of-amd-radeon-fury-x/

 

Examples of articles against AMD:

http://www.eteknix.com/r9-fury-perfect-for-the-living-room-we-dont-think-so/

http://www.eteknix.com/amd-has-no-faith-in-its-own-processors/

 

@VMaxMuffin I think you should include the first article I linked as well. Might be a relation to why kitguru is no longer getting one.

[VMaxMuffin]

Thanks for the link @dragosudeki I'll add it to the OP

[spartaman64]

AMD probably didn't like this video from KitGuru:

 

where Leo from KitGuru had a very critical view of AMD's choice to rebrand the 2xx series into the 3xx series, even saying it is "scandalous" and a "con" for AMD to do that.

 

I personally don't agree with that view, but I still feel that AMD should've sent a review copy to them. Or maybe it's true that they have a limited supply of the product, so they would rather send cards to reviewers that they have good standing with and are more popular. If that's the case, it's understandable.

ouch thats pretty bad. and it didnt get released on the announce day why is he giving amd so much flak and he does understand that amd wants to funnel all their R&D into fiji and zen. yea if i saw that i would be pretty sure that guy would be biased against me

[spartaman64]

Welp, that confirms that AMD's chart was BS. I'll say 10% slower than 980 Ti on average, and can match a stock 980 Ti when overclocked.

how does this confirm anything? im waiting until linus and some other people get one and do benchmarks 

[Bsmith]

So long as TTL and Linus get them I'm not worried about bias.

I doubt he get's any card from AMD, all the reviews concernin the 200 series where cards he borrowed from others or bought himself.

[Linusinium]

I doubt he get's any card from AMD, all the reviews concernin the 200 series where cards he borrowed from others or bought himself.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/389453-amd-withdraw-kitgurus-fury-x-sample-over-negative-stance-towards-amd/?p=5258423

That's page 2 of this very thread.

 

So this is the consequence when 70% of dGPU owners pick Nvidia. People having such low opinion of AMD and just assume they won't send Linus a sample...

[Bsmith]

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/389453-amd-withdraw-kitgurus-fury-x-sample-over-negative-stance-towards-amd/?p=5258423

No track and trace and no idea to what adress, so we still know nothing.

[Techhog]

No track and trace and no idea to what adress, so we still know nothing.

If he made that post, it's safe to assume that he knows what it is that that he's getting it. Obviously, someone told him that he's getting one.

[Bouzoo]

10 products for whole EU? Are they that limited in supplies?

[Toddskins]

First, if you read the page from clicking the link in the OP, the KitGuru one, and then read ALL of the comments on that site, you will see few siding with KitGuru. Apparently, just from reading all the comments on their own page, KitGuru is being called on the carpet by READERS about how biased they are in their reviews, in favor of Nvidia.  Just go read 'em yourself.

 

Next, this particular thread, here on Linus Tech Tips, is almost the complete opposite - what appears to my eyes (I'm new to all this) is that this site has aggregated a ton of, (what's the term I see thrown around so much?) Nvidia fanboys (yes, fanboys, that's the word) who stop at nothing to throw sludge at AMD.  If I could see all their faces, I suspect that 95% of them must be under the age of 16.

Lastly, I have not yet bought a video card for either of the two super desktops I built this past year, with killer specs, hoping to see which card would emerge with the best value for me as I begin to take an interest in gaming.  All of my need for current power (CPU, RAM, and SSD) is music recording - DAW software.  By reading all the hatred of AMD by people on Linus Tech Tips (and there is a LOT of it), I gotta tell ya, it's made me feel like AMD is the underdog and I'm certainly pulling for them.

I'm ready to buy two Fury X cards tonight, if for no other reason than to show my support.

[Linusinium]

No track and trace and no idea to what adress, so we still know nothing.

So instead of realizing you were wrong, what point are you trying to make with "no track and trace"? That AMD is intentionally mailing the card to be lost so Linus can't review it?