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

[alamox]

Could care less about Kitguru. Why do they feel entitled to having early access to a card? 

 

There is a very limited amounts of cards available, Im sure the demand is crazy since its a highly anticipated new card.  Saying AMD is running a con with the 300series didnt help their chances but i would of done the same.

 

as i said on the thread with the kitguru video, that the video was an over reaction for something not even true, he made a mistake, now the site pays the price.

FuryX is a major event, first sites to benchmark it will get tons of traffic, i understand why they would be pissed now, but i can't blame AMD for it after what kitguru did last week.

the guy when bashing AMD kept saying, my opinion based on informed guess, not it was misinformed guesses, next time they will post about facts instead of informed guess work.

[iludez]

[asim1999]

AMD’s upcoming Fury release next week has been much anticipated – the incredible level of global coverage so far gives a firm indication that this is indeed one of the most anticipated hardware launches of 2015. Many enthusiast gamers are hoping that AMD will become competitive again in the high end against Nvidia, and based on leaked results so far, it would appear this is going to be the case. KitGuru will however not be in a position to handle a launch review for our readership. I try to avoid the complex and frustrating politics which are heavily engrained within this industry, but sadly it is not always possible.

On the 11th June AMD informed us via email that the upcoming FIJI hardware was reserved for KitGuru, as would normally be the case. We subsequently set a plan in motion to analyse the hardware for launch and were awaiting the arrival of the sample. Earlier this week I had a call from Christine Brown, Senior Manager, EMEA Communications at AMD to let me know that the company had withdrawn their sample from KitGuru labs and that we would now not be involved at all in the launch next week.

Christine Browne informed me directly on the phone that the reason for withdrawing the sample was based on ‘KitGuru’s negative stance towards AMD’. She said that with limited product they wanted to focus on giving the samples to publications that are ‘more positive’ about AMD as a brand, and company. I was not informed during this call of anything we have published that was factually incorrect, we were also not told to edit or remove any content we had published. Based on what AMD had seen via KitGuru editorial in recent weeks it was felt that overall coverage was just too negative.

I did stress the point that KitGuru’s news coverage of their ‘updated’ 300 product range would in no way alter my ability to accurately analyse their hardware – after all I have been doing it for 13 years now. We approach all hardware reviews from a strictly neutral stance, and then work towards a conclusion, after many days of detailed analysis.

Due to their decision, KitGuru will be unable to deliver unbiased and detailed coverage of AMD’s FIJI part to millions of readers on launch day. I will continue to try and work with AMD if I can, however I simply cannot let any company or corporation try and dictate or change our independent ability to cover news, or to share our opinions – even if this means losing product support for big hardware launches such as this.

If we become unable to share our genuine views and opinions out of fear of a company withdrawing product samples then I see no point in being here at all. KitGuru has always had an primary focus to our enthusiast readership and our goal is to deliver accurate and genuine buying advice.

On a brighter note, we currently still have the full support of AMD partners and will aim to deliver content on the new hardware, as soon as possible.

 

Source: http://www.kitguru.net/site-news/announcements/zardon/amd-withdraw-kitguru-fury-x-sample-over-negative-content/

[Fredrikmikael]

I am so conflicted with AMD.

I hate them for doing shit like this, but i'm also happy for them doing a comeback in the enthusiast scene.

[Toddskins]

What if there was dialogue between AMD and KG?  What if KG said something... IDK rude/offensive?  You only have one side of the story.  Good luck getting AMD's side, you are not entitled to it.

 

What I am saying is KG could be in the wrong here, and you would never know it.

 

You gotta stop saying you know the reason AMD pulled their sample.  You can estimate, speculate, assume, deduce and hypothesize all you like... but don't say it's known to you when it is not.  :mellow:

 

Absolutely correct, STCONQUEST.  I was going to say the same thing.

I had never heard of KitGuru, but the writing was only one side, and was obviously written with emotion, with an agenda.  Seemed totally unprofessional to me, but regardless, it's still only one person's side of a supposed phone call.  No facts whatsoever.

But the kids on this site seem to go to great lengths to throw dirt on AMD.

[stconquest]

Absolutely correct, STCONQUEST.  I was going to say the same thing.

I had never heard of KitGuru, but the writing was only one side, and was obviously written with emotion, with an agenda.  Seemed totally unprofessional to me, but regardless, it's still only one person's side of a supposed phone call.  No facts whatsoever.

But the kids on this site seem to go to great lengths to throw dirt on AMD.

 

I am just happy that Linus might have one already mailed to him.  We might get the numbers sooner than later.

[Misanthrope]

Absolutely correct, STCONQUEST.  I was going to say the same thing.

I had never heard of KitGuru, but the writing was only one side, and was obviously written with emotion, with an agenda.  Seemed totally unprofessional to me, but regardless, it's still only one person's side of a supposed phone call.  No facts whatsoever.

But the kids on this site seem to go to great lengths to throw dirt on AMD.

 

I think he's banking of that literally: as others mention you need only to pick up the card at a store and spend that night testing the card to have your article/video virtually at the same time. But this way he gets a lot more attention, traffic, views and overall revenue. A true traitor to the PC Master Race if you ask me: intentionally bringing the stupid, ultra competitive fanboy culture that is common on the consoles.

[othertomperson]

We'll see what happens. The fact that they've already done this with Linus and the R9 295X2 doesn't bode well.

[Guest Kloaked]

We'll see what happens. The fact that they've already done this with Linus and the R9 295X2 doesn't bode well.

 

Was that the specific reason he didn't get a 295x2, though?

[Trik'Stari]

Linus addressed it in just a couple of tweets and WAN show comments along with thanking Austin for lending him his 295 for that video. That's about what you should expect.

 

On AMD's side they really can't go into details without giving foot to even more drama. Think about it what can they say?

 

-"We just don't have enough cards" OMG AMD can't launch, Fiji shortages confirmed, they suck!

-"You're not big enough" OMG AMD only cares about big reviewing venues they can buy, they suck!

-"Honestly we forgot about you" as above

-"We're trying a different marketing strategy" OMG AMD wants to hide crap performance, they suck!

 

Judging from the usual 40+ fucking pages of trolling responses on each AMD thread there really is no comment, truthful or not, that can help their cause.

I was commenting on the original theory of "they aren't giving samples to people who have a "negative" view of the brand". Nothing more.

 

Kind of like apple black listing anyyone who dares to speak ill of apple.

 

That is all.

[othertomperson]

Was that the specific reason he didn't get a 295x2, though?

 

He mentioned in a WAN show that they were upset that every word he's said about their products in the past been objective and not just singing their praises. Paraphrased, obviously, but it does seem like they have a serious issue with people not claiming the sun shines out of their collective arse.

 

 

I was commenting on the original theory of "they aren't giving samples to people who have a "negative" view of the brand". Nothing more.

 

Kind of like apple black listing anyyone who dares to speak ill of apple.

 

That is all.

 

What fine company for AMD to be in with... Except Apple's reach, market share and sheer resources outstrip AMD's, to say the least, and they can afford to pull this bullshit. It remains to be seen if AMD can afford to limit their exposure to sycophants in the same way.

[Misanthrope]

What fine company for AMD to be in with... Except Apple's reach, market share and sheer resources outstrip AMD's, to say the least, and they can afford to pull this bullshit. It remains to be seen if AMD can afford to limit their exposure to sycophants in the same way.

Well at the end of the day Apple still makes product a lot of people want. As a PC gamer, even if you assume Kitguru did nothing wrong and that somehow their one sided story of a mysterious phone call is 100% accurate, would you still pass on what is looking to be an outstanding product like the Fury and Fury x? 650 for a titan/980ti level of performance with a water cooled included (usually over a 100 premium if you get an AIO and a plate/holder for it separately) 

 

Let's face it, if AMD is sitting on a winner (looks that way) I think that this is about the only point in time they might be able to get away with what some will see as unfairly censoring a "press" member and what others will see as giving a fucking troll what he had coming and everything in between.

 

I know I've personally give em endless fucking grief for the fucking robbery the 390x is, yet I am still probably gonna drop 650 come holiday season on a Fury X or a 390 to crossfire with. I also recognize that AMD has some options in price point that Nvidia is just completely ignoring like the 370s range of price and performance, to me we need something in between the 750ti and the 960 which is an unreasonably large difference in price and performance.

[Pomfinator]

You'd think AMD, who is currently fighting to get out of it's 75:25 market share with Nvidia would understand the importance of getting a secure hard-launch day and making sure reviewers get their cards early to publish day 1 reviews.  Look at Nvidia, ever since the Titan, cards have arrived in reviewers hands before or near launch date, because that is when the interest in the cards is the highest. 

 

Just look at this subforum, news on the Fury X is at it's peak, there are 4-5 threads about the Fury, right now.  It could not be a better time to have reviews out from places like Anandtech.  Where are the reviews?

 

EDIT: I guess embargo date is much later

[BuckGup]

Wow AMD. At this point I hope that weird Russian factory that made CPUs better then AMD starts to compete against Nvidia. 

[TroubleKlef]

Two sides to this. I haven't watched any of kitguru's stuff but if its quite blatant that he is purposefully trying to defame AMD and has some sort of "agenda" against them, then it's totally fine by me if AMD doesn't send him free stuff. Would you give free stuff to a bully?

 

The other side is that kitguru is an objective reviewer who has been critical of AMD (cuz let's be honest, AMD hasn't been doing the best job lately) and AMD is now trying to skew reviewers into spreading false information. Then it's AMD being the bully.

[-CLASSIFIED-]

this is amd imo lol

hate away guys , hate me all you want . its my opinion

[othertomperson]

Well at the end of the day Apple still makes product a lot of people want. As a PC gamer, even if you assume Kitguru did nothing wrong and that somehow their one sided story of a mysterious phone call is 100% accurate, would you still pass on what is looking to be an outstanding product like the Fury and Fury x? 650 for a titan/980ti level of performance with a water cooled included (usually over a 100 premium if you get an AIO and a plate/holder for it separately) 

 

Let's face it, if AMD is sitting on a winner (looks that way) I think that this is about the only point in time they might be able to get away with what some will see as unfairly censoring a "press" member and what others will see as giving a fucking troll what he had coming and everything in between.

 

I know I've personally give em endless fucking grief for the fucking robbery the 390x is, yet I am still probably gonna drop 650 come holiday season on a Fury X or a 390 to crossfire with. I also recognize that AMD has some options in price point that Nvidia is just completely ignoring like the 370s range of price and performance, to me we need something in between the 750ti and the 960 which is an unreasonably large difference in price and performance.

 

Well firstly the water cooler automatically rules me out of wanting one. If I am to upgrade again (likely, dad's eyeing up my 970s) it's going to be big. It'll be SLI or CF again, either Fury or 980 Ti and I don't want three AIOs in my PC, that's going to look like a ridiculous mess. And by the sounds of it, AMD are going the Titan route on their air cooled Furies in that they're looking to be blower only.

 

The KitGuru video I watched with the guy going on and on about rebrands was fair enough imo, I'm not well versed in what they've done since, but about the rebrands that's no different to what I've been saying on this forum. He got some parts wrong, like the 280X and 270X being rebranded again (which it's good that he was wrong), and he also assumed that if the 290X were to be rebranded it would be a second tier product, not top tier again (so the reality is worse than he made it out to be there), but in this launch in general there has been lots of stuff to criticise.

 

Are AMD sitting on a winner? The only information we have about the card comes either from AMD or a VIP list of die-hard AMD fanboys. I am not going to believe a single thing about any Fury branded card until it comes from someone who isn't so heavily biased. It could be fantastic, but we have no idea which is why this is a huge issue to me. I want to see how it compares to a 980 Ti when people who aren't either Nvidia or AMD are the people giving us this information, and AMD are doing everything they can to ensure that every source of information we have is incredibly biased towards them.

 

And actually I'm not sure what you're talking about with that last point. The 960 is priced identically to how the 750 Ti was last generation. They have removed the old 760 price point altogether and made the whole tier cheaper. With the rumoured 960 Ti likely to resume the old £200 price point, maybe the 960 might get a little cheaper, though probably not imo. I haven't been keeping up to date on the 300 series because it's frankly a pile of shite, do we know what the 370 is a rebadge of?

[Misanthrope]

Well firstly the water cooler automatically rules me out of wanting one.

The fury is air cooled, I'm sure you will be able to get one with a normal water plate for a better looking custom loop

 

The KitGuru video I watched with the guy going on and on about rebrands was fair enough imo

That might be but I'm focusing on his response to all of this. I really, really don't care about people claiming "oh this other party said this to me!.....over a private phone conversation nobody can verify" That's called slander in my book

 

Are AMD sitting on a winner?

It is very likely, however I did say they are I said they possibly are. Meaning that yes they could have initiated a massive conspiracy to falsify early performance reports by substantially large margins and the Fiji is barely better than Hawaii and they basically committed corporate suicide to scam maybe a few hours of impulse buy sales before the entire world calls them liars.

Yes that could theoretically happen. Do you need to really need to emphasize this is a possibility though?

 

And actually I'm not sure what you're talking about with that last point. The 960 is priced identically to how the 750 Ti was last generation. They have removed the old 760 price point altogether and made the whole tier cheaper. With the rumoured 960 Ti likely to resume the old £200 price point, maybe the 960 might get a little cheaper, though probably not imo. I haven't been keeping up to date on the 300 series because it's frankly a pile of shite, do we know what the 370 is a rebadge of?

200 puts it over what a lot of the systems most people new to PC gaming would be willing to spend. I dislike the fact that I have to go to really bad APU or really underperforming solutions like the 750ti (which by the way was never priced anywhere near 200 so it was never an x60 tier product, not even close in fact) so it's been way too long for Nvidia to not even address anything below the 200 bucks mark. There is no reasonable excuse, other than availability, to recommend anything Nvidia below that price point even if it is the 3rd or 4th rebadge AMD still performs a hell of a lot better than Nvidia on the 150 bucks range.

[othertomperson]

The fury is air cooled, I'm sure you will be able to get one with a normal water plate for a better looking custom loop

 

That might be but I'm focusing on his response to all of this. I really, really don't care about people claiming "oh this other party said this to me!.....over a private phone conversation nobody can verify" That's called slander in my book

 

It is very likely, however I did say they are I said they possibly are. Meaning that yes they could have initiated a massive conspiracy to falsify early performance reports by substantially large margins and the Fiji is barely better than Hawaii and they basically committed corporate suicide to scam maybe a few hours of impulse buy sales before the entire world calls them liars.

Yes that could theoretically happen. Do you need to really need to emphasize this is a possibility though?

 

200 puts it over what a lot of the systems most people new to PC gaming would be willing to spend. I dislike the fact that I have to go to really bad APU or really underperforming solutions like the 750ti (which by the way was never priced anywhere near 200 so it was never an x60 tier product, not even close in fact) so it's been way too long for Nvidia to not even address anything below the 200 bucks mark. There is no reasonable excuse, other than availability, to recommend anything Nvidia below that price point even if it is the 3rd or 4th rebadge AMD still performs a hell of a lot better than Nvidia on the 150 bucks range.

 

There is *a* Fury with an air cooler, but the rumour I'm hearing so far is, like I said, reference blower with no aftermarket versions. So no neat Sapphire or Gigabyte air coolers. This could end up not being the case, but I want to wait first.

 

It's not a massive conspiracy, it's called cherry picking your results. It's very easy to make data look a lot better than it actually is and Nvidia, AMD, Intel all do it every time. It's not lying except by omission, but it is misrepresentative and misleading. You are incredibly naive if you believe a single benchmark statistic that came directly from either AMD or Nvidia.

 

It's not £200, it's £150 which is what the 750 Ti was when it was current generation hardware. The x60 has just moved down a price point, and it looks like the old x60 price point may be replaced by the x60 Ti this generation. AMD doesn't perform "a hell of a lot better", they're direct equivalent. Which is pretty bad considering you're comparing Nvidia's lowest current generation product with AMD's second highest that's still in the 300 series.

[Misanthrope]

There is *a* Fury with an air cooler, but the rumour I'm hearing so far is, like I said, reference blower with no aftermarket versions. So no neat Sapphire or Gigabyte air coolers. This could end up not being the case, but I want to wait first.

 

It's not a massive conspiracy, it's called cherry picking your results. It's very easy to make data look a lot better than it actually is and Nvidia, AMD, Intel all do it every time. It's not lying except by omission, but it is misrepresentative and misleading. You are incredibly naive if you believe a single benchmark statistic that came directly from either AMD or Nvidia.

 

It's not £200, it's £150 which is what the 750 Ti was when it was current generation hardware. The x60 has just moved down a price point, and it looks like the old x60 price point may be replaced by the x60 Ti this generation. AMD doesn't perform "a hell of a lot better", they're direct equivalent. Which is pretty bad considering you're comparing Nvidia's lowest current generation product with AMD's second highest that's still in the 300 series.

 

1) I understood the opposite in fact: The Fury X you have to use reference design, the Fury you can add fancy aftermarket air coolers

 

2) Cherry picking results my improve a couple of performance points here and there so it wouldn't completely reverse what we can conservatively expect from Fiji: equal price to the 980ti but with a water cooler (again this is a plus to many, many people and you're the minority here that considers this flatout negative). So let's say AMD doctored the preview benchmarks a bit and the Fiji card goes down 5% below the 980ti on Nvidia-oriented games and 10% below with hairworks on. It's still a very competitive product because it's so aggressively priced. Seriously when was the last time we saw a top of the line air cooled card retail for 550 at launch? It's been a good while it's always 600, 700, 1k if you consider Nvidia's Titan x "fuck you" time periods.

 

3) I am talking USD so I wont discuss other prices. The 750ti was never above 150 USD and the 960 has never been below 200. So the entire last part of your argument is utter nonsense probably attributed to shady import practices in fact.

[othertomperson]

1) I understood the opposite in fact: The Fury X you have to use reference design, the Fury you can add fancy aftermarket air coolers

 

2) Cherry picking results my improve a couple of performance points here and there so it wouldn't completely reverse what we can conservatively expect from Fiji: equal price to the 980ti but with a water cooler (again this is a plus to many, many people and you're the minority here that considers this flatout negative). So let's say AMD doctored the preview benchmarks a bit and the Fiji card goes down 5% below the 980ti on Nvidia-oriented games and 10% below with hairworks on. It's still a very competitive product because it's so aggressively priced. Seriously when was the last time we saw a top of the line air cooled card retail for 550 at launch? It's been a good while it's always 600, 700, 1k if you consider Nvidia's Titan x "fuck you" time periods.

 

3) I am talking USD so I wont discuss other prices. The 750ti was never above 150 USD and the 960 has never been below 200. So the entire last part of your argument is utter nonsense probably attributed to shady import practices in fact.

 

I'm talking GBP and am not going to discuss prices in a foreign country I have little understanding of.

 

I'm done arguing. Go out and buy one. I don't care that you don't care for the validity or integrity of your news sources. You trust AMD or Nvidia to break the habit of a lifetime and present performance data in a non-ambiguous, honest way, you go ahead. You're an idiot if you do, but it's your money.

[Misanthrope]

I'm talking GBP and am not going to discuss prices in a foreign country I have little understanding of.

 

I'm done arguing. Go out and buy one. I don't care that you don't care for the validity or integrity of your news sources. You trust AMD or Nvidia to break the habit of a lifetime and present performance data in a non-ambiguous, honest way, you go ahead. You're an idiot if you do, but it's your money.

 

1) Since most of the press here as well as most of the articles discuss prices in USD I don't see it as unreasonable.

 

2) Bit too far on your "I'm done" speech there buddy: I was almost alone in denouncing AMD for their bullshit pricing on the 390x yet I am now the opposite it seems, gg.

[Tams]

No reviewers have a right to a free sample/trial.  AMD are free to give them to whomever they wish.  

 

What would be wrong is if AMD went around stopping people reviewing their products that people have bought once they have been released.  AMD don't and can't do that.

 

Almost all the time there are enough reviews pre-launch for products for you to be able to make an informed decision.  If you're still not sure, then just wait a week or two for other places to review them.  If you can't be bothered to look up, or wait for reviews, and just buy into the marketing; then be it on your head.  No one has time to molly-coddle such people.

[stconquest]

No reviewers have a right to a free sample/trial.  AMD are free to give them to whomever they wish.  

 

What would be wrong is if AMD went around stopping people reviewing their products that people have bought once they have been released.  AMD don't and can't do that.

 

Almost all the time there are enough reviews pre-launch for products for you to be able to make an informed decision.  If you're still not sure, then just wait a week or two for other places to review them.  If you can't be bothered to look up, or wait for reviews, and just buy into the marketing; then be it on your head.  No one has time to molly-coddle such people.

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

If you keep making sense like that, you will get into a few arguments here. 

 

...by no means is that necessarily a bad thing. 

[Tams]

Welcome to the forums!

 

If you keep making sense like that, you will get into a few arguments here. 

 

...by no means is that necessarily a bad thing.   

 

 

Thanks, I've been lurking a while.  I just couldn't stand some the stupidity and in this case defence of entitlement (plus the misconception of "ethics") any more.