MSI's Facebook representative throws shade at AMD graphics cards [Update]

[Skanky Sylveon]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/03/25/msi-is-saying-some-crazy-things-about-amd-graphics-cards/#463ab4811658

Quote

MSI Gaming's official Facebook page for India has struck out against AMD Radeon graphics cards, saying that "Nvidia currently are ahead in the GPU experience" and suggesting the competition is sub-par.

Whether the competition is sub-par or not isn't the issue here, and it by no means justifies potentially anti consumer practices.

Also, keep in mind that the landscape can change in a matter of a couple of years, this would be a potential "shoot yourself in the foot" move.

Quote

Later in the comment thread, the rep for MSI's Facebook page is asked "Does this programme mean you won't be making anymore AMD graphic cards in the future and your laptop/desktop models will be entirely NVIDIA GPUs?" Their response: "if its up par with performance, MSI will definitely be able to do so."

Well that's fucking great!  I find this statement a bit odd though, especially coming from MSI.

MSI had the largest selection of Ryzen motherboards when the platform fires came out.  That should say something about MSI's opinion about the company.

while that may be in regards to AMD's CPU's only, it still doesn't make sense for me.

 

Although I would like to point out another quote from the article.

Quote

First of all, this is obviously not a corporate-approved statement and is written by someone unprofessionally injecting their personal opinion into the mix.

Keep that in mind, this person is probably not stating MSI's opinion as a whole.

Quote

Still, it is posted by someone running this page, hired by MSI to do so. Certainly taboo in the PR world, and an even larger red flag considering Nvidia and its partners are keeping so quiet about this "transparent" program.

But definitely keep this in mind as well.  This is unprofessional at best.  Although the statements may very well give us a glimpse on what Nvidia is trying to do.

 

Image for reference:

 

UPDATE:

Thanks to @Ryujin2003 for providing the information.

MSI responded to the Facebook post.

https://www.pcgamer.com/msi-apologizes-for-disparaging-amd-in-favor-of-nvidia-on-facebook/

Quote

"We apologize for making an inappropriate comment. It did not represent MSI's official views," MSI said.

Not surprising, not sure if they are sincere, or if they are doing damage control.

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Adding to the mystery are reports that MSI had previously removed all Gaming X branded Radeon cards from its website, which sparked the inquiry on Facebook and subsequent drama. We don't know how long they might have been absent, but as of this writing, MSI is showing Radeon cards with its Gaming X brand, such as this Radeon RX 580 Gaming X+ 8G. There are no custom versions of the Vega 56 or 64, however.

After taking a look at MSI's website, I can confirm that there are Gaming X branded Radeon GPUs

https://us.msi.com/Graphics-card/Radeon-RX-580-GAMING-X-Plus-8G

https://us.msi.com/Graphics-card/Radeon-RX-570-GAMING-X-4G

https://us.msi.com/Graphics-card/Radeon-RX-480-GAMING-X-8G

 

No Gaming X Vega cards, but i'm not sure if MSI made custom Vega cards in the first place.

[kelvinhall05]

#BetterRed

[Coaxialgamer]

I was kind of surprised when i saw this tweet a few days ago tbh . It's nice that they be called out for it

[Ginger_]

Someone posted this in general discussion a couple days ago.

 

The key word here is a rep who didnt have a corporate approved opinion. They would never say something like that.

 

Besides, lets be honest, the 580/480 trade blows with a 1060 which is the most commonly bought level of card. and they're at the same price point. Vega's a bit of a trainwreck but when the price comes down its trading with the 1070/80. High end they might be nonexistent but not sub par

[AresKrieger]

I don't see what the issue is, they called them anti consumer and it was replied to with essentially we can't afford to side against Nvidia atm as they are in the lead. Then added they will use anything amd that is on par, what is wrong with that? Why would you want to cripple yourself needlessly just to cater to a lesser market share when it was clear from the getgo your direct competition wasn't, its not like the minimal amount of good PR would benefit them overall.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

6 minutes ago, Ginger_ said:

High end they might be nonexistent but not sub par

But it's at the high end where gaming brands are placed. You don't associate mid range performance with your top tier gaming platform. If I were running a gaming division, I would devote most of my resources to market the best experience to date rather than a "value" experience. If AMD doesn't have what it takes to be competitive in the high end, well they can get downgraded to the parent branding. 

 

It's like when people see the words ROG, they think top tier performance, enthusiast class. Not mid range peasant hardware (yes I said peasant cause that's what we really are at the mid range). 

[Skanky Sylveon]

3 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

I don't see what the issue is, they called them anti consumer and it was replied to with essentially we can't afford to side against Nvidia atm as they are in the lead. Then added they will use anything amd that is on par, what is wrong with that? Why would you want to cripple yourself needlessly just to cater to a lesser market share when it was clear from the getgo your direct competition wasn't, its not like the minimal amount of good PR would benefit them overall.

So, a program that pushes manufactures to not produce cards for the competition, thus limiting consumer choice isn't anti consumer?

If there is no consumer demand, then fine, don't produce the hardware.  But if there is demand, and you have a company that's said hardware's competition trying to shut down those sales, then yes, that's anti consumer and monopolistic.

[Ginger_]

10 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

It's like when people see the words ROG, they think top tier performance, enthusiast class. Not mid range peasant hardware (yes I said peasant cause that's what we really are at the mid range). 

Personally I just associate ROG, GAMING, AUROS, whatever series with a higher quality card. I mean, you can buy a strix 560 or 1050ti, and same with the other series. That might be their high end gaming series of cards, but they go all the way down to budget products.

[Domagoj3077]

#BetterRed

[flibberdipper]

The grammar in it is fucking hilarious... The MSI rep should get fired just on the basis of not knowing basic grammar

[MageTank]

5 minutes ago, tmcclelland455 said:

The grammar in it is fucking hilarious... The MSI rep should get fired just on the basis of not knowing basic grammar

Are you honestly expecting perfect English grammar from MSI India? If you want to fault their response, by all means, but lets not get that petty.

 

@ topic, I don't really follow the logic behind the removal of "gaming" branding creating a monopoly. I get the general disdain towards GPP, but the cards having the word "gaming" on the box doesn't really impact the performance of the product. It might impact sales of the product, but ultimately that would hurt the add in boards partners more than anything if they cannibalize half of their branding for the sake of one manufacturer. It's certainly their choice to do so, but whether or not it ends up biting them in the end will be entirely up for the market to decide.

 

I certainly don't expect AMD to suffer all that much, given how little the gaming segment actually brings in for their GPU's. We all know miners won't care what's on the box, lol. 

[Blademaster91]

15 minutes ago, Ginger_ said:

Personally I just associate ROG, GAMING, AUROS, whatever series with a higher quality card. I mean, you can buy a strix 560 or 1050ti, and same with the other series. That might be their high end gaming series of cards, but they go all the way down to budget products.

I buy for the brand and the better than reference cooler,whichever one that has the best price to performance as well. The flashy name or fancier box doesn't matter to me that much. I'd assume the MSI rep isn't allowed to post on the social media page any more at the least, their statement just adds more fuel to all these speculations.

[MoonSpot]

7 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

I buy for the brand and the better than reference cooler,whichever one that has the best price to performance as well. The flashy name or fancier box doesn't matter to me that much.

Yep; and after a year, two or three of AMD GPUs not getting quite the same benefits of premium cooling from their top brands, you can expect that slippery slope to have further reaching effect upon AMDs GPUs general image.  These companies are likely to invest the 'make for moar better' stuff on their highest grossing premium brands and skimp on their other brand names.

 

I'll be fairly skeptical of AIBs whom aren't exclusive and would absolutely wait for a buildzoid tear-down & analysis.  I'd also care less about benchmarks for upcoming releases since board component quality and product longevity becomes the new big question mark as the need to assess the quality of new brands arises.  Brand names are worth a lot of money for a reason, and kicking their competition down to the bottom of the stairs and forcing them to build a new brand names from scratch is a pretty serious blow.

[Enderman]

Technically they are correct, AMD doesn't have anything competing with the 1080ti, titan XP, titan X pascal, titan V, etc...

I don't see why everyone is making a big deal about this, someone said X is better than Y, maybe you disagree with their opinion, why does it matter?

 

This is not "saying some crazy things" or "anti-consumer practices"

Typical internet overreaction from a vocal minority.

[AresKrieger]

1 hour ago, Cinnabar Sonar said:

So, a program that pushes manufactures to not produce cards for the competition, thus limiting consumer choice isn't anti consumer?

1 the program does not ban production of AMD cards, 2 there is no limitation of consumer choice in terms of hardware design just aesthetic design which overall isn't a limit of choice it is just an exploitation of normie stupidity, which is on nvidia not msi.

 

As for whether or not it is anti competitive/consumer from a legal perspective it isn't from what I've seen, questionable and very much near the line but not over it. As for a subjective perspective it can be seen as such but subjectiveness is irrelevant in this scenario given the state of the market, the minimal hit in PR this will bring is irrelevant overall to Nvidia.

 

Regardless of its legal status the situation isn't MSI's fault and ultimately blaming the partners will not trigger the desired response, this whole situation with these comments is overblown.

[Daniel Monsanto]

1 hour ago, Cinnabar Sonar said:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/03/25/msi-is-saying-some-crazy-things-about-amd-graphics-cards/#463ab4811658

Whether the competition is sub-par or not isn't the issue here, and it by no means justifies potentially anti consumer practices.

Also, keep in mind that the landscape can change in a matter of a couple of years, this would be a potential "shoot yourself in the foot" move.

Well that's fucking great!  I find this statement a bit odd though, especially coming from MSI.

MSI had the largest selection of Ryzen motherboards when the platform fires came out.  That should say something about MSI's opinion about the company.

while that may be in regards to AMD's CPU's only, it still doesn't make sense for me.

 

Although I would like to point out another quote from the article.

Keep that in mind, this person is probably not stating MSI's opinion as a whole.

But definitely keep this in mind as well.  This is unprofessional at best.  Although the statements may very well give us a glimpse on what Nvidia is trying to do.

 

Image for reference:

Just saw this was coming here to post it as well. It's sad looking at MSI after drinking the GPP Kool aid.

[mr moose]

I guess if his definition of PAR for a GPU is the nvidia GPU then AMD cards would be subpar.      I mean let's be honest there is a reason Nvidia have the lions share of the market and only fools think it's because people buy blindly.    If I was starting up a GPU business I would be promoting the product that requires the least amount of marketing too.

 

 

[AntiTrust]

AMD cards are pretty bad though. I bought an RX 480 originally for my PC but would get dips down to like 15-20 fps in fallout 4. I wrote a nasty email to ASUS, returned the card to NCIX and got an EVGA GTX 970SSC for the same price and boom everything runs perfect, like magic. 

 

there really is no competition I can see in graphics cards. My experience tells me that there is no use in directly comparing specifications 

[DocSwag]

1 hour ago, Cinnabar Sonar said:

So, a program that pushes manufactures to not produce cards for the competition, thus limiting consumer choice isn't anti consumer?

If there is no consumer demand, then fine, don't produce the hardware.  But if there is demand, and you have a company that's said hardware's competition trying to shut down those sales, then yes, that's anti consumer and monopolistic.

You can still produce cards for AMD under GPP. It's just that brands like ROG or Lightning become Nvidia specific and cannot be used for AMD cards.

[Jito463]

2 hours ago, kelvinhall05 said:

#BetterRed

That's right, BetterRed!  No, wait, red means communism.  BetterDeadThanRed!  But wait, I really like AMD cards.  BetterRedDeadThan?  ThanBetterDeadRed?  I......but....I just....I mean.....I can't.......

 

I'M SO CONFUSED RIGHT NOW!

16 minutes ago, AntiTrust said:

I bought an RX 480 originally for my PC but would get dips down to like 15-20 fps in fallout 4.

That's odd, because the 480 is fairly equivalent to my R9 390, which doesn't experience dips like that.  I'm betting it was either a faulty card (which happens from time to time), inferior cooling (which would be on Asus, not AMD) or bad drivers (which would be on AMD, but could be fixed in a future update).

[handymanshandle]

1 hour ago, tmcclelland455 said:

The grammar in it is fucking hilarious... The MSI rep should get fired just on the basis of not knowing basic grammar

Time to troll MSI reps

Try to sell product but it's wrong to suggest product on the basis of brand.

In this case, it's kinda wrong to suggest that AMD cards are absolutely garbage and Nvidia cards are trillions of times faster, when that's far from reality.

Yeah AMD's still behind. But it's not the worst thing in the world.

[mr moose]

2 minutes ago, wcreek said:

Time to troll MSI reps

Try to sell product but it's wrong to suggest product on the basis of brand.

In this case, it's kinda wrong to suggest that AMD cards are absolutely garbage and Nvidia cards are trillions of times faster, when that's far from reality.

Yeah AMD's still behind. But it's not the worst thing in the world.

There is a big difference between "subpar" and "absolute garbage".  No where did this guy (MSI rep or not) claim that AMD were absolute garbage. Also from a marketing and sales perspective, only a marginal difference in performance can equate to quite the difference in product sales.    People are investing way to much emotion into this. 

[handymanshandle]

Just now, mr moose said:

There is a big difference between "subpar" and "absolute garbage".  No where did this guy (MSI rep or not) claim that AMD were absolute garbage. Also from a marketing and sales perspective, only a marginal difference in performance can equate to quite the difference in product sales.    People are investing way to much emotion into this. 

Yeah I suppose. Just subpar I guess in the eyes of a consumer may mean they want to avoid that card at all cost.

It just seems kinda dishonest to call AMD subpar to any of Nvidia's offerings.

 

[Skanky Sylveon]

1 hour ago, AresKrieger said:

1 the program does not ban production of AMD cards, 2 there is no limitation of consumer choice in terms of hardware design just aesthetic design which overall isn't a limit of choice it is just an exploitation of normie stupidity, which is on nvidia not msi.

 

24 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

You can still produce cards for AMD under GPP. It's just that brands like ROG or Lightning become Nvidia specific and cannot be used for AMD cards.

Unless MSI's Facebook rep is an idiot (a large possibility of that being true) then their badly worded response to Pj Gowtham may tell us something that we don't know.

Although admittedly, that's speculation.  So let me rephrase it.

 

 

So, a program that pushes manufactures to not produce cards for the competition that has premium branding/design, thus fooling the average Joe customer isn't anti consumer?

1 hour ago, AresKrieger said:

As for whether or not it is anti competitive/consumer from a legal perspective it isn't from what I've seen, questionable and very much near the line but not over it. As for a subjective perspective it can be seen as such but subjectiveness is irrelevant in this scenario given the state of the market, the minimal hit in PR this will bring is irrelevant overall to Nvidia.

Regardless of whether it's legal or not, it's going to stir up controversy.

To be frank, I don't consider what's legal to be the end all be all on what's what.  Not to mention I wasn't stating that what Nvidia was doing was illegal.

You stated that "I don't see what the issue is" and I attempted to explain it.  MSI has historically supported AMD pretty well, and if the GPP has any influence on that, then many would consider that to be an issue.

1 hour ago, AresKrieger said:

Regardless of its legal status the situation isn't MSI's fault and ultimately blaming the partners will not trigger the desired response, this whole situation with these comments is overblown.

I never said that MSI was the one to blame, I even went as far to say that I found their rep's statement to not align with MSI's actions in the past.

Actually, my previous statements should show that i'm blaming Nvidia more.

[mr moose]

9 minutes ago, wcreek said:

Yeah I suppose. Just subpar I guess in the eyes of a consumer may mean they want to avoid that card at all cost.

That's exactly what happens, search for recommendations on any two competing cards and overwhelmingly any forum will recommend the card that has an average 3 FPS advantage or slightly cheaper price tag over the other.   MSI know this, they all know this, that is why ever single bit helps to sell a product. It also explains why Nvidia have the market share. 

 

9 minutes ago, wcreek said:

It just seems kinda dishonest to call AMD subpar to any of Nvidia's offerings.

 

It's not really dishonest, especially not form a marketing/sales perspective.  Some of us may not like the way it sounds (because it's a subjective expression of an objective condition), but from the top down (how the consumer wants to buy) that's exactly the case.