AMD accused of "Golden Sample" on 290X given to reviewers, retail bought cards throttling

[Suarez7]

This is how I imagine Gibbo viewing this thread:

 

[Gregster]

@ Petey

That was a creepy film when I was a kid...

 

[tommybhoy]

LOL petey.

It is a serious question. I have looked and can't see anything that Gibbo has reviewed/tested from the Nvidia side but I can find plenty of reviews for AMD.

Maybe he just reviews gpu's that let you add voltage to oc the nuts off them.

 

[Gibbo]

What was the last Nvidia card you reviewed Gibbo?

780Ti, just not published yet.
Oh and KFA2 780 HOF last week with the 290X review, infact in that review I test Titan, 780 reference, 780 HOF, R280X, R290, R290X.

I also tested yesterday Gigabyte 780 GHz and Inno3D 780 iChill, both with B1 stepping cores and shared the results, one managed 1245MHz and the other 1280MHz. The EVGA 780 Classified we tested today managed 1375MHz core and shall be featured in tomorrows review, which 8 Pack shall publish.

8 Pack shall be publishing the results tomorrow.

Before that I believe it was Gigabyte WindForce GTX 770 when the GTX 770's first came out showing how well they boost out the box, so much so they were giving stock 780 performance more or less.

My NVIDIA GTX 670 REVIEW: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18402134&highlight=review+username_Gibbo

My NVIDIA GTX 680 REVIEW: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18385861&highlight=review+username_Gibbo

My NVIDIA vs AMD: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18357457&highlight=review+username_Gibbo


Infact my last review featured NVIDIA cards and AMD, the two before it were soley NVIDIA and the one before those was AMD and NVIDIA.

My R290 Pro review is the first AMD ONLY review in a long time, so certainly fair from my standpoint.

 

[Marine-RX179]

780Ti, just not published yet.

I should have made a bet of some sort out of this

The answer would hopefully be GTX780Ti...when it's out

 

[Gregster]

Maybe he just reviews gpu's that let you add voltage to oc the nuts off them.

 

[TheRealDeal]

Gonna be some interesting results as at least the ocuk review should give us a fair indication of the gtx780ti oc v titan oc v gtx780oc v r9 290x/pro oc.

 

[Gibbo]

LOL petey.



Maybe he just reviews gpu's that let you add voltage to oc the nuts off them.

There is some truth to that, if I get something to play with and it can't overclock, it goes in the junk pile.

Example the B1 stepping cards I tested, in the believe from all the internets hype of them being the new king of overclocking stepping, I thought, mmmmm 1400MHz on air maybe, when they failed to do 1300MHz, got thrown in the junk pile.

Classified both me and 8 Pack mega impressed with though, its the old stepping and does 1375MHz stable, even runs at 1400MHz but not stable enough.

Oh and 780Ti, clocks pretty damn well guys by the way.

 

[Gibbo]

Gonna be some interesting results as at least the ocuk review should give us a fair indication of the gtx780ti oc v titan oc v gtx780oc v r9 290x/pro oc.

Ti hammers Titan, I am saying no more!

 

[Suarez7]

Ti hammers Titan, I am saying no more!

 

[TheRealDeal]

Ti hammers Titan, I am saying no more!

Nice looks like it could be the monster it's being talked up to be.

 

[cainer]

Sebastian Vettel ?

 

[mmj_uk]

Joking around, changing the subject, no serious discussion, might as well just close this thread.

A media outlet has uniquely reported instances of AMD Radeon R9 290X boards purchased in retail that have exhibited an uncharacteristic level of performance variance as compared to press samples issued by AMD. We’re working to secure the board(s) in question for further analysis.

No denial.

Boards purchased by other media outlets have not exhibited similar characteristics that we’re aware of.

Only that they are aware of, unless those places do their own comparisons they can't possibly know.

In the meantime, we’ve identified areas where variability can be minimized and are working on a driver update which will minimize this variance.

Here they admit to the 'variability' which you all deny.

Again I would ask if this is not a very real issue then why would AMD market these cards without any mention of a base clock and as "up to 1ghz", avoid a lawsuit perhaps?

 

[David Bisset]

Eh? ALL graphics cards perform somewhat variability. There is nothing to deny. People are not denying that cards vary, just suggesting the conspiracy theorists are being a bit nutty cause one outlet got a better press sample than the retail ones they bought. OCUK are a counter example where the press samples were worse than the retail ones they tried. That's what happens with variance.

With the thermal throttling strategy AMD have chosen the different cards will vary more by clock speed and less by fan speed than on most releases.

 

[Gregster]

Ti hammers Titan, I am saying no more!

Can't you do a 290X review with a blurred out score? That worked nicely last time...

 

[ubersonic]

Personally I think the whole "boost" situation is totally messed up, I liked it when we had a simple "this card runs at #MHz" then Nvidia started doing "This card is clocked at #MHz but will run faster depending on cooling" and now we have AMD saying "This card will do up to #MHz depending on cooling". They could have at least gone for similar methods so not to confuse the consumer...

 

[Uncle Petey]

Yeah, I despise the whole boost thing...

 

[Gibbo]

Personally I think the whole "boost" situation is totally messed up, I liked it when we had a simple "this card runs at #MHz" then Nvidia started doing "This card is clocked at #MHz but will run faster depending on cooling" and now we have AMD saying "This card will do up to #MHz depending on cooling". They could have at least gone for similar methods so not to confuse the consumer...

Agreed, boost is annoying, just give us a core speed and let the users do the overclocking.

In my view AMD would have done far better to have done:-

R290 Pro - 800MHz core with lower Vcore default, this would have meant cooler running, no throttling issues and even quieter.

R290X - 925MHz core again with lower Vcore default, same again cooler and quieter.

Then just let the customer overclock, even with the above clock speeds they'd still be damn quick and at the price points they are at people would be very happy. If they wanted to make the performance back up from the lower core, just default the memory speed too 5600MHz as they will all happily do that.

 

[Kaapstad]

Sadly none of my 290Xs can hold a constant 1000mhz or have spent much time anywhere close to it

Spoiler

They can all hold a constant 1200mhz plus on air.

 

[Gregster]

I don't think you will get anyone who praises the Boost. In theroy it is a good idea but for overclockers, it just messes everything up.