AMD investing heavily to "win the graphics battle" next year

[maonayze]

Anyone unbiased sees through the crud and buys the cards that works for them.

That's nobody in this forum section then!

 

[Seanspeed]

Just PR speak, but I really do hope they go big in 2016 and force Nvidia's hand.

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

Which is why Nvidia have said they are also using this new type of gddr5. I imagine they'll only have HBM in there most expensive cards and the other stuff for the mass produced models.



The problem is the inconsistency in how well the cards run.
Like someone said the thing is we was sat here expecting Fiji to be something it wasn't for AMD and they priced it like they did due to not wanting to be seen as the cheaper option while not delivering a higher quality product. Software is an important part of the package and we get let down the same as we did before, Poor crossfire support, lack of driver releases. Today's example is Fallout 4 with the 970 sitting pretty with the 390x. Yes the game runs fine (It does for me with my Fury) but it needs to be seen to do so while holding it's own against the competition.
There's always excuses why we don't have day one optimizations, I'm sure that now it'll be because there working on Crimson, last time it was because they was busy with the 300 series cards. Whatever the reason it is not good enough, especially if you are pricing yourself as not being a cheaper option. If it's not going to be a cheaper option it needs to have better support.

+1

The competition has been pretty good tbh it's just not been enough to sway buyers. We have had 7970 v gtx680, 290x v 780ti and Fury X v 980ti. The only card there that i would pick over the AMD variant is the 980ti.

Even if we look at dual cards AMD's variant is the better card ie. 7990 v gtx690 and 295x2 v Titan Z.

The way the market is going you would think AMD had some real stinkers on the market but the truth is they have had some seriously good cards on the market over the years and still there sales are dwindling.

The trouble with AMD is the products are usually good, but everything else takes a while to catch up.
The 7970 was eventually better than the GTX680, but at release, when reviewers were done the drivers weren't there, they took what 6-12 months to get the Omega drivers done and at the time AMD had framepacing issues too if I recall. You can see why people with no brand loyalty might go with Nvidia.
290 cards were good but again I bvelieve the drivers took a while and there were so many reports of coil whine and blackscreen issues due to memory (I think). Not to mention the fuss that was made about the reference coolers.
The with the FuryX you had a lot of hype, no stock and reviews weren't really backing up the hype and so the "overclocker's dream" didn't get the sales of the 980Ti. Due to drivers (I think) it doesn't even seem to fair that well against the 390/390X in some cases.

The other issue that AMD suffer from that's not going to be easy to overcome is the Nvidia brand name. I've also got a number of friends that just prefer Nvidia as a brand without looking at performance. This is probably more common that a lot of us realise because of the interest we have in these things.
A few friends I think I've managed to convert or at least persuade to give AMD a chance. Others have just had a bad history of things not working with AMD and a history of things just working with Nvidia. This is hard to overcome and to a large degree I can't blame them for it. How many of us have bought a brands, had a bad experience and now avoid that brand when the option to is there?

 

[LambChop]

What does invest heavily mean ? They are hemorrhaging money, yet they will invest heavily ? Into what....? R&D - they cant afford to invest heavily into that or it will bankrupt them. Into trying to get more products to market ? Well that means more into R&D. Into a faster card that doesnt need an iceberg attached ? Well thats more into R&D. Into having the tech first to market, well that means more into R&D and a few backhanders here and there. Imo, this is not going to end well.

 

[jupiter_man]

I hope AMD can bounce back and fight against Nvidia

 

[TheRealDeal]

+1



The trouble with AMD is the products are usually good, but everything else takes a while to catch up.
The 7970 was eventually better than the GTX680, but at release, when reviewers were done the drivers weren't there, they took what 6-12 months to get the Omega drivers done and at the time AMD had framepacing issues too if I recall. You can see why people with no brand loyalty might go with Nvidia.
290 cards were good but again I bvelieve the drivers took a while and there were so many reports of coil whine and blackscreen issues due to memory (I think). Not to mention the fuss that was made about the reference coolers.
The with the FuryX you had a lot of hype, no stock and reviews weren't really backing up the hype and so the "overclocker's dream" didn't get the sales of the 980Ti. Due to drivers (I think) it doesn't even seem to fair that well against the 390/390X in some cases.

The other issue that AMD suffer from that's not going to be easy to overcome is the Nvidia brand name. I've also got a number of friends that just prefer Nvidia as a brand without looking at performance. This is probably more common that a lot of us realise because of the interest we have in these things.
A few friends I think I've managed to convert or at least persuade to give AMD a chance. Others have just had a bad history of things not working with AMD and a history of things just working with Nvidia. This is hard to overcome and to a large degree I can't blame them for it. How many of us have bought a brands, had a bad experience and now avoid that brand when the option to is there?

Yea AMD need to execute things on release better than they have done. It's not easy to over come a Brand like Nvidia have especially if you keep on making stupid mistakes with the launch. Hopefully with AMD streamlining there Gpu business things will improve.

 

[Dicehunter]

They said the same with the 290X, Then the fury X and we all know what happened.

I really hope AMD do surprise us all and race ahead as Nvidia sorely need some proper competition that severely beats them up, Buries them alive, Pees on the grave, Steals their wife and puts their kids up for adoption !

 

[LambChop]

They said the same with the 290X, Then the fury X and we all know what happened.

I really hope AMD do surprise us all and race ahead as Nvidia sorely need some proper competition that severely beats them up, Buries them alive, Pees on the grave, Steals their wife and puts their kids up for adoption !

For that to happen, AMD need to stop believing they are on the same level playing field as Nvidia, because they are not.

They need to leave ATI the **** alone, let them do what they do best and price their cards on their level, not on their competitions level, and stop selling customers **** that is useless, ie Mantle etc.

Let ATI be ATI and I'm pretty positive they will pull market share back.

 

[Dicehunter]

For that to happen, AMD need to stop believing they are on the same level playing field as Nvidia, because they are not.

They need to leave ATI the **** alone, let them do what they do best and price their cards on their level, not on their competitions level, and stop selling customers **** that is useless, ie Mantle etc.

Let ATI be ATI and I'm pretty positive they will pull market share back.

Exactly, If they had the HBM and pump issue sorted out as well as a lower price they could have already gained back a large market share but they weren't ready with the HBM, The pump was loud, Mine sounded like a banshee, And it was overpriced compared to a 980 Ti which completely outperforms it.

 

[nails666]

+1



The trouble with AMD is the products are usually good, but everything else takes a while to catch up.
The 7970 was eventually better than the GTX680, but at release, when reviewers were done the drivers weren't there, they took what 6-12 months to get the Omega drivers done and at the time AMD had framepacing issues too if I recall. You can see why people with no brand loyalty might go with Nvidia.
290 cards were good but again I bvelieve the drivers took a while and there were so many reports of coil whine and blackscreen issues due to memory (I think). Not to mention the fuss that was made about the reference coolers.
The with the FuryX you had a lot of hype, no stock and reviews weren't really backing up the hype and so the "overclocker's dream" didn't get the sales of the 980Ti. Due to drivers (I think) it doesn't even seem to fair that well against the 390/390X in some cases.

Very much so, AMD have some quality products but they are terrible at making that good first impression that is so important. The first 290's only had that awful reference cooler and by the time the 3rd party versions came out the reputation was already stuck that the cards were too hot and noisy. Freesync is a great product but the whole launch was a PR mess with misleading info (some monitors claiming they could be upgraded to support it) and then monitors being released before the drivers and then when the drivers finally did come out they didn't support Xfire etc. Same again with the Fury launches, delayed and then you couldn't actually buy a Fury X for a good couple of months by which time any positive hype had disappeared. Same with driver improvements, they have indeed released drivers that significantly improve performance for cards after release but all those vital first reviews are the ones that stick in the buying public minds and set the impression as to which card is the best. Only enthusiasts keep on top of the relative changes in performance over a cards lifetime and we are in the minority in terms of the overall market.

Lets hope that along with focusing on their new cards they also improve their general marketing and co-ordination of their hardware and software.

 

[Mtom]

If AMD want to win they will have a hard time. Its not enough if they bring a bit more stuff to the table. They have to fight with peoples bias as well.
How many times i heard: "If AMD bring a card which is faster AND uses less power AND cooler AND cheaper then then i might consider buying it..."

 

[chroniclard]

If AMD want to win they will have a hard time. Its not enough if they bring a bit more stuff to the table. They have to fight with peoples bias as well.
How many times i heard: "If AMD bring a card which is faster AND uses less power AND cooler AND cheaper then then i might consider buying it..."

I really don't think bias is that prevalent to your actual tech enthusiast. Personally I will buy whichever card I feel is right for me at the time. Had many cards from both vendors over the years and have no real bias either way. They have all been great at the time.

Problem I see is AMD keep dropping the ball on various things so people buy elsewhere and await the next overclockers dream.

 

[Marine-RX179]

I really don't think bias is that prevalent to your actual tech enthusiast. Personally I will buy whichever card I feel is right for me at the time. Had many cards from both vendors over the years and have no real bias either way. They have all been great at the time.

Problem I see is AMD keep dropping the ball on various things so people buy elsewhere and await the next overclockers dream.

The thing is Nvidia drop the balls just as much, such as the drivers in the recent years, but it doesn't stop people keep thinking they are doing better than AMD in that regard, and that's what the bias are...

The "overclocker's dream" we all know it was a slip of mouth by the AMD representative, but at least it was not listed as a feature on the box of the product. The 4GB of the 970 on the other hand...Nvidia claims the card was meant to be 3GB, and the extra 1GB is just their "genious gift" to their users due to how "they are always looking out for their users" (So should performance suffer with the card accessing the last part of the 1GB of vram, users shouldn't complain )

The only reason that AMD appears to drop the ball more than Nvidia is only due to Nvidia's better branding image, so even if both companies have the same amount of smudge stucked on their faces, the smudge would simply disappear from Nvidia's face at a much faster rate

 

[chroniclard]

Yeah they all mess up, just seems at the moment(and recent history) AMD are constantly playing catch up.

Either way, fingers crossed, next year should bring a royal rumble GPU battle.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Yeah they all mess up, just seems at the moment(and recent history) AMD are constantly playing catch up.

Either way, fingers crossed, next year should bring a royal rumble GPU battle.

Performance wise the 290/290x is quite amazing in the regard first parrying with the 780/780Ti, and then the 970/980 and still held their own...but unfortunately that doesn't mean much to AMD in terms of generating revenue; for users such as myself though, I'm glad that I bought a 290x instead of a 780 back then, as it is money well spent

 

[Nexus18]

Lets hope they can do something special as if we are just left with nvidia and intel controlling the market then that is me (and I'm sure many others too) done with PC gaming, I'll be going back to console. PC gaming is already expensive enough and unfortunately, getting a game to run relatively well without having to faff about with it is rare these days so take away all the competition, we will only have more expensive parts i.e. skylake and even worse driver/patch support.

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

The thing is Nvidia drop the balls just as much, such as the drivers in the recent years, but it doesn't stop people keep thinking they are doing better than AMD in that regard, and that's what the bias are...

That's not a bias though, that's people being ill-informed. It's a reputation that AMD built up over the years. People may have experienced it for themselves and have not gone back to AMD since to find out if it's changed.

The "overclocker's dream" we all know it was a slip of mouth by the AMD representative, but at least it was not listed as a feature on the box of the product. The 4GB of the 970 on the other hand...Nvidia claims the card was meant to be 3GB, and the extra 1GB is just their "genious gift" to their users due to how "they are always looking out for their users" (So should performance suffer with the card accessing the last part of the 1GB of vram, users shouldn't complain )

The only reason that AMD appears to drop the ball more than Nvidia is only due to Nvidia's better branding image, so even if both companies have the same amount of smudge stucked on their faces, the smudge would simply disappear from Nvidia's face at a much faster rate

But the 970 DOES have 4GB VRAM...
Just like AMD CPUs have 8-cores.
We don't know that "overclocker's dream" was a slip, we just know it hasn't delivered. Believing it's a slip and that the 970 doesn't have 4GB VRAM, well now we're back on to 'bias'...

 

[griffy]

It doesn't mean nothing if they make fantastic video cards, if they can't keep up with decent drivers to match.

AMD driver updates are a joke!

 

[pgi947]

Lets hope they can do something special as if we are just left with nvidia and intel controlling the market then that is me (and I'm sure many others too) done with PC gaming, I'll be going back to console. PC gaming is already expensive enough and unfortunately, getting a game to run relatively well without having to faff about with it is rare these days so take away all the competition, we will only have more expensive parts i.e. skylake and even worse driver/patch support.

Skylake prices are being boosted by someone other than Intel though, you only have to compare the American pricing to European to see that and the fact it's actually cheaper to import a 6700k from the states then it is to buy one in the UK by quite a sufficient margin. Where you can find stock in the states you're looking to pay around $370 (~£245), the UK is £360+ (~$550+). Coincidentally the 2600k, 3770k were both around £240 and 4700k around £265. Intel haven't done much of anything in price movements in that regard.

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

It doesn't mean nothing if they make fantastic video cards, if they can't keep up with decent drivers to match.

AMD driver updates are a joke!

I don't even think that's true, it's largely just the perception of having poor driver and poor driver updates that AMD are battling against.

I believe both AMD and Nvidia have released about the same number of drivers this year (around 13 or 14 each I think). Quality wise they've not been that bad either, a couple I think needed hotfix drivers. Maybe they're a bit slow with drivers for new games compared to Nvidia. But it's not like games won't run.

It's a bit like when people try to say that Nvidia are always releasing new drivers to fix bugs in the previous driver. They've released about the same as AMD, so they're not always releasing hotfix drivers any more than AMD are really.