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AMD Bans ASRock From Entering European GPU Market

LoadsaMoney

LoadsaMoney

LoadsaMoney

Caporegime
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No ASRock graphics cards in Europe

The manufacturer has reached out to Tom’s Hardware to ask how the sample for their review was obtained because clearly, it wasn’t provided by ASRock, who had no interest in marketing exposure in Germany (the review was posted on German TH’s website).

ASRock Sales Manager:

The problem is that AMD has not agreed to sell (ASRock graphics cards) in EU, that is really a pity.

The decision to block ASRock from entering European market is not necessarily that controversial. Regional sales bans are actually quite common. For the same reason, you are not able to buy Colorful or Colorfire graphics cards in Europe. There are simply too many board partners in this region.

Yet still, customers should have a choice when it comes to choosing the right model, at the lowest price possible. Those who want ASRock graphics cards will still be able to buy them, just with additional taxes and shipping costs artificially created by regional sales bans.

Isn’t it ironic that AMD has just started “Freedom of Choice in PC Gaming” marketing campaign (in response to GPP), only to limit the choice of customers at the same time?
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https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-bans-asrock-from-entering-european-gpu-market

:p
 
Oh my. What a strange decision to block Asrock from selling GPUs in Europe. First the GPP and now this. Crazy times in the PC market.
 
Must be lies,AMD would never do anything like this. They are all about gamer's choices and saving kittens
 
For the same reason, you are not able to buy Colorful or Colorfire graphics cards in Europe. There are simply too many board partners in this region.
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Heaven forbid there be too much choice and price competition. Oh the horrors of free market capitalism.

Has a conspiracy involving NVidia been established yet? obviously as per usual anything making AMD look bad must involve Jensen Huang sitting in a dark room stroking a black cat?
 
Two wildly different things (bans appears to be a made up word anyway in this article, it appears they've made a region specific partnership so asrock chooses not to would be more accurate no?)

Must confess I don't know what the criteria are for being an approved partner in certain regions - regulatory, support, marketing commitment, other? Would be curious to know.

Still always sad to not have more choice, not that the asrock offerings looked interesting so far.
 
While I would have liked to buy an Asrock GPU this isn't anything new.
NVidia also have branded GPUs that don't exist in EU.
Amd already have EU partnership with brands.

NVidia also have the exactly the samething on going right now.
 
shankly1985 said:
While I would have liked to buy an Asrock GPU this isn't anything new.
NVidia also have branded GPUs that don't exist in EU.
Amd already have EU partnership with brands.

NVidia also have the exactly the samething on going right now.
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Quite right. NVidia are the bad one's here let's not forget. AMD are the guys who give you freedom of choice.
 
The manufacturer has reached out to Tom’s Hardware to ask how the sample for their review was obtained because clearly, it wasn’t provided by ASRock, who had no interest in marketing exposure in Germany (the review was posted on German TH’s website).

ASRock Sales Manager:

The problem is that AMD has not agreed to sell (ASRock graphics cards) in EU, that is really a pity.
Click to expand...

The text in bold is the only actual statement from an ASRock representative.

Clearly for whatever reason AMD are not letting ASRock sell GPU's in the EU, i think that's a shame, ASRock make good stuff.

Having said that:

The decision to block ASRock from entering European market is not necessarily that controversial. Regional sales bans are actually quite common. For the same reason, you are not able to buy Colorful or Colorfire graphics cards in Europe. There are simply too many board partners in this region.
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This is of course very true, still, i would like the choice of buying an ASRock Graphics card, you can't say you're all about choice and then not give us the choice to buy ASRock cards, AMD.
 
Gregster said:
Quite right. NVidia are the bad one's here let's not forget. AMD are the guys who give you freedom of choice.
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Ay? All I saying is this isn't any difference between nvidia or AMD here on how they handle partnership.

NVidia has exclusive partnership outside of EU and so does AMD.

This happens all the time they is plenty of hardware we can not buy in the EU.

Let's be clear here because it seems you didn't get my first post. I would like to buy an Asrock GPU so yes I don't approve this choice.

Also you was the first person on here to compare this to GPP
Hardly Strange!
Yes GPP was crazy! To to label this under the same sentence is very Crazy because they really isn't anything crazy about EU restrictions. Happens all the time.

"Oh my. What a strange decision to block Asrock from selling GPUs in Europe. First the GPP and now this. Crazy times in the PC market."
 
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Not sure if i'm off on this, but I seem to remember Gibbo saying something about how hard it is to get Asrock to focus on the EU market, think it was around mother boards. This might be an extension of that, with Asrock focusing on other markets and wanted to know how this card turned up in a market they would not be selling into.

Despite how good a review might be, it does not look good if people in that market cannot buy the product at the end of the day, maybe Asrock just want exceptions to be kept in check
 
AMD's model is very different to nVidia, take Free-Sync vs G-Sync as an example, nVidia make you pay an average £150 - £200 extra for a chunk of hardware in the back of the monitor to get G-Sync, AMD took the idea and reinvented the technology so it doesn't need the expensive module in the screen, the critical technology resides on the graphics card its self while on the monitor side all that's needed is to use one type of already existing scaler "V-Blank" found in Laptops instead a standard scaler traditionally used in desktop screens and TV's, the cost of this is 0 or so minimal Vendors or AMD are happy to absorb the cost.
Add to that the technology is open for anyone to use, including nVidia who chose to stick with the module as that is a source of revenue and a way to lock you into their eco system.

In that AMD can take the high ground, but not because they are high minded, the high minded approach is just marketing.

So at the end of the day AMD are more open, you are not compromised with their technology solutions. but for no reason other than it being a good marketing tool.
 
It makes me wonder whether some of the other AIB partners were not happy with another competitor,so it will be interesting to hear more info about all this.

OTH,even on the Nvidia side,there are some huge AIB partners which are realistically selling stuff only in Asia. One is Colorful,who is one of the biggest graphics card vendors in the world:

https://www.techpowerup.com/212870/...d-biggest-graphics-card-vendor-in-2015-report
 
humbug said:
AMD's model is very different to nVidia, take Free-Sync vs G-Sync as an example, nVidia make you pay an average £150 - £200 extra
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While AMD make you pay £120 - £250 extra for the card :D

AMD = dear cards, cheap monitors.

Nvidia = cheap cards, dear monitors.

At the end of the day, an AMD card, plus a FreeSync monitor, can be had for around the same price as a Nvidia card, plus a G-Sync monitor.

You can get a 1080 now (cheapest), £120 cheaper than a Vega 64 (cheapest), that £120, could go towards the G-Sync.
 
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LoadsaMoney said:
While AMD make you pay £120 - £250 extra for the card :D

AMD = dear cards, cheap monitors.

Nvidia = cheap cards, dear monitors.

At the end of the day, an AMD card, plus a FreeSync monitor, can be had for around the same price as a Nvidia card, plus a G-Sync monitor.

You can get a 1080 now (cheapest), £120 cheaper than a Vega 64 (cheapest), that £120, could go towards the G-Sync.
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Aside from some of that still being down to the cryptocurrency tax Vega is a failure IMO, its a very expensive card to make with its large Die and HBM2 which is why it costs so much, that by its self is not the problem, the problem is the card when compared to the competition is crap, its a Titan Xp with GTX 1080 gaming performance.

The RX 580 is a much better competitor to the 6GB 1060, tho even that still has some coin diggers tax on it.

AMD don't get any of that cryptocurrency tax.

And i'm sorry but Vega is not a good card for what its supposed to be, it is a failure.
 
Trust the fan boys to make this another point scoring contest.

Bad choice by AMD imo, I’m sure there are reasons, but with their freedom marketing it doesn’t sit well.

Hardly the same as GPP though.

LoadsaMoney said:
Nvidia = cheap cards
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There are no cheap cards anymore... ;)
 
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