NVIDIA Controls AIB Launch and Driver Distribution @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Messages
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NVIDIA Controls AIB Launch and Driver Distribution

Since NVIDIA's GPP program got exposed to the world, there have been a lot of changes over at Team Green in the way information about its company is controlled. After its heavy-handed NDAs have sought to muzzle journalists that work with the company, now it is pushing back on its AIBs in order to control the AIB's actions with reviewers.

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This just keeps getting better and better! What the F*** are they so afraid of? This BS only lasts until the cards hit retail, though, and THEN the s*** will REALLY hit the fan! They can't hide sub-par performance forever! EVENTUALLY, when they start to ship, people will learn EXACTLY how these cards perform, and if their actions are any indication, I expect those reviews to be brutal indeed!
 
Chebsy said:
Quote "Given this, and the fact that our readers have made their voices heard (67% Against Signing / 33% For Signing), HardOCP will not be signing the NDA."

You made the right choice Kyle, being effectively gagged for 5 years is just not worth it.
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And with continued nonsense like this driver thing coming from them, you KNOW there'll be more exposés.
 
jnemesh said:
Already did, bought a Vega 64 last month, couldn't be happier with it, and it's performance!
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The real solution to this is for AMD to up their game and get in nvidias face at the top end. They need to do the nvidia what they're doing to Intel.

At 4K (which is what I run at) the best AMD offering is on par with the 1080 while costing a little bit more (Asus Strix on amazon, R64 is $50 more than 1080). They tend to trade places by a few FPS depending on the title.

However, for me, the big thing is timely game support. AMD really lost me a long time ago in the days waiting months and months for driver updates for various titles and eternal beta drivers.
 
I feel there's a meme here. Maybe a "Nvidia lawyer interview" kinda thing...

upload_2018-8-28_15-33-26.png



Yeah, there we go.
 
notarat said:
I'm curious how many people voted against signing the NDA but voted with their wallet by pre-ordering a 2080...
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After looking at the marketing slides along with the 4K (some HDR) game FPS numbers...

I went and bought a second, used 1080 Ti for cheap, and I don't like SLI.

I'm sure the fancy new AI AA will be great...for the titles that support it. I'm sure the 2080 Ti will blow a single 1080 Ti out of the water. But Nvidia needs to have their bottom line impacted if we are going to see that $1200 price tag drop back to $699 for the next gen Ti.
 
This is easy to navigate.. Create a second entity or subsidiary that only does video card reviews for NVidia cards and have that entity sign the agreement. If you ever enter into a spot where you are caught up in something stupid, dissolve the entity and release whatever info you want.

On a side note, I dont consider any core work product at HardOCP as being conducted by "the press" or as an act of "journalism". Yes, I have been at the site long enough to hear all the reasoning as to why you feel you *are* journalists, etc., but sticking to reviews would be fine in my book. If you feel otherwise, the above scenario could also be used to cover your bases. Granted, I am not an attorney, but I have worked in a technical capacity with numerous law firms and attorneys (even testified in court and grand jury as an expert witness) enough to know that a lawyer is never going to lose their job by telling you not to do something. I have also signed contracts that were extremely vague, told I was in violation of the agreement by doing whatever I did, then had court agree the agreement was 100% non-enforceable. If the agreement is crap, it wont stand anyone challenging it. You might think you would have a lot to lose by going to court against NVidia, but look at it from their perspective.. You think NVidia wants to actually take you to court for telling the truth about something they did?
 
Personally, for the Oculus games I play, an overclocked 1080Ti seems to be enough. I figure I'll just wait for the next gen of AMD cards to launch and get one of those.
 
H2R2P2 said:
... You might think you would have a lot to lose by going to court against NVidia, but look at it from their perspective.. You think NVidia wants to actually take you to court for telling the truth about something they did?
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nVidia doesn't have to take anyone to court in order to get their pound of flesh. If an AIB vendor sends out a card to a non-approved reviewer, nVidia will somehow come up short on inventory when it's time to resupply that vendor. If a reviewer breaks the NDA, that reviewer can forget about reviewing another nVidia product.
 
Jebus, the show doesn't stop, they don't seem to care / learn from the backlash of their last leash. IF AMD can put out something competitive, I wonder if NV would still try to pull this kind of crap
 
ianken said:
The real solution to this is for AMD to up their game and get in nvidias face at the top end. They need to do the nvidia what they're doing to Intel.

At 4K (which is what I run at) the best AMD offering is on par with the 1080 while costing a little bit more (Asus Strix on amazon, R64 is $50 more than 1080). They tend to trade places by a few FPS depending on the title.

However, for me, the big thing is timely game support. AMD really lost me a long time ago in the days waiting months and months for driver updates for various titles and eternal beta drivers.
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The REALITY is that most discrete graphics card sales are $400 and below...and AMD is competing nicely in that market. The market for 1080ti and higher priced cards is only 5% or less of the overall market. Great for bragging rights, not so impactful on the actual bottom line for either company.
 
Yeah, that's an unheard-of level of Control Freak. As if we have any other fucking option?

It would be one thing if Nvidia were launching the raytracing unit through it's own closed API, but it's an industry standard. Like the GeForce 3, this overprice heap is going to sell regardless of how small a performance increase it brings...because RTX has great potential, and people will pay a premium to have the bes.

There is no need to be such perfectionists with perfect marketing and perfect release - you already have game patches in the pipeline, and 3dmark demos coming. That's all you needed to get the GeForce 3 going, despite many negative reviews.
 
I'm not sure why nVidia is trying so hard to ensure max presales, I mean are these cards so bad no one is going to want one once they release?
 
This garbage from Nvidia reminds me of this.



If Nvidia doesn't get their heads out of their asses, we know how the Death Star ended up.
 
H2R2P2 said:
This is easy to navigate.. Create a second entity or subsidiary that only does video card reviews for NVidia cards and have that entity sign the agreement. If you ever enter into a spot where you are caught up in something stupid, dissolve the entity and release whatever info you want.

On a side note, I dont consider any core work product at HardOCP as being conducted by "the press" or as an act of "journalism". Yes, I have been at the site long enough to hear all the reasoning as to why you feel you *are* journalists, etc., but sticking to reviews would be fine in my book. If you feel otherwise, the above scenario could also be used to cover your bases. Granted, I am not an attorney, but I have worked in a technical capacity with numerous law firms and attorneys (even testified in court and grand jury as an expert witness) enough to know that a lawyer is never going to lose their job by telling you not to do something. I have also signed contracts that were extremely vague, told I was in violation of the agreement by doing whatever I did, then had court agree the agreement was 100% non-enforceable. If the agreement is crap, it wont stand anyone challenging it. You might think you would have a lot to lose by going to court against NVidia, but look at it from their perspective.. You think NVidia wants to actually take you to court for telling the truth about something they did?
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Right or wrong in the end is what matters in a court of "Law", but the one with the deeper pockets generally wins. If the disparity of money is large enough, it's the poorer party that won't make it to the "end" especially if they go bankrupt and can't pay their lawyers.

And as far as Nvidia taking [H] to court, I can't see a scenario where they wouldn't want to for any reason they could just to sh*t on Kyle for the GPP PR hit they took.
 
ianken said:
The real solution to this is for AMD to up their game and get in nvidias face at the top end. They need to do the nvidia what they're doing to Intel.

At 4K (which is what I run at) the best AMD offering is on par with the 1080 while costing a little bit more (Asus Strix on amazon, R64 is $50 more than 1080). They tend to trade places by a few FPS depending on the title.

However, for me, the big thing is timely game support. AMD really lost me a long time ago in the days waiting months and months for driver updates for various titles and eternal beta drivers.
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Well that was long time ago. AMD has been on top in game support these days. So your last reasoning is no longer really valid. I think they have done alot when it comes to game support. I see almost articles every month with driver releases supporting new games ahead of their launch.
 
I don't know about the numbers of your voting. 846 say no. But how many members are there really? Thousands and thousands. So that number to me is very low. So what's they actually say about the whole thing. Hey look you now have a member that has 1,000,001 post!! A Million post how does he have time to live.

https://hardforum.com/members/whygrimwhy.311993/


Back to the NDA, don't sign it. It does really matter. You just have to wait like rest of use for the cards. Nvidia is Nvidia and it's a company they run and can do what they want with there company. No one is forced to buy there products!
 
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I guess this is what happens when they know they don't have competition right now. Locking down on the AIBs and reviewers and controlling the entire outcome top to down. Pre orders a month out, second batch of 2080ti pre orders not shipping until october, 2070 pre orders not shipping until november.

Reviews might not show up until launch day. This is like perfect execution. I guess most people will do it just cuz they are desparate for new cards.
 
I wonder how long the contracts with Asus, EVGA etc. etc. are for? Whenever that is up I'm sure Nvidia intends to cut them all out of the loop entirely.
 
jnemesh said:
This just keeps getting better and better! What the F*** are they so afraid of?
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It's called control mi amigo. Look at Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google, Comcast, and the litany of other corporations that have a strangle-hold on the market. Once they establish that control, they invariably become the bullies and strong arm others to follow their narrative because the CEO's are sociopaths. This is Capitalism 101: Market share. Quarterly reports. Election cycles. Monopolies. This behavior Kyle has recently been experiencing from NVIDIA lately should come as no surprise to anyone who has been studying this phenomenon because they fully understand the psychology of monopolistic behavior. It's just like Comcast's behavior when they have market control in small cities with little to no competition.

Unfortunately for us hardware enthusiasts our options are becoming increasingly limited by the year. So for the moment, I'm doing my part and sharing this article to all of my social media network to draw attention to this issue, because it's only going to increase with frequency down the road.

harmattan said:
This is some inverted totalitarianism shit.
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Fixed that for you.
 
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