Scott Wasson of TechReport to Join AMD and Help with Frame-Time Testing

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http://techreport.com/blog/29390/into-a-new-era

Some months ago, I got a phone call from Raja Koduri, who heads up the newly formed Radeon Technologies Group at AMD. Raja asked me if I'd be interested in coming to work at AMD, to help implement the frame-time-based testing methods for game performance that I've championed here at TR. In talking with Raja, I came to see that he has a passion for doing things the right way, for creating better experiences for Radeon owners. He was offering me a unique opportunity to be a part of that effort, to move across organizational lines and help ensure that the Radeon Technologies Group creates the best possible experiences for gamers. AMD is a company facing some distinct challenges right now, but it's also loaded with potential—and the Radeon Technologies Group has a renewed vision and focus under Raja's leadership.

In the end, this opportunity was simply too good to pass up. Early in the new year, I will be joining AMD in my new role. As a result, I'll be stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of The Tech Report.
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Why does AMD need him for frametime testing? Don't they have much more capable engineers who can create software that can do this rather than relying on a tech blog writer? The whole move by AMD seems like a PR stunt.
 
Because he is the best tester in the world, created frame time testing :p. I don't know but having a media (internet) type reviewer on board is probably helpful in many ways. As for the Engineers, most of them probably don't play games :D
 
Either a good move on AMD's part bringing in one of the experts on frame rate testing, or an attempt to silence one of their most vocal critics. I highly suspect it's a bit of "por que no los dos"?
 
They definitely don't need him to show them how to do frame time testing. It's basic statistics. Unless AMD is even worse off than I thought.
 
Data interpretation and helping to transfer that to tangible product improvements and/or marketing/sales is the tricky part. Simply getting a huge data set of frame times by itself is not going to be very useful.

The other side of this is he can help with marketing to enthusiasts, the technical audience, and the media.

Although the amusing situation with this is I remember certain groups being rather critical of TR and Scott Wasson's methods regarding this and how it was biased.

As an aside it might be interesting if they get him to also fulfill some similar roles that Tom Petersen does with Nvidia since he has some similar experience with the TR podcasts.
 
5150Joker said:
Why does AMD need him for frametime testing? Don't they have much more capable engineers who can create software that can do this rather than relying on a tech blog writer? The whole move by AMD seems like a PR stunt.
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Because he is the best tester in the world, created frame time testing . I don't know but having a media (internet) type reviewer on board is probably helpful in many ways. As for the Engineers, most of them probably don't play games
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He would be more useful as a 'public outreach' official since he's already worked in tech journalism. AMD needs to put a better face on their PR. Their recent problems with the Nano/Fury/300 series launches and Roy Taylor, in particular. I think their new focus on social media reviewers (Hashtag #RTP #Red#Team#Plus #Nano) is not going to work.

Their frametimes are fine, but maybe it has something to do with Arctic Islands or DX12. Or maybe it will be like that episode of Silicon Valley -- AMD will pay Scott to sit on the roof and drink beers all day.
 
Interesting move by Mr. Koduri calling him in person. That actually says a lot more about the direction Mr. Koduri and his team are taking The Radeon Group than anything else IMHO.

Well done.
 
harmattan said:
Either a good move on AMD's part bringing in one of the experts on frame rate testing, or an attempt to silence one of their most vocal critics. I highly suspect it's a bit of "por que no los dos"?
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His site was passed up for a review sample of Fury (like Hardocp and a few others). Odd that now AMD wants to work with him. But AMD is known for their shady marketing tactics, so this is par for the course. A shame that TR reviews will now have to be taken with a block of salt.
 
limitedaccess said:
Data interpretation and helping to transfer that to tangible product improvements and/or marketing/sales is the tricky part. Simply getting a huge data set of frame times by itself is not going to be very useful.

The other side of this is he can help with marketing to enthusiasts, the technical audience, and the media.

Although the amusing situation with this is I remember certain groups being rather critical of TR and Scott Wasson's methods regarding this and how it was biased.

As an aside it might be interesting if they get him to also fulfill some similar roles that Tom Petersen does with Nvidia since he has some similar experience with the TR podcasts.
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The /r/AMD sub was out for blood on TR. One of their main boilerplate responses in any criticism of AMD products haha.

Curious how they're handling the news though haha. That sub is filled with hypocrites.
 
So the owner of a technology journalism site is going to work for a technology company that the owner's site covers......wow. No conflict there.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
I was under the impression that he was stepping down from TR. If he continues writing reviews for TR, then that's a serious problem.
Honestly, I'm too lazy to read the whole article to find out what's actually happening.

edit: Yeah he's leaving.
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Scott Wasson OWNS TechReport. So we have an AMD employee that owns a technology journalism site that covers almost all of said company's products.
 
kyle sounds salty like the rest of you. Op wrote it he is stepping down from tech report try harder maybe nvidia will hire you.

Name calling comment removed, let's try to keep this on topic and in a civil manner. - Kyle
 
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From http://techreport.com/blog/29390/into-a-new-era:

"I'll be happy to provide what advice I can to Jeff and the rest of the TR staff from time to time, but given my new role in the industry, I won't have any input into TR's editorial choices going forward."

I highly doubt Scott will improperly use his position at AMD.
 
Scott willingly joined AMD. How that could ever constitute "silencing of the critic" I don't know, unless by "silencing" you mean "bribing".
 
JMccovery said:
I highly doubt Scott will improperly use his position at AMD.
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Conflict of interest has nothing to do with what actually happens.

PRIME1 said:
Well that's one way to silence a critic.

I'm surprised they did not contact you, don't you live down the road from them? :D

While I agree 100% that it's a conflict of interest, maybe Scott was looking to get out of the tech journalism business anyways. I guess we will have to see what sort of coverage (if any) his site provides going forward. I think it would be a mistake for them to continue covering AMD (or even Intel/NVIDIA) under his ownership.

There are so few independent sites left. It's kind of sad really.
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Na, that is not it at all. I think Scott will do wildly better at AMD than he will with TR business-wise. Making money doing the whole independent tech journalism thing has been a very hard road for a number of years now. Scott has a lot of mouths to feed.

n=1 said:
Scott willingly joined AMD. How that could ever constitute "silencing of the critic" I don't know, unless by "silencing" you mean "bribing".
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Let's not even go there. Scott is making the move that is right for Scott. However I think to do this properly he needs to follow the examples set before him and sell the site rather than just "exit operations."
 
I'm not sure why AMD hired Scott, Frame time is not really an issue anymore, except in crossfire and only in some instances.
 
Stoly said:
It has everything to do with what actually happens, otherwise it wouldn't be an issue.
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No, not really. It is what COULD happen. A conflict of interest is present without any corruption actually taking place.

A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial interest, or otherwise, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation of the individual or organization.
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Stoly said:
I'm not sure why AMD hired Scott, Frame time is not really an issue anymore, except in crossfire and only in some instances.
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This is the most interesting open question to the story. What exactly will his role be? Raja reportedly called him directly and ask him to join the team. In what capacity?


It could just be to get a more outsider opinion internally on the directions the gpu team takes, not sure.

I'm less worried about his attachment to the site in ownership. If the coverage comes off as unfair it will be picked up, if there are issues with amd where obvious punches are pulled it will be pretty clear.

There is already bias that comes through from just about every site with peoples personal opinions leaking through without any ownership issues adding fuel to the fire. If anything that might make people working at tech report more conscious of it. But just to list some examples of site/channel heads perceived bias that is out in the public.

pcper - ryan shrout / allyn - clearly prefer nvidia solution and find their tech superior to amd and it comes through. They have little concern and time for issues surrounding gameworks, because since they only use nvidia personally it's more of a universal perk for them than a hindrance.

linustechtips - Linus has become totally ra ra nvidia, he basially said a recent 34" widescreen freesync monitor wa almost perfect, the only negative for him was lack of gsync (since he favors them and essentially only uses nvidia gpus for his PERSONAL use)

hardforums - Kyle is actually more even keel than many suspect, he is not actually pro nvidia / anti amd. I remember him being quite positive towards the 290x series when it launched. But he was anti nano because I suspect he places the highest premium on have the fastest cards for the money, and the notion of spending the same money for a nano with less performance than another part was a worthless proposition. Smaller form factors just mean less to a guy like Kyle

Tech Report / pre amd hire - I found their coverage mostly fair, I missed the flap about not using a previous game because it favored amd, but listening to some of the podcasts it seemed Scott and co came across as FAR less ra ra nvidia than ryan shrout / allyn


WCCFTech - They actually seem kind of... positive towards amd. Though time for my tin foil hat theory as to why they are more atypical. There are more nvidia fanboys in the wild, being positive towards amd leads to an increase in temperature to the flamewars in the comments below, more traffic.
 
Stoly said:
But its only an issue if there's corruption actually taking place.
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No, it's an issue the opportunity/situation exists, whether it occurs or not.

What you're saying is akin to 'because you might not die playing Russian Roulette, Russian Roulette is totally safe'.
 
staknhalo said:
No, it's an issue the opportunity/situation exists, whether it occurs or not.

What you're saying is akin to 'because you might not die playing Russian Roulette, Russian Roulette is totally safe'.
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Its totally safe if the gun is empty...

Its only an issue if it occurs or not. Could, might, possibly are not actions.

IF Scott uses his position at AMD to take leverage for his site or viceversa, the ALLMIGHTY interweb will slay its sword upon him.

One thing is for sure. They won't get denied from a Nano again. :p
 
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Anand did the same thing. Stepped down from Anandtech.com to join Apple. Did not see people complain about a huge conflict of interest when that happened.

Interesting how a Pro Nvidia website owner is now working for AMD. Really not shocked at some of these comments from people.

But all in all, I don't think it's going to help AMD get that much market share back. Problem with AMD is Marketing...
 
staknhalo said:
No, it's an issue the opportunity/situation exists, whether it occurs or not.

What you're saying is akin to 'because you might not die playing Russian Roulette, Russian Roulette is totally safe'.
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That's one heck of a ride down the slippery slope logic, isn't it? No need for sensible opinions, just turn hyperbole to 11.

I'm sure there's a lot more value Scott can bring to AMD than simply frame-time testing. That's what he's *known for* but might fit well into a testing/PR role.
 
Derfnofred said:
That's one heck of a ride down the slippery slope logic, isn't it? No need for sensible opinions, just turn hyperbole to 11.

I'm sure there's a lot more value Scott can bring to AMD than simply frame-time testing. That's what he's *known for* but might fit well into a testing/PR role.
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No, he's saying even though 'X' exists, it is only a problem if 'A' occurs and is fine as long as only 'B' occurs.

So, 'if conflict of interest exists, but is fine as long as corruption doesn't occur' - then the analogy 'Russian Roulette could kill you, but is totally safe as long as you don't die' is an apt analogy.

No slippery slope or hyperbole at all. It's a pretty straightforward analogy.
 
JMccovery said:
From http://techreport.com/blog/29390/into-a-new-era:

"I'll be happy to provide what advice I can to Jeff and the rest of the TR staff from time to time, but given my new role in the industry, I won't have any input into TR's editorial choices going forward."

I highly doubt Scott will improperly use his position at AMD.
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Not about whether he will or wont, the conflict of interest is exists either way. There will ALWAYS be that doubt going forward if he dont sell the site. How do you ever really know in a situation like that. IMO its just not really in the best interests of the site to leave that lingering doubt. Just sell it and move on.

The real question i have is why they needed him in this position when its supposed to be a nonissue now? Is there something we dont know going on with DX12?
 
staknhalo said:
No, he's saying even though 'X' exists, it is only a problem if 'A' occurs and is fine as long as only 'B' occurs.

So, 'if conflict of interest exists, but is fine as long as corruption doesn't occur' - then the analogy 'Russian Roulette could kill you, but is totally safe as long as you don't die' is an apt analogy.

No slippery slope or hyperbole at all. It's a pretty straightforward analogy.
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No, what I mean is X only exists if A occurs. You are implying X exists hence A can occur.

Ok I'm confused now :confused::confused:
 
Stoly said:
Problem with AMD is AMD
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Which means marketing. AMD has had this issue for over 10+ years now. Nvidia markets quite well, and makes products to back it up.

AMD's products sometimes miss the mark (lets not even bring up bulldozer).
 
staknhalo said:
No, he's saying even though 'X' exists, it is only a problem if 'A' occurs and is fine as long as only 'B' occurs.

So, 'if conflict of interest exists, but is fine as long as corruption doesn't occur' - then the analogy 'Russian Roulette could kill you, but is totally safe as long as you don't die' is an apt analogy.

No slippery slope or hyperbole at all. It's a pretty straightforward analogy.
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I'm sorry, a conflict of interest between someone completely dropping out of operations of the company he owns (and please understand, I agree with others that he should sell his stake) and going to work for a company he was, until very recently, reporting on is nowhere near an analogy of playing Russian Roulette where people get killed. No one is going to get killed over this--stop blowing this stuff out of proportion. Goodness graciousness.

Also, welcome to reality, there are a very large number of people with all kinds of conflicts of interest. Some manage them better than others.
 
Stoly said:
No, what I mean is X only exists if A occurs. You are implying X exists hence A can occur.

Ok I'm confused now :confused::confused:
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But that's empirically wrong. Conflict of interest is a situation that exists whether any corruption ever occurs or not. Like a tech site reporting on a company who employs the owner of said site.
 
Stoly said:
I'm not sure why AMD hired Scott, Frame time is not really an issue anymore, except in crossfire and only in some instances.
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VR is coming and from what I understand frame variance that is acceptable today will make VR customers sick. AMD was talking about pushing 16K video in the future. Frame variance issues are going to rise; not get better. The magic VR solution that AMD and NVidia are touting is mGPU. The worst aspect of mGPU is frame variance. There can be no stuttering or jitter in a VR setup.
 
While I agree it would be a good move to sell the site to remove any doubts surrounding a conflict of interest, I think doing so at this stage is a bit drastic. Probably needs time to transition his team over. Once he settles in at AMD, that's something to consider. Takes time to find a buyer, too.
 
staknhalo said:
But that's empirically wrong. Conflict of interest is a situation that exists whether any corruption ever occurs or not. Like a tech site reporting on a company who employs the owner of said site.
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This is exactly correct.

DASHlT said:
Anand did the same thing. Stepped down from Anandtech.com to join Apple. Did not see people complain about a huge conflict of interest when that happened.

Interesting how a Pro Nvidia website owner is now working for AMD. Really not shocked at some of these comments from people.
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No Anand did not do the same thing. Anand sold Anandtech and then went to work for Apple. There were no complaints, because there was not conflict of interest. The definition of COI is pretty simple, some of you guys are not grasping it.

Funny how you guys color this site or that site pro this or anti that, when in all honesty, they are simply reporting on the issues they find importance in.
 
DeadSkull said:
Maybe AMD should hire you as well, to cover Real World Performance and Subjective User feedback :D:D:D

I mean, the default theme of hardforum is dark red or "crimson" .

:D
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I have learned enough about GPU companies over the last 20 years that I have no desire to work for any of those companies.
 
DASHlT said:
Anand did the same thing. Stepped down from Anandtech.com to join Apple.
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Anandtech was sold to the same company that bought Tom's Hardware.

So I guess you agree with us that Tech Report should be sold.

tybert7 said:
This is the most interesting open question to the story.

I'm less worried about his attachment to the site in ownership. If the coverage comes off as unfair it will be picked up, if there are issues with amd where obvious punches are pulled it will be pretty clear.
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I thought for sure they would be all over the AMD card killing driver issue. Maybe this is why is it was not such a big deal there? Who knows, but it's enough to at least suspect. Hence the problem with "conflict of interest"
 
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