AMD, Roy Taylor, the Nano, and the Press @ [H]

AMD only seems to dig a bigger hole for themselves. Honestly, at this point they don't need Nvidia/Intel to put them out of business.

Many people are now talking about Roy, fair reviews and not giving samples to review sites instead of the product itself. And usually this kind of talk creates a negative image. Not really a good move.

If Fury/Nano had been a 980 crusher AMD would have begged Hardocp and any review site out there to test their newest card. But because the card is underwhelming in certain area's they only want review sites who will show this card in the most positive light. even if it doesn't always translate in real world performance.

Hardocp has a long history of cooperation and business with AMD, I don't understand why AMD is burning bridges now.

Best solution would be an official AMD statement to clear the air and releasing review samples to Hardocp and the other sites after all.
 
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[H] is my go to site for all my PC enthusiast review and forum needs, but I have to admit I think it was a bit too far to remove Elmy's build thread. I feel AMD is in the wrong for denying [H] a review sample, but at the same time I also feel its spiteful and ultimately a bit unprofessional to remove that particular post. After all it was a legitimate discussion topic even if Roy/AMD are being duschy. I respect Kyle's decision on this, however I believe it was the wrong one.

[H] is Kyle's business and AMD tried to manipulate it to gain access to the [H] readership and generate positive PR Hype. AMD involved [H] in the release process but then decided not to provide a review sample. Had they left it at that, the situation might never have made light of day. AMD then decides to provide a Nano to an [H] poster to do a thread about it with the intention of getting PR within the [H] community without going through the [H] review process. Again probably not something that would have caused a public stir on its own.

Then Roy goes and tweets about needing "fair" reviews basically between the lines calling out [H] and the other sites for being biased and unprofessional and not reviewing things properly and "fairly". You can't run a business and let that stand.
 
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[H] is Kyle's business and AMD tried to manipulate it to gain access to the [H] readership and generate positive PR Hype. AMD involved [H] in the release process but then decided not to provide a review sample. Had they left it at that, the situation might never have made light of day. AMD then decides to provide a Nano to an [H] poster to do a thread about it with the intention of getting PR within the [H] community without going through the [H] review process. Again probably not something that would have caused a public stir on its own.

Then Roy goes and tweets about needing "fair" reviews basically between the lines calling out [H] and the other sites for being biased and unprofessional and not reviewing things properly and "fairly". You can't run an business and let that stand.
Exactly. They cannot publicly accuse [H] and the other two sites of being unfair and biased and not expect some sort of response. Especially when, as you say, they try to get [H] exposure underhandedly at the same time. I feel bad for the person in the forums doing the review, but they can thank AMD for how this all turned out.

All of this underhanded dealing makes me ask what they're trying to hide, because they're certainly giving it everything they have.

Still waiting for people who said that [H] deserved this to provide links and hard evidence of this bias and unfairness that they speak of.

*crickets*
 
So H killed the hostage by deleting the thread about the nano from the forum, when AMD told them they don't negotiate with terrorists.

There is no right side here, they're both wrong. Picking which reviewers get free samples first is the right of the manufacturer. But then suggesting that the ones who are not getting one are unfair is a dick move, and totally uncalled for. I'd have fired the guy on the spot no matter his rank.

But responding to one dick move, by being a dick yourself by deleting the thread and then writing a whine piece on how you didn't get a sample and how you were mistreated is just as bad.
 
Exactly. They cannot publicly accuse [H] and the other two sites of being unfair and biased and not expect some sort of response. Especially when, as you say, they try to get [H] exposure underhandedly at the same time. I feel bad for the person in the forums doing the review, but they can thank AMD for how this all turned out.

All of this underhanded dealing makes me ask what they're trying to hide, because they're certainly giving it everything they have.

Still waiting for people who said that [H] deserved this to provide links and hard evidence of this bias and unfairness that they speak of.

*crickets*

Obviously Hardocp isnt fair giving reviews according to AMD.
Why they think and do it that way from AMD you have to ask them at AMD not Nvidia fan boys here.

Kyle basically whine and cried in his post. He has a beef with some guy and then make that to be about AMD also. If he truly didnt care about the card and getting one he would not have made the post..................................................................get it?

Simple.

He did make one and went full nude attack.
yes sure he didnt care about the card or reciving one.
such bullshit and people buy that from Kyle?
come on he run a business and do anything to make sure he has headlines.
 
Wow! Roy Taylor...Assloch extraordinaire!

and guess where he is from? Texas.

Texas, a breeding ground of yahoos and asslochs. The state that gave us David Koresh, horrible leather footwear/headgear, and Walker Texas Ranger.

Thanks Texas!


Texas, breeding ground for Heroes and Patriots. The state that gave us Chris Kyle, a unique and celebrated culture, as well as billions in oil wealth. I grew up when Walker Texas Ranger was on - it was cool back then. Especially following Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

May me ask where you are from little boy?

I am from Wisconsin. Home of Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer.
Yeah, we eat people :)
 
Obviously Hardocp isnt fair giving reviews according to AMD.
Why they think and do it that way from AMD you have to ask them at AMD not Nvidia fan boys here.

Kyle basically whine and cried in his post. He has a beef with some guy and then make that to be about AMD also. If he truly didnt care about the card and getting one he would not have made the post..................................................................get it?

Simple.

He did make one and went full nude attack.
yes sure he didnt care about the card or reciving one.
such bullshit and people buy that from Kyle?
come on he run a business and do anything to make sure he has headlines.


He has a business with a reputation to uphold. His silence in the face of these *very serious* accussations would mean ___________ to the tech community.

...not hard to figure out what needs to go in the blank and understand the rant being a very necessary thing to do.
 
So Tweaktown basically said, unless you are an AMD fanboy, or you just have to use one of the few small form factor cases that doesn't support full size graphics cars, you are better off getting a 980 Ti. Is that unfair. Because, let's face if, I think what Roy meant, was not that the sites AMD chose not to send cards to would fudge numbers, but that AMD wouldn't agree with their conclusions.

Tweaktown also said, that the Nano makes the Fury X obsolete....which is an odd conclusion, considering it is slower than the non-X Fury, and still costs as much as the Fury X.

It sits right between the 390X and the non-X Fury and costs $220 more and $100 more respectively.
Why would the average person pay $650 for a card that is only slightly faster than a $430 card?
 
Obviously Hardocp isnt fair giving reviews according to AMD.
Why they think and do it that way from AMD you have to ask them at AMD not Nvidia fan boys here.

Kyle basically whine and cried in his post. He has a beef with some guy and then make that to be about AMD also. If he truly didnt care about the card and getting one he would not have made the post..................................................................get it?

Simple.

He did make one and went full nude attack.
yes sure he didnt care about the card or reciving one.
such bullshit and people buy that from Kyle?
come on he run a business and do anything to make sure he has headlines.


Unless you run a business I would not make such remarks.

Kyle wasn't personally attacked. His business (read: livelihood) was attacked when Roy insinuated this site doesn't give our fair reviews.

What do you think this whole review industry is based on? TRUST.
People visit this site, ANY SITE, because they want honest reviews about a product they are considering for purchase. For Roy to make comments attacking the integrity of this site make it completely fair for Kyle to make his rebuttal and protect the reputation of the site.

if I sound like a Kyle fanboi it's because I have been in a similar position where i have had to defend my livelihood from people who were up to no good. Plain and simple, it's the honest people who have more to lose and thus must react in a more potent manner.

AMD is up to no good. Roy is spouting garbage to justify their underhanded plots. This is obvious to anyone who has been around the scene for more than a few years.
 
AMD is horrible at PR, if they were good at PR, they would have known the outcome of their statements even before they stated it. All of the AMD PR apologizers, just think what would happen if you were in their shoes and said those exact same words, in the same type of conversation, then think about how you would react if you were on the opposite side.

My view, I wouldn't have stated what Roy said at all, I would not have back tracked, I would have said this well we have certain amount of allocated cards for reviewers, we have to pick and choose. Then when the giving away free cards came up, I'm sorry those cards were already allocated for that event. Done over, instead of the crap Roy talked about. It doesn't matter if its a lie or not, but by telling the truth, the lie was plainly seen and its creates bad PR not good.

Come one guys PR should be masters at picking words and phrases wisely, not silly talk.
 
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IF AMD had from the start taken the stance of providing a reviewers guide to indicate that this needs to be tested in a SFF setup, maybe it wouldn't look as bad as "reviews need to be fair(favor us)"

I believe that is the opposite of fair, Roy should have said "Reviews need to be biased(in our favor!)"
 
Roy's idea of "fair" review is a Positive review.
Plenty of negative opinions here of AMD's current GPU generation. Fury falls short, etc.

Roy is cherry-picking for Positive review of mediocre product offerings, hence no Hard product sample.

Agreed!!!

How many of us here buy based almost entirely on what an [H] reviews outcome is?

*raises hand*
 
So I read this entire thread.

I'm frankly astounded by the number of comments regarding "unprofessional" journalism on the part of HardOCP.

There is a distinct desire these days to be "politically correct" at the cost of defending your position.

It seems pretty obvious that this guy at AMD.....not just some random guy, a VP with some standing.....essentially singles out three review sites as being "unfair". Read between the lines a little........won't be swayed by company line and spit polish their turd.

Because of this so called "unfairness" these sites are not only singled out, but denied review samples, AND called unfair in so many words.

If someone called you out, in public, on a media site with world-wide coverage, how would YOU respond?
Politely......like gee, I don't necessarily agree with your point of view.....or point out to the guy how far off he was in less than uncertain terms.

HardOCP struck a nerve.....no hand holding, no politically correct nonsense, no bullshit.
Called a spade a spade and got AMD and their band of knuckleheads to pay attention.

The end.
 
Obviously Hardocp isnt fair giving reviews according to AMD.
Why they think and do it that way from AMD you have to ask them at AMD not Nvidia fan boys here.

Kyle basically whine and cried in his post. He has a beef with some guy and then make that to be about AMD also. If he truly didnt care about the card and getting one he would not have made the post..................................................................get it?

Simple.

He did make one and went full nude attack.
yes sure he didnt care about the card or reciving one.
such bullshit and people buy that from Kyle?
come on he run a business and do anything to make sure he has headlines.

I don't think he really cares about getting or not.

This has more to do with AMD over the course of the past 1-2 years. This company is in serious trouble. All of their offerings are sub-par at best after being promised how amazing they would be. Rather than own up to this AMD continues to make things worse by trying slight of hand BS marketing.

I love AMD and would be more than happy to see them return to the glory days. They will never get there as long as the keep lying to themselves.
 
I'm a long time loyal fan of [H] and will continue to be but I thought this was way over the top. Tiny little HTPC cards aren't exactly our thing around here so I'm not surprised we didn't get a Nano sample just like I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't get a sample of AMD's latest low power APU. If AMD was wanting to avoid bad reviews, they wouldn't have sent the Fury X.

Even if all the AMD hate is true and they didn't think [H] would give them a fair shake, who gives a shit? I don't get why this is a big deal other than just another opportunity to flame AMD? [H] does have a history of being a little harsh on AMD like posting every negative article that comes down the pike on AMD on the Front Page while all but ignoring similar articles on Nvidia and Intel. They were pretty hard on the Fury X and there was that pretty raw editorial a few years ago Kyle did on AMD drivers sucking. None of them were untrue and I don't consider them biased or unfair (the constant Front Page stories do make me scratch my head tho) but they're still a little raw. Telling your lard ass wife she's disgusting and huge is a little different than just saying she needs to lose some weight.

Either way like to act like AMD was molesting children because they decided to skip [H] on a niche product that half of us won't care about anyway is a little much and comes off as just whining and throwing a tantrum. Just my 2¢.
 
I have been loyal to AMD when the cards were ATI. I have to admit I've been leaning toward the green team for a while now. I hate the proprietary tech from Nvidia, but AMD just seems to be foundering on real commitment, and then there are the constant driver issues which seem to point to big egos on top and lack of support at the bottom.
 
This is not the first time ATI or AMD has pulled shit on [H], the industry and the gaming community as a whole.

ATI Crossfire MIA
 
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Kyle, despite some jerk being in charge of AMD's PR, you could dial it back a bit man. You could just have said nothing and released a [this is where a review of Nano was supposed to go].

I have not read [H] for over a decade for Kyle to 'dial it back'
 
I'm kind of mystified by the whole thing.

Roy seems like an otherwise intelligent guy, I'm not sure what he was thinking.

I totally understand the PR perspective, of course you want to have your products viewed in the best light, and being selective of who you try to get reviewing it first, to try and get people who tend towards the sympathetic (or not too rigorous) writing the the early headlines is a way of doing that.

It's a shitty way, but understandable none the less.

Buuut, when it's a high price product released to some fanfare, you have to know that any anomaly, or perceived anomaly, is going to be picked over and generate discussion, as happened.

It seems like sticking your dick further into the hornets nest isn't the way you'd want to go.

Roy had to know that how he phrased that could only be inflammatory. Weird.
 
Agreed!!!

How many of us here buy based almost entirely on what an [H] reviews outcome is?

*raises hand*

I do...but it's only because I trust them. If I didn't, I wouldn't be here or read the material. I've spent a little more than 15 years reading reviews here and have not been led down the wrong path yet. That means a lot to me.
 
So H killed the hostage by deleting the thread about the nano from the forum, when AMD told them they don't negotiate with terrorists.

There is no right side here, they're both wrong. Picking which reviewers get free samples first is the right of the manufacturer. But then suggesting that the ones who are not getting one are unfair is a dick move, and totally uncalled for. I'd have fired the guy on the spot no matter his rank.

But responding to one dick move, by being a dick yourself by deleting the thread and then writing a whine piece on how you didn't get a sample and how you were mistreated is just as bad.

GTFO. AMD knew hardocp wasn't getting a card but know how many people come here for advice. They gave that member a sample to be the voice here on Hardocp because the other voices would have been unbiased. I knew it was a shill as soon as the "member" kept delaying giving performance numbers for random reasons that didn't make any sense. The thread post reeked of red tape and nda rules that the poster tried hard to make it seem like he wasn't bound by. I have no doubt that member was given clear instructions from AMD on what to say here because they knew Kyle and Brent wouldn't say what AMD wanted hardocp readers to hear.
 
So H killed the hostage by deleting the thread about the nano from the forum, when AMD told them they don't negotiate with terrorists.

There is no right side here, they're both wrong. Picking which reviewers get free samples first is the right of the manufacturer. But then suggesting that the ones who are not getting one are unfair is a dick move, and totally uncalled for. I'd have fired the guy on the spot no matter his rank.

But responding to one dick move, by being a dick yourself by deleting the thread and then writing a whine piece on how you didn't get a sample and how you were mistreated is just as bad.

My thoughts exactly.

If you're a self-identified asshole, don't be surprised that you're getting treated like one.
 
I'm surprised this is news to you, and testers at AMD. It was the 290X series itself which spawned the focus on warming cards up to evaluate. The 290X on its reference cooler would start out at a high frequency and over time throttle back as much as 200MHz after gaming for 15-30 minutes. It could not maintain its 1GHz advertised speed. This is what prompted AMD to specify an "Up To" clock speed. It worded the clock speed incorrectly from the beginning, confusing people and creating the whole GPU throttling backlash.

Even NVIDIA GPUs will start off at at a high GPU Boost speed for the first 5 minutes of gaming, and then fall off to a consistent GPU clock speed.

If you run a benchmark from a cold start, and the benchmark is only 5 minutes you are only testing the high-end of clock speed. If you leave the card gaming for 30 minutes, and re-test, you'll find the results different.

This is for both AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. Gaming over time affects the consistent clock speed on GPUs. The fact this isn't common knowledge, and tested correctly, worries me. It is something to think about in all video card reviews, how they are tested, matters.
This is actually very disturbing to me that someone who worked in the industry is surprised by this. This may explain why we have gotten reference coolers in the past few years with a TDP rating that cannot keep up with the TDP of the product it's trying to cool over time.

I've been a long time lurker and poster here. I love this site and the way they review hardware. I use this site as one metric to evaluate hardware and wholeheartedly acknowledge that H throughout the years has helped move the hardware gaming enthusiast community/industry forward in one way or another....but

I think much surrounding the FIJI launch got out of hand here at H and I think a lot of focus has had to do with current AMD pricing and current AMD marketing and less on the hardware aspects itself. I got this feeling after the initial Fury X review;

I read the latest Fury reviews from H and over all I didn't think they were fair. Concentrating its efforts on discrediting the card's marketing more so than concentrating on the card itself in the fury X review must of pissed off a few people at AMD. Also the fact that their gaming review suit is basically all hairworks games, except for BF4 which is also known to favour NV, certainly does not help to make AMD feel that the review was fair.

Giving it no award whatsoever considering its advanced HBM tech, its GCN compute and gaming capabilities, its small form factor, its very capable cooling tech and last but not least its subjectively cool looks is also unfair. Most sites gave it an award. Just the new HBM tech warranted one. Then that cooler that does a marvelous job at keeping the card cool and quiet under load. I mean there were many positives about this card but the review seemed hell bent on proving the over the top PR marketing wrong, that the card wasn't worth 650$ and that it couldn't be a viable 4k card even though it was still, in my view one of the best 4k cards on the market.

You know in the end there are people working on this tech year in and year out. People that have been working on fury and hbm for years. People like you and me that need their jobs. To then have the card seemingly unfairly reviewed by one of the worlds largest review sites by concentrating mostly on proving overhyped marketing wrong(mostly by fanboys and hardware enthusiast news sites) and that the card is over priced has gotta sting. People can lose their jobs. Companies can lose much valued market share with reviews like this. So yes I can understand AMD's viewpoint about wanting fair and professional reviews that don't look like a hit job when you read them.
I'm pretty sure [H] has been praising the tech of Fiji, particularly HBM. But in the end this is a consumer product review site. Products have to be reviewed based on what they offer in the real world within their competitve price bracket. For $650, the 980 Ti is a better buy, plain and simple. Back when the HD 2900 XT came out it was being sold to people based on the future promise that it would be amazing for DirectX 10 gaming, but it performed poorly in games people were playing at the moment. The Fury X is being sold as the best solution for 4K gaming, but it doesn't even include HDMI 2.0 and the competition still beats it in that area of performance. [H] does not hold back the punches when bullshit is being sold.

I'm sure in a perfect utopian society it would work out great for us all to treat everyone else with respect to our well-being. If everyone needed to be concerned with the well-being of the employees working for a company then wouldn't we be buying every single product in every market segment? This is a product being sold to a consumer market. If AMD employees want to keep their jobs then they need to be more competitive in their chosen market. Their success or failure ultimately rests on the quality of the product they're putting out.

Because of claiming that sites who are getting samples are not going to do fair and impartial reviews. Like writing a conclusion about a card that hasn't been reviewed yet is wrong and so is claiming sites are going to write biased reviews before the reviews have even been published.

Ever occur to someone that if AMD is doing this out of malice it's because of something [H] or TPU have already done? Show me prior AMD bias by sites who are getting cards. At least that's something we can look at the the site can defend themselves, if they choose. But accusing them of bias before the fact is just wrong.

I think you need to ask what it is that makes them unfair.
The two statements bolded above contradict your line of questioning. PCPer is being furnished a review sample of the Nano and they have historically been accused of being a shill site for Intel and NVIDIA.

Beyond that, as Kyle's piece so eloquently put: "Paper launches are going to bring forth paper opinions." Kyle's and Brent's opinions are based purely on the paper launch material provided to them. When it actually came to the testing the product the opinions could have ended up being the exact opposite.

So I read this entire thread.

I'm frankly astounded by the number of comments regarding "unprofessional" journalism on the part of HardOCP.

There is a distinct desire these days to be "politically correct" at the cost of defending your position.

It seems pretty obvious that this guy at AMD.....not just some random guy, a VP with some standing.....essentially singles out three review sites as being "unfair". Read between the lines a little........won't be swayed by company line and spit polish their turd.

Because of this so called "unfairness" these sites are not only singled out, but denied review samples, AND called unfair in so many words.

If someone called you out, in public, on a media site with world-wide coverage, how would YOU respond?
Politely......like gee, I don't necessarily agree with your point of view.....or point out to the guy how far off he was in less than uncertain terms.

HardOCP struck a nerve.....no hand holding, no politically correct nonsense, no bullshit.
Called a spade a spade and got AMD and their band of knuckleheads to pay attention.

The end.
I'd like to comment on the reemergence of the politically correct culture in our world, but that would be off-topic and turn into a rant. Regardless, I do think a lot of the replies commenting that Kyle was too "harsh" or could have chosen better wording are worrying in that regard. Kyle has an oldschool "calls 'em like he sees 'em" approach, but he never makes comments until the topic is approached from all angles. That is a rare quality in journalism these days that is quickly disappearing, and it is one that I respect and is one of the reasons why I keep coming back here after 10+ years.

I have not read [H] for over a decade for Kyle to 'dial it back'
Agreed! Never stop what you're doing, Kyle!
 
I read the latest Fury reviews from H and over all I didn't think they were fair. Concentrating its efforts on discrediting the card's marketing more so than concentrating on the card itself in the fury X review must of pissed off a few people at AMD. Also the fact that their gaming review suit is basically all hairworks games, except for BF4 which is also known to favour NV, certainly does not help to make AMD feel that the review was fair.

Giving it no award whatsoever considering its advanced HBM tech, its GCN compute and gaming capabilities, its small form factor, its very capable cooling tech and last but not least its subjectively cool looks is also unfair. Most sites gave it an award. Just the new HBM tech warranted one. Then that cooler that does a marvelous job at keeping the card cool and quiet under load. I mean there were many positives about this card but the review seemed hell bent on proving the over the top PR marketing wrong, that the card wasn't worth 650$ and that it couldn't be a viable 4k card even though it was still, in my view one of the best 4k cards on the market.

Just going to state flat out here that you're wrong. None of that shit matters, much less deserves an award. All those things are a means to an end. The end is gaming performance. The gaming performance was disappointing relative to what you could get from the competition for the same exact amount of money. HBM can eat a dick if it can't actually deliver performance. They could cram a cryogenic cooling unit and a real freaking quantum computer on that for all I care but regardless of how fancy and "advanced" it is, if it can't beat its competition in at LEAST one of: Price, Performance, Cost, Launch Date, then nothing else matters.
 
I only see this issue as a review site not getting their free early sample.
There's no entitlement to these samples. If for whatever reason AMD wants to leave you out then it's their own prerogative. Feel free to buy a card like you say you will do. Complaining about their actions doesn't benefit HardOCP or AMD.
 
I only see this issue as a review site not getting their free early sample.
There's no entitlement to these samples. If for whatever reason AMD wants to leave you out then it's their own prerogative. Feel free to buy a card like you say you will do. Complaining about their actions doesn't benefit HardOCP or AMD.

The AMD PR guy - as much as a PR guy can - said that the review sites not getting samples were not going to have fair reviews. That's pretty shite.
 
I only see this issue as a review site not getting their free early sample.
There's no entitlement to these samples. If for whatever reason AMD wants to leave you out then it's their own prerogative. Feel free to buy a card like you say you will do. Complaining about their actions doesn't benefit HardOCP or AMD.

It is transparent that you did not read the article.
 
I only see this issue as a review site not getting their free early sample.
There's no entitlement to these samples. If for whatever reason AMD wants to leave you out then it's their own prerogative. Feel free to buy a card like you say you will do. Complaining about their actions doesn't benefit HardOCP or AMD.

It's not meant to benefit AMD at all.

It greatly benefits HardOCP. As a reader of this site I like to know when the tech companies are trying to pull some bullshit.
 
AMD has been over promising and under delivering for quite a while now. This bullshit from Roy only adds fuel to the flames.
 
Wow! Roy Taylor...Assloch extraordinaire!

and guess where he is from? Texas.

Texas, a breeding ground of yahoos and asslochs. The state that gave us David Koresh, horrible leather footwear/headgear, and Walker Texas Ranger.

Thanks Texas!

LOL. Kyle, Dan (and possibly Brent) are in TX.
 
Keep on doing your thing Kyle and Brent. You guys do great work and if they don't want honest, good, quality reviews then I guess they'll go to their "yes men" review sites and drink their coolaid as their ship sinks.
 
Also, I like Texas @nilepez. Not from there but there are good people there. Guess you haven't met the right ones.
 
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