Graphic Cards A rant on HardOCP

J

jai

Contributor
Woohoo, look at this:

1. ATI, HardOCP is not your personal PR b**ch, so don't treat us like one again. You're on thin ice and you should be ashamed of your actions this year. We at HardOCP don't want to be a mouthpiece for vaporware in order to keep your stock price up. So from now on, if it is not the real deal, just keep it to yourself.

2. Continue with the "If NVIDIA does it, we can do it too!" methodology that has been working for you guys for a while now. But from now on, keep a tighter timeline.

3. Repeat after me. Paper launches, NO. Product launches, YES.

4. NVIDIA is setting the new standard by having their card builders selling the products on the day that they are launched. Learn it, know it, live it. And NVIDIA, don't change up on us now.

The bottom line is that the enthusiast hardware community wants products, not Canuck promises. ATI is quickly burning through a solid and loyal fan base that they built back in the days of the 9700/9800. Now is the time for ATI to step up with honest damage control, not another half filled basket of half baked promises.
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I wonder what ATI did to the guys at HardOCP to deserve this kind of front page writeup. The PR guys at ATI must be doing some serious damage control right now!

Source It is actually on HardOCP front page!
 
I am not surprised with amount of b**ching going on at HardForums for last 1 month about ATI.

Dont know what happened but thats pure rant. If they dont like delay in ATI's delayed launch then its their problem. Why rant about this?

If there is any other reason then they should tell it and then rant.

I wanted to post on their forums but they have banned my account for using yahoo email address.

Lets see i am gona register again.
 
lol ! thats quite unprofessional though. Its not like Nv had sli products and availability day-one. So Kyle thinks Nvidia 7800 hard launch will continue all throughtout Nv's card launches. Imho that's not possible though. Also before ranting he should have checked out with ATi. So let me quote from TR.

TechReport said:
During Friday's adventure, we asked ATI for an update on the availability of CrossFire hardware. Here's the latest, straight from ATI:

Radeon X850 XTs CrossFire Edition cards have been shipped to Newegg and we expect them to be posted any time now and we are confident no later than the end of the week. The X800 XLs and X800s will follow shortly after—around October 10th.

DFI's CrossFire Edition motherboards will also be available on Newegg at the end of this week/beginning of next. The others: MSI, ASUS, GBT, ECS, PCPartner, ABIT will follow will follow shortly thereafter.
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So is a 2 week delay apt for things like " ATI, HardOCP is not your personal PR b**ch" and the he actually goes to act like "Nvidia PR" by saying "And oh yeah, Quake 4 just went Gold. WooHoo! I think I just found a reason to go ahead and go SLI. (Always been a big Quake fan...) Too bad CrossFire is not a real option, although I am unsure whether or not I would consider it at this time, just due to having a fear of lacking support and service by ATI."

Great assumptions on part of kyle i guess. but meh i don't care about Hardocp these days.
 
funkymonkey said:
I am not surprised with amount of b**ching going on at HardForums for last 1 month about ATI.
Dont know what happened but thats pure rant. If they dont like delay in ATI's delayed launch then its their problem. Why rant about this?
If there is any other reason then they should tell it and then rant.
I wanted to post on their forums but they have banned my account for using yahoo email address.
Lets see i am gona register again.
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Erm.. there was a similar rant back when NVidia was caught "optimising" the IQ back in the Q3 days.. he's spreading the love ;)
Anyway, I spoke to Lethal about your yahoo a/c.. no go. You need a non-free or ISP account.. we've had major problems with the drive-by spammers lately.
 
TechHead said:
Erm.. there was a similar rant back when NVidia was caught "optimising" the IQ back in the Q3 days.. he's spreading the love ;)

Anyway, I spoke to Lethal about your yahoo a/c.. no go. You need a non-free or ISP account.. we've had major problems with the drive-by spammers lately.
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i dont mind using my ISP account or gamil. Its just that i cant log into my old account and change the email address. thats what the problem is. I dont really wana change my old username.

And ok if company is bringing out inferior product then bringing the truth out is justified. Not for having delay in the launch. If he was soo pissed about the crossfire then HardOcp should not have reviewed it in the first place before it hit the retail.
 
Switch said:
well i am registered with a gmail account on [H]... Why not try a indiatimes account...
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That will only work until you make any changes in your UserCP. As soon as you do that, you will need to enter a non-commercial email address.. ;)

@funky: Lemme try.. is your username funky there?
 
Expected.

I feel the same way really. They delay too much. Lose customers. Its bad for them itself. I really dont card about SLI and Crossfire, but delay = bad.
 
Hmm Hardocp is getting a lil too aggresive by the day, first the 3dmark fiasco followed by the phantom vapourware and now this. Personally around 2 years back [H] forums were one of the best but now they are filled with Nvidia owns ATI or AMD owns Intel kinda noobs.

Infact at present after beyond3d forums I find TE forums one of the most informative forums.
 
Aces170 said:
Infact at present after beyond3d forums I find TE forums one of the most informative forums.
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Ah, Aces, this is the discussion going on about the same topic on Beyond3D forums. Equally split between "they deserved it" and "he should have toned down" and "he should be shot", I think.
 
Its not just [H]...Heres the blog from Rahul Sood - Chairman of VoodoPC.

When AMD, Intel, ATi, or NVIDIA launch something big, they always try to get companies like VoodooPC to test it ahead of time, offer feedback, and perhaps use it in our review systems. I’ve been pretty quiet about the ATi Crossfire launch. Even though we’re listed as a launch “partner” we still don’t know much about it other than what we read online.

I hear it’s pretty good other than the 60Hz 1600x1200 resolution limit, dual x8, the mess of dongles in the back, and the lack of availability. I emailed ATi multiple times in the last month or so, and I’ve received no official reply about when we’ll get it. I already instructed the salespeople at Voodoo to just tell customers the truth about SLI vs Crossfire, there really is no comparison when you’re comparing something that’s real vs something that’s not available.

The closest I've come to sampling Crossfire was when someone outside of ATi emailed me a Powerpoint presentation. That's pretty brutal.

What I don’t understand is why the majority of editors aren’t giving them a hard time about claiming it was available, yet a company like VoodooPC (ie: the ideal target market) still hasn’t seen it. I can’t imagine we are the only company in this position, I’m sure there are many others. I also checked their online configurators and I can only conclude that most of them (if not all) don’t want to speak up for fear that it might hurt them later. I believe that if we don’t speak up we’re doing ourselves, our customers, and the ATi shareholders a disservice. I wasn't even asked to sign an NDA on Crossfire, which is odd because when NVIDIA launched SLi they were bang-on with their schedule. When NVIDIA said it was available now, they didn't mean 8 months from now.

Can someone at ATi please contact me today and tell me when we’ll get a working sample? We can’t really launch something that we haven’t tested as I’m sure you can appreciate. Once we get it we'll certainly consider using it in our systems provided it's everything it's claimed to be.

Perhaps my frustration is getting the best of me -- though I am pretty sure that "Rahul and VoodooPC" is not the issue here. ATi needs to read a thing or two about relationship building. Communication is the key here ladies and gentlemen. Pick up the phone or better yet email me, you know my address. I promise to post an update later either way.
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http://voodoopc.blogspot.com/2005/10/reward-if-found-ati-crossfire.html
 
again voodoopc is very small ( customer number wise) custom pc specialist etailer. not the big retailer or anywhere close.

He was frustrated bcoz he didnt get the test sample. ATI concentrated on world wide PR this time. Everyone expects ATI paying attention to them. Thats simply is not possible every times.
 
I copy this from the front page of the H. Seems to explain why Kyle was upset too...

HardOCP Vidicates Sander!

Yours truly, PR b**ch extraordinaire, has come to the personal rescue of the website that will post "reviews" of video cards they have never touched. Please let me know if there is anyone else that needs vindicating with first hand information.

Many of you did not question our numbers, or the details given, but many others started to slander and discredit me in their forums, or prominently on their website. For example Kyle Bennett was particularly outspoken and supportive of ATI and pretty much looks like a fool now, he apparently is ATI’s b**ch, as he so eloquently put it himself. Below are links to the articles we’ve written about ATI’s R520 architecture, CrossFire and other issues concerning ATI that were said to be false, and have now been vindicated.

Our ATI R520 coverage is here for your perusal. And unlike Sander, we actually had a card. Honest, we did! I can show you pictures!!!!
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I have gotten a handful of mail this morning from Canucks with their panties in a wad about me using the word "Canuck" to describe ATI. Let me just say this. If you are truly stupid enough to take that as a slam on a whole country, well then you probably should not be reading up about DIY tech stuff as you are a surely going to break it. ATI is a bunch of Canucks in my book and always has been. It is not the first time I have referred to them as Canucks and it will not be the last. I have never even thought of Canucks as being a derogitory term. And yes, we have been using it for years.

http://www.hardocp.com/news.html?ne...3QgICAsMjAwMA==

If you don't like the way I say it, then I invite you to never again view our little web page. So if you have a touch screen, I am sure you can easily touch the Red X in the top right hand corner of your browser with your pinky finger that is sticking up from your tea cup.

Go read Anandtech if you want PC. www.anandtech.com
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I hope you guys did read this...
 
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