
AMD takes the video card war to an appalling new low - maxko87
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/134409-amd-takes-the-video-card-war-to-an-appalling-new-low?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=amd-takes-the-video-card-war-to-an-appalling-new-low
======
jrockway
I couldn't really penetrate the writing style (something about virtuoso
violinists), but the problem is apparently that old cards can't get a new BIOS
update that makes the card run faster? This is not an appalling new low: this
is what hardware manufacturers have done for eons.

I'm pleased to say that I have no idea how fast my CPU or GPU are. They work.
I'll buy a new one in a few years. Relax and do something useful with your
computer.

~~~
jensnockert
It seems even less bad imho, it's probably that all cards with an AMD
reference design will get an update. But vendors with vendor-specific hardware
might not provide an updated BIOS that works with those cards?

~~~
stephengillie
That's probably exactly it - ATI has usually used Sapphire to make their
reference cards and ATI-manufactured cards. Many vendors make specific changes
to the bios, use out-of-spec or pre-overclocked parts, etc.

To put this situation in better perspective: If Intel made bioses in addition
to their current products, and they released a bios update for their
motherboards (with Intel bios and Intel parts). Here, he's mad because he has
an Asus motherboard with an Intel bios, and since Asus isn't releasing this
bios update, he won't benefit.

~~~
pwny
Thanks for the clarification, I own a 7970 and the article kind of disturbed
me. I hadn't thought about the fact that AMD isn't the only one to use the
GPUs.

The fact of the matter is (for me at least) that I paid for the 7970 as it was
on paper when I bought it. Of course I'd be mad if performance on it was
artificially lowered, then members of the press were given a new BIOS to
restore it to normal but that doesn't seem to be what's happening here at all.

------
weego
But you are still getting what you paid for when you bought it, you just
aren't necessarily getting more than you paid for.

I'm struggling to see a problem here.

~~~
mcabral
I don't see how giving certain users an upgrade could be extrapolated as bad -
It's not like they are retroactively crippling people's existing hardware or
anything. The reality of the situation is that certain companies are going to
have different board/bios configurations on their GPUs and I don't think it is
reasonable to expect AMD to provide a BIOS upgrade for all of these variations
on their own.

Somethings tells me that the cards that are getting the BIOS upgrade are going
to be the ones using reference designs (maybe it was stated as such in the
article but the author's writing style is kind of bleh).

~~~
stephengillie
The author sounds like a videocard fanboy who's throwing a tantrum. He didn't
get the bios update from his _favorite video card company_ that the reference
cards got, so now he's calling them dirty names on the internet.

------
jentulman
ExtremeTech takes journalistic clarity to appalling new low.

After reading this several times to work out what it meant, it does seem, as
others have mentioned, that this is down to differing hardware implementations
affecting compatibility, but can anyone find something in the soup where the
author makes a stab at positing that or any other explaination as a reason,
other than 'AMD are arbitrarily shitting on some people"?

It feels more like, decoding the 3rd paragraph, he's just finished a review of
the card with the older BIOS, will now have to redo that review and is
subsequently throwing his toys out of the pram about it.

------
rootbear
Extremetech has really gone down hill since laying off all of the good people
in 2009. They've adopted a more tabloid journalism style, with provocative
headlines and overheated articles. I miss Lloyd Case.

~~~
mrsebastian
You understand that one of the old authors (Matthew Murray) wrote this story,
right? :)

~~~
rootbear
No, I did not know that. I still stand by my observation that Extremetech has
gone down hill and I will note that writers must please their editors if they
wish to get published.

------
mansr
Sounds to me like AMD simply improved the yield in production such that they
are confident increasing the clock rate on new chips. An old chip may or may
not be good enough to run at the higher rate.

------
sageikosa
Caveat emptor, and I've always been aware that updates I get direct from the
GPU manufacturer may not work on a particular implementation. It is highly
likely that they just don't hardware qualify all the vendors that use their
GPUs, so cannot state which ones will benefit. Sensible policy that says more
about the vendors that integrate the GPU than it does about the supplier.

------
darkf
I really wish sites like these weren't posted. The mobile (tablet) site is
absolutely appalling and I don't see how anyone uses it.

------
jacques_chester
I think the author is upset because some of the new cards will only be
upgradeable to 110 mega-breathless-hyperbolens/second.

