High-End PC Manufacture Ditches AMD Graphics Chips

[IanDavis]

High-End PC Manufacture Ditches AMD Graphics Chips

Origin PC changes graphics cards due to stability concerns.

The world of high-end PC gaming is one of duality. While sports fans have many tribes to identify with, those in the hobbyist market must pick between one of two: Nvidia or AMD. It's unusual to see a retailer take sides in the fight as well, but that's exactly what's happened. [a href=http://www.originpc.com/]Origin PC[/a] (who has nothing to do either EA or Wing Commander) has [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/4/4803932/origin-pc-stops-selling-amd-gpus]dumped AMD[/a] graphics cards from its lineup, citing various concerns about stability and performance.

"Primarily the overall issues have been stability of the cards, overheating, performance, scaling and the amount of time to receive new drivers on both desktop and mobile GPUs," said Alvaro Masis, one of Origin's technical support managers.

"Origin PC is dedicated to providing the best experience for our customers and right now that is with Nvidia GPUs. It's not about brand loyalty or marketing; our loyalty is 100 percent to our customers," Origin CEO Kevin Wasielewski told Polygon.

Just in case you don't follow corporate battles like the World Series, this is just the latest in a long line of cat fights. Earlier this year, AMD won the contracts to manufacture the chips in both the Xbox One and Playstation 4, after years of diminishing market share. [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128108-Nvidia-Console-Graphics-Will-Never-Again-Outpace-PCs]Nvidia responded[/a] to the news by saying that they didn't really want the console market anyway, as PCs would always be better (and have a higher margin).

Source: [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/4/4803932/origin-pc-stops-selling-amd-gpus]Polygon[/a]

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[Commander Obvious]

Looks like Nvidia paid them off.

 

[Snotnarok]

I'm not really surprised someone is complaining about ATI given their track record with keeping their product software up to date. I've been avoiding them because of that, they're just not great for the cash asked.

 

[Doom972]

I do keep hearing about AMD cards spontaneously combusting. As I understand it they have better performance, but at the cost of durability. With my gaming habits, I should stick with nVidia (as I've done since the fall of 3DFX).

 

[JayRPG]

Looks like Nvidia paid them off.

Well.. maybe, but their official stance on the matter does make plenty of sense.

Nvidia is miles ahead with their drivers, both the quality of them and the quantity plus the speed of new driver releases is a million times better than AMD.

Nvidia cards do run cooler and their high end cards do perform better.

So, I'm undecided, either Nvidia paid them off and/or pointed out their superiority or they just made a logical choice for a company trying to sell the highest end/best PCs.

 

[mad825]

Nvidia is miles ahead with their drivers, both the quality of them and the quantity plus the speed of new driver releases is a million times better than AMD.

Despite quite a few users having major problems with the latest release for nearly a year now....Nvida are suggesting to underclock the 400/500 factory overclocked cards to "fix" the problem. -.-

 

[qwertybirdy]

Well you can cook an egg on a Nvdia card if that appeals to them.

 

[shintakie10]

I do keep hearing about AMD cards spontaneously combusting. As I understand it they have better performance, but at the cost of durability. With my gaming habits, I should stick with nVidia (as I've done since the fall of 3DFX).

AMD cards, historically, have worse performance than Nvidia cards.

Generally speakin the rule is you get what you pay for. Nvidia cards are more expensive, but they will outperform any AMD card in their price range. However AMD cards usually can be close to the performance of Nvidia cards (though I dont think anythin AMD has can come close to a Titan right now), but for a cheaper price.

If you're fine with payin less, but knowin you're buyin an inferior product, then AMD is for you.

 

[unacomn]

Ovearheting? First time I've heard of that. Well, some games tend to tickle their fancies a bit too much, like the first Guild Wars did with my x1950. But I've not run into any trouble with the 5850.

My GeForce 8800 Ultra on the other hand did burst into flames in League of Legends. And mind you, that wasn't a cheap card.

As for drivers, haven't had problems, really. Well, not as much problems as I used to have with the GeForce 6600 back in the day, having to roll back drivers on a monthly bases because the new ones broke Dreamfall, Race Driver Grid, Bioshock, and so on.

 

[z3r0n1nj4]

Honestly, it's dependent on how much you want to spend on your card. If you want a more budget friendly card, you're not gonna beat an AMD card at this point. If you're gonna be running dual cards or drop $800+ on a graphics card, Nvidia is better at the moment. (Haven't seen much about the crossfire performance since the newest driver dropped to see if they have fixed the frame stutter, which is why Nvidia is better in SLI right now.) Temps aren't an issue, just look into the coolers that the company of the card manufacturer uses (Never had a good Sapphire or xfx cooler on one of their cards personally as an example.) Personally, I'm running an AMD 6850 made by gigabyte with their own dual cooler on it, highest I've gotten it to hit temp wise full bore is around 60C.

 

[romxxii]

Nvidia is miles ahead with their drivers, both the quality of them and the quantity plus the speed of new driver releases is a million times better than AMD.

Despite quite a few users having major problems with the latest release for nearly a year now....Nvida are suggesting to underclock the 400/500 factory overclocked cards to "fix" the problem. -.-

You do know that the latest WHQL Nvidia drivers were released last month, right? It doesn't take Nvidia a year to resolve issues.

Well you can cook an egg on a Nvdia card if that appeals to them.

When was the last time you used Nvidia, the 90's? Nvidia cards have been running cooler than AMD equivalents for about two generations now.

 

[Yuuki]

Being a PC builder, it's a pretty bad idea to limit yourself to a single manufacturer - especially in the GPU market considering how heated the competition gets between AMD and nVidia.
I can only hope Origin PC sees a reduction in customer complaints after this decision of theirs, otherwise it would have been for nothing.

Looks like Nvidia paid them off.

Looks like AMD paid you to say that. And I'm being totally serious, my conspiracy is just as true as yours.


Anyway, there is nothing Origin PC can say or do that will stop people from throwing around random conspiracies. Nothing at all.
The CEO even specifically stated that it's not about brand loyalty/marketing - if people want to believe otherwise then that's totally fine, opinions are opinions. The company can do nothing about that. If their own data has reflected negative trends/patterns, they can only take the necessary steps to address that.

 

[oldtaku]

Paid off by NVidia. They're not the only third tier PC builder targeted. http://semiaccurate.com/2013/10/05/much-nvidia-pay-origin-pc-drop-amd/

Edit: And today: http://semiaccurate.com/2013/10/07/nvidias-program-get-oems-like-origin-pc-dump-amd-called-tier-0/

Semiaccurate obviously does not like NVidia - but they've been extremely good in the past about digging up dirt like this.

 

[romxxii]

Paid off by NVidia. They're not the only third tier PC builder targeted. http://semiaccurate.com/2013/10/05/much-nvidia-pay-origin-pc-drop-amd/

That's all speculation. It's obvious the author is furiously waving the AMD flag, or at the very least burning the Nvidia one. I'd rather wait for corroboration from a known neutral news source.

 

[oldtaku]

Paid off by NVidia. They're not the only third tier PC builder targeted. http://semiaccurate.com/2013/10/05/much-nvidia-pay-origin-pc-drop-amd/

That's all speculation. It's obvious the author is furiously waving the AMD flag, or at the very least burning the Nvidia one. I'd rather wait for corroboration from a known neutral news source.

There's PC World. The whole thing is extremely fishy. You wouldn't normally announce that you're just dropping choices from your lineup. It's perfectly calculated to create stories on sites just like this one that AMD cards are crap.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2052184/whats-behind-origin-pcs-decision-to-so-publicly-dump-amd-video-cards-.html

Note - I'm using Nvidia cards right now in this PC, but it still stinks to high heaven.

 

[Callate]

Y'know, last time I had to actually take a computer in, the technician had similar sentiments about AMD's graphics cards- that they tended to run hot and unstable. My wife hasn't had too much trouble with hers; I've tended to stick with Nvidia, so I can't really comment as for my own experience. It does seem a shame, though, if the transition from ATi to AMD has meant a downgrade in quality control.

 

[romxxii]

Paid off by NVidia. They're not the only third tier PC builder targeted. http://semiaccurate.com/2013/10/05/much-nvidia-pay-origin-pc-drop-amd/

That's all speculation. It's obvious the author is furiously waving the AMD flag, or at the very least burning the Nvidia one. I'd rather wait for corroboration from a known neutral news source.

There's PC World. The whole thing is extremely fishy. You wouldn't normally announce that you're just dropping choices from your lineup. It's perfectly calculated to create stories on sites just like this one that AMD cards are crap.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2052184/whats-behind-origin-pcs-decision-to-so-publicly-dump-amd-video-cards-.html

Note - I'm using Nvidia cards right now in this PC, but it still stinks to high heaven.

Well this is certainly a better read; it's got absolutely no bias written all over it for either side, and has facts and figures. The SemiAccurate one, OTOH, was practically foaming at the mouth with anger at Nvidia, like it got his teen daughter pregnant or something.

 

[oldtaku]

Well this is certainly a better read; it's got absolutely no bias written all over it for either side, and has facts and figures. The SemiAccurate one, OTOH, was practically foaming at the mouth with anger at Nvidia, like it got his teen daughter pregnant or something.

Oh it's totally true that SemiAccurate does not like Nvidia. I don't blame you for wanting a second source.

 

[lacktheknack]

I don't particularly care if Nvidia paid them off. It's not like AMD/ATI is hurting much, what with them owning the next console generation.

All I know is that every Nvidia card I've had performed better than every ATI card I've had.

I also know that I'm not going to invest in an Origin computer, because I don't hold an irrational hatred for my wallet.

 

[lacktheknack]

I'm not really surprised someone is complaining about ATI given their track record with keeping their product software up to date. I've been avoiding them because of that, they're just not great for the cash asked.

And <link=http://img5.joyreactor.cc/pics/post/geek-%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B0-ATI-86865.jpeg>this nicely sums up the problems I've had with ATI cards. We're in agreement.