AMD Receives Scathing Editorial From Hardware Review Site Tech Report

[zekrahminator]

Scott Wasson is the proud owner of the hardware review site Tech Report. Much like techPowerUp!, the Tech Report seeks to review new hardware for informative purposes. However, he recently had some choice words to say about AMD, and how many product he's allowed to test from them: almost none. Wasson, in an editorial, chastises AMD for not letting review sites get their hands on new products before, or sometimes even after, a hardware launch. Wasson claims that when a company does this to a reviewer, it's "a classic and sure-fire indicator of a poor product." Wasson claimed that even Intel, who certainly had their fair share of not-so-hot products (namely, the Prescott series) was more than happy to provide a review sample of new products. Wasson concludes his editorial by saying AMD "would do well to handle its struggles with similar grace and class". Please follow the source link for the full editorial.

Source: Tech Report

[Solaris17]

or he's jealous cause he didnt get a phenom

[TUngsten]

"Wasson, in an editorial, chastises AMD for not letting review sites get their hands on new products before, or sometimes even after, a hardware launch."

Can't really argue with that....after all, we as consumers tend to depend on these sorts of reviews, and it puts the onus on the company to develop good stuff.

[crow1001]

Poor product

hit the nail on the head.

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by zekrahminator

Wasson claims that when a company does this to a reviewer, it's "a classic and sure-fire indicator of a poor product."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[Steevo]

Damn straight.


Unless if those prices come down or ATI awes me with some form of hidden power I will have a Intel/AMD rig next.

[jydie]

Well, with comments like that they will most likely have even more trouble getting AMD/ATI samples... not a good move.

AMD is struggling a bit, and maybe they simply have to make cuts here and there... it happens all the time. Maybe they can no longer afford to send thousands of "free" samples out for review. That is no reason to attack their products. AMD/ATI is trying to keep things competitive in the mid and low level markets, and I am very thankful for that.

[W1zzard]

techreport is a very big and important site. they should be very very high on the sample allocation list.

and hey i'm still waiting for a hd38xx sample from amd

[FreedomEclipse]

Never have I heard of AMD refusing outright to alocate a sample to such a well known site. Or maybe they have but I havent heard them pulling that kinda stunt till now when their a little down in the dumps shall we say

[TUngsten]

Originally Posted by jydie

AMD is struggling a bit, and maybe they simply have to make cuts here and there... it happens all the time. Maybe they can no longer afford to send thousands of "free" samples out for review.

And wouldn't some great press/reviews/benches generating excitement for upcoming products be a good thing?

Whatever business model AMD isfollowing right now isn't working for them. I applaud the editorial in the hopes that it smacks some sense into those folks over there...

[Kreij]

Not sure why AMD would be doing this sort of thing.
Even if their product is not a "Core 2 Killer", they should be trying to sow good will to the tech crowd. An attitude of "Here's our stuff. It may not be the winner but we aren't giving up." would go a long way in keeping people supportive of them.

We all know making a killer CPU (or GPU for that matter) is not easy.
(Just ask Intel while they were the underdogs)

[WarEagleAU]

Maybe they are cutting back. Or Maybe there is miscommunication in letting samples out. My main reviews of products come from here, newegg.com and maximumpc. I never even heard of techreport until today...

[hacker111]

since this product is a not-so-hot one shouldnt they be advertising or give up on the product because if there is no sales then whats the point?

[jydie]

Originally Posted by WarEagleAU

Maybe they are cutting back. Or Maybe there is miscommunication in letting samples out. My main reviews of products come from here, newegg.com and maximumpc. I never even heard of techreport until today...

Dang, those are my three main sources for reviews as well.

[Jizzler]

Meh. I could care less about internal drama or what some reviewer thinks about a company.

What needed to be said had already been said in their Phenom review, though, I cringed a bit reading the introduction.

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by WarEagleAU

Maybe they are cutting back. Or Maybe there is miscommunication in letting samples out. My main reviews of products come from here, newegg.com and maximumpc. I never even heard of techreport until today...

Never trust newegg customer reviews, you don't even have to buy the product to review it. I could go post a review for an FX-74 despite the fact that I have never even layed my eyes on a FX-74.

[zekrahminator]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

Never trust newegg customer reviews, you don't even have to buy the product to review it. I could go post a review for an FX-74 despite the fact that I have never even layed my eyes on a FX-74.

Agreed...however, I think that the majority of the reviews are legitimate, and most people that don't own the product when they review it state that in the review.

[Kreij]

Originally Posted by zekrahminator

Agreed...however, I think that the majority of the reviews are legitimate, and most people that don't own the product when they review it state that in the review.

I agree with you Zek. Most of Newegg reviews are pretty technically accurate.

I do, however, enjoy the few that say "I don't own this but it ROCKS 'cuz I reads the internets!"

[Ripper3]

Originally Posted by Kreij

I agree with you Zek. Most of Newegg reviews are pretty technically accurate.

I do, however, enjoy the few that say "I don't own this but it ROCKS 'cuz I reads the internets!"

Worse still was when Athlon 64s were on top, and P4s were shite, but rocking massive clock speeds, people stating somethign like, "Don't buy AMD, they don't even make a 3.6GHz chip, and sell their 2GHz CPUs for the same price as this. It's not worth it.", and then added they were experts with technology.
I learnt the hard way never to trust reviews from clients of websites. It's usually just bollocks.

[EastCoasthandle]

Like W1z stated, he didn't get a 38XX to review. Does that mean he should publish an editorial like the one mentioned in this article? Come on, there are times were certain situations require a certain finesse and political know how in order to get what you want. Even if you don't get the product to review, you don't burn bridges because of it. How else will you channel future products from that company?

[TUngsten]

Originally Posted by W1zzard

and hey i'm still waiting for a hd38xx sample from amd

He's still waiting for his...meaning (I assume) he has been told he would have a review sample, yet ATI has gone ahead and put them on the market (and a pretty weak release as well, with everything being sold out everywhere).

[newtekie1]

Exactly, which is what the guy was trying to point out. People want to make informed decisions when buying products like these, especially high end ones. And when ATI/AMD drags their feet in getting review samples out the door to reviewers it makes it harder to make informed purchaces. His point is that perhaps that is what AMD/ATI want, people making uninformed purchases, because chances are if they were informed they would be buying competitor's products.

[TUngsten]

When you add in the totally crazy (and seemingly incomprehensible) numbering system, it sure makes for some confused consumers indeed.

[Urlyin]

I can personally contest on how hard it is to get vendors to answer emails to send items for review... most have a set number of samples to send out and do have their personal favorites... often it's a matter of having an inside track to even get a consideration much less a response... but with any vendor I would think it was a business need to send out as many as you could...

[jydie]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

Never trust newegg customer reviews, you don't even have to buy the product to review it. I could go post a review for an FX-74 despite the fact that I have never even layed my eyes on a FX-74.

Yes, that does happen on Newegg. I remember reading Newegg reviews for the HD 3870 on the day it came out... it was obvious those people did not have the card in their hands yet. I think that a vast majority of the reviews are legit though.

I buy a LOT of stuff from Newegg, and I like to read the reviews simply because they relate to people in my situation. I do not have a high end motherboard, CPU, video card, memory, or power supply... and thus, the "good" reviews on Newegg at least let me know what to expect with my setup. You can sometimes find out little things like whether a specific video card has a temperature sensor and fan control... or how far it will typically overclock. The reviews sometime point out possible errors in the product description as well.