Did Nvidia bribe Origin to drop AMD GPU? [pcworld]

[krumme]

"”It certainly sounds feasible,” says Jon Peddie, founder and analyst at Jon Peddie research. Peddie said he had no direct knowledge that this was the case, but “Nvidia, AMD, Intel, VIA Technologies—back when they were in the game—they’ve all done things like that from time to time.”"

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2052...ion-to-so-publicly-dump-amd-video-cards-.html

"
We have plenty of respect for Origin PC’s product line, but don’t let one PC builder’s decision sway your personal video card purchasing decisions—especially when independent reviewers who truly have no vested interest in the outcome haven’t been able to offer their opinions.
"

Background information:
Origin PC sells about 5000 units a year
They still use AMD CPU




We already have a thread on this subject.
Please post your comments there.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2345984


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[RussianSensation]

The entire reasoning for dropping AMD from Origin provided by the firm made no sense. Apple has some of the world's best customer service. If AMD's GPUs give everyone so much trouble, Apple would have dropped them faster than the US government shut down.

And yet the new Mac Pro that will be sold for a lot of $ to professionals has AMD GPUs in it:
http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/

I am not sure if NV bribed them but for a small boutique shop, it makes a lot more sense from a profit margin perspective to push GTX780/Titan SLI than some $300-350 HD7970Ghz cards. Since AMD doesn't even sell $1000 GPUs, how could Origin sell a $5,000 PC with 4 GPUs? It's not possible.

• Nvidia: 2.42% failures in the field
• AMD: 3.23% failures in the field

What's unusual is that Origin publicly made the announcement yet Alienware has no AMD GPUs in their gaming laptops but made no announcement of the sort:


http://www.alienware.com/Landings/laptops.aspx

 

[Grooveriding]

It's nvidia, they probably did.

 

[wand3r3r]

As mentioned in the other thread.

Posted 10/01/2013

You're going to hear a lot more about 4K resolutions in 2014. More and more, we're starting to see 4K monitors and televisions trickle into the marketplace, but as far as PC gaming is concerned, not all hardware supports running games smoothly at Ultra HD. To take the guesswork out of it, boutique system builder Origin PC has partnered with GPU maker Nvidia to design and build 4K gaming-ready "BattleBox" systems.

http://www.maximumpc.com/origin_pc_nvidia_team_deliver_4k-ready_battlebox_gaming_machines2013

Then like the next day: We're suddenly dropping AMD cards due to bla bla bla... Right when a new generation with rumored hardware framepacing, etc. is coming out. Oh coincidence that we announce it and make sure to inform news sites.

For such of a clearly paid stunt they are getting undue publicity which is only good for a tiny boutique of 5k pcs per year.

 

[Kenmitch]

The timing and the public announcement make it look so to me at least. Not sure what they got in return but....They look to be small potatoes anyways.

Will be funny to see what happens if Mantle lives up to it's hype!

 

[Erenhardt]

The timing and the public announcement make it look so to me at least. Not sure what they got in return but....They look to be small potatoes anyways.

Will be funny to see what happens if Mantle lives up to it's hype!

It is not only about OriginPC it seems:
http://semiaccurate.com/2013/10/05/much-nvidia-pay-origin-pc-drop-amd/

So with this in mind SemiAccurate did some calling around and the answers probably won’t surprise you. Multiple sources all said the same thing, a certain Nvidia marketing person, they all called him Bryan for no particular reason, has been calling around to all the Tier 3++ gaming PC makers offering large dollops of funding to dump AMD GPUs or so the story goes

 

[Pariah]

It is not only about OriginPC it seems:
http://semiaccurate.com/2013/10/05/much-nvidia-pay-origin-pc-drop-amd/

Not a believable source. Companies the size of Nvidia should be smart enough to know by now, that just writing big checks to block out the competition is not something the courts find amusing. It's certainly possible that Nvidia offered other "incentives" like discounts on product or cheaper support, but I don't believe this source is reliable of should be taken seriously.

 

[Pariah]

It's nvidia, they probably did.

Yea, I'm sure AMD has never given incentives to a company to use their products. Ever. Only NVidia has ever done that.

 

[blackened23]

It's tin foil hat time. I just see this as pointless because even if it did happen, nobody will ever fess up to it. I can see why Origin would do it (make an agreement with NV to drop AMD, that is). But then again Origin also sells pre-built, water cooled systems aimed at surround gaming - obviously NV is better at this until AMD fixes eyefinity CF. So I can see both sides being equally plausible, but then we're left back to the start...nobody will ever fess up if it did happen. Pointless. Who cares, it's not like AMD would lose much because water built systems with 3-4 GPUs are a niche of a nice of a niche of a niche. Besides which, being nice in the business world generally doesn't work. Companies don't play nice. They do what they have to do to win.

 

[sushiwarrior]

Not a believable source. Companies the size of Nvidia should be smart enough to know by now, that just writing big checks to block out the competition is not something the courts find amusing. It's certainly possible that Nvidia offered other "incentives" like discounts on product or cheaper support, but I don't believe this source is reliable of should be taken seriously.

Multiple SemiAccurate sources say this number is in the six digit range, several gave exact figures but asked us not to publish them. This isn’t direct cash payments but more towards MDF funding, product discounts, and other quasi-legal kickbacks that are directly tied to and based on sales volume of AMD GPUs. More details were given to SemiAccurate but we were asked not to publish the exact terms to protect our sources.

Not cash payments, benefits. TBH I'm not surprised, first Intel does this to AMD and now Nvidia

More or less just capitalism at work I guess... Some companies will do anything to make a buck (especially if they can steal it from that other company).

 

[Erenhardt]

Yea, I'm sure AMD has never given incentives to a company to use their products. Ever. Only NVidia has ever done that.

Looking at your recent post history and this excusing for nvidia foul play, could make one wonder how much stock you own...

 

[blackened23]

Yeah, AMD needs to do some of that "capitalism at work" stuff. Being nice doesn't work. Being a son of a ...biscuit works. You know, when AMD GE's program kicked into full gear I remember an interview saying "we don't want to lock competitors out blah blah blah, we are fully committed to industry wide standards". That's the wrong approach. AMD should be the jerks that they need to be in order to leverage their developer relations - but AMD is too nice. Nice doesn't work in capitalism. AMD should do some GCN specific tweaks with various engines to make their hardware shine. NV certainly doesn't shy away from getting engines like UE3 to completely shine on NV hardware - UE3 even has physx built in. But oh no, AMD doesn't want to do that, they're all about being the nice guys.

Do you see NV being nice? Saying "we don't want to lock competitors out from TXAA or physx?" Hell no. They know that value added features sell. It isn't JUST about that, of course, nvidia also makes awesome hardware and awesome software (AMD still hasn't caught up to NV on the software side).

Maybe with Mantle, if they play their cards right, they can finally do something right to win market share. I certainly hope so, anyway, i'm optimistic about the 290X. I hope it lights a fire under nvidia. They just need to get the software right, get Mantle in every game engine possible, and price the card right. Then AMD can actually perhaps come to parity with NV as they did during the 5870 days.

 

[Keysplayr]

Is this all about denial that OriginPC's reasoning for dumping AMD couldn't possibly be true? Is it more believable that a multibillion dollar company, who knows its way around the SEC would so easily let itself be incriminated?

I'll tell ya, I'd be right stunned if this were accurate at all. ESPECIALLY when semiaccurate is involved, folks, do I have to tell you?
I mean, what if I owned OriginPC and just dumped AMD because I liked Nvidia products better? Or, what if SiliconWarrior owned OriginPC and dumped Nvidia because he liked AMD products better?

And if I started a thread saying "Did AMD bribe Origin to drop Nvidia GPU? [pcworld]" I'm pretty sure and AMD fan would type exactly what I did above.

I mean, what, and more importantly, why are we talking about this?

 

[wand3r3r]

Fact: Origin PC "teams" up with NV
Fact: About a day later they "quit" offering AMD, but not just dropping it, they send the info to tech sites.
Fact: ~2 weeks before a new AMD card(s) are being released

Rumor: Supposedly with eyefinity, hardware framepacing fixes
Rumor: Supposedly faster or equal to the highest NV card

Speculation: It's not to hard to connect the dots, it's blindingly obvious they don't want to give AMD a chance even with a completely new card, thus showing their own ignorance or otherwise motivated decision.

Sure it's possible their altruistic virtue to ensure all their "support issues" which are causing friction with their customers is the root cause, but it's pretty obvious what their motivation is.

 

[Abwx]

Yea, I'm sure AMD has never given incentives to a company to use their products. Ever. Only NVidia has ever done that.

Giving incentives to have his products used is one thing
very different from giving incentives to not sell products
from your competitors.

So far only intel and nvidia did resort to such dirty tactics
in respect of Amd wich do not use such unethical and baseless
policies.