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XFX Bilking the masses - replacing GDDR5 memory with DDR3

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happy medium said:
No, my response is, they released a card with faster specs, had it reviewed, showed the benchmarks, and they expect the millions of average consumers to know that the ddr5 card is faster, how?. I think thats wrong for any company or board partner. It seems just a bit deceiptfull to me.

Point is, even if the op (or millions of others) read the ddr3 label on newegg, how are they to know?😕

How far should the average consumer have to research?:confused:
Click to expand...



I'm not sure, but when it's clearly on the label and in the specs...

What about my non reference cards? Do I have a valid complaint that these have a different cooler than the reference part?
 
happy medium said:
I think thats wrong for any company or board partner. It seems just a bit deceiptfull to me.
Click to expand...
Yes, and it has also been the way of things since I can remember. NV and AMD, Gigabyte & MSI & XFX & PowerColor, etc. They all do it.

Low - mid-range cards offer cheaper "alternative flavors", with likewise lower performance, but the specs difference is not hard to detect. I would appreciate it if they stopped doing it, but it has been going on for so long that I have simply accepted it as "the order of things".

happy medium said:
How far should the average consumer have to research?
Click to expand...
Depends on how bad he wants to not be ripped-off. The truth of the matter is, the average consumer does not even research, and just follows the recommendations of the Best Buy salesman (or [insert salesrep of favorite B&M store]). So all our bickering here does not even affect them much. Most of the time, it's really just us.

That said, I would still prefer if this behavior stops, because I can certainly use spending less time "researching" when model numbers ideally should just be the end-all of my decision, but it is what it is, and as long as the specs are clearly displayed for me to see, I cannot legally complain about bait-and-switch.
 
SlowSpyder said:
I'm not sure, but when it's clearly on the label and in the specs...
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Understood, but there are literally hundreds of thousands of people out there that have no idea what memory bandwidth is. These are the people we should be defending by saying "hey this crap is wrong"

We should be backing the op not beating him down, we were all not so technically savy at one point.

I mean really, not one review of the ddr3 model on the whole freaking internet?
Thats just wrong man.

edit:
If there were a few reviews out there or some easier way to know the difference between ddr3 and ddr5 , I would be whipping the op with some of you guys. 🙂
 
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happy medium said:
No, my response is, they released a card with faster specs, had it reviewed, showed the benchmarks, and they expect the millions of average consumers to know that the ddr5 card is faster, how?.
Click to expand...
Here are some options:

Is DDR3 faster than DDR5?

Ask a saleperson. Ask a friend. Read the description of the card. Look at the price, and consider a lower priced product might be slower.

Yea, I think the consumer might have a few resources at their disposal.
 
jvroig said:
Yes, and it has also been the way of things since I can remember. NV and AMD, Gigabyte & MSI & XFX & PowerColor, etc. They all do it.

Low - mid-range cards offer cheaper "alternative flavors", with likewise lower performance, but the specs difference is not hard to detect. I would appreciate it if they stopped doing it, but it has been going on for so long that I have simply accepted it as "the order of things".


Depends on how bad he wants to not be ripped-off. The truth of the matter is, the average consumer does not even research, and just follows the recommendations of the Best Buy salesman (or [insert salesrep of favorite B&M store]). So all our bickering here does not even affect them much. Most of the time, it's really just us.

That said, I would still prefer if this behavior stops, because I can certainly use spending less time "researching" when model numbers ideally should just be the end-all of my decision, but it is what it is, and as long as the specs are clearly displayed for me to see, I cannot legally complain about bait-and-switch.
Click to expand...

I agree, but the last thing that should be happening is to blame the unsuspecting consumer. Poor guy allmost got his head ripped off on the first page of this thread. 🙂

Fight the power!😛 Down with all the companies that do this. 🙂
 
AnandThenMan said:
Here are some options:

Is DDR3 faster than DDR5?

Ask a saleperson. Ask a friend. Read the description of the card. Look at the price, and consider a lower priced product might be slower.

Yea, I think the consumer might have a few resources at their disposal.
Click to expand...

Most sales people are scum 😛, some friends have xboxes, and sometimes the prices for the slower cards are higher.

I do see your point, but my point is, informative threads like this one are the best threads for the up n comming gamer. I for one don't want to discurage new PC gamers. The more PC gamers we recruit, the less people buying 360's, and the better exclusive PC games we get.😎
 
apoppin said:
Are you talking to me? *Who* is making out that moral shortcomings are exclusive to AMD? Certainly not I 😛

i have my own tech site and forum and i explain the insider view of the industry to our members. i know how it works. ABT is a media partner with both AMD and Nvidia.

Don't pick on one of my posts and attempt to make something out of it. We are dealing with a specific situation - and if you weren't lazy to read all of my posts in this thread - you would realize that i also talk about Nvidia and Galaxy with complete frankness.
:colbert:
Click to expand...

Am I talking to you? Well, yes. I'm not lazy. It was your first post in this thread that I saw. Did I miss a prior one? I'm not sure how I was supposed to read any other posts to get any other reference prior to that.

I'm not "picking on" anything. I'm just responding to your post. The post of yours I quoted said specifically, "AMD encourages it". It didn't say the industry encourages it, or nVidia, or Galaxy, or anyone else.

I know you have your own tech site. You know I know it. Why tell me again?
 
3DVagabond said:
Am I talking to you? Well, yes. I'm not lazy. It was your first post in this thread that I saw. Did I miss a prior one? I'm not sure how I was supposed to read any other posts to get any other reference prior to that.

I'm not "picking on" anything. I'm just responding to your post. The post of yours I quoted said specifically, "AMD encourages it". It didn't say the industry encourages it, or nVidia, or Galaxy, or anyone else.

I know you have your own tech site. You know I know it. Why tell me again?
Click to expand...
Yes, i think you did miss a post or two.

i am relating my own experience to be able to say that it is not "the partners", that AMD did encourage it in at least one case. The fact is the tech sites all got GDDR5 halo versions of HD 6450 to bench against the GT 520 even though there was no stock for many months; the only version available for purchase was the slower and cheaper DDR3 version and that is what the OEMs use.

i also said that i was aware of tactics and would continue to relate to my own forum members "insider" information - regarding both sides as my site is a media partner with both AMD and Nvidia. i like both companies and work with them regularly.

So what is your point?
 
unledcfe.png
/fixed

Whether you write it down in a post or write it on an image which you then embed on your post, profanity is not allowed in the tech forums.

Moderator jvroig
 
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3DVagabond said:
Just checked the thread. That was the first post by you I can find. I don't think I missed anything. Sorry, but I can't very well respond to future posts.
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Well then i do not understand what you are trying to say to me.

i related my experience and my reason for believing as i do.
 
happy medium said:
I mean really, not one review of the ddr3 model on the whole freaking internet?
Click to expand...

1. The cards are fairly recent.

2. DDR3 models of the 6670 are even more recent.

3. Interest to review sites to review these cards are probably low, since the demand to know their exact performance is not high for budget cards.

4. DDR3 will be slower than DDR5; that is pretty much a fact. You just don't know exactly how much, but is it really necessary to know exactly? There's enough information out there to gauge the performance difference.

5. Looking at HD 5570 reviews and adding +10% will approximate performance.

6. DDR3 versions, while slower, are also cheaper and they probably use less power. So one negative can turn into two positives.
 
cusideabelincoln said:
1. The cards are fairly recent.

2. DDR3 models of the 6670 are even more recent.

3. Interest to review sites to review these cards are probably low, since the demand to know their exact performance is not high for budget cards.

4. DDR3 will be slower than DDR5; that is pretty much a fact. You just don't know exactly how much, but is it really necessary to know exactly? There's enough information out there to gauge the performance difference.

5. Looking at HD 5570 reviews and adding +10% will approximate performance.

6. DDR3 versions, while slower, are also cheaper and they probably use less power. So one negative can turn into two positives.
Click to expand...

7. you seem to have missed the entire point of my posts.
 
It's threads like this that I'm so glad I'm on Anandtech... I hated it when If ound out I got suckered a few years ago...
 
AnandThenMan said:
Fine, I take it back, I don't want to get into a personal back and forth here. If you want, PM me. Otherwise consider the issue closed.
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OK. Feel free to PM me also.

You have to realize that i personally really like the guys at both Nvidia and AMD and their companies. Most people think there is always some kind of conspiracy going on - and some people seriously believe one (or the other) company is evil and the other is blameless.

i attempted to point out that the tech sites are important for looking carefully at not only what is offered for review - but at the bigger picture of what is actually available. Sometimes a company will project for something that doesn't quite come to pass - or is a bit more expensive or unpopular than expected.
 
happy medium said:
Understood, but there are literally hundreds of thousands of people out there that have no idea what memory bandwidth is. These are the people we should be defending by saying "hey this crap is wrong"

We should be backing the op not beating him down, we were all not so technically savy at one point.

I mean really, not one review of the ddr3 model on the whole freaking internet?
Thats just wrong man.

edit:
If there were a few reviews out there or some easier way to know the difference between ddr3 and ddr5 , I would be whipping the op with some of you guys. 🙂
Click to expand...


Right, and many people buying this card don't care about performance as much. They care about getting an $80 card.

I would like to see a review to see how this part does compared to other cards in this price range. But is it up to AMD or Nvidia to ask review sites to review their board partners non-reference/low cost designs? AMD and Nvidia create the reference parts, those are what are typically reviewed. Any non-reference/lower cost designs, I would think that would be up to review sites to look at, or for XFX, Sapphire, Palit, etc. to ask to be reviewed.

Again, I think it's sort of sad how someone buys a very clearly marked DDR3 part and then starts spamming the message boards about how he was ripped off... What about my non-reference cards, do I have a valid complaint?
 
SlowSpyder said:
Right, and many people buying this card don't care about performance as much. They care about getting an $80 card.

I would like to see a review to see how this part does compared to other cards in this price range. But is it up to AMD or Nvidia to ask review sites to review their board partners non-reference/low cost designs? AMD and Nvidia create the reference parts, those are what are typically reviewed. Any non-reference/lower cost designs, I would think that would be up to review sites to look at, or for XFX, Sapphire, Palit, etc. to ask to be reviewed.

Again, I think it's sort of sad how someone buys a very clearly marked DDR3 part and then starts spamming the message boards about how he was ripped off... What about my non-reference cards, do I have a valid complaint?
Click to expand...

I can understand the OP's point though and some consumers are not up on specs as others are. Probably a lot of consumers seeing GDDR-5 performance in reviews and unknowingly buying GDDR-3 product sku's.

Think it is disingenuous to have the same names with a stark difference in memory band-with. It's not surprising though because tech companies, at times, do disingenuous things including nVidia, AMD and their partners.
 
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