News Micro Center Slams AMD GPUs, CEO Issues Apology

[Admin]

Micro Center's CEO has apologized for a blog post praising Nvidia graphics cards over AMD options.

Micro Center Slams AMD GPUs, CEO Issues Apology : Read more

 

[Brian28]

Maybe Microcenter should offer a discount for those "inferior" cards. I'm not holding my breath.

 

[King_V]

That's a little odd. I don't follow their blog or anything, but it's weird. I don't know who posts them, but it almost sounds like one of those typical trollers that trot out ages old claims that get repeated over and over got in somehow and started ranting.

Any AMD/ATI card I've dealt with has aged out of driver support before I had to do anything. ONE particular Gigabyte card developed a fan rattle in one of its two fans, but, being a Windforce OC card, that cooler design is Gigabyte's, not AMD's. And, it only rattles at a very specific RPM.

It's like they allowed an Nvidia fanboy to hop in for a moment or something.

Bizarre.

 

[spentshells]

Free advertising... at the expense of AMD

 

[MMorris666]

I've been gaming on pc for several years now, started with 980's then 2080ti and after getting a new tv i needed hdmi 2.1 to get the most out of it, so i got a 6900 xt. now i might have a dodgy card or something but ive been really disappointed. micro stutter in some games, others black screen and restart the pc. the fans ramp up twice as loud as the other cards ive had and the heat its putting out is crazy.

 

[irish_adam]

I've been gaming on pc for several years now, started with 980's then 2080ti and after getting a new tv i needed hdmi 2.1 to get the most out of it, so i got a 6900 xt. now i might have a dodgy card or something but ive been really disappointed. micro stutter in some games, others black screen and restart the pc. the fans ramp up twice as loud as the other cards ive had and the heat its putting out is crazy.

Yeah you need to send it back, I have the 6800xt and it's got to be the quietest reference card I have ever owned and I've had more than a few from both teams. I have not had any of the issues you describe at all so either you got a dodgy card or you're a troll

 

[thepersonwithaface45]

"Slams" is a bit of an exaggeration imo

 

[MMorris666]

Yeah you need to send it back, I have the 6800xt and it's got to be the quietest reference card I have ever owned and I've had more than a few from both teams. I have not had any of the issues you describe at all so either you got a dodgy card or you're a troll

Troll? nice
its not a reference card ether, its the red devil. like i said it could be the card, it could be it doesn't play well with my old system. when i get some time and can be bothered i will look in to it more.

 

[saudor]

Yeah it’s kinda true to be honest. Multi monitor power consumption is through the roof for the longest time on AMD. Even with a clean install of windows, my AMD crashes on wake from sleep regularly. Connecting a display to the iGPU does help a bit for some reason. Also blasts so much heat into my case it‘s not even funny.

Other computers in the house with AMD cards also exhibit bugs (although not as extreme)

It’s definitely a driver issue since on hackintosh with macOS drivers, absolutely no issues. Sleeps like a baby. Wakes up fine.

 

[blppt]

I've been gaming on pc for several years now, started with 980's then 2080ti and after getting a new tv i needed hdmi 2.1 to get the most out of it, so i got a 6900 xt. now i might have a dodgy card or something but ive been really disappointed. micro stutter in some games, others black screen and restart the pc. the fans ramp up twice as loud as the other cards ive had and the heat its putting out is crazy.

I have a RedDevil factory oc'd 6900XT, and its by far the most stable and quiet air-cooled AMD/ATI GPU I've ever had. Even the drivers have been remarkably good since day 1, which has definitely not been my experience in the past with AMD/ATI. Something might be up with yours. Or maybe the upgraded cooler that ships with the custom cards is that much better?

Edit: I didn't see that you have the same card as me, lol. Scratch that list bit about the upgraded cooler.

Yeah, I think something is up with yours---I used it with an Intel 390/9900KS until I could find a 5950X in stock. Its now being used with the 5950X and X570. No issues with either setup. No superclocked fans, no black screens, no crashes.

 

[Giroro]

Its always so weird to see Micro Center treated like it's some big national chain.

It's not. There are exactly 25 microcenter locations.

There's twice as many Best Buy stores between me and the nearest micro center than there are micro center stores on earth. I say this, knowing that for the first time in my life I finally live within driving distance of a micro center... so long as you consider 4 hours round-trip to be driving distance.

Does Micro Center get so much attention because there isn't anything else? Is America totally depleted of electronics stores? Because best buy doesn't exactly scratch that itch.

 

[markthestark]

I've been gaming on pc for several years now, started with 980's then 2080ti and after getting a new tv i needed hdmi 2.1 to get the most out of it, so i got a 6900 xt. now i might have a dodgy card or something but ive been really disappointed. micro stutter in some games, others black screen and restart the pc. the fans ramp up twice as loud as the other cards ive had and the heat its putting out is crazy.

Yup sounds like a card issue, I have the ASrock 6900XT Phantom Gaming D, zero issues so far, yeah it requires a bit more tweaking to set it up correctly such as the fan curve and unlocking the power limit, the rest you can leave up to the card it will boost perfectly fine

 

[zodiacfml]

writer justifying the popularity of Nvidia cards without research

 

[MMorris666]

I have a RedDevil factory oc'd 6900XT, and its by far the most stable and quiet air-cooled AMD/ATI GPU I've ever had. Even the drivers have been remarkably good since day 1, which has definitely not been my experience in the past with AMD/ATI. Something might be up with yours. Or maybe the upgraded cooler that ships with the custom cards is that much better?

Edit: I didn't see that you have the same card as me, lol. Scratch that list bit about the upgraded cooler.

Yeah, I think something is up with yours---I used it with an Intel 390/9900KS until I could find a 5950X in stock. Its now being used with the 5950X and X570. No issues with either setup. No superclocked fans, no black screens, no crashes.

im running it on a 4790k, great machine but its showing its age. was going to upgrade end of 2022 start of 23 but now i think i might go for 5900 refresh with the stacked cache.
the fans ramp up at weird times though, i'll be playing warzone and the fans go crazy when its in the menu finding a match but as soon as the game starts they go back to normal.

 

[jpe1701]

You guys at Toms might want to reread that last sentence unless you are purposely doing the same thing that you are reporting on. Lol. I mean I know you are using the words best graphics cards to link to that article, but you are saying the best graphics cards are Nvidia.

 

[g-unit1111]

The only "upkeep" I've had to do on my 5600XT is regular driver updates. Whoever wrote this is absolutely nuts.

 

[thenewnumber2]

Its always so weird to see Micro Center treated like it's some big national chain.

It's not. There are exactly 25 microcenter locations.

There's twice as many Best Buy stores between me and the nearest micro center than there are micro center stores on earth. I say this, knowing that for the first time in my life I finally live within driving distance of a micro center... so long as you consider 4 hours round-trip to be driving distance.

Does Micro Center get so much attention because there isn't anything else? Is America totally depleted of electronics stores? Because best buy doesn't exactly scratch that itch.

You nailed it. And they are also doomed to share the fate of their former competitors: before long, your buying choices will be Amazon, or nothing.

 

[Jim90]

"Eventually, the topic of repasting the GPU or replacing the thermal pads can come up, but that's normal for any graphics card, whether it be Radeon or the best graphics card from Nvidia. "

Toms, wanna have a re-read of the last sentence in this article, pasted above? - and no, that deliberate and strategically placed link, actually makes your case worse...!!!

Toms: we shill for Nvidia because they pay well and we don't care for our readers.

 

[jpe1701]

"Eventually, the topic of repasting the GPU or replacing the thermal pads can come up, but that's normal for any graphics card, whether it be Radeon or the best graphics card from Nvidia. "

Toms, wanna have a re-read of the last sentence in this article, pasted above? - and no, that deliberate and strategically placed link, actually makes your case worse...!!!

Toms: we shill for Nvidia because they pay well and we don't care for our readers.

Thank you, I couldn't paste when I made my comment because my hands are disabled and I was on a tiny tablet. Not that they will answer anyways. Only a few years ago the authors on Toms would take part in the comments, but now they act like it's beneath them to have to deal with the masses. Certainly not the Toms it used to be. They have changed hands again at some point in the last couple of years, and if you scroll down and check out some of the other sites owned by the same company they look like clones with the same layout and even some of the same story themes like the intel vs amd who makes the better _ crap.

 

[-Fran-]

Ironic that people forgets how nVidia has gimped complete generations and basically sold GPUs that would literally melt after a while, updates that burned cards or cards that would just combust. AMD may not have the most stable drivers and quirks here and there, but holy cow if it's not an overstatement to say they're almost unkillable unless you want to.

As for references, look for the nVidia kerfuffles with the mobile 8000-series and their solder shenanigans, the driver updates that stopped fans and literally thermally killed GPUs and the GTX590's that could spark and die.

It amazes me how technical sites, companies and others that SHOULD KNOW BETTER can let stuff like that pass and forget. And on that final note, let's just take a second to remember the "Just Buy It!".

Regards.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

AMD just moved all GCN GPUs to legacy support even though some were being sold as recently as last year before the cryptoboom finally died up supplies and are still viable cards. If that's not enough negative publicity (which I can't help but notice TH didn't do an article on) then nothing Microcenter can say will be.

Not saying nVidia is perfect, but 10 years of support is better than less than 3.

 

[frogr]

Its always so weird to see Micro Center treated like it's some big national chain.

It's not. There are exactly 25 microcenter locations.

There's twice as many Best Buy stores between me and the nearest micro center than there are micro center stores on earth. I say this, knowing that for the first time in my life I finally live within driving distance of a micro center... so long as you consider 4 hours round-trip to be driving distance.

Does Micro Center get so much attention because there isn't anything else? Is America totally depleted of electronics stores? Because best buy doesn't exactly scratch that itch.

Microcenter and Best Buy are two different animals all together if you are not buying a prebuilt system. The knowledge about components and building systems of the Microcenter staff is several orders of magnitude greater than what you'll typically find at Best Buy.

The 25 Microcenter stores probably have more computer component inventory and selection than all of Best Buys combined.

 

[Sleepy_Hollowed]

I've been gaming on pc for several years now, started with 980's then 2080ti and after getting a new tv i needed hdmi 2.1 to get the most out of it, so i got a 6900 xt. now i might have a dodgy card or something but ive been really disappointed. micro stutter in some games, others black screen and restart the pc. the fans ramp up twice as loud as the other cards ive had and the heat its putting out is crazy.

What manufacturer? Perhaps their design and thermal solution is a <Mod Edit>, because the AMD latest are the cooler cards.

The one thing that screws all vendors on fans and temperatures is if you leave uncapped frame rate on games.

Unless you’re playing on tournaments and have adequate cooling, the cards will use 100% GPU to increase the frame rate, so if you cap the frame rate you’ll get better results.

 

[watzupken]

I've used a Sapphire RX 6800 XT Nitro earlier, and I feel the experience is mostly positive. At least I don't face crashed in games, and the games all run smoothly on my 3440x1440 monitor. Driver maintenance? I feel the same applies to both AMD and Nvidia. If you game a lot, it is unfortunate you will need to download new drivers often. There is no perfect hardware because it is clear that even the RTX 3000 series is not problem free. To date, you can still read online where there are people who are still facing issues of black screen/ crashing with some Ampere cards. The issue is not widespread, but like I said, nothing is perfect.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Does Micro Center get so much attention because there isn't anything else? Is America totally depleted of electronics stores? Because best buy doesn't exactly scratch that itch.

Since Fry's Electronics is no more, Micro Center is basically the last "chain" brick and mortar store if you want one for computer hardware.

Otherwise yes, dedicated electronics stores are becoming a rare thing. I would argue the smartphone pretty much killed what market there was for most electronics you'd find in such stores as late as the early 2000s.