Why is tom'sHARDWARE so biased against AMD GPU's???

[mick500]

Just wondering why tom'sHARDWARE articles and reviews are so biased against AMD GPU's??? Are they paid by Nvidia?? Some of the stuff they come up with in the articles are ridiculous and fanciful, even failing to switch the r9 290x to uber mode for the review and calling it a cherry picked card?? If i were AMD i would never send tom's another product to review after that incompetence mixed with insult.

 

[albert 89]

Tom's Hardware gets more promotions from Nvidea thus more revenue.
Thus Tom's Hardware is not trust worthy.

 

[jaguarskx]

Quick hypothetical mousemonkey, Should i get a 290x or 780 NON ti? Lol.

To get back to the original question....

Both basically perform equal well overall, at least at 1920x1080 resolution. When in quiet mode the R9 290x performs marginally better than the GTX 780; 100% vs 99%. In uber mode, the R9 290x performs a little better. Below is an overall performance chart @ 1920x1080 from www.techpowerup.com; there are benchmarks for 1600x900 and 2560x1440 resolutions as well. Just click the link to the review.

I recommend you at least look at the benchmarks of individual games if not read the review. The test rig uses an Intel Core i7-4770K @ 4.2 GHz.


http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290X/27.html

 

[hellfire95]

It's because something important that runs the whole world not only this website.. MONEY!!! If AMD starts paying too, they too will get awesome reviews and show off them by beating Nvidia.. Tom's Hardware, more like Intel/Nvidia Hardware.

 

[wtfxxxgp]

Was this question really necessary? I have been reading THW for years and years - in fact, more than a decade. I've never found their articles to be biased either way because I'M NOT BIASED EITHER WAY. I think that's the nuts and bolts of this question. Someone says something about something you're more a fan of and then you scream blue murder because YOU took offence. I've always found a decent balance between a reviewer's opinion and their results on THW. The mere fact that you can start such a thread on the very forum that you're attacking is an example of how wrong you are about them being biased either way. I should state that I switch between ATI and Nvidia products on the basis of reviews, and THW has always been my number of source of information when I'm looking to shop around and GET THE BEST BANG FOR BUCK FOR WHAT I HOPE TO ACHIEVE. That's the point of this site, so if you're unhappy with hearing honest reviews or if you're prone to reading too much into a bit of constructive criticism, then the issue is yours, not THW.

 

[smeezekitty]

Was this question really necessary? I have been reading THW for years and years - in fact, more than a decade. I've never found their articles to be biased either way because I'M NOT BIASED EITHER WAY. I think that's the nuts and bolts of this question. Someone says something about something you're more a fan of and then you scream blue murder because YOU took offence. I've always found a decent balance between a reviewer's opinion and their results on THW. The mere fact that you can start such a thread on the very forum that you're attacking is an example of how wrong you are about them being biased either way. I should state that I switch between ATI and Nvidia products on the basis of reviews, and THW has always been my number of source of information when I'm looking to shop around and GET THE BEST BANG FOR BUCK FOR WHAT I HOPE TO ACHIEVE. That's the point of this site, so if you're unhappy with hearing honest reviews or if you're prone to reading too much into a bit of constructive criticism, then the issue is yours, not THW.

+100

 

[Colin Lee]

I suspect the OP is a wum and was hoping to ignite a fanboi war. Don't fall for it.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I suspect the OP is a wum and was hoping to ignite a fanboi war. Don't fall for it.

This is a known AMD marketing tactic.


http://myamdrewards.amd.com/amd-rewards-app/bhub/default/show?page=landing

http://alienbabeltech.com/abt/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=24247

 

[hypergon]

I don't think they are actually that biased that you could say they get money, just don't look at a single review!
But there are lots of nvidia fanboys (or fanboys 'of things that work' 😀) in the forums (starting with 'amd drivers suck' and ending with simple hate), of course there are lots of amd fanboys looking for new mantles and Hawaiian room heaters (not really a fanboy, but I'm considering the 290 trixx to heat my room)

 

[albert 89]

I don't think they are actually that biased that you could say they get money, just don't look at a single review!
But there are lots of nvidia fanboys (or fanboys 'of things that work' 😀) in the forums (starting with 'amd drivers suck' and ending with simple hate), of course there are lots of amd fanboys looking for new mantles and Hawaiian room heaters (not really a fanboy, but I'm considering the 290 trixx to heat my room)

 

[albert 89]

To be honest, you can't be a little pregnant ! My rig is both Intel & Nvidea powered & is a little dated. Yet I'm always looking around for the best hardware for my money. And I have noticed a definite bias against all things AMD from not just Tom's Hardware but across the web. Not to mention the selective reviews by Tom's Hardware to down play any hard won performance gains by AMD. Not to mention M$ (who still can't get win8 right) has optimised windows for Intel & Nvidea. So if I were a black guy then I would be treated no better then a slave even though I perform equal to or better in some respects. This is how the we all lose as consumers, fanboys & the industry as a whole.

 

[Colin Lee]

I suspect the OP is a wum and was hoping to ignite a fanboi war. Don't fall for it.

I suspect the OP is a wum and was hoping to ignite a fanboi war. Don't fall for it.

This is a known AMD marketing tactic.


http://myamdrewards.amd.com/amd-rewards-app/bhub/default/show?page=landing

http://alienbabeltech.com/abt/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=24247

Ahh, first time I've seen that. Sigh, can't trust anything or anybody nowadays it seems. Cheers.

 

[wtfxxxgp]

To be honest, you can't be a little pregnant ! My rig is both Intel & Nvidea powered & is a little dated. Yet I'm always looking around for the best hardware for my money. And I have noticed a definite bias against all things AMD from not just Tom's Hardware but across the web. Not to mention the selective reviews by Tom's Hardware to down play any hard won performance gains by AMD. Not to mention M$ (who still can't get win8 right) has optimised windows for Intel & Nvidea. So if I were a black guy then I would be treated no better then a slave even though I perform equal to or better in some respects. This is how the we all lose as consumers, fanboys & the industry as a whole.

Is it fair to say that there appears to be some sort of concerted effort by the industry as a whole against AMD? Corporations that choose to enhance individual sums of a whole by optimizing for particular other Corporations or brands are well-within their rights to do so. In many cases this is to the advantage of the average consumer and these types of agreements are usually taken after significant research into whether the end product would be deemed feasible by the consumers who would have to pay for that product or service. Let's cut through the clutter: AMD and Nvidia have both had turns to be held in high esteem for having the best products OF A PARTICULAR GENERATION/MODEL TYPE. This is technology that we're talking about, so it stands to reason that there will be times that one brand is all-conquering and other times that the same brand is blown out of the water by a competitor. Is it just me, or isn't that EXACTLY what we want as consumers? We want the competition to be fierce and swift and we also want supply of those great products to be in abundance so we can benefit out of the relationship of supply and demand and pay the lowest price. As far as I'm concerned, Nvidia's latest range is astonishing, and from my recollection, THW also commended them when they released articles about the latest range. That's how we all know that Titan finally gets its butt whipped by something that costs substantially less. It doesn't matter to me that it's only by a few FPS either. I remember seeing, and agreeing with, so many comments that said Great, now maybe Nvidia's pricing can decrease to remain competitive! When you have an untouchable product, it's relatively good business to charge a premium for it. That's business. So while I hate Nvidia's pricing, I have to also acknowledge that they are in the business of making money (as businesses are wont to do). Now that ATI has taken the fight to Nvidia and produced something that is truly outstanding AND for less money, I have the choice of purchasing that. If THW didn't point out a few issues with ATI's latest and greatest (pertaining to the reference model I might add), then I'd say they were being unethical because as a consumer it's my right to know what I'm buying or potentially looking at buying and review sites like THW are responsible for sharing that with us consumers. I think they've been doing an outstanding job over the years and I look forward to seeing their latest newsletter in my inbox. It's a silly consumer that is dedicated to a particular brand when it comes to these types of items. I say let them fight it out, let me reap the rewards and benefits

 

[Mousemonkey]

I suspect the OP is a wum and was hoping to ignite a fanboi war. Don't fall for it.

I suspect the OP is a wum and was hoping to ignite a fanboi war. Don't fall for it.

This is a known AMD marketing tactic.


http://myamdrewards.amd.com/amd-rewards-app/bhub/default/show?page=landing

http://alienbabeltech.com/abt/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=24247

Ahh, first time I've seen that. Sigh, can't trust anything or anybody nowadays it seems. Cheers.

It's always something to bear in mind when you see some of the comments that get posted on forums and social media sites.

 

[IrwanCahyono]

I thing THW is somewhat 55 percent against AMD ..

 

[rolli59]

I thing THW is somewhat 55 percent against AMD ..

Maybe it is because Intel outperforms them on CPU's and Nvidia has a better handle on SLI than AMD with Crossfire at the moment.

 

[heydan]

Lets remind that behind every company, call nvidia, amd or even tom´s hardware, the first motivation when you put a business is money, even if you have to come up with your "objectives", "goals" "visions", etc, etc, your primary goal is always money, so seeing this from this perspective, every business when they see an opportunity to maximize profits they gonna take it, so don´t be surprise if tom´s hardware is nvidia´s partner, so my conclusion would be... read a lot before making your decision to buy your hardware and keep in mind that some sites will be tilted from nvidia and others for amd.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Lets remind that behind every company, call nvidia, amd or even tom´s hardware, the first motivation when you put a business is money, even if you have to come up with your "objectives", "goals" "visions", etc, etc, your primary goal is always money, so seeing this from this perspective, every business when they see an opportunity to maximize profits they gonna take it, so don´t be surprise if tom´s hardware is nvidia´s partner, so my conclusion would be... read a lot before making your decision to buy your hardware and keep in mind that some sites will be tilted from nvidia and others for amd.

If THG was an Nvidia partner then they would have a portal up like AT has with AMD, after all it's all about the money.

 

[mr91]

There is a huge demand for AMD cards because of litecoin and other alternative coins to bitcoin that's is why high end AMD cards are not good value...

I think Tomshardware review are unbiased and provide the most reliable reviews on the internet...

Gtx 770 is better value at $340 than a 400+ 280x

gtx 780 is better value than a non reference R9 290 that sells close to $600.
You can get a Reference R9 290 however it's hot as hell and makes enough noise to disturb the neighbors...

The gtx 780 ti has a similar price tag to a 290x with a non reference cooler however it's faster.
The reference R9 290x is hot noisy and the consumer models are lower quality chips than the press samples.

If it wasn't for Mining AMD cards would be cheaper and I'm sure Tomshardware would give them more praise.

 

[petriedish81]

Just wondering why tom'sHARDWARE articles and reviews are so biased against AMD GPU's??? Are they paid by Nvidia?? Some of the stuff they come up with in the articles are ridiculous and fanciful, even failing to switch the r9 290x to uber mode for the review and calling it a cherry picked card?? If i were AMD i would never send tom's another product to review after that incompetence mixed with insult.

Take a look at the Saphire Toxic 290X review they had some pretty heavy praise for it. In fact the only thing I really saw was that they mention how bad the stock coolers were on the newer cards. As far as the cherrypicked comment, they bought retail versions for comparison to the card AMD sent them and its performance was drastically worse. I think they had a legitimate complaint and AMD had some explaining to do.

 

[smeezekitty]

My god everyone has gone nuts and the fanboys are jumping up and down and waiving their arms LOL

Why is that whenever someone has an apparent bias, they have to be paid off??

I mean I doubt the OP was paid by AMD and I doubt that TH is paid by NVidia.

To be honest, you can't be a little pregnant ! My rig is both Intel & Nvidea powered & is a little dated. Yet I'm always looking around for the best hardware for my money. And I have noticed a definite bias against all things AMD from not just Tom's Hardware but across the web. Not to mention the selective reviews by Tom's Hardware to down play any hard won performance gains by AMD. Not to mention M$ (who still can't get win8 right) has optimised windows for Intel & Nvidea.

A lot of this is due to FUD spread by fanboys who haven't even given AMD hardware a fair chance

So if I were a black guy then I would be treated no better then a slave even though I perform equal to or better in some respects. This is how the we all lose as consumers, fanboys & the industry as a whole.

WTH does that have to do with it??

 

[Brantyn Gerik]

at the moment, nvidia high end cards (760,770, and 780) are the better high end cards in north america. I ONLY say this because of the price increase the amd side has undergone since the mining craze took off. In many other countries the amd cards are still cheap, and so are a better buy as far as the 280x vs the 770, or the 290 vs the 780.

I would love to recommend amd products more, but the fact is, there is a lot of negativity towards the company recently. Their marketing schemes are borderline dirty (mantle promise to sell cards more effectively, but then delaying it now over 2 months and no real world gaming performance numbers...and i don't mean demos made with mantle, i mean actual games that can be measured between a mantle amd card and a nvidia card). They did the same thing with the generation before last's cpus, by releasing the motherboards nearly 6 months before the CPUs, promising great performance, but not delivering upon release.

This has just been my personal "being burnt" by amd. Their products are by no means "bad", but you tend to have to do much more research to find out the truth in terms of performance. For the money, Amd can be great, but you need to make sure you are buying the appropriate product for your needs. (the same can be said for intel and nvidia of course, but honestly, they just seem to be more up front about performance and easier to determine what you are getting (i3 is basic, i5 is pretty all around good, and the i7 is top teir).

This is ALL personal preference and is obviously not cold hard truth. Hope you get your build up and running to the best ability your money can buy


just copied and pasted this because i didnt want to re-type something similar...the idea is the same though

 

[mr91]

I prefer Nvidia however I'm very happy with AMD because Cards like the 290x keep Nvidia on their toes.

I don't think we would ever see a fully unlocked big kepler for $699 if it wasn't for AMD...

Competition is great Looking forward to the 20 nm battle later this year or early next year.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Just wondering why tom'sHARDWARE articles and reviews are so biased against AMD GPU's??? Are they paid by Nvidia?? Some of the stuff they come up with in the articles are ridiculous and fanciful, even failing to switch the r9 290x to uber mode for the review and calling it a cherry picked card?? If i were AMD i would never send tom's another product to review after that incompetence mixed with insult.

Sorry I don't really see it.
There are a few hardcore fanboys on here (which a few are incidentally moderators) but the articles seem pretty unbiased to me

The Reason is TH go more in depth and publish what the AMD Fanboys dont want getting out. The fact is ATM Radeon cards have issues , such as micro stuttering , Time frame variance , driver issues and massive crossfire failure. AMD were a great company when they were aiming for Bang for Buck , I mean my last 2 GPU's were Radeons and they were fine cards if u didnt wanna overclock even my HD6970 with Gigabytes Windforce cooler wouldnt overclock past 50mhz without shutting down, when you consider my GTX 780 runs at 1245MHz and doesnt even touch 65 degrees C Under a Full Load stress test. The temps these new 290X cards run at tell me they are pushing their gpus to the limit to get this performance Hence the "UPTO 1000MHz core" with throttling, im sorry but that should be the minimum GPU Clock speed not upto. And from what ive seen even with aftermarket third party coolers these 290X's run at stock Nvidia temps. So ATM Nvidia may cost more but you are paying for a better product when all things considered. AMD need to get things right first before aiming High-End and they had better or Nvidia will have no competiton which is bad for every1.

Funny you say that as I'm running twin HD 7970s in crossfire and I have no issues at all. No micro-stuttering, no "massive crossfire failure", no time variance, nothing. The problem is that you USED to own Radeons and now you don't so you didn't actually experience the problems being solved. To be honest, neither did I. The problems were solved months before I got my Radeons. This industry changes so fast that what you experienced even 3 months ago is no longer relevant. I dropped a good amount of coin on my cards and believe me, if they weren't perfect, I'd be here bitching about it. LOL

Having said all that, right now, because of the stupid litecoin miners, nVidia cards are a better deal for gamers because the Radeon prices have been pushed through the roof. Once the demand levels off, you'll find that the Radeon cards will be the better deal again. AMD has a history of being more consumer-friendly than either Intel or nVidia. AMD is also more supportive of open standards and improving the technology landscape as a whole. To me, that's a good thing.

 

[Brantyn Gerik]

Consumer friendly...sure, but you do have to admit they have some really snakey marketing schemes, such as letting motherboards be released 6 months before new processors, releasing video cards with the promise of fairly high percentages of gain from mantle while having no provable and reliable way to really know how good mantle will be...not to mention delaying it by a few months in certain games (Yes, primarily DICE's fault, but at least they could have released a public demo). They really rely on the consumers being drawn in on promises, that in the past (it was either bulldozer or piledriver) they just downright did not deliver on performance promises.

The source of most of my stuff comes from either Tom Logan from OC3D, or Logan from tek syndicate or Elric from tech of tomorrow.

 

[smeezekitty]

Consumer friendly...sure, but you do have to admit they have some really snakey marketing schemes, such as letting motherboards be released 6 months before new processors, releasing video cards with the promise of fairly high percentages of gain from mantle while having no provable and reliable way to really know how good mantle will be...not to mention delaying it by a few months in certain games (Yes, primarily DICE's fault, but at least they could have released a public demo). They really rely on the consumers being drawn in on promises, that in the past (it was either bulldozer or piledriver) they just downright did not deliver on performance promises.

The source of most of my stuff comes from either Tom Logan from OC3D, or Logan from tek syndicate or Elric from tech of tomorrow.

Its not like NVidia has never overpromised and underdelievered.
The fact is, NEVER rely on marketing. They just want to sell the product

Look for as unbiased of reviews as possible then make your choice.