Wednesday, September 1st 2010
Gigabyte Sells HD 5670 512 MB HyperMemory Card as 1 GB
Gigabyte is allegedly into dubious marketing schemes once again. A disgruntled user in East Asia who picked up the company's GV-R567HM-1GI graphics card was shocked to find half the "advertised" memory available to him. The GV-R567HM-1GI is an ATI Radeon HD 5670 based graphics card that physically has only 512 MB of GDDR5 memory, yet advertises on its box and labels that the card provides 1 GB GDDR5 memory with ATI HyperMemory technology. The "HyperMemory" part is very inconspicuous and nowhere on the front box is the actual memory amount mentioned.
For the uninitiated, HyperMemory technology is an age-old technique used by ATI usually on its lowest-end SKUs, to increase the amount of memory available to the GPU, by sharing a fixed amount of memory from the system's main memory. NVIDIA has an identical technology called TurboCache. The allegation here is not entirely that of false marketing, but dubious marketing practices. For starters, the card is a GV-567D5-512I that is rebadged, next, the actual memory amount is not mentioned on the front of the box, making it difficult for unsuspecting buyers who don't know what HyperMemory is, to determine the actual memory, and third, there is pure false marketing involved in calling "512 MB GDDR5 + 512 MB system shared" as "1 GB GDDR5", there's no DDR5 PC memory standard. AMD's guidelines (refer pg. 14) are clear on the matter of dealing with HyperMemory branding. If you come across this card priced close to 1 GB models, you're definitely not signing up for a "1 GB GDDR5 card".
Source:
PCDVD
For the uninitiated, HyperMemory technology is an age-old technique used by ATI usually on its lowest-end SKUs, to increase the amount of memory available to the GPU, by sharing a fixed amount of memory from the system's main memory. NVIDIA has an identical technology called TurboCache. The allegation here is not entirely that of false marketing, but dubious marketing practices. For starters, the card is a GV-567D5-512I that is rebadged, next, the actual memory amount is not mentioned on the front of the box, making it difficult for unsuspecting buyers who don't know what HyperMemory is, to determine the actual memory, and third, there is pure false marketing involved in calling "512 MB GDDR5 + 512 MB system shared" as "1 GB GDDR5", there's no DDR5 PC memory standard. AMD's guidelines (refer pg. 14) are clear on the matter of dealing with HyperMemory branding. If you come across this card priced close to 1 GB models, you're definitely not signing up for a "1 GB GDDR5 card".
79 Comments on Gigabyte Sells HD 5670 512 MB HyperMemory Card as 1 GB
shame on you gigabyte:slap::shadedshu
this wont go well.
I absolutely appal such practices. Shame on gigabyte. I will avoid their products... any product. I will not feed the hand that practices such skulduggery and tries to make suckers out of customers. (And the supply chain. I'm sure there are many small business PC shops that will think they have bought a better product to stock at a good price only to find out they have been ripped off... and to move stock... they then have to rip off their customers too. Horrible).
Gigabyte Product page also says :
"HyperMemory to 1GB (on board GDDR5 512MB) and 128-bit memory interface "
Asian boy needs to read product specs not try to decrypt box labels.
1gb should not be on that card at all.
Potential should not be advertised in such a way its misleading.
Imagine if motherboard manufacturers said their mobos have 8gb of ram or 16gb etc because that's what you COULD have.
You'd be fuming.
FYC : www.gigabyte.com/search/search.aspx?kw=GV-R567HM-1GI
that says 1GB DDR5
it has 512MB of DDR5
the 1GB is false on its own, and its misleading to think its 1GB of DDR5 as well.
since you want to take a liberal approach to reading it, it could mean 1GB of DDR5 with hypermemory on top of that, for even more ram.
* The entire materials provided herein are for reference only. GIGABYTE reserves the right to modify or revise the content at anytime without prior notice.
that said .. go figure .
" Integrated with the first 1GB GDDR5 memory and 128-bit memory interface "
Says it right on the box.
Means it should have 1gb ddr5 onboard.
But come on he was "shocked to find half the "advertised" memory available to him" If you're dumb enough to buy a piece of hardware based on a colorful box without reading its hardware specification.... Whats next ? Expecting to run Crysis maxed in full HD on a 30bucks card because the box had a screenshot of it ?
not 512MB + hypermemory.
do you work for these guys? did you make the box art?
PS.Yeah I'm a sexy secretary and I draw these all day.
It clearly states 1gb GDDR5 memory. ( when it should state 512mb ram 1gb with turbomemory!) or something.
Which it is not, that's misleading and illegal in this country.
Gigabyte would be required to provide a 1gb card or a full product refund if they sold that here with that box art.
-HYPER MEMORY 1GB
-GDDR5
saying that hyper memory makes up 1gb total, and that the card features GDDR5
having said that it most obviously reads as 1GB GDDR5, which the card doesnt have, this label can't be misinterprested, and it's the one I look for when wanting to purchase a specific Gigabyte card;
someone should get fired for this one Giga.
I hate gigabyte inspite of the fact their mobos are getting better lately.
I was feeling the same logic, you are correct and so is GB if you look at the box (not the sticker)... this could easily be misinterpreted as 1GB GDDR5, but in fact they are saying 1GB and then separately they are saying GDDR5. Where this logic takes a dive is the sticker on the back, they use / to divide different qualities such as the different output technologies... they omit the / on the memory side so it is no longer an option to read it as 2 separate qualities. They dropped the ball on this one.
I've never appreciated trickery, this will play a large part in my future purchase decisions.
Barr