Thursday, December 7th 2017
AMD Issues Official Statement Regarding RX 560 Silent Downgrade
AMD has come forward with a statement regarding the state of things as it purports to the recent RX 560 downgrade issue, which has been covered extensively by media outlets just this week. The issue stems from the fact that there was no clear differentiator between two different versions of AMD's RX 560 graphics card, which could ship with two different levels of performance: one with 14 CUs (Compute Units) enabled (896 stream processors) or 16 (1024 stream processors, the original specification for the card).
"It's correct that 14 Compute Unit (896 stream processors) and 16 Compute Unit (1024 stream processor) versions of the Radeon RX 560 are available," stated a company representative. "We introduced the 14 CU version this summer to provide AIBs and the market with more RX 500 series options. It's come to our attention that on certain AIB and e-tail websites there's no clear delineation between the two variants. We're taking immediate steps to remedy this: we're working with all AIB and channel partners to make sure the product descriptions and names clarify the CU count, so that gamers and consumers know exactly what they're buying. We apologize for the confusion this may have caused."
While it's true that AMD is now dealing with the situation openly, the company itself isn't completely blameless on the issue. AMD's own RX 560 product page lists the two possible configurations (14 and 16 CU) absent of any further differentiation in product name. At the same time, AMD could have better enforced differentiation opportunities with its AIB partners upon supplying them with both versions of the GPU. As it stands, some users have been unwittingly buying a lower performing part than what was initially advertised by AMD. While this new transparent stance from AMD is refreshing, it doesn't do much regarding already affected customers. Of course, if users suspect or want to check whether or not they have purchased the higher performance version of the card (16 CUs), they can perform a GPU verification with TechPowerUp's GPU-Z tool.
Source:
Tom's hardware
"It's correct that 14 Compute Unit (896 stream processors) and 16 Compute Unit (1024 stream processor) versions of the Radeon RX 560 are available," stated a company representative. "We introduced the 14 CU version this summer to provide AIBs and the market with more RX 500 series options. It's come to our attention that on certain AIB and e-tail websites there's no clear delineation between the two variants. We're taking immediate steps to remedy this: we're working with all AIB and channel partners to make sure the product descriptions and names clarify the CU count, so that gamers and consumers know exactly what they're buying. We apologize for the confusion this may have caused."
95 Comments on AMD Issues Official Statement Regarding RX 560 Silent Downgrade
*quoted from random internet post
"goes to every entity
What people refuse to accept is that all of these ambiguous naming schemes need to be called out upon equally. If we just find excuses for some of them and separate them from others , this sort of crap will never end.
This was the case with GTX 970, it is the case here, and it is not the case when it comes to a 1060 3GB vs 6GB for very obvious reasons... No difference in my book, and no free passes for either company at any time. Its a fine line, but to me its a very clear one.
There are quite a few markets where big steps have been made towards transparency in product descriptions, ingredients in food, etc etc. and even there you see this keeps returning in a new form. Its the confusing marketing that creates a profit window for companies, in most marketplaces these days and ever since... forever.
Blame capitalism.
Ill say it again... loot crate gpu here...
Until they fix the website, they continue to propogate the issue with ambiguous specs.
This is so hilarious , you people try so hard to defend Nvidia while completely ignoring the fact that what they are doing is identical to supposed "bait and switch stunts" you accuse AMD for.Yes , you only had to take a look at the spec sheet to find that out. You could also do that when buying a 560. Is there a difference ? Is the consumer more prone to not read those specs if they buy a 560 ? Because the name does not convey that information in either cases.
It is similar, not identical though. The distinction has been made enough times across these threads.
Ignore those dramatizing and focus on the issue...a non-existent entry on the amd website for the 560d.LOL, NO.
You can't and is the ENTIRE POINT HERE. How many times does one need to show the AMD website DOES NOT DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE TWO. Unless the box (LOL) or AIB (LOL) has it on their site, there isn't any way to tell.
How do we keep missing the fundamental issue here? This reminds me of the NFL and the Colin Kapernick thing... shit got so convoluted with other BS, the crux of the issue was lost.
You are standing in a store, you have 4 cards in front of you. A GTX1060 6GB, a GTX1060 3GB, a RX 560 4GB, and an RX 560 4GB. Can you tell me which GTX1060 has 1280 Cuda cores and which one has 1152? Yes, it is easy. Can you tell me which RX 560 has 1024 stream processors and which one has 896 stream processors? No, there's no way to tell until you get the card home and run GPU-Z.
Do you see the difference here? Or do you still want to go on about how the GTX1060 is the same situation?
Or how about another situation:
You already have a GTX1060 6GB, you like it so much you are going to buy another one for you brother for Christmas. You go to the store and buy a GTX1060 6GB. Did you're brother get a card with the same number of cuda cores as the card you had? Yep.
Or
You already own a RX 560 4GB, you like it so much you are going to buy another one for your brother for Christmas. You go to the store and buy a RX 560 4GB. Did you're brother get a card with the same number of stream processor as the card you had? You have no idea.
See why what AMD did wasn't the same?Um, try again. The nVidia cards you listed are two identical cards with the same specs getting different names. That isn't exactly the same thing to what AMD is doing. Do you even have a grasp on what AMD did? Or you are just blindly defending them..and you're calling me a fanboy?
Even the GTX970 issue you brought up wasn't as bad as what AMD did. NVidia didn't go back and physically lower the specs of the GTX970, and hence reduce its performance, without telling anyone. The performance of the GTX970 was the same at all times, the card that reviewers got was the same card that the customer was buying. This is not the case with the AMD RX 560 issue. AMD has gone back and psychically lowered the specs and performance of the card without really making it clear to the customer.
www.anandtech.com/show/10580/nvidia-releases-geforce-gtx-1060-3gb
If the consumer had read reviews and announcements from the original launch they could have easily walked into a store a month or two down the line and unknowingly buy a weaker 1060 under the assumption that it simply had less VRAM since it a very common occurrence for cards to be sold like this. This could have played out in exactly the same way if we are talking about a 560.
If however we assume the buyer does have access to all information that is available, in either cases he could have easily looked at the specs and figure out something is amiss. Now if they didn't then there is nothing else that could have prevented this from happening , both of those products should have had proper names.
This is why at the end of the day it is the same issue whether you are buying a 1060 or a 560.If I , for some reason , can't look up the specs ? No , I can't. And you conveniently provided zero explanations on why I should. Even more so , you said it's easy.
The reason why your example is fundamentally flawed is because it would have to rely on the assumption that one would already know that one of them has fewer shaders. Because if they didn't , there is absolutely no way they could tell that just by looking at the name and quite frankly I can't see how you could possibly prove the opposite.
If however you have some other explanation on why it is easier to tell which is which please say it.
As for this, it's an issue if there's no way of telling pre purchase what you're getting, and if the price is the same. But you can usually get some detailed data on the card you're looking, unless you buy from unreputable retailers or random dudes on ebay.
FFS, we get that it isn't as easy as it should be with the 1060... the point is there is ZERO recourse for the customer to determine the difference between the AMD cards as the AMD website does not distinguish between the two.
.. and frankly, again, NVIDIA, this is an AMD thread, nobody gives a shit about what they did. We all know it. If you want to reply and bantor with those dramatizing the issue adding fuel to the fire, do so, but this NVIDIA talk has gone on long enough across multiple threads. Sad.
priːˈdeɪt/
verb
3rd person present: predates
- exist or occur at a date earlier than (something).
EDIT : Don't want to be mean but you're doing it so often. :)"here parish boundaries seem clearly to predate Roman roads
Anyway , you are right I went off topic for far too long .
Regardless if the chicken or the egg came first, the point is NVIDIA distinguishes the cards on the website. So there is clearly a resource to find out versus AMD, there isn't. We know NVIDIA is the big bad wolf. It has no business being brought up here for the umpteenth time. Straw man argument... deflections....
TPU posting makes me want to cry.
In the immortal words of Howard Stern's father, "Don't be stupid, you moron".
(that was not directed at you, Vya)