Wednesday, March 20th 2019
Kyle Bennett of HardOCP Joins Intel as Director of Enthusiast Engagement
Kyle Bennett, owner of tech publication HardOCP that ruled the web for over two decades, has joined Intel in the position of Director of Enthusiast Engagement. Following his departure, HardOCP will "mothballed," in that it will not generate new content, its IP and existing content will be owned by Bennett. HardForum.com, on the other hand, will be sold to a company Bennett is familiar with, demonetized, and run by volunteers and funded by Patreons. At Intel, Bennett will work under Technology Leadership Marketing, and will lead the company's efforts to "reconnect with the top of the high-performance consumer pyramid which contains hardware enthusiasts, overclockers, gamers, and content creators."
Kyle Benett is among a handful superstar tech journalists Intel soaked up in recent times as Raja Koduri and Chris Hook build Intel's Infinity Gauntlet with them. These include Ryan Shrout from PC Perspective, and Damien Triolet from Hardware.fr (albeit via AMD). Anand Lal Shimpi probably was one of the first and most prominent tech press leaders who left his publication for the industry. AMD's arsenal includes Scott Wasson from The TechReport and the famous overclocker Sammi Maekinen. Lars Weinand from RivaStation works for NVIDIA (also via AMD). Kyle Bennett is famous for a mountain of work in the DIY PC sphere, but in recent times is most recently credited for exposing and leading an awareness campaign against NVIDIA's poorly conceived GeForce Partner Program (GPP). We wish Kyle Bennett all the very best in his new endeavor and pray that he doesn't allow DIY PC and overclocking to become as expensive a hobby as fast cars (which unfortunately is the direction in which it's headed).
Personal note from W1zzard: In some ways you have to thank Kyle for TechPowerUp, too. Shortly after getting my feet wet with enthusiast tech, developing a shader unlock on Radeon 9500 non-Pro (around 2002), I became moderator of the HardOCP graphics card subforum. This made me embrace hardware even more, and I found two other enthusiasts who I teamed up with to start "OCFaq", a "Tech Questions and Answers" kind of project, which quickly turned into a more complex site. The other two guys lost interest at some point, so it was just me pushing out content, while all the decisions still had to be made by our trio, which slowed down things a lot. In the end I decided to roll my own and founded TechPowerUp - the very site you are browsing now.
Source:
HardOCP
Kyle Benett is among a handful superstar tech journalists Intel soaked up in recent times as Raja Koduri and Chris Hook build Intel's Infinity Gauntlet with them. These include Ryan Shrout from PC Perspective, and Damien Triolet from Hardware.fr (albeit via AMD). Anand Lal Shimpi probably was one of the first and most prominent tech press leaders who left his publication for the industry. AMD's arsenal includes Scott Wasson from The TechReport and the famous overclocker Sammi Maekinen. Lars Weinand from RivaStation works for NVIDIA (also via AMD). Kyle Bennett is famous for a mountain of work in the DIY PC sphere, but in recent times is most recently credited for exposing and leading an awareness campaign against NVIDIA's poorly conceived GeForce Partner Program (GPP). We wish Kyle Bennett all the very best in his new endeavor and pray that he doesn't allow DIY PC and overclocking to become as expensive a hobby as fast cars (which unfortunately is the direction in which it's headed).
64 Comments on Kyle Bennett of HardOCP Joins Intel as Director of Enthusiast Engagement
Oh boooy....
I doubt Intel was really that ignorant of what was going on with their earlier performance figures.
If they retain their ethics standards from when they were tech journalists, then Intel will go in good direction.
This news upsets me. Now we see another unbias voice on PC hardware become immediately bias. As many here on TPU will already know; I really do not like Intel, and it's not because I'm an AMD fanboy, either. It's because I know what Intel is like, and I know how much monopoly hurts the industry that i am so passionate about. But I won't derail the thread with that, as it is somewhat off topic.
What else could they do? This is a right move. is this the right move? only the future will tell. Not liking Corp A over Corp B has nothing to do with it. The hardwre industry is not an anime. There are no heroes here, just people who get up to work so they could make money.
But jokes aside... if you poke deeper, we have fanboys of every camp. Except for Microsoft, everyone like to hate M$.
One possible reason would be to polish their image and use these guys to do it with their previous resume preceding them.
Another possible reason to hire and get these guys under contract is to stop them from slamming Intel if and when they do screwup. If the one(s) you're wanting to critizise has you by the proverbial nads via contract, they have you nailed down and silenced at their discresion.
I can promise you there is no time clock getting punched by any of these guys - It was all business with contracts and clauses.
Intel probrably will benefit from them being under their wing and they too will prosper, just don't expect things from them to be the same anymore from this point foward.
Then Ryzen appears and you get the hexa 8700K which cost the almost same as the 7700K before it, but with 50% more cores. Do you see where I'm going with this? Ryzen is a hero, because Ryzen put in the hands of the every day man and woman, more processing power than ever before, at a price that almost anyone can afford. Where does one draw the line between simply only caring about profit, than actually caring about driving forward innovation and making good products? Because I'm telling you right now the 9900K is absolutely not worth $500. And then there's the "F" CPU's.... (F stands for "FU" to the consumer ;) Btw i could not have achieved a place in Top 10 of TPU WCG team in credit/day without Ryzen. Now that's a good cause:toast:
Maybe I overlooked the direction they are going in. Maybe I am too harsh on Intel. I am a very emotional person, and sometimes my own issues clouds my vision. :twitch:I like tech so I guess i have to focus on one thing to hate so i don't just implode into a husk filled with hatred and resentment ._. Okay I make you a deal, okay? I will drop my hatred of intel from now. I will make them a clean slate, forgetting all current prices of Intel CPUs and, let's say, next year I will consider them again. But only if they are priced at what i think it is worth. Because atm there is not a single intel CPU i feel is worth what i am paying for it. Oh, and only if they move off 14nm++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ :laugh:TPU is actually more pro-Intel/Nvidia than AMD i think... I don't mind NVIDIA that much, at least they still push the performance when AMD is not competing lol. Windows 10 is great, what do you mean ? ;D
As some have suggested, I hope they aren't just going to give him a desk and lounger on the roof (see Silicon Valley TV show) to keep him quiet.
If that's the plan Charlie at Semi-A will be getting a cheque with lots of zeros on it for a job there soon too. ;)
His stance against the GPP program was legendary :/
Either way, they haven't published anything interesting since the GPP debacle. I used to enjoy their "highest playable settings" reviews, but they dropped those a while ago. I'm still hoping someone else will pick up that format, it was super-interesting to see whether the extra 5-10fps other reviews showed oy could actually enable you to up some setting.
That's why I said there has to be "Things" within that stipulates whatever they do it can't be detrimental to the company's interests which would undoubtedly include any reviews done.
If there is some wiggle room I'm sure they'll use it but do not expect a blatant blasting of Intel from them as long as they are under contract, even if said blasting is well-deserved.
On the one hand: awesome. Kyle is a solid journalist, with integrity up the wazoo. A much needed quality in marketing also.
On the other hand: this sounds like a community engagement position. HardOCP's community is horrible and their forums is a complete cesspit - which, regardless of other factors and direct responsibility, is the responsibility of the site owner. At the very least, he has allowed it to continue. Might not be the best starting point for a marketing/community outreach job, even if the job is mainly towards the high-end OC scene and similar niche groups.
We'll see how it turns out, I guess.