oxrufiioxoI honestly think it had more to do with Nvdia forcing them to sell near msrp unlike all the other partners making gangbusters I think that led to a lot of animosity/resentment during ampere. Nvidia also diverted a ton of stock to miners which likely also didn't sit well.

That being said that's the downfall of basically betting your whole business on one gpu maker especially Nvidia who likely thinks they don't really need AIB partners.

Their support always took care of me so even when they made mistakes they always fixed the issue at least here in the states. They never once made me feel like I damaged the product unlike every other company does.

I feel like other companies like to pass the blame... Asus did it with their poor 5000 series amd coolers, Intel with their whole your 13900k/14900k may or may not work at these settings but it's the board partners fualt, Gigabyte with their exploding PSU debacle, NZXT with their fire hazard case, and many many more.

I bought 1080Ti FE, Asus Turbo 2080ti, 3090 TUF and 4090 TUF, all at MSRP (all these are still working perfectly, never needed RMA)

If EVGA couldn't earn profit at MSRP it should be their fault and no one else. Nvidia shouldn't bail them out even if EVGA was their oldest partner (this was the final push that EVGA boss couldn't accept).

Shou Miko@Dr. Dro also trying to be a manufacture for Nvidia first you get told like the RT X090 card should be like 2000, then 2 weeks before release you get told price is gonna be 1799, and than on stage Jenson says and it will be available for 1599 or 1499 this can piss anyone off because than you also know where your margins go.

I doubt AMD is any better but still it can piss off anyone pulling this "stunt" on stage because if NvGreedia and Jenson wanted he could sell the RTX 4090 for 999USD but with the 1000% profit they have on AI why sell something for the consumer that companies can also buy to use for the same thing?

AMD does that... 3 months AFTER launch.

ChomiqAMD does that... 3 months AFTER launch.

Not sure. The latest incident involved the RX 7600, which underwent a $30 prelaunch price cut.

www.techpowerup.com/309016/amd-reportedly-adjusts-radeon-rx-7600-gpu-msrp-to-usd-269-eur299

No one complained at the time, however.

ChomiqAMD does that... 3 months AFTER launch.

That not like the same as on stage suddenly telling a different price again, AMD does it after release is different that's a price cut as @Dr. Dro talks about and I would say also helps competition.

Dr. DroNot sure. The latest incident involved the RX 7600, which underwent a $30 prelaunch price cut.

www.techpowerup.com/309016/amd-reportedly-adjusts-radeon-rx-7600-gpu-msrp-to-usd-269-eur299

Dr. DroAMD also revised product prices at the last minute on occasion. It is common to do this, and whenever such last-minute adjustments come up, the AIBs are clearly not left slighted (as in, being charged the original price for pre-launch inventory) and to their own devices. That would be completely unacceptable and would generate very large legal disputes.

Ironically, if sold at 999, the RTX 4090 would still have excellent margins. Just like the 7900 XTX has, and AMD is still making a profit selling them for 700.

Yes and Nvidia says they want competition before they lower their prices, well I do more want a power efficient card than a 500 watt power sucker.

nguyenI bought 1080Ti FE, Asus Turbo 2080ti, 3090 TUF and 4090 TUF, all at MSRP (all these are still working perfectly, never needed RMA)

If EVGA couldn't earn profit at MSRP it should be their fault and no one else. Nvidia shouldn't bail them out even if EVGA was their oldest partner (this was the final push that EVGA boss couldn't accept).

Oh I agree, their downfall is of their own stubbornness.

I've worked with probably 100 EVGA cards over the last 15 years 10 of them my own only needed to RMA 2 and both were likely caused during shipment still they replaced them with only some minor trouble shooting on my part.

Asus I've only dealt with twice as well once during Z170 and another during Z390 both terrible experiences, I still buy their products when I like them though because the other gpu/motherboard makers aren't any better honestly.

I actually tried a 4090 tuf first but the coilwhine was the worst I've dealt ever even at sub 100fps. Tried a suprim after that almost equally as bad.. It's literally the only reason I ended up with Gigacrap :laugh:.

oxrufiioxoOh I agree, their downfall is of their own stubbornness.

I've worked with probably 100 EVGA cards over the last 15 years 10 of them my own only needed to RMA 2 and both were likely caused during shipment still they replaced them with only some minor trouble shooting on my part.

Asus I've only dealt with twice as well once during Z170 and another during Z390 both terrible experiences, I still buy their products when I like them though because the other gpu/motherboard makers aren't any better honestly.

Back then I had to RMA 4 times the EVGA 7900GT (2006 era) due to shoddy memory controller. The RMA experience was nice but I much prefer reliability.

I have always hate Asus motherboard (built a rig with Asus Z97 + 4790K for a friend and the experience was horrible), Asus geforce GPU has solid track record though, they use all SMD caps even on their MSRP cards. Asus TUF is arguably the best SKU.

nguyenBack then I had to RMA 4 times the EVGA 7900GT (2006 era) due to shoddy memory controller. The RMA experience was nice but I much prefer reliability.

I have always hate Asus motherboard (built a rig with Asus Z97 + 4790K for a friend and the experience was horrible), Asus geforce GPU has solid track record though, they use all SMD caps even on their MSRP cards. Asus TUF is arguably the best SKU.

Hit and miss for me their X570 Hero has been one of the best motherboards I've ever owned the Z390 Code was probably the worst.

Their gpus have been solid for me as well although I've only owned 3 all Strix cards and most I've done builds for don't like their price premium.

oxrufiioxoI feel like other companies like to pass the blame... Asus did it with their poor 5000 series amd coolers, Intel with their whole your 13900k/14900k may or may not work at these settings but it's the board partners fualt, Gigabyte with their exploding PSU debacle, NZXT with their fire hazard case, and many many more.

Except NZXT took the blame for the faulty PCI-e riser cable causing the fires, that was made by another party, and rectified it in the next lot. They didn't "pass the blame" for that fault.

Caring1Except NZXT took the blame for the faulty PCI-e riser cable causing the fires, that was made by another party, and rectified it in the next lot. They didn't "pass the blame" for that fault.

They initially said it wasn't a big deal and supplied a second riser that also caught on fire from my memory.

I didn't pay super close attention to it but remember the first fix basically being a bandaid.

Oh here it is.... NZXT seemed to know this in late 2020 when it opted to send out nylon plastic screw kits for H1 owners (upon request) to use in place of the metal ones. But it didn’t issue a full recall at that point, instead opting to resume selling the case

oxrufiioxoHit and miss for me their X570 Hero has been one of the best motherboards I've ever owned the Z390 Code was probably the worst.

Their gpus have been solid for me as well although I've only owned 3 all Strix cards and most I've done builds for don't like their price premium.

Oh my pal was using a high end EVGA Platinum 1000W PSU and it degraded after 5 year too, he had to switch PSU for his 4080Super to work properly. Overall I don't think many people outside of USA will miss EVGA

lexluthermiesterExcept that Radeons offer VERY competitive performance/price value. Even the Raytracing is solid now.

Exactly. So many reviewers calling our Radeon's RT performance as hot garbage, but per dollar spent, a Geforce is typically no more than 30% faster than the equivalent price Radeon (at some GPU tiers its MUCH closer than that) and that's not often enough of an improvement to let you turn on Raytracing on a Geforce where you wouldn't be able to use it on a Radeon.

Sure, the Radeon 7700XT is path tracing at an unappealing 35fps but it's not like the 4060Ti is doing well enough to enable that feature. 45fps still sucks and it's too slow to use frame-gen too. How is that a "Geforce raytracing advantage"? Neither card can do it, that's a draw at 0-0, both teams lose.

Unless you have a 4080 or faster, raytracing is typically either too expensive to use (even on a Geforce) or it's such a light implementation that both AMD and Nvidia GPUs can handle it absolutely fine.

oxrufiioxoThey initially said it wasn't a big deal and supplied a second riser that also caught on fire from my memory.

Yeah, I remember that fiasco. GamersNexus does like to overstate and exaggerate stuff - but there's no denying the fact that NZXT really really dropped the ball on that one and having the "fix" also fail on camera was gold.

Chrispy_Unless you have a 4080 or faster, raytracing is typically either too expensive to use (even on a Geforce) or it's such a light implementation that both AMD and Nvidia GPUs can handle it absolutely fine.

A 4070ti super is decent enough at 1440p a 4070 at 1080p but otherwise I agree and most people are not going to use it.

But FSR is still bad enough that I'd avoid a radeon card in my primary or secondary system and at launch AMD tries to price them similarly even though their MSRP usually crashes and burns hard.

Also currently I prefer DLAA if AMD matches that I'd consider them still I test out one of their cards every couple years to test out drivers and their features just to keep in the loop with thier hardware.

He should bench next GPU's (blackwell ?) with nitrogen on :

www.gog.com/fr/game/kingpin_life_of_crime
www.gog.com/game/kingpin_reloaded

Just for the name, and expecting 1.000.000 FPS

64KAMD isn't going to try to compete with the 5090 any more than they tried to compete with 1080 Ti, 2080 Ti, 3090, 3090 Ti, 4090. It makes AMD fans uncomfortable when I say the following but financially it's the truth. The smartest thing AMD has done in the past 20 years is to cease trying to compete with Nvidia's flagships and concentrate the bulk of their their R&D money on the CPU division. The results are self-evident. They went from damn near bankrupt to very successful after that. They would be foolish to go back to trying to compete fully with Nvidia and Intel at the same time. Anyway, very, very, very few gamers buy a flagship Nvidia GPU. It's irrelevant financially to AMD.

I'm no Amd or Nvidia fan I am an enthusiast first. I just love triggering simple minded brand loyalists as I did here. While you say that not having the crown is the best thing for AMD in the gpu market their market share doesn't match that statement. They lost market share by not having a competitive gpu to the 4090 significantly maybe I add. By not competing with the 4090 they are not only giving free advertisement to Nvidia when showing off their 7800X3D cpu maximum gain they are also losing mind share. This will repeat with 5090/ 9800x3d. The difference between a brand loyalists and enthusiast, the enthusiast will purchase the best product no matter the brand! I would be happy even with a simple paper launch place holder to keep the brand loyalists foaming at the mouth. Questions?

nguyenOh my pal was using a high end EVGA Platinum 1000W PSU and it degraded after 5 year too, he had to switch PSU for his 4080Super to work properly. Overall I don't think many people outside of USA will miss EVGA

I went with the the Seasonic Vertex 1000 atx 3.0 for the 4090. 12 year warranty set it and forget it. It took evga a minute to come out with and atx 3.0 psu as well.

Chrispy_I'm just surprised it took this long for another GPU brand to snap him up.

In other news, EVGA is dead or dying, right? Precious few motherboard or power supply reviews since they left the GPU industry.

Limited availability in a select few regions and falling behind in product releases is a sure way to go out of business.

I am too to an extent but at the same time he knows how the business works and simply accepting any offer that comes his way woudn't have been too smart.
I can bet you he had offers and considered each one because he has a proven track record of results to back up his worth on the subject. That places value on what he has to offer any company looking to use his reputation to sell products and he's smart enough to know it.

Things like this takes time with all the negotiations we both know had to take place for it to happen.

Dr. DroHe's no fraud, I can tell you as much

His proven track record of results testifies this as fact.

stimpy88Apart from standing up in a product development meeting once in a while every couple of years, and shouting "put a bigger cooler on it", what does he ACTUALLY do, day to day?

Understand:
He's NOT the same as Linus over at LTT hawking about the cheapest, latest and greatest "Thing" or gadget to come out on the market for a quick, sponsored buck.
If that's what you're looking for, that's where you need to be for such things.

He's on an entirely different level and again, has a proven track record to validate what he knows and can do with things to that end.

He doesn't play to the everyday crowd at all, he goes all out as a norm and even has a product line of his own to back up what he's been doing all this time, using what he's learned to design these items.
True, he literally doesn't "Make" them but the designs that make them work well are indeed his and testifies to his experience with the matter of what his site sells under his name.

I happen to own one of the pots he designed/made and it's nothing short of excellent for what it's purpose is for.
What his site sells is pricey but also has the results and quality to justify the steep price tag.

Here's the pot I bought a few years ago and the item speaks to to the quality of work he does.

To make sure this part is clear:
I have modified it since I got it but even in it's original state it was very good to start with.

I added the center piece (Stalk) for more mass and thermal conductivity under load at the middle and tapped the holes around the center for more surface area, also to improve thermal conductivity under load.

I did it to take things even further because of what I do myself..... And the fact I could.

Dr. DroI won't even continue addressing the rest, if you genuinely believe things like the Crysis 2 hoax or the "GameWorks" thing almost 15 years on, you're hopeless and those aren't even the most recent grudges you're going to be holding. Literally the frustrated ATI boomer thing I routinely bring up.

There are videos like the above that demonstrate the over-tesselation. That video doesn't even go over the undermap tessellation that occurred in that game either, which was another problem.

No the reason you won't address the rest is because you can't think of anything other than personal attacks as usual.

Dr. DroReally? REALLY? That garbage about Crysis 2 AGAIN? It's been THIRTEEN YEARS since that game came out and you're still holding that grudge?

First, remembering something does not make it a grudge. You are making that assumption on your own there. I'll bring it up ad infinitum when discussing Nvidia's history of dirty practices because that's what it is. Same as with Dell screwing over the entire x86 market for 10 years by creating an Intel monopoly or Monsanto poisoning the world. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Really though your labeling of it as a "grudge" is just you trying to avoid having an actual argument.

Dr. DroA grudge that isn't even NVIDIA's fault, but rather Crytek's for incompetently porting a DX9 game into DX11 and tacking features on?

That's a load of nonsense and you know it. Tom Peterson from Nvidia was interviewed on the topic (he currently works at intel) and he specifically said GameWorks tech at the time was a black box, meaning the devs cannot access the code. The excuse used at the time was that Nvidia did not want to give away proprietary tech to competitors but the end result is that Crytek could do very little.

Dr. DroRTX 3090 feeding power back to the power supply? What? If Seasonic released a batch of bad PSUs that's on them! It has nothing to do with NVIDIA, nor does that imply that the RTX 3090 has a design fault.

You don't seem to realize that it was JonnyGuru, currently the lead engineer for Corsair's PSU division, who pointed out the fact that it was the card feeding noise back into the 12v sense pin. Many users have verified this fact by cutting the 12v sense wire, which eliminated their issue. Seasonic issued replacement cables for those that wanted them that had the wire removed.

Oh but I'm sure Dr. Dro's ability to ignore Nvidia problems outweights JonnyGuru's expertise and everyone else's to boot. Case in point:

Dr. DroCome ONNNN, this is so utterly frustrating that it borders on the malicious, I don't know what kind of substance is involved in this mindset but I want some of it!

Facts are frustrating for you? Hmm, I wonder why...

Dr. DroLinus Torvalds' issue with Nvidia is simply an ideological one. Nvidia is not a big believer in free and open source software, and that is a valid stance. This would generate an entire argument on its own, FOSS x proprietary, but the fact remains that proprietary software is morally valid, otherwise Microsoft would never have gotten away with Windows and Apple would have long since crashed and burned

His issue with Nvidia, as plainly stated in the video, was that they are terrible to work with. Your conclusion is an invention, not supported by anything and ignores plainly shown evidence.

Dr. DroUnfortunately for AMD, the market can see through the fact that a pretty control panel doesn't distract from the fact that the underlying driver has an untold amount of issues that vary from tolerable to severe.

I'd argue AMD drivers have been a bit better than Nvidia's recently (which is to say both are very stable). To say that AMD drivers have "an untold amount of issues" is obviously complete nonsense.

Dr. Droturns out that they aren't interested in hunting Windows updates that may conflict with the driver

This is not an issue with AMD cards. You are thinking of the bug where windows update would try to install graphics drivers during an AMD driver install. Obviously though, that was a windows issue.

For someone who rails against "hoaxes", you sure have no problem saying things that you didn't bother checking where true.

Dr. Droor installing a different version for each game they play

This is not a thing that happens in any statistically significant manner.

There might be a handful of Nvidia and AMD users that do so because they choose to do so.

I don't remember people doing this even when drivers were significantly less refined.

Dr. Droturns out gamers don't actually give one fig about open source

There are many reasons people buy video cards, just because a person buys Nvidia does not mean they didn't value open source. You are ignoring some 12+ other variables people consider outside of the open source one that all factor into a GPU purchase, with the big ones being price, performance, and features. Efficiency, looks, and others typically following although that may vary from person to person. Efficiency for example may be a major factor for many.

Dr. DroRadeons don't offer the top tier performance nor a consistent experience, and thus are unworthy of being positioned as premium segment products.

lol, yeah and neither does any GeForce card below the 4090. Hence why it's the one and only top tier card.

You are ignoring the fact that at every tier below that AMD cards are performance and price competitive.

How exactly does your logic make any sense here, all Nvidia cards are premium products because the 4090 exists? Nvidia cards are worth 5-15% more because they have a better feature set, not because of whatever cockamaney reasoning you are using here.

evernessince

There are videos like the above that demonstrate the over-tesselation. That video doesn't even go over the undermap tessellation that occurred in that game either, which was another problem.

No the reason you won't address the rest is because you can't think of anything other than personal attacks as usual.



First, remembering something does not make it a grudge. You are making that assumption on your own there. I'll bring it up ad infinitum when discussing Nvidia's history of dirty practices because that's what it is. Same as with Dell screwing over the entire x86 market for 10 years by creating an Intel monopoly or Monsanto poisoning the world. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Really though your labeling of it as a "grudge" is just you trying to avoid having an actual argument.



That's a load of nonsense and you know it. Tom Peterson from Nvidia was interviewed on the topic (he currently works at intel) and he specifically said GameWorks tech at the time was a black box, meaning the devs cannot access the code. The excuse used at the time was that Nvidia did not want to give away proprietary tech to competitors but the end result is that Crytek could do very little.



You don't seem to realize that it was JonnyGuru, currently the lead engineer for Corsair's PSU division, who pointed out the fact that it was the card feeding noise back into the 12v sense pin. Many users have verified this fact by cutting the 12v sense wire, which eliminated their issue. Seasonic issued replacement cables for those that wanted them that had the wire removed.

Oh but I'm sure Dr. Dro's ability to ignore Nvidia problems outweights JonnyGuru's expertise and everyone else's to boot. Case in point:



Facts are frustrating for you? Hmm, I wonder why...



His issue with Nvidia, as plainly stated in the video, was that they are terrible to work with. Your conclusion is an invention, not supported by anything and ignores plainly shown evidence.



I'd argue AMD drivers have been a bit better than Nvidia's recently (which is to say both are very stable). To say that AMD drivers have "an untold amount of issues" is obviously complete nonsense.



This is not an issue with AMD cards. You are thinking of the bug where windows update would try to install graphics drivers during an AMD driver install. Obviously though, that was a windows issue.

For someone who rails against "hoaxes", you sure have no problem saying things that you didn't bother checking where true.



This is not a thing that happens in any statistically significant manner.

There might be a handful of Nvidia and AMD users that do so because they choose to do so.

I don't remember people doing this even when drivers were significantly less refined.



There are many reasons people buy video cards, just because a person buys Nvidia does not mean they didn't value open source. You are ignoring some 12+ other variables people consider outside of the open source one that all factor into a GPU purchase, with the big ones being price, performance, and features. Efficiency, looks, and others typically following although that may vary from person to person. Efficiency for example may be a major factor for many.



lol, yeah and neither does any GeForce card below the 4090. Hence why it's the one and only top tier card.

You are ignoring the fact that at every tier below that AMD cards are performance and price competitive.

How exactly does your logic make any sense here, all Nvidia cards are premium products because the 4090 exists? Nvidia cards are worth 5-15% more because they have a better feature set, not because of whatever cockamaney reasoning you are using here.

I'm gonna be honest I haven't and I will not read this, nor will I answer to it

This is a psycho-level grudge against Nvidia

evernessinceYou are ignoring the fact that at every tier below that AMD cards are performance and price competitive.

How exactly does your logic make any sense here, all Nvidia cards are premium products because the 4090 exists? Nvidia cards are worth 5-15% more because they have a better feature set, not because of whatever cockamaney reasoning you are using here.

The market doesn't really agree with that and that's really all that matters..... I honestly think even if AMD charged 50% less it wouldn't matter.

They are in a difficult position of trying to convince people to try their products especially in the laptop/prebuilt space that likely matters significantly more than the DIY market and don't really seem to be making any headway.

The Last time I debated between an amd and nvidia card was the 780 vs the 290X I went 290X and don't regret it at all but after the 200 series it's been mostly disappointing cards from amd in the high end.

I couldnt decide between the 7970 and the 680 so grabbed 2 of both but sold one of the 7970s because crossfire was much worse than SLI in the games I played at the time... The 7970 aged better though.

I'm pretty fond of those times it felt like AMD was trying a lot harder back then and honestly I felt like RDNA 2 was a step in the right direction but RDNA 3 was disappointing in comparison and RDNA4 sounds pathetic so that's really not a the way to win over buyers and sure the cards end up ok value once their MSRP crater they don't start out that way looking at the 7700XT/7900XT smh....

Dr. DroI'm gonna be honest I haven't and I will not read this, nor will I answer to it

This is a psycho-level grudge against Nvidia

Haven't kept up with everyone's specs but last I checked he had a 4090 so not that big of a grudge lol

I don't really get the animosity towards any of these companies though I want them to all do better and offer better products at every price tier as unrealistic as that is I hate seeing products like the 400 usd 4060ti and 800 usd 4070ti 12G becuase I know people who that's the best they can afford at each price class and they're not cards I would feel good recommending and that has 0 to do with what the competition is or isnt doing.

Honestly I just want them to make products I feel good recommending or would feel good about owning at every tier not just the 1600 usd one.

oxrufiioxoHaven't kept up with everyone's specs but last I checked he had a 4090 so not that big of a grudge lol

I don't really get the animosity towards any of these companies though I want them to all do better and offer better products at every price tier as unrealistic as that is I hate seeing products like the 400 usd 4060ti and 800 usd 4070ti becuase I know people who that's the best they can afford at each price class and they're not cards I would feel good recommending and that has 0 to do with what the competition is or isnt doing.

Honestly I just want them to make products I feel good or would feel good about owning at every tier not just the 1600 usd one.

On that we'll agree, but appealing to things that were debunked years ago or extremely specific edge cases is no way to prove a point

GodrillaYeah that's why the 4090s sold so bad on the Steam survey.

Steam is only one platform not the entire world. Stop acting like it's all of PC gaming as whole for the world, when it's not.

Dr. DroOn that we'll agree, but appealing to things that were debunked years ago or extremely specific edge cases is no way to prove a point

I don't get it either people find weird ways to demonize a company and act like they're trash becuase it isn't their home team it's human nature I guess.....

Makes me think of my football team they've basically been trash since I was in elementary school only teasing that they might be good in a given season only to flame out year after year but I still support them lol.

People do that with everything though, brands, sports, politics, religion if you don't think how I do you're wrong BS.

As much as fanboys from both camps crack me up and as much as I wish that crap would die it does provide a lot of entertainment watching people on a forum die on a stake over their hardware maker of choice acting like they can't do no wrong.

I always say to myself man that person must be fun at parties or maybe they never get invited and that's the problem lol.

oxrufiioxoI don't get it either people find weird ways to demonize a company and act like they're trash becuase it isn't their home team it's human nature I guess.....

Makes me think of my football team they've basically been trash since I was in elementary school only teasing that they might be good in a given season only to flame out year after year but I still support them lol.

People do that with everything though, brands, sports, politics, religion if you don't think how I do you're wrong BS.

As much as fanboys from both camps crack me up and as much as I wish that crap would die it does provide a lot of entertainment watching people on a forum die on a stake over their hardware maker of choice acting like they can't do no wrong.

I always say to myself man that person must be fun at parties or maybe they never get invited and that's the problem lol.

I think AMD deserve better fanboys LOL, their fanboys run amoke on all online platform generating animosity among tech enthusiasts.

Yep, let name calling anyone who buy Nvidia as sheep or slave, let see if anyone feel compelled to buy AMD :rolleyes: .

This thread is pretty much a testament to that

Dr. DroI'm gonna be honest I haven't and I will not read this, nor will I answer to it

This is a psycho-level grudge against Nvidia

As expected, whatever makes you feel better about not being able to respond to the facts.

Lets play nice :)

oxrufiioxoThe market doesn't really agree with that and that's really all that matters..... I honestly think even if AMD charged 50% less it wouldn't matter.

Marketshare and what the market thinks are two different things that frequently don't align in today's world. A good example of this is smart devices, phones ect. I very much doubt people buying phones like the fact that the battery isn't replaceable by the end user, that internal storage is often non-expandable, and that you no longer have a headphone jack. It happens anyways though against the will of customers. The same thing applies to cars with subscriptions, smart devices that can prevent you from using them and are always online, ect. It's not that the market decided they want those features, it's that manufacturers were able to force customers to accept those by providing customers either no other option, having other features a customer wants / needs, or by locking them in one way or another. Another great example is probably Adobe products, who's customers often have zero choice given how locked down they have the ecosystem. I very much doubt customers like that they are forced to give Adobe their IP rights to feed their AI or that Adobe is actively trying to scam them.

The GPU market has a high level of software lock in that's only increased over the years. It's also not like the market wants to pay ridiculously high prices for GPUs, it's just that Nvidia and AMD price around each other more than compete on price.

As I pointed out earlier, even AMD's bulldozer received 19.4% marketshare yet GPU wise AMD only sits at 10% GPU marketshare. We can (hopefully) all agree that RDNA is a better architecture than bulldozer. To say the the market thinks AMD only deserves 10% despite this juxtaposition fails to provide any logic behind such reasoning. You said your last good AMD card was the R9 290X but that card was not as good comparatively to the 6900 XT / 7900 XT. The blower 290X ran at up to 101-102c stock. Aftermarket cards were much better but it was still a small step up form the 7970 GHz. I had both those cards and a 780 Ti and I dealt with plenty of the models throughout that generation for customer builds. AMD's drivers are much better now, a decent amount of 7970 cards had intermittent flickering issues. It wasn't the end of the world but it was annoying. It was about as annoying as some picky 3000 series cards. Had a couple of occasions where a 3060 would look like it's artificating on a customer's display even though it was completely fine during testing. Turns out they just don't like certain displays over HDMI.