AMD Fury no 980Ti killer

[SteelCrysis]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-...,4215.html
Tom's is really angry.

In the end, there are a number of people suffering due to this massive demonstration of incompetence to implement decent quality assurance. There’s AMD, its partners that just buy these graphics cards from AMD after having them labeled and packaged in China, as well as the stores and the customers.

Looking at the first of AMD’s emails that we quoted at the beginning, it’s pretty clear by now that the “very small batch” was, at best, an understatement. We’ve contacted some of AMD’s partners directly to ask them if they are aware of the problem and willing to do spot checks. We also wanted to know how they are handling cards that customers found to be defective and if they have stopped delivering affected cards to stores.

We’d first like to note that all of AMD’s partners told us the exact same thing. We’re not reporting their names, since this information was mainly given by the R&D departments of the companies in question, and there haven’t been, and most probably won’t be, any official statements. This isn’t much of a problem, since the main message was that all of the spot checks yielded graphics cards with the same pump problem, even though its severity varied. None of AMD’s partners are planning to return the cards directly to AMD at this point for a variety of reasons and to avoid ending up on AMD’s bad side.

The good news is that AMD will apparently reimburse its partners for any losses suffered due to customers actually returning their graphics cards. Is this a ploy to sell at least part of the affected stock, because some customers aren’t that sensitive to noise and others don’t want to go to the trouble of an RMA? This would limit the financial damages, of course. However, it might still lead to undesirable results due to the damages to AMD’s and its partners' images. It’s questionable if the financial gain is worth it.


Ending On A High Note

We’ve been able to ascertain that there will be AMD Radeon R9 Fury X graphics cards with quiet pumps. Ultimately, the problem was found and fixed. The new revision won’t be identifiable by just looking at the package, though. It also stands to reason that everybody will first try to get rid of their old defective cards before pushing out the new ones. AMD could really have helped this situation by putting its foot down at the first sign of trouble. Then again, taking the high road does have to be financially feasible first. In spite of everything having been cleared up, a bad aftertaste remains.
...
What advice can we give to our readers interested in an AMD Radeon R9 Fury X? Wait or play the lottery? It’s important that AMD has apparently guaranteed that it will pay for RMA-related losses and has started doing so. The partners certainly hope that not all of the graphics cards end up back with them, though. People outside of Europe tend to care less about noise levels, which might explain why AMD chose to take this route. However, it’s not exactly great for the company's image.

The Radeon R9 Fury X and its cooling solution can’t be dismissed outright as an upgrade due to its acceptable performance. This wouldn’t be fair for the quiet cooling solution that might well be available soon.

From our point of view, Cooler Master and the OEMs it hired are responsible for this failure. Norms need to be adhered to and executed, especially if you proudly display certificates. We’re sure that AMD will get its money back from these companies, since these kinds of things are always subject to air-tight contract clauses in this business.