Features - QOTW: Are graphics card rebrands acceptable to you?

[saunders]

Once I found out these cards where a rebrand of old tech - forget it.
I'll wait for next gen

[watercooled]

The 290 + 290X do use new silicon (along with what I posted earlier), if you're willing to pay high-end prices. If not, you should still get better value for money, at least when the price inflation dies down, so I see no reason to avoid them based on that alone, unless you already have a fairly modern card.

[mercyground]

I'd say this is less of a rebrand given that there is new features and higher speeds. Trueaudio for one. (yes it may still come to 7k cards but it currently isnt)

I was FAR less impressed with NV's "shuffling" as some of their "new" cards were pushed in and thus you were given the impression they were compatible varients when they were old generation DX10 cards being sold in the same line as DX11 cards. THAT kind of rebranding is deceptive and tbh down right lame.

As a general rule i'm not impressed with rebranding at all. And when its used to lie or "cloak" unless you look VERY carefully at specification it REALLY does look like you are hiding or just "passing off". Its as bad as chinese ripoffs. It makes for poor customer experience and makes the tech world look like snake oil salesmen.

[semitope]

It's not ok. It's essentially deception. Selling an old product under a new name and advertising it as new. There is no reason to change the name but to deceive. For marketing and to please investors.

The cards are not "cheaper" when you consider the products that came before. These are 2 year old cards going on to 3 years old. The price drop that would have accumulated from that period to now would normally have got the 280x, for example, below $200 like the 6970 before the 7970. The rebrands allow them to sell these products at "new" prices that would maintain a sort of newer product stable value.

I have said this a lot elsewhere but there is also the fact that this 7970 rebrand (280x) is what would have been a 7870 if AMD hadn't done a renaming between the 5000 and 6000 series. It's hard to really place whether this is ok or lame. Through that renaming, AMD now sells a spiritual *870 card at more than $300 for going on to 3 years.

Well, I guess "high-end" is relative. Depends on what is available. But I think people should be aware that what could have been a 9870 (290x) by a projection from the 3870 days is now being sold for $700.

[NUK3]

Well the good thing is, at least the old generation cards will start to get cheaper, but still offer smacking performance similar or greater to compared to the 'new cards'. 7970 performs slightly better than the R9 280x but it is cheaper at the same time.

[Spreadie]

I don't think there's any excuse for rebrands. It's just a cynical marketing ploy - the worst of it is at the lower end of the range, because you'll often see a two generations old card out-performing what, to the casual eye, looks like a newer and better card.

The argument about pricing accordingly is nonsense too - there's nothing to stop just them dropping the prices on the current gen.

[majesticmerc]

I'm okay with rebrands as long as the price comes down too and there are at least some improvements.

[Agrippa]

Perfectly acceptable, in particular considering the hefty price drop.

[deejayburnout]

I don't mind re brands as long as the consumer is the one who benefits. Eg cheaper prices.

I do also hope that as they develop drivers for the hardware they do not focus more on improving the new hardware but make a effort to equally improve the previous generation.

I would however prefer if that every new generation is new tech so there is a clear change and improvement.

[minicale]

NVidia were kind of justified, because they took their top-of-the-line old card (The 680) and rebadged it as a middle-of-the-range card (The 760), then introduced a brand-new top-of-the-range card.

AMD have taken their top-of-the-line card (the 7970) and re-badged it as their new top-of-the-line card (The R280X). I'm not so much a fan of that particular maneuver.

However, AMD have fallen from grace with me recently anyway, with their CPUs performing so poorly and my investment in their AM3+ architecture being such a poor choice. Add to that micro-stuttering issues, and the poor quality of their software and drivers, and I'm afraid they're not getting my business any time soon.

The R290X is going to be AMDs top of the line card not the R280X so they have at least came out with 1 new card but still I don't see any of the cards being an upgrade from the 7--- series the performance increase is tiny, with nvidia they did the same thing with rebadging all but the top end card but they actually boosted up the rebadged cards well I am really disappointed with AMD I was waiting for their new cards for almost 2 years and in the end I picked up a cheap 580 off scan for £110 glad I didn't bother waiting would have been even more disappointed.


As for their CPUs they are great sure they haven't really improved on them in a while but if you look at the 8320 for example it costs £114 for that price its great value with 8 cores especially when bf4 is starting to utilize more cores.

[GunJob]

NVidia were kind of justified, because they took their top-of-the-line old card (The 680) and rebadged it as a middle-of-the-range card (The 760), then introduced a brand-new top-of-the-range card.

AMD have taken their top-of-the-line card (the 7970) and re-badged it as their new top-of-the-line card (The R280X). I'm not so much a fan of that particular maneuver.

However, AMD have fallen from grace with me recently anyway, with their CPUs performing so poorly and my investment in their AM3+ architecture being such a poor choice. Add to that micro-stuttering issues, and the poor quality of their software and drivers, and I'm afraid they're not getting my business any time soon.

The 280x isn't AMD's new top of the line, its infact its new mid/high card with its top of the line being the 290/290x, so the 280x is grouped the same as the GTX760.

[flufflogic]

Isn't the micro stuttering an SLI/Crossfire issue anyway?

Anyway, no issue with it at all - as long as pricing matches the rebrand.

[Defiant]

If the ADMIT that its a re-brand and they advise us of the old version name I'm fine with it. But when they try to hide it I get annoyed and it goes against them when I make choose.

I have to admit that Jen-Hsun Huang's attitude put me off buying Nvidia for years, he seems to have learned to shut up more of late or no one is listening to him these days.

[anselhelm]

In this instance, yes, it's okay. My reasoning? They're changing their nomenclature and bringing everything into line so it makes more sense to all of us.

[djsarcher]

Its always frustrating to have to figure out whats what again, but in this case AMD have made it pretty straight forward, so that's a plus.

[ET3D]

Do I like them? No. But they're unfortunately a fact of life, and I've learned to live with them.