Origin PC no longer sells AMD GPUs due to overheating, other technical issues

Justin Kahn

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origin amd gpus

Boutique computer manufacturer Origin PC has announced that it will no longer be selling AMD GPUs due to a number of technical issues. The company will instead be tapping Nvidia for its graphics chips for all future systems.

The decision to oust the AMD graphics solutions are based on a number of things, but Origin PC says it is mainly due to the lack of customer satisfation the company has been experiencing pertaining to AMD hardware.

In an email to gaming outlet Polygon, co-founder and CEO of Origin PC Kevin Wasielewski said, "Origin PC is dedicated to providing the best experience for our customers and right now that is with Nvidia GPUs. It's not about brand loyalty or marketing; our loyalty is 100 percent to our customers."

Not only is it simply a matter of technical issues with hardware itself, Origin PC was also having a hard time internally, citing issues with AMD's support staff. Origin says AMD's extremely relaxed attitude towards stability and driver updates on both desktop and mobile GPUs is also part of the problem.

"Primarily the overall issues have been stability of the cards, overheating, performance, scaling and the amount of time to receive new drivers on both desktop and mobile GPUs," said Alvaro Masis, one of the technical support managers at Origin PC.

AMD is yet to make a public statement regarding the issue, we will update this article as more information becomes available.

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Someones says that NVidia has payed Origin to do this and make bad image of AMD. http://semiaccurate.com/2013/10/05/much-nvidia-pay-origin-pc-drop-amd
Looks odd to me that now that AMD has surpassed many technical issues and Crossfire fps issues are being solved they decide this. Personally I have had AMD cards, CPUs and APUs and I have never had an issue. Looks like nowdays Nvidia has nothing new to show up and AMD has a new family of video cards, the mantle framework, and all consoles chips in hands. So I'm likely to believe in Charlie's vision.
 
Someones says that NVidia has payed Origin to do this and make bad image of AMD. http://semiaccurate.com/2013/10/05/much-nvidia-pay-origin-pc-drop-amd
Looks odd to me that now that AMD has surpassed many technical issues and Crossfire fps issues are being solved they decide this. Personally I have had AMD cards, CPUs and APUs and I have never had an issue. Looks like nowdays Nvidia has nothing new to show up and AMD has a new family of video cards, the mantle framework, and all consoles chips in hands. So I'm likely to believe in Charlie's vision.
Im with you guys on this, I believe this is somehow related to Nvidia either paying this off or working something out. I mean, it says a lot about your company if you cant build a computer that wont overheat... I mean im trying to figure out where these so called overheating problems are because I know people who have 4 7970 reference design in CFX mode that are happily running on air. I highly doubt this is as they say it is, and anyways I don't believe this makes their company look smart anyway, even companies like cyberpower don't mention problems like this and are happily pumping computers out from both sides.
 
Wow... In another thread I was just talking about how AMD has positioned themselves to take over the enthusiast graphics market. Nvidia won't have an answer to R9 for a long time and AMD silicon is powering all the next-gen consoles. On top of that, you have Mantle on the horizon, which could end up being a game changer.

Looks like Nvidia is definitely starting to sweat.
 
We would have heard about any wide spread issues with AMD video cards long before now. I truly hope this drives them out of business. Talk about unethical! My only question is did they copy, verbatim, what the Nvidia person told them or did they make that up on their own?
 
I agree with Origin PC,my 7950 peaks at 60 degrees which is way too hot and I also want to install new drivers at least every second week.
 
Sorry but Nvidia isn't paying anyone anything. Just more BS from dreamworld AMD fans who can't accept simple truths. AMD GPU's (both Radeons and FirePro's) have ran hot for years. My Gigabyte 6970 froze at stock clocks and sounded like an airplane, as did my 5770 at stock clocks.
We have FirePro's at work running multi-mon setups and they don't go below 75C even when they are just idling. Not extreme by any means, but far from top quality.
 
Ok, so I can understand the support thing, and maybe their support staff has issues with AMD's support staff...

But, seriously. Maybe it's just me, but if I was a boutique gaming PC maker, I probably wouldn't be running my mouth to the press about my inability to build ALL of my high end PCs so that they don't overheat. Particularly when there hasn't been any widespread issues reported about overheating of the particular brand they are blaming. And, one has to wonder, are the units that their customers are apparently complaining about the ones that they factory overclock? Or have their custom cooling systems on?

It's great when you can be totally vague, just point at someone publicly and yell "witch!" Worked out well for many folk in the 17th century, didn't it?
 
Off the top of my head, 7950 had many overheating issues. And drivers for AMD were always substandard compared to Nvidia.
 
I will accept there is an issue with AMD cards if anyone can come up with non-anecdotal evidence. You are asserting that there is a mass conspiracy that AMD is covering up since I can't find any widespread reports of failing video cards. I currently have a 670, so I don't have a current AMD card but I had 2 4890s in CF that never gave me any issues in 2 years of service. So I've countered your anecdotal evidence with my own. 75 is hot, but well within operating parameters. Have there been unstable drivers lately? Again, something that must be slipping by all the tech sites. I'm also sure that Sony and Microsoft spent no time or effort before signing deals for their next gen consoles. There is certainly a lot of evidence suggesting AMD is doing fine and none that I can find that they are having unstable drivers or overheating cards. If this evidence exists I'm more than willing to change my mind.
 
I would have agreed with this about 6-8 months ago, but now I think this is rubbish. Of late, nVidia has had severe driver issues - so bad in fact that everyone that I know who has an nVidia card rolled back their drivers (after testing each release that was supposed to fix the barrage of issues) over and over again to the 314.22 drivers. One of my friends at work (and myself in fact) just bought 2GB Radeon 7850's for our respective rigs at home. We've both been using 7750's in our work computers as well with no major issues - and performance has been great (yes I sometimes play games at work). I don't understand why a rather large name in custom gaming computers would jump ship, dropping support for ONE of the TWO major GPU manufacturers. It would be one thing if we had more than just nVidia and AMD in the GPU game. Should they follow through with it, they are now tied to nVidia's driver updates and issues just like they would be with AMD. And like I said, lately nVidia hasn't been making any friends with their driver issues.
 
You are kidding aren't you? is this sarcasm? 60 C for such a card isn't high at all, also it would be good to know about the airflow in you case. Wouldn't be better to have solid drivers each certain time instead 1 half backed releaase each month? you can always install latest betas...
I agree with Origin PC,my 7950 peaks at 60 degrees which is way too hot and I also want to install new drivers at least every second week.
 
I guess Origin PC just confirmed to the rest of the world that they can't build PC's as I don't see anyone else with such complaints...
Right on the money, no one else seems to be having issues but apparently this company is magically having heating problems and so called "Driver issues". Sounds more like they just dont know how to build a computer, what are they adding fans to push the heat back onto the GPU's (Sarcasm).

Sorry but Nvidia isn't paying anyone anything. Just more BS from dreamworld AMD fans who can't accept simple truths. AMD GPU's (both Radeons and FirePro's) have ran hot for years. My Gigabyte 6970 froze at stock clocks and sounded like an airplane, as did my 5770 at stock clocks.
We have FirePro's at work running multi-mon setups and they don't go below 75C even when they are just idling. Not extreme by any means, but far from top quality.

Yea your living in a dream world if you believe that, I would love to see these magical overheating cards of yours. If 2 HD 6990s can sit side by side running Eyefinity without overheating under stress, then I highly doubt one 6970 would have any issue unless your heatsink became seperated. No one else is reporting these magical temp issues, so how is this a widespread issue.
If this was a widespread problem and people were having issues like this all over, there would be a huge amount of talk and forums posts etc regarding these issues.
 
I can't wait for Mantle to come out. I hate upgrading CPUs. it'll be nice if all games in the future will be mostly GPU based and relies very little on CPU. I am putting off my CPU upgrade for as long as possible, til the wheels fall off. everytime upgrading CPU is like a monumental task consider everything else in my life with work and kids. gotta buy a new water block, flush the coolant, refill the coolant, replace the mobo, new memory, reinstall the OS, and re-install everything else. it wouldn't be half as bad if Intel would stick to one socket for a little longer than a year, then users wouldn't have to upgrade their mob everytime they want to upgrade their CPU. the current trend of upgrading your mobo everytime you want to upgrade your CPU only makes me want to upgrade my CPU LESSS frequently consider all the hassle. back in the day, I would swap out a CPU for a new upgraded one every 6 months, cause it was so easy back in the socket A days. miss the good old days.
 
You are kidding aren't you? is this sarcasm? 60 C for such a card isn't high at all, also it would be good to know about the airflow in you case. Wouldn't be better to have solid drivers each certain time instead 1 half backed releaase each month? you can always install latest betas...
I agree with Origin PC,my 7950 peaks at 60 degrees which is way too hot and I also want to install new drivers at least every second week.

/sigh of course its sarcasm!!! Goodness.
You do realize that 60C is idle temp for pretty much every video card out there, He's also citing the 7950 which is a midrange/low power card that doesn't get nearly as hot as the 70's or 80's series.
 
I agree with Origin PC,my 7950 peaks at 60 degrees which is way too hot and I also want to install new drivers at least every second week.
Sorry but Nvidia isn't paying anyone anything. Just more BS from dreamworld AMD fans who can't accept simple truths. AMD GPU's (both Radeons and FirePro's) have ran hot for years. My Gigabyte 6970 froze at stock clocks and sounded like an airplane, as did my 5770 at stock clocks.
We have FirePro's at work running multi-mon setups and they don't go below 75C even when they are just idling. Not extreme by any means, but far from top quality.
AMD has really been improving lately. Dont judge AMD from the past. You can talk once nVidia answers the R-series.

I think nVidia did pay for Origin to do this. They are a huge player in the enthusiast PC sector and this is just making AMD look bad. For all we know, Origin did this truthfully, but until we get confirmation, there is always room for negative speculation. It wouldnt surprise me if nVidia did pay them .
 
I guess Origin PC just confirmed to the rest of the world that they can't build PC's as I don't see anyone else with such complaints...
System builders weren't particularly happy with AMD's (non) handling of the HD 7990's issues. So this has probably been brewing for a while. While the HD 7990 is a niche product, it also represents the (supposed) pinnacle of the GPU market. What looks like a glaring lack of support from AMD towards both their halo product and likely their biggest customers is not generally sound business practice, especially with these cards being these OEM's bread and butter.
The folks at iBuyPower chimed in next, reporting that dual Radeon HD 7990s are not available due to driver issues encountered during qualification. Additionally, they drew the same conclusion as I did in my launch coverage: 7990s are simply not designed to play well with other components in the same enclosure.
Kelt Reeves of Falcon Northwest sent out the third (and most detailed) feedback message, stating that Falcon hasn't qualified single- or dual-card Radeon HD 7990 configurations because they failed on the bench. His response warrants a quote:
"For single-card, the issue had to do with the cards warping after heating up, causing their cooling fans to rub on the shroud and creating an awful racket. We don’t know if that issue was limited to our samples, and that probably could’ve been fixed with a retention bracket we asked AMD for.
He [Chris Morley, CTO and VP of technical marketing at Maingear.] did acknowledge that there's an airflow issue, that Maingear isn't particularly happy with AMD's design from an integration standpoint, but that the company welcomes the opportunity to address problems like this.
[Source]

FWIW's AMD could have avoided the issue by simply going with the TUL triple-slot design for the card, but AMD's need to retain the dual slot format, and desire to retain brand commonality and recognition with the pro cards overrode the practical considerations.

Occam's Razor or a OEM/Nvidia conspiracy....Knowing how the internet works, I'm stocking up on tinfoil before the shelves are empty!
 
System builders weren't particularly happy with AMD's (non) handling of the HD 7990's issues. So this has probably been brewing for a while. While the HD 7990 is a niche product, it also represents the (supposed) pinnacle of the GPU market. What looks like a glaring lack of support from AMD towards both their halo product and likely their biggest customers is not generally sound business practice, especially with these cards being these OEM's bread and butter.
I wonder if the upcoming radeon driver will fix those issues.
 
AMD has had a reputation for hot and loud GPU's (with stock coolers) for years everywhere, both forums and review sites. I have countless graphs with them at the top (both idle and load), from the 5xxx series to the 7xxx series. It is mentioned they run hotter (sometimes over 80C) in just about every review I have ever read. Not as bad lately though.
Using the word magical to describe a known trait shows complete and utter shameful bias and renders (see what I did there :D ) such a comment useless.
 
Even if there is anything funky going on here on the part of NVidia, IMHO, NVidia is not going anywhere because of their corner on the HPC market.

If there is something funky on the part of NVidia here, then perhaps they will open themselves up to anti-trust issues.

However, it does sound like this company has no clue as to how to build a PC, and, to people who have no idea how to build a PC, this may make it sound like the company are experts.
 
I wonder if the upcoming radeon driver will fix those issues.
A driver won't be able to alter the laws of physics unfortunately. Dual GPU cards produce heat in prodigious quantities, and the HD 7990's cooler just isn't up to the task at the performance level set for it. It is the prime reason that the card throttles down and has minimal overclock headroom. TUL were well aware of this, hence the triple slot cooler. Note that the only other retail HD 7990's are also triple slot or liquid cooled (Ares II)
Right on the money, no one else seems to be having issues but apparently this company is magically having heating problems and so called "Driver issues". Sounds more like they just dont know how to build a computer, what are they adding fans to push the heat back onto the GPU's (Sarcasm).
Obviously Falcon Northwest, Maingear, iBuypower, and Origin lack your expertise. It's a wonder you aren't a household name.
 
A driver won't be able to alter the laws of physics unfortunately. Dual GPU cards produce heat in prodigious quantities, and the HD 7990's cooler just isn't up to the task at the performance level set for it. It is the prime reason that the card throttles down and has minimal overclock headroom. TUL were well aware of this, hence the triple slot cooler. Note that the only other retail HD 7990's are also triple slot or liquid cooled (Ares II)

Obviously Falcon Northwest, Maingear, iBuypower, and Origin lack your expertise. It's a wonder you aren't a household name.

Well, I was really talking about the stuttering and stuff but the heat is a huge issue that sets the 7990 back.

AMD has had a reputation for hot and loud GPU's (with stock coolers) for years everywhere, both forums and review sites. I have countless graphs with them at the top (both idle and load), from the 5xxx series to the 7xxx series. It is mentioned they run hotter (sometimes over 80C) in just about every review I have ever read. Not as bad lately though.
Using the word magical to describe a known trait shows complete and utter shameful bias and renders (see what I did there :D ) such a comment useless.

Lol I see what you mean, but we have to see how AMDs next gen competes before we can jump to conclusions that AMD stinks versus nVidia (most of the comments suggest this xD).
 
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