regarding both the Trinity and
Piledriver overclocking capability
of their motherboards, everyone
was expecting quite a lot from MSI.
Previously, MSI had submitted an
8.3GHz FX-8350 result as well as a
7.48GHz A10-5800K, but they didn’t
quite get there during the live event.
The reason is quite simple: MSI used
the CPUs provided by AMD for this
event rather than bringing along their
golden ones. Those samples definitely
are not record samples. For MSI the
event was just to reach the targets
of 6.5GHz and 7.5GHz and nothing
more and that’s exactly what they did.
Perhaps a little disappointing – as I
was hoping to see a battle between
GIGABYTE and MSI – but definitely
understandable taking into account the
risks you take when bringing a golden
sample to a public event.
WHY THE ABSENCE
OF ASUS?
For the industry, this type of launch
event is more about patting AMD on
the back and showing them support for
future products than it is about setting
records or being competitive. The event
structure gives manufacturers that
openly support extreme overclocking a
great opportunity to show the general
public they are very confident about
their products. After all, anything can
go wrong during live demonstrations.
By attending – and overclocking ASRock, Biostar, GIGABYTE and MSI
did just that. ECS, Jetway and Hong
Kong based Sapphire backing out of
the public OC demonstration is not
really a surprise. Neither of them
have anyone in-house capable of
extreme over clocking and without the
experience, it’s not easy to do a public
overclocking demo.
Amongst all mainboard vendors
ASUS (ROG) – the Number one
mainboard vendor – stood out by their
complete absence from this event. Not
only did I, but others as well, wonder
why the vendor didn’t bother to show
up. As previously stated - this event
was a perfect opportunity to show off
the quality of the AMD products to the
public. Especially given that on the
same day, the ROG team published
an internally achieved FX 8350
overclocking record, the decision not
to show up is strange to say the least. It
begs the question, why?
Is it because they have no confidence
in their products? Of course not.
Everyone knows ASUS (ROG) builds
high-quality and all-around solid
products that are more than capable
36 The OverClocker Issue 22 | 2012
of withstanding extreme temperatures
and overclocking. No one questions
that. Is it perhaps they are afraid of
the competition? I can only imagine
how much pressure it must be to
be competing as the market leader.
Especially in a public environment
because, you are open to attacks
from everyone. No competitor will
hesitate to make you look bad in front
of an audience. However, this wasn’t a
competition, it was a demonstration.
Add to which, AMD had prohibited
any vendor from making a press
release comparing the overclocking
achievements of the various attending
vendors. Had it been a competition,
ASUS (ROG) should have been present
as Andre Yang, ROG’s in-house
overclocker, posted an 8.67GHz FX8350 validation. That is much higher
than the previous Piledriver record
and higher than anything shown at the
public event. Had it been a competition,
they would have walked away winners.
So the question remains: why not
show up and as the ROG-overclocker
Andre Yang likes to phrase it, “prove
it”? Why not just join the event,
annihilate all your competitors, get
the easy press and go home knowing
you bested everyone’s efforts? In my
opinion it’s an opportunity lost to show
you truly are number one.
I can only speculate it’s related to
an inter-departmental competitive
environment where one mainboard team
will not promote the other mainboard
team’s products. I hope – but do not
expect – to see a public statement of
ASUS or their ROG department regarding
the absence. (Don’t quite follow this –Ed!)
IN CLOSING
AMD is currently facing a particularly
difficult situation because of their
financial troubles. A product lineup that isn’t competitive across the
board has seen to this to a degree.
However, I do still like the company
primarily because AMD continues to
promote overclocking. Their products
are actually quite a lot of fun to play
with: Trinity APUs in 3D benchmarks
and Piledriver that seems ready for
9GHz (just imagine all the “It’s over
9000 -jokes)!
I’m genuinely impressed by
the four attending teams. Openly
endorsing overclocking is, from a
management point of view, quite
a big step. Coming out in public
to show of your product in the
same room as your competitors is