Well, this is interesting. According to Polygon, Origin PC is going to stop offering AMD graphics cards in its computers. The boutique PC maker claims it was pushed to Nvidia exclusivity by a multitude of problems with AMD graphics hardware, including overheating and allegedly poor stability. See for yourself:
"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, a technical support manager at Origin.
The guys at Game Front did some more digging, and they got Origin PC CEO Kevin Wasielewski to go on record denying a link between this move and Nvidia’s Battlebox promotion. The promotion counts Origin PC as one of four participating system builders in North America. Wasielewski told Game Front, "The NVIDIA Battlebox promotion that is currently running with Origin PC and other system builders that work with NVIDIA has absolutely nothing to do with our decision."
Game Front also reached out to AMD for comment, but the chipmaker had no statement to make.
To be honest, I’m a little surprised by Origin’s assertions. It’s true that AMD GPUs have suffered from frame latency problems, and a driver fix for multi-GPU rigs with 4K monitors (or Eyefinity display setups) still isn’t available. But stability and overheating issues? Radeons and GeForces from major board partners often ship with similar coolers, and their GPU temperatures are usually in the same ballpark—whether on entry-level or high-end parts. AMD’s recent string of partnerships with game developers has done wonders for timely driver updates, too. Heck, Nvidia users got the short end of the stick when Tomb Raider, an AMD Gaming Evolved title, came out.
Yeah, I don’t know. At this point, I’m curious to see if other boutique system builders follow suit, or if Origin PC remains an isolated case.
