News AMD says consumers are technology illiterate

I don't know if what they are doing will back 'Joe Bloggs' any more or less stupid when it comes to tech. But it is nice that AMD are acknowledging what PCWorld's staff have been saying on Faecbook.

I'm not sure about the branding but I like the Keychain they sent with the press release.

 

There's not much difference between an SSD and USB storage device, they both tend to be made from the same stuff.

If you want to get really nerdy how about we insist that a SSD is actually an SSSD (solid state storage device) since they stop being round as soon as they get diced before wire-bonding and packaging.

 

Thanks for the link Matt, however you know as well as I that this is simply a marketing exercise.
Why else would the naming convention use such terms as Premium and Ultimate.

For the average Joe ultimate must be the best, otherwise it wouldn't be called ultimate, whether it suits their needs or not. This is simply a means to try and sell higher spec'd systems and more expensive systems.

 

Great marketing by AMD..... It doesnt matter to us... but there are MANY ppl out there cant figure out which system is better..I would assume upwards of 50% of the market..... The only thing they can relate "chips" is to a bag of walkers....

 

its simple, if it says AMD dont buy it

 

That's a pretty unintelligent way to approach buying a computer system.

 

Not if your a fanboy

 

this dude is realy unitelligent! amd are just as good as intel, i have always stuck with amd and always will! phenom all the way!!!!

 

Oh don't turn this into an AMD vs Intel thread... both are good, both can be bad. Get the best for your budget and requirements. That's all.

 

Even that's not true.. You don't have to be a fanboy to see that Intel's quite a bit ahead right now. AMD was ahead a few years ago when it was all Athlon 64 vs. P4, etc. They go back and forth, they're never really equal.

 

what annoys me is not that people are completely clueless, but that they look at me as if im some kind of space monster the minute i let slip i have a bit of knowledge

 

...all this is probably quite correct. We're nerds. It's not for us, and it's not fair of us to criticise it as if it is.

However. I am reasonably techy, and I'm utterly confused by - for instance - graphics cards. What's an HD3650, and how is it less good than an HD4890? What do I get for my extra £120? I found the recent writeup on the new Intel CPUs absolutely perplexing. Core i5? Core i7? Christ, I used to keep up with all this stuff, but I just don't have time.

 

I love my simply named Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870x2. Oh, oops.
Love the card, but the name has always struck me as too long by a factor of 3.

I feel sorry for people who go out and spend 100 euros on a card that is substandard and think to themselves "Man this server is laggy".

Having said the above, PC Gaming is a hobby, every hobby requires some basic knowledge to get things working properly. If you do not understand how to put the bait on the hook you will not get fish while fishing. If you do not understand how to dip the brush into paint, you will not be able to paint a decent picture.
If you think that you can spend 70 euros and play your game at max on your 26 inch monitor, you will be likewise frustrated. I think it would take a maximum of 2 to 4 hours, depending on your skulls density to get a good grip on which cards for sale now would play the games you want now, and leave some room for another year of gaming (sorry guys, more than a year slack time does not exist).
You can apply the MoarCash method if all else fails, buy the most expensive card you can find, but one should also be careful here so you do not end up with a CAD/CAM card for 2,000 euros, lol.

Take the time to know your hobby.

Yours in PC Gaming way of life Plasma,
Star*Dagger

P.S. If anyone needs help selecting a card, pm me, now or in future, it is too sad to allow people to choose the wrong card

 

But you're just proving my point: if consumers (at any level of technical knowledge) are going to benefit from these new labels, they're going to have to look them up to understand what they mean. In which case, they might as well be looking up the actual technology.

Consumers will be as much at the mercy of PC World peons with this scheme as with the current situation, as they will need the peons to explain the still-meaningless labels.

 

pimlicosound - it does help consumers, because they can see straight away from a sticker which 'tier' it is in. Whereas before with 200 stickers it didn't really help at all, and so the sales assistant would just go to town and earn his money by telling you what you 'need'.

 

Exactly, my customers always ask where I learn this, and the truth is, unless you do it for work or a hobby, you really can't keep up with it. The average person isn't going to wade through this mess.

Most people go to a store and either buy cheap, or they listen to an employee snow them.

My father used to complain "my computer is lagging". Usually, it was the crappy websites he was accessing. Didn't matter what it was, it was always his computer because my brother built it for him and wasn't his old Emachine that he loved and "ran perfect". Nevermind that the Emachine by then was over 4years old and infected with over 1000 spyware and 160+ viruses (we pulled the plug and built him a new machine at that point).


As for take the time, most people are not in this for a hobby, they see a computer as little more than a TV. You buy it, plug it in and it should work. Really think about how much time you spend keeping up with your hobby.

 

saddle popper edition.. runs 3 antivirus and comes with big button gadgets on the desktop- says "minigames" and "facebook"

then have a advanced button that takes them to bing.. oh yeah and a link to limewire

 

+1

Although both companies are doing better in different sectors, e.g Mid range performance seems to go to the X3 720BE

 

Yeah, I get that ALL the time. Sucks to be a nerd sometimes...

 

For the average consumer... its not the branding or knowledge of the product that dictates what they buy... just walk into PC world, all you hear is "I have a budget of £400 what computer can I get for that much?"