THG's ATI Mojo day article

[eden]

Comments welcome.

Mine:
I beleive this was what was needed ever since companies became big. You get the feel they are no longer watching you and helping you get more. ATi has changed the way I look at them, and I feel more tempted than ever to try their products. I also have to praise David Stellmack's care for us readers by mentioning the FAQs we ask. To know ATi in fact reads our bug reports, EACH, and do their best to release ASAP some fixes, is truly something. I am disappointed at how Nvidia simply ignores that, you never see what is fixed in a new version of the Detonator XPs, nor where improvements can be seen. Hell is there even a Bug fix report, or a CREW as ATI calls it?
The fact a big company like them is able to support people, and PUSH them to use stuff not just by them but by everyone, is surprising, and as David puts it, something much needed, almost revolutionary. I am hoping it goes this way, it will simplify my future dream of getting into computer graphics, whether to design a TV show, or even aid in a game's GFX production.
If it truly goes like ATi's driver team says, my next card will be from them.
This is a company where you CAN look and praise them, not like saying "It's just a company, a building, stop praising that", but rather the people from there are fascinating.

AMD could do that as well, and I hope ATI has pushed some companies to rise. It's good to see that even though Microsoft or Intel or Nvidia do not represent what the word "support" or "customers are valued" mean, that big companies like ATi are changing that.

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What made you choose your THG Community username/nickname? <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=19957#19957" target="_new">Tell here!</A><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Eden on 09/25/02 09:12 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[eden]

I suppose the majority is still reading through this extensively long article, so I'll simply bump it up.
You guys HAVE to read it if you're not, it's truly good news!

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[dstell]

Thank you for your kind comments!

It was a true challenge to write such an in depth article on Mojo day, but Chris Hook from ATI did a great job in making sure that I had access to the people that I wanted to talk with. What I found unique is that he gave me access to people who are not normally in the spot light and these are the people who make the products really "GO" and this was a refreshing change from the "slick" marketing that I see from many other companies. These guys are the ones that they don't normally let talk to the media. As you can see they let me have VERY candid discussions with them and allowed me to print every word of it. (In fact most of the time in a situation like this they have a PR person taking notes about what you asked and stuff, they didn't do anything like that at all!) They didn't even ask to verify the interviews or hear the tapes before the story ran. How is that for confidence in your people?

I gave much thought to cutting out some of the interview content, but you know what Eden, I found the stuff to be far too good and news worthy to not leave it in.

My concern was that as you said "It is a long article", but there are a ton of hidden gems in the discussions with these guys. I find them to be very good people to talk with and very in the know about their products. - It is my hope that more people read it, as I don't think many people have any idea of the great amount of info that is in this article, which answers a lot of the same questions that you the readers Email and ask me all of the time.

I think that they do realize that many of our readers, because of the complaints with the drivers are not willing to consider giving them a chance, but Terry is really on a mission to change that. I have never met someone that takes the drivers and the software development of the products so personal. His team is driven to resolve the issues and if they are not getting resolved, let me know and I will personally pass it on to him. (Of course the Crew program is the best way to get the stuff addressed, as they are investing a lot of time and money into it!)

I will tell you that I learned a lot about software development at this event and I do think that ATI wants to make this happen. In any event, it is my hope that they will invite us back next year to cover the event again.

Thanks again for your comments!

 

[slvr_phoenix]

I've dealt a tad with the software developer resources for the majors in the last couple of years (mostly for video streaming) and I've always found ATI to be the most helpful for the confused programmer. I've always enjoyed dealing with ATI whenever I run into software development problems.

So it's no surprise at all that ATI is running something as cool as the mojo thing. It's something you would have expected nVidia to have done ... had they not lost touch with their whole market base long ago. So it's good that someone is stepping up to make a difference where it matters: people.

The absolute worst though is Matrox! They're horrible for dealing with software developers. They <b>never</b> answer <b>all</b> of your questions. They pretend that their firmware is infallable. And if you actually do prove that their software or firmware has a bug, they just tell you to go back to an earlier version. They give absolutely no indication that they plan to actually look at, or dare I suggest <b>fix</b> the bug. And they always seem annoyed that you dare take up their precious time.

If you're a software developer, <b>STAY AWAY FROM MATROX!</b>

And if you can, go with ATI.

Unfortunately though, that isn't always an option since ATI doesn't do professional frame grabbers. I'd so dearly <b>love</b> to see ATI do one of them and put Matrox in their place...

Err ... sorry for the ramble. :| But yeah, ATI rocks when dealing with the software developers.

I've heard less-than-stellar things about their regular customer support though...

P.S. David, that article rocked. I wish THG covered more events like that. Sometimes just hearing about hardware gets boring. It's nice to touch back on the software side of things every once in a while.

<pre><A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/186.htm" target="_new"><font color=red>It's all relative...</font color=red></A></pre><p>

 

[juin]

It was a true challenge to write such an in depth article on Mojo day,


what that mean???

At the end i have speak with a horny lady

 

[eden]

I think that if ATI reads our comments, they will surely do something on the support part. Hell David could also relay that, as many also complained their support seems very weak, perhaps our word can be spread once more!

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[lhgpoobaa]

interesting.
i find such attitudes encouraging.
good support & drivers are critical.

<b>I am an Emotional and Intellectual Strumpet! </b>

 

[icy_oblivion]

I have to agree that this article was one of the best I have read in a while, just because it isn't the standard benchmark with graphs, it was an article about a company with a dream. They are pursuing this dream and if they suceed it could change the way the whole market views everything from development, to the hardware that most people know nothing about.

Like Eden said, I am surprised nVidia didn't do something like this.

I hope this puts ATI up a bit and increases the market competition.

<font color=red> Alcohol </font color=red>and <font color=green>calculus </font color=green>don't mix. Never <font color=red>drink </font color=red>and <font color=green>derive.</font color=green>

 

[dstell]

What it means is that I wanted to make the article good, but didn't want it to come across as a sales job etiher. Sometimes, I think it is difficult to engage the reader into reading something that you know is going to be that long.

 

[ra5555]

yea I loved that artical, thnx

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Like Eden said, I am surprised nVidia didn't do something like this.

I'm not. Somewhere along the line nVidia lost touch with their consumers and developers. (Developers anyway...) It's kind of frustrating as they <i>used</i> to be nicer. At this rate, nVidia and Matrox will merge and have the worst developer relations <i>ever</i>.

On top of that, nVidia is trying desperately to force <i>their</i> proprietary nature into becoming a standard, instead of being open to what people actually want. I think nVidia spent way too much time working with Microsoft on the XBox, because ever since then they've been awfully up themselves and power mad.

ATI ... I hope they grow. They seemed to be a little rocky for a while there, both in product and software developer relations. A little up themselves too maybe. However, they've really learned their lesson and are working hard to change people's perception of them, which I like. I like that a lot. They're probably <i>the</i> friendliest graphics card company when it comes to developers, and hopefully they'll work on customer service.

Admittedly though, I can kind of understand terse customer service. When you have hundreds of people whining to you <i>daily</i>, day after day after day, most of the time with problems caused through their own stupidity and ineptitude, you're bound to stop caring about helping. Heh heh. Granted, I also suppose that were I actually making money to help these people, I'd sure learn how to sound a lot nicer than the dark nasty thoughts in my head.

But again, I think ATI is doing things right. I mean you can do the AMD thing, shouting out "Recognize ME" like an insane plea or an angry demand on websites where the vast majority of people already know who and what AMD is anyway.

Or, you can try to actually ship your products in volume and sponsor fun (yet very informative) events to help developers work with not just your new technology, but <i>everyone's</i> new technology.

Maybe it's just me, but if you're going to try and change the opinions of people who already know who you are, you're better off improving your image by <i>helping</i> people than you are just shouting out "Recognize ME".

**shrug**

So because of ATI's renewed vigor, I have high hopes that their customer service will become more helpful too.

Then again, maybe I have it all wrong. Maybe that's why I'm not in marketting or am a CEO.

<pre><A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/186.htm" target="_new"><font color=red>It's all relative...</font color=red></A></pre><p>

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Sometimes, I think it is difficult to engage the reader into reading something that you know is going to be that long.

Make it informative (like you did a good job of doing) and they will read. I <i>like</i> long articles when they actually give us insight and information.

I just wanted to say thanks for the good articles and for also taking a part in THGC. I've even seen you helping people out. That's cool. I wish that there were more people like you on the THG staff. I hope that you can keep up the good work.

<pre><A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/186.htm" target="_new"><font color=red>It's all relative...</font color=red></A></pre><p>

 

[eden]

What I was thinking, is that ATI wants to make it step by step, and everything dependant. By making the driver team work hard, listening to bug reports, you are improving the stability of your product, therefore the dependant factor here is the stability improvement. That is what will affect the customer support, because people will have less probs. When ATi users realize there is a bug report area, they won't have to call each time to make sure that bug is reported and find support, rather, they will engage in what is best known as cooperativity, they all pitch in to make the product MUCH more stable.

I think that is ATi's goal and I really continually wish other companies see that.

I just wanted to say thanks for the good articles and for also taking a part in THGC.

I wish he was promoted to CPU article writing!

But yes, when you create articles that have depth, that create interest among a certain ethusiast branch, you WILL get the attention. Dave, you got the writing hand, keep it up.

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