Is Nvidia FORGIVEN for Hardware Unboxed Scandal?

[@nfijef]

"It would be great if you could share this with your fans." says it all.

[@Kas_Styles]

It was a great apology up until that part. He should have just left that out. They should have also added how that happened and what will happen in the future to fix something like that from ever happening again.

[@slendydie1267]

It was gonna get shared anyway. If they were smart about it this part shouldnt have existed in the apology.

[@sailbatten2056]

Doesn't mean anything. You can be totally sincere and still say please tell everybody how sincere I am. Stop over simplifying.

[@Vagelis1608]

Maybe it's "Tell everyone that we're the good guys", maybe it's an ok to him sharing that email. Poorly worded, sure, but still, could be either way.

[@angelaizen2231]

@@Vagelis1608 my take on it was more of a "the previous email wasn't my opinion but i can't say that directly" sort of vibe

[@Lingonberreh]

The apology you get from a bully in school. Not sorry because they are genuinely remorseful, they’re only sorry because they got caught.

[@thealien_ali3382]

Agreed

[@James-H84]

They are not even sorry? This has caused extensive coverage of the fact they have better ray tracing than AMD. They know gamers won't place moral integrity of not supporting bad business practices above having the best FPS. Would not surprise me if even Linus put two 3090s is his personal build. They apologise because it gives people the escuse they need to support what they know was wrong because they did say they were 'sorry'. Even people with a little integrity have short memories. They are probably frustrated that so many tech influencers called them out so bluntly but it still will probably work out as a net gain for them. People that had any real issue with bad business practices probably stopped buying nvidia a while ago.

[@adamtajhassam9188]

All thanks to linus + his army. Nvidia is hiding their guilt clearly, so they can shut down the attacks.... Yes agreed : Not Sorry because it was forced & they didn't reach out.

[@Vanillasundaty]

Agreed

[@steelkinq3708]

@@James-H84 I do not buy in a range where RT madders, like 95% of all GPUs out there and as long as NV and AMD are by a couple percentages on par in fps, cost, power consumption like at the moment? I can live without that grinch.

[@gondoravalon7540]

"Is Nvidia FORGIVEN for Hardware Unboxed Scandal?" Fuck no.

[@koford]

Unboxed Hardware did accept the "sorry" email.. go watch that video.

[@ThorsShadow]

@@koford a) The channel is called "Hardware Unboxed", not "Unboxed Hardware". The name is literally in the video title. b) I'm fine with Steve forgiving nvidia, but that doesn't mean I, the person you're responding to or anyone else has to forgive nvidia. If I don't want to buy a 3080 anymore, because nvidia have been behaving like massive cunts, I can certainly do so. I don't have to be fine with nvidia.

[@koford]

@@ThorsShadow depens, some doesnt..some does. Thats it.

[@anonymouspokemon4623]

Forgive, but don't forget.

[@raccoons_finest]

🤣

[@sasquatchcrew]

The first email and the apology email are literally two different people, and if they aren't, you got one good scumbag at nvidia.

[@MediocreTCG]

Totally convinced an executive wrote the first one and forced BDR to sign it.

[@nicksrandomness2774]

Yeah the first one was lengthy and wordy, this one was sweet and short. I think it was a way to see if people were loyal to nvidia or if it was a way to see if people give a crap about RTX (1% do)

[@somethinglikethat2176]

Am I crazy or does the second email almost sound like it's having a go at the first? "Oh I must be suffering lock down fatigue to write something so stupid.... don't you agree, Carl?"

[@Shizzmoney74]

@@MediocreTCG According to Down Under Steve, there was a person on nvidia's ANZ marketing team who didnt like him.

[@Aereto]

When do people realize mamy NVIDIA executives ARE scumbags? Their products would have improved significantly by R&D if it weren't for them.

[@RightOnBud]

Using covid lockdowns as a blanket excuse to act like a pig towards others just made the apology even worse. He's not sorry for anything but the received backlash.

[@nikkiofthevalley]

I think that was him trying to sneakily say (as he can't say that directly) that he wasn't the one dictating what was being written there. There's no way he was. Not from an emotional or personal standpoint, just a standpoint of that the PR nightmare that was that email would never have even gotten anywhere near a half-decent PR manager. I think the only reason that email got sent is because the higher-ups pushed him to send it. You have to remember here that every single thing in an email from a corporation, even if it's credited to a single person, is signed off on by many people, and is not necessarily from the person credited. Don't go after a single person in a company with your burning pitchforks, go after the entire company.

[@LuLeBe]

@@nikkiofthevalley Definitely not every single thing in every email, they don't hold daily 3hr meetings to dissect the 350 email they write in each team every day. But, for important communication like this where it is about expressing a decision or opinion by the company, it would be expected to go through more than one person. Although it's definitely not guaranteed, I'm sure there are many cases where way bigger stuff was just handled by a single person by accident or even intentional.

[@toasty-toast]

Apology was direct, but the philosophy behind this strong arming of publishers is unlikely to change

[@Gavin-dj3kn]

Yes, I agree

[@ConnorHammond]

@@Gavin-dj3kn So the apology is worth shit. We all know it.

[@pablor.362]

While they did something very wrong they still backed up thanks to influencers and fans so if you still get treated the same after fixing the problem you did there wouldn't be a reason to not do moves like this or back up.

[@summushieremiasclarkson4700]

@@pablor.362 Corporations are not people. They exist for profit, and their responsibilities are to their shareholders.

[@pablor.362]

@@summushieremiasclarkson4700 yes your right every company is, but if they didn't backed up on what they did it would just be worse, not listening to the complains or critics would make any company impossible to deal with

[@rexrey1979]

It feels like he apologized only because it backfired so hard. However, I think that BDR is just a scapegoat. I think the orders came from above, and these are the people who should apologize in the first place.

[@syncmonism]

At least some of the people above are ultimately at least partially to blame

[@ChrisTitusTech]

Shocking... Welp, there is always AMD... until, they do something like this lol. There have been multiple examples of KZbinrs getting blacklisted because of negative reviews or not following the required guidelines. Sadly, I'm sure we will see more of this from more and more companies.

[@LinuxForEveryone]

Oh boy do I have a story to tell you, then.

[@seraphi.m]

@@LinuxForEveryone what story

[@pr0xZen]

Let's not blame chickens before they hatch. If eg. AMD, or anyone else, does anything like this, they deserve every criticism they get. But let's not go all Minority Report on anyone.

[@nullvoid3545]

grats on 69 likes!

[@orlock20]

Maybe tech reviews should be more positive because the products they review are positive. I got product X. It does this, this and this and I want to see if there are any vast improvements on this. There is a lot of "junk" out there, but in the end of the day people are looking for stuff that is good.

[@T1C]

Who would have expected that????? Of course they would back out of such a PR nuke.

[@Marauder1981]

There is no backing out of a mushroom cloud. They fucked up. For the Xth time.

[@hamzahaytham3940]

@@Marauder1981 The US did several times, literally...

[@mikajacobsen860]

Then again, nobody would have expected them to fire off that PR nuke in the first place. So, I don't know what's obvious or not anymore in the Nvidia PR department.

[@Aereto]

@@mikajacobsen860 Only the higher ups are very bad at business. Inept in leadership.

[@swaggamesph3342]

This is probably suggested by Nvidia's higher ops or founders which their PR team has followed. Usually, a PR team only follows what the Head Management wants. Since the PR team are also the ones who can clean-up the mess. 1 good evidence that this came from Nvidia's higher ops is that BDR still has his job. If this decision came from the PR department, BDR should have been long gone after it backfired. This kind of email and have many operational decision on it which can only be made by higher ops. So definitely this is not BDR's suggestion. It's without a doubt the higher ops or even founders of Nvidia.

[@jpgdesign]

This makes a lot of sense

[@trs5127]

That's the only thing that makes sense to me. I don't know who BDR is or what kind of person he is. I wanna believe that he's a reasonable guy, because Linus believes so. But even if I didn't, in pretty sure there'd be at least some negative impact on BDR's career and relationship with Nvidia if this was his idea.

[@MrCh0o]

@@trs5127 My theory is that what he has been told to do with the letter was so stupid in his eyes that he decided to amplify the stupidity to a ridiculous level so he can piss off the entire community based on orders he was given, so whoever gave them backpedals

[@kg4wwn]

@@MrCh0o So this is malicious compliance?

[@MrCh0o]

@@kg4wwn Yeah, that's the explanation that I felt was fitting

[@brianpack2332]

"The community feels the hit", I love that you guys are highlighting that this really was felt beyond a single KZbin channel and I think you guys are right to say it's not just an issue between Nvidia and Hardware Unboxed.

[@word2RG]

It was an HONEST peek under the hood of how NVDA really thinks of us. How much you value honesty, is up to the individual.

[@williamwinner4234]

I think you're defending BDR too much. My feeling is the Asia Pacific region drafted the email and went after Hardware Unboxed for personal reasons and likely just pushed BDR into issuing it without him really knowing the story. He was probably tired and said, whatever and sent it. It feels like the buck stops at BDR.

[@Hotobu]

Finally someone reasonable. As if someone *more* executive than him is going around making decisions like that just off of looking at KZbin reviews 😂

[@harpoonlobotomy]

@@Hotobu You don't think an executive can overreact and lash out? It happens constantly, it just rarely gets publicised. 'Executives' includes a lot of petty, entitled jerks. At a certain level they're virtually untouchable, and some of them throw their weight around.

[@bacicinvatteneaca]

@@harpoonlobotomy the point is that he's the one that handles these things

[@sirsluginston]

The apology was purely an attempt to save face, thus insincere.

[@Aereto]

Only intelligent people know their apology is deceptive. You know what they say, words are cheap. Apologies have no value without work or action. We have a lot of unintelligent people who think saying sorry is enough.

[@jacksonk5326]

As someone who got caught a lot when I was a kid , I can tell when someone is only sorry that they got caught :/

[@givinnatanlie4619]

the problem is, the one who wrote that isn't even a kid anymore, like what are they thinking

[@swapode]

Quite frankly, I can't even imagine what a good apology would sound like, except maybe "It was these specific execs; Here's the paper trail that proves it was a rogue action and we're not just scapegoating; They are fired without compensation package". Anything less rings hollow after such a blunt attack. But hey, I was trying to convince myself to buy an AMD card next, maybe this is finally enough.

[@imightbebiased9311]

An apology sounds like you're sorry, and then your future actions will determine whether it was legitimate or not.

[@swapode]

​@@imightbebiased9311 Sure. But this isn't about a faux-pas caused by lock-down fatigue or whatever bullshit they came up with. If someone steps on my foot, a simple "sorry" will do, and unless they keep doing it, we're good. On the other hand if someone punches me on the nose, it ain't that simple. Either they've got a really good explanation how such a thing could happen or shit's going down. This wasn't a step on the foot.

[@imightbebiased9311]

@@swapode Oh, sorry, I was misinterpreting your words. I thought you meant that you weren't sure what a good general corporate apology would sound like these days, not an apology for this specific situation. Yeah, I'm not sure what a "real" apology for this sounds like without a, "We will never do something like this again" somewhere in it.

[@jgclonegunner]

AMD GPU's are inferior tho

[@Hriedmarrj]

@@jgclonegunner ...And? Dont support shitty companies. Speak with your fuckin' wallet. Death to anyone who defends this shit.

[@kcihtred2]

I feel like a video on the history of nVidia bullshit is in order

[@CheapBastard1988]

Just like GN about MSI. But they should do this about more companies (hello Thermalfake!).

[@kcihtred2]

@@CheapBastard1988 companies only get away with what they think they can. If GN and LTT keep them honest it helps consumers

[@MiTaReX]

Time to update the old classic: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fmGvZIKKj5ZmhdU

[@YourTamedLion]

That is gonna be a video longer than a full Wan show. But I would watch it #NVIDIAsucks

[@MichaelClark-uw7ex]

Would YT allow a video that long? They have been scummy for decades.

[@libertyprime9307]

They really screwed themselves. Could've just ghosted him, stopped sending him FEs, he'd probably know why... except the obvious follow-up vid testing the RT/DLSS which he even announced in the original video. Now they can't even deprive him of them if they want since they have to fulfill their apology, so we stop hating them.

[@chroniclesofbap6170]

"I'm sorry.... please tell your friends?" No.

[@F1ll1nTh3Blanks]

But isn't he like the Cheif Coms Officer.. Like how many people are above him up the chain.. couldn't it be that he didn't read off properly on what another representative wrote before signing.. Either way it doesn't look too good. If someone that high up is being told to say that by someone higher up then jesus.. who is that person and how are they in the role with that kinda mentality.

[@MediocreTCG]

@@Justin_Leahy I’m 1000000% that’s the case. I feel like an exec wrote it and forced BDR to sign it.

[@ericm5315]

@@MediocreTCG If I was BDR I would have refused and told them why I refused to send out such a poorly worded email that was obviously going to backfire.

[@storms13]

I know nothing about Brian and his position, but I could see someone higher telling him to send an email to HardwareUnboxed, no questions asked. He very well was just the messenger

[@gamesniper0625]

@@ericm5315 hope you’d enjoy finding another job as a CCO in the middle of a pandemic.

[@ericm5315]

@@gamesniper0625 In most organizations, you are expressly forbidden from sending out communications under someone else's name and is grounds for immediate dismissal when disobeyed. Getting fired for refusing to break company policy that has an excellent reason to exist is unlikely - but if it happened; you'd have a fantastic case for wrongful dismissal. The executive who asked BDR to send this was doing some super shady stuff and was trying to bypass possible ramifications, assuming that's what actually happened and is likely being talked to by HR and maybe the legal team.

[@G3HP]

Yeah, I'm with Linus. That initial email vs. the subsequent apologies sound like two different people... My take on this is somebody higher up than BDR (who had no business interacting with media) must've seen Hardware Unboxed's review, and taken offence to them not holding RTX up on some golden pedestal during their mainline review, and so scripted that message and forced/coerced BDR to sign off on it (basically making him the fall guy for it it bombed, like it did)

[@peachierose3356]

yes

[@stijntakesitall]

It still stinks and the apology was not enough. The entire media was pressured here so a public message should have been shared. Steve should have been given some special treatment by this shitty company and not have been used as a distribution platform for their own mistake.

[@thomasjensen1590]

Nvidia have no idea how shitty RTX really is

[@glutenguardian]

That idea of an investigative journalist hosting a dedicated video about this would be a great way to present the total argument to the community and to Nvidia without having other people see the possible bias they might think you have, good job Luke

[@mikehunthunt8269]

Luke playing both sides so he always ontop

[@MediocreTCG]

Yup. One of the best Sunny moments ever.

[@TheXeioken]

I get it, I really do. But having a spine is worth more.

[@FireDarkness39]

Nah, luke seems like a top to me.

[@RuStyMoNkeY964]

I think it came form higher up and BDR also was the fall guy when it all fell apart. CORPO tactics for sure

[@elcoollow5955]

I was on the fence about upgrading when stock is available and I was considering nvdia because of DLSS. But this makes me want to support AMD. I don't want to support Nvidias ego.

[@kataseiko]

Despite their apology, I think my next PC will have AMD/AMD inside.

[@magnomliman8114]

buy hardware based on what you like and need not for drama.

[@BenetbenetLive]

Right.. I will buy the best product.

[@RusticRonnie]

@@magnomliman8114 you need to vote for the business practices you support, and vote against what you don't.

[@sailbatten2056]

@@RusticRonnie You guys are behaving like children. The drama is so off the charts. You guys actually think you are freedom fighters or something. "Look at me! I'm so conscientious I'm buying AMD!" As if you all can evaluate the totality of what huge corporations do. Are you 12? Give it a break.

[@jonathanelliott1338]

@@sailbatten2056 It's just as asinine if you flip it around to what your response implies. "Hey, everything Nvidia did is no big deal - it didn't affect me personally so it's fine (usual bootlicker mentality). You should just shut up." They're voting with their dollar to not support bullshit bully tactics - tactics you're down with. I'll also be going red next build and I hope it makes you clutch your pearls just as much.

[@ccdc123456]

Thanks for helping me choose a new GPU. I bought a Sapphire Nitro + RX 6800XT. And it's awesome !!!

[@rishigupta2556]

5:54 it would be great if you could share this with your fans?!?! I thought nvidia might have genuinely been sorry...lol

[@stephangauthier911]

THIS! I thought I was the only one who saw that.

[@spyder000069]

As if tech people only get their info from one source and this was all going to just be isolated to their audience.

[@kronos2611]

Hearing that Teams notification sound when watching this just fills me with fear that I should be working

[@MrRez808]

I would love to see a dedicated video on this topic.

[@jackyoung9786]

this also happen during the 2060 FE release. Hardware Unboxed didnt receive there early release test

[@2007farenheit]

“Umm I was drunk and I won’t drink anymore” lol

[@sarathmadhu]

Its nice to see that you guys have each others back. sorta keeping the independent relevant for these reviews. Wish reviewers in my country also had such collective voice and provided a fair review.

[@jaytate491]

Not from me. I'm buying an AMD on purpose. I was going to get an RTX 3080 but I don't care about ray tracing and I'm speaking in solidarity with my money for #hardwareunboxed

[@CommodoreFan64]

👍, and if you ever get tired of Microsoft's BS, you can count on good Linux support with the open source drivers baked right into the latest Linux kernels. Just run a good rolling release distro like Manjaro, and you will never have to worry about being out of date.

[@magnomliman8114]

@Jason Tate "" I was going to get an RTX 3080"" you tell me you switch you mind cus a company said something wrong to a youtuber? you are stupide. i buy hardware based on what i like and what i need and not politics. fan bois are sick this days.

[@Ntwister]

@@magnomliman8114 that you dont care how companies act is fine. but some of us vote with our wallet. the only way to stop companies to stop acting bad is to affect their income. that is our responsibility as consumers in an open market. it has nothing to do with politics its about morals. its the same as preferring to not buy products created by child labor because it rewards bad practices.

[@SirPunch2Face]

@@magnomliman8114 You're pointing out that he is buying a different brand of a video card, and then like 3 sentences later you call him a "fan boi". I don't think you know what a "fan boi" is, my guy. Maybe take a step back from the weeb shit and come back into real life and learn what words mean before you start trying to act like a tough boi on the internet.

[@thomasjensen1590]

RTX is garbage... in most games it actually makes the game look worse. Plus it absolutely destroys FPS. They would be better off using those transistors for rasterization

[@jimp7181]

What about that MSI thing where their US subsidiary was scalping cards?

[@lost4468yt]

Did you watch their video on it? They said basically who cares?

[@GenjiPrime]

That other "someone" you mean the "leather jacket guy"? 😂

[@reed-young]

How toxic does nvidia have to be for EVGA to effectively sacrifice more than half of its own revenue stream in order to file for divorce from nvidia?

[@HartleyTopTips]

there sorry they got caught, just other companies lying to customers.

[@Tonis197]

they’re *

[@LapisPebble]

@@Tonis197 I'm so sick of people who can't even get elementary school level grammar right.

[@JosePineda-jn8jk]

@@Tonis197That was a sentence fragment...

[@HartleyTopTips]

@@LapisPebble i know how to spell, i just choose not to for speed lol

[@kevenharvey9711]

The apology isn't sincere at all, hopefully they learned that the media and consumers aren't onboard with their bullshit and that they don't speak for gamers, maybe the most we can expect from a publically traded company. And I say that fully believing that ray tracing is the FUTURE, while also believing that today's implementation isn't worth the computationnal load. IMO, nVidia are just trying to get the population to associate ray tracing with their brand, for when it becomes viable, that's all it is.

[@nathandam6415]

Glad that they even backtracked in the first place. Plenty of companies would just straight up not give a fuck and plow through until the waters settle again.

[@CommodoreFan64]

As a proud member of the Linux community, I can say Nvidia has been pulling bullshit like this for years telling us to frack ourselves for support, and that they don't want our money because of it, and I'll happily run AMD, and hope Intel also gives us a good option for a GPU at some point that's not an iGPU.

[@lost4468yt]

They can't possibly associate raytracing with their brand. It is something that has existed for several decades and is perhaps one of the most geometric, intuitive, and simple ways to render things. As soon as performance catches up we will be seeing it more and more. And of course it's everywhere already in rendering. Also it's technically path tracing I believe? Which is much much better than plain old ray tracing.

[@whaddyamean99]

@@lost4468yt I'm not super into the tech world, so take this with a grain of salt but when I hear Ray tracing the only thing I think about is Nvidia. If I hear that term all I associate it with is rtx. So Nvidia definitely want consumers to think green when they hear Ray tracing

[@lost4468yt]

@@whaddyamean99 Sure. But it's not like Nvidia owns anything around ray-tracing. They don't own the trademark, or the technology, or the methods, or anything. Ray-tracing and path tracing (which Nvidia also just calls ray tracing it seems) have already been used for decades in the CGI world, simulation world, etc. And some games have used it before. Even the best ray traced title for RTX, Minecraft, already had a mod to path trace it by Sonic Ether, and the mod is considerably better and even more performant than Nvidia's implementation. Eventually everyone will support it, consoles, AMD, Intel, etc. Nvidia might be able to associate the tech with themselves to gamers, but that will not last very long because eventually everyone will. And if AMD and others were smart they could actually start calling their implementation Path Tracing instead. Path Tracing is much better than plain old ray tracing and can create images that you pretty much can't tell from reality. I think Nvidia is still using a mix of ray tracing and path tracing, but for whatever reason they called it all ray tracing.

[@gaming_allowed]

I find it interesting that since the apology there has been a increase in nvidia ad’s on KZbin. I even saw a nvidia come up before this video started playing

[@hiddenfromyourview]

So here's the thing. In corporate environments, other people can have access to a manager/director's email account. For example, a secretary may write up an email and run it by the owner of the email account before sending it out on their behalf. This whole situation looks like a team member wrote up an email, Brian signed off on it (Covid fatigue)? without properly reviewing it, and it backfired. I point to testimony that the email didn't sound like Brian and doesn't sound like something he'd say. To Brian's credit, he is taking FULL ownership of this situation. But do NOT expect him to rat out his team mate or whoever wrote up the email. He's a professional of the highest-order. No need to ruin his team member's career and life by exposing his name to the public.

[@Richard_Bumblebee]

I can't believe the email had a "covid huh am I right" moment in it. Because you can't open an apology without finding a cheap excuse...

[@anakondase]

The problem here is, the signal have already gone out to the smaller reviewers that won't dare to risk going against what they said in the original mail.

[@JAYZ999]

13:16 he’s obviously hinting at Jensen. Which would be fucked up.

[@Nuklearhase]

Whoever doing these clips, congratulations. I hate those short clips where you miss a lot of stuff. These good titled longer videos about the whole topic are great.

[@varanidguy]

I love how NVIDIA mentioned consoles like they're relevant in that space...aren't the PS5 and Xbox AMD? lol

[@mtheprof48]

Yep,and also have ray tracing

[@MyLonewolf25]

Yuuup

[@kavishbansal]

I think they mean Nintendo Switch cause those use Nvidia Tegra chips instead of AMD.

[@varanidguy]

@@kavishbansal I did not know that. Thank you.

[@EmbraceSweetRelease]

This stuff happened because in the past when bad practices were called out about Nvidia alot of reviews either turned a blind eye or went after those speaking about those things as either fan boys or blowing things out of proportion. He result was they kept pushing this companies products and the monster grew. Then they act surprised when monster company after getting to a certain size decides to flex it's muscles on them when they are the top dog. I'm glad reviewers are angry about this but the problem is there was alot of other things to be angry about for a long time that seriously affected consumers who had no voice. Now that the shot was fired at reviewers now we want to make a massive deal about it. I hope reviewers bring this level of intensity and this level of distrust in future inevitable screw ups any tech company makes.

[@boomish69]

Love how this is such a big thing, it happens all the time for written press reviews & I’m sure has done for KZbinrs! Then there are the hidden paid for reviews, which really are the worst PR..

[@NEOgeek402]

Also I think you should seriously think Linus for covering us I really believe this helps show that he is truly independent of these corporations. Thank you so much Linus tech tips/Linus media group. This is incredibly amazing to see you stand up for what’s right in a world where nobody really seems to care about anything. It is much appreciated and this is why I hold you to a higher standard than the rest the world all these other tech reviewer’s are kind of BS in my opinion

[@RobertDeCaire]

They didn't just threaten Hardware Unboxed. They threatened literally every tech reviewer. That threat still stands.

[@MySparkle888]

They are only sorry they got caught.

[@domm6812]

Totally agree with Linus. Explanations need to be made. That first email was so transparently crooked this is not just "water under the bridge". Like he said, this is far from the first time Nvidia have been anti-consumer.

[@syncmonism]

I have personally had an Amazon seller do something like this to me. They tried to bribe me to change my review of their product. I refused the bribe and then edited my review, knocking another star off and stating that they tried to bribe me :D Not all heroes wear capes ^_^

[@Necropheliac]

If Steve forgives them, then I forgive them too. We won't forget this bullshit, but in the end they apologized and rescinded the policy that they threatened HU with. Mistakes were made, but if we don't forgive them when they try to fix those mistakes, then there will never be any attempt to fix mistakes in the future. A foul was called in the field, Nvidia suffered a penalty, game on.

[@ZTenski]

I'm thinking the apology was written before the first email even went out. In two weeks this will be forgotten. Bottom line, unaffected. Nvidia wins again.

[@MrDarkSephirot]

As we say in Spain, waters will come back to its course somehow, but the damage to Nvidia's marketing will persist. Few people will restrain from buying a Nvidia GPU for this sole reason, but many of us who are aware of the scandal will be more skeptical at them in the future, now that we have the proof of shady policies. Consumers will make sure to get objective analysis before buying one of their products. Not to mention the backfire at the level of tech media: rather than fearful, if anything they're resentful and even more compelled to deliver objective reviews.

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@MrDarkSephirotWell then count me as one of the few who won't be buying an Nvidia GPU for my PC after this, In fact the last Nvidia Graphics cards I bought where 2 EVGA 9500GT 1GB cards in SLI, I've been AMD every since(Not much I can do about the chip in my Switch Lite if I want to play Nintendo games however), and I could not be happier as AMD gives great Linux support unlike Nvidia.

[@MrDarkSephirot]

@@CommodoreFan64 so this HUB-gate hasn't radically affected your choice :P I don't use Linux but AMD has definitely been the "underdog" and the more consumer friendly for many years, more so in the CPU market. Overall they provide slightly better value for money, although this is a bit more debatable depending on how much you value RT and specially DLSS.

[@hongluzhang7771]

when things like this happens, honestly, it is normal for any big company. sometimes it is not even some conspiracy, but many different shits are happening inside, some conflicts going on between teams/personnels for example. for many ppl involved in these things, it would be their interest to just shut up and say we just can't tell you, even if you are a friend or so.

[@hongluzhang7771]

additionally, it is totally possible, most ppl inside the corp wouldn't have a good sense of what's going on other than just the pr problem. to put it to scale, the whole structure would be like thousands of LMG with complicated administrative connections and many times for many reasons, teams or admins chose to not disclose information even to their boss or their partners. so it would be very hard to grasp what happened unless you pour a lot of effort in investigating.

[@DizzyBusy]

I think so too

[@drakesavory2019]

The worst part of this for Nvidia is they now call into question everyone that gives them a good review. We are left with, "Did they say they love that card so they won't get blacklisted?"

[@aDifferentJT]

It sounds to me like he’s taking the rap for someone on his team which makes me respect him.

[@EnragedLuffy]

I mean it was signed off by him, as far as I know, so it just sounds like a backpedal to me.

[@aawillma]

He signed his name to it, it was his responsibility. Period.

[@somethingelse516]

@@aawillma it sounds like an email written by committee, my guess is that several managers had sight of it and edited before asking the sender to issue it.

[@ericm5315]

Or he's taking the fall for an executive who forced him to sign the letter. In either case of course Nvidia wouldn't comment on internal disciplinary actions. No self respecting employer would do something that stupid.

[@powermonger9090]

The buck stops with BDR pure and simple, the first email and replies were sent from his account. Even if someone else did write the first email, it would look even worse if NVidia tried to shift blame to someone else. That would be kindergarten stuff.

[@rasaecnai]

the original email totally like a mafia letter from Godfather. Literally 'Im gonna make you an offer you cant refuse.'

[@toxikliz9610]

The fact that BDR is still with Nvidia tells me all I need to know. If it was his idea, he would be long gone.

[@jeremydale4548]

Yes. It's CRYSTAL clear that Nvidia's leadership are behind this and just threw BDR under the bus. Here is what NEEDS to happen in order for Nvidia to succeed as a company. 1. They FIRE their shitty leaders and replace them with people who ACTUALLY care about the consumers. 2. They need to treat their partners like ACTUAL partners and not just ATMs. 3. They need to oust every shareholder who is encouraging their shitty behavior. 4. Any time something bad like this happens, Nvidia needs to own up to it, admit they fucked up and explain how it is going to prevent it in the future.

[@SimulatedGoat]

11:57 that analogy hit a little too close to home

[@Aluzions]

Nvidia: *I'm gonna ruin my whole career*

[@MegaManNeo]

Their rep in the public is too big to fall. I'd even say this whole fiasco reaches only the fraction of users as majority doesn't reads news or watches reviews.

[@machich.1368]

Here’s the problem when a company apologizes. There’s more than one person. You can’t resolve how sorry a group of people actually is, because there may be someone in there who isn’t. That’s why emails like this are such a disaster. Trust is too easily broken, and not easily mendable. This is true for individuals let alone one of the two dominating companies in a particular manufacturing specialty. If something like this can slip past PR then how can we trust their PR to maintain future professional company-reviewer-consumer interaction?

[@letcreate123]

Finally someone in the comments who is actually aware that there are _actual people_ behind companies. That said I agree entirely with what you said.

[@hurley2609]

The hd600s live on, knew Linus wouldn't keep the logitech headset hahah

[@CommodoreFan64]

Yep just long enough for the sponsor spot.

[@chrisw6525]

Linus's face when the investigative reporter is suggested... something is going down now.

[@OuijTube]

Fighting so hard to save the reputation of the corporate spokesman that happens to be a friend?

[@RedneckRepairs]

"an email like that never goes out without prior approval from someone" My impression: An email like that goes out at the *direction* of someone.

[@danieldavis3035]

I don't think Bryan wrote that email. I think it was someone on his staff like Luke said and it was sent out before anyone could approve it. But then again, we'll never know.

[@seasesh4073]

It's even worse if he's forced. That means it's not some decentralised marketing team that sent it but someone who can force the head of fucking PR to sign such an email. That means it's a cancerous culture by Ngreedia overlords not low payed employees looking for payraise

[@janemba42]

Steve himself said he does not rely on day one reviews in fact its the opposite for them. They don't rely on crappy clickbait titles and thumbnails, they do proper in depth reviews.

[@Austin1990]

The apology was so backhanded that I consider it more of an insult than an apology. I was going to buy a new RTX 3080 Ti from nVidia but I will now be waiting to buy a secondhand card. I will not partake in this blatantly abusive relationship that nVidia maintains with its consumers.

[@hayabusa09]

Clown

[@maxemore]

Good, I'm sure that will hurt their feelings

[@Crunchifyable2]

If i could afford it I'd rip out my Nvidia card and switch to an AMD because the brand just seems dirty now.

[@FuburLuck]

I'd been debating hard about either getting a 6800xt or a 3080. This made the decision easy. AMD it is.

[@dirt_slab]

@@FuburLuck ok, personally even having an amd card, i believe that you shouldn’t make a decision just because the company messed up. The product is still great and you should truly consider both sides of the products offered. Again, I actually love radeon 6000 series (even though I’m still on 5000), but I think that rtx 30 is also really good and may actually be a better offer. Of course that’s assuming you can find them

[@curtisbme]

In the companies I've worked for, others often wrote the messages for the upper managers to send out. That PR speak email very much read like an underling, likely like Steve said one of the people in the market that has a beef with them, wrote it BDR gave it a scan and didn't know anything about Hardware Unboxed and sent it off without giving it much thought. One can hope that person got ripped a new one and ideally fired.

[@mikaelbiilmann6826]

Nvidia: "Jeebus, look what we started!" 🤣

[@dexis9412]

Every time they say BDR my brain translates it to “Brian David Rilbert” and I don’t know how to feel...

[@thomasjensen1590]

I really really hope that AMD soon delivers graphics cards that smokes the crap out of the highest end nvidia cards in rasterization so that we can all forget about nvidia for good

[@BReal-10EC]

They sent out a press release sounding email knowing it would leak to the internet and cause a sh*tstorm, immediately walked it back as an honest "mistake", but left that message in the minds of every up and coming tech reviewer who needs/wants access to launch day hardware.

[@trukr817]

I was really looking forward to getting a new 3070. Now, I think I will go AMD (when things aren't insane) and not worry about ray tracing. NVIDIA just keeps being jerks, not that AMD are perfect, just POed at NVIDIA right now. NVIDIA make some nice product, I loved my GTX 1080 and hate that my PSU took it out, but I feel they are acting slimly and nasty. Edit: I don't know for sure that my PSU killed my 1080, a MOSFET died and killed the GPU. The GPU I put in had a black screen twice and not since the PSU was replace so assuming it was the PSU.

[@vivekjoshi39]

Great video. But did anyone notice the number of wrapped gift at the back ?!

[@jasongiese6168]

105 Likes, 1 Dislike I guess Jensen did not like that Video

[@csjpokey]

Look at the way they treat their board partners. I miss EVGA.

[@philipc7273]

Nvidia: we're sorry Linus: you're not really soorry aboout what you did

[@Smart-Towel-RG-400]

Lol I love.linus he will throw a grenade at any company that pulls stuff like this ... because he's just like that but I'm guessing when he was smaller and before tech tube wqs as big as it is now companies did stuff like this all the time and usally got away with it

[@AtraxaApologist]

1:40 He's The Global Director of Public Relations for the corporation of NVidia. He IS the approval for that sort of thing. Putting that aside, even if he wasn't, he wrote it in the first place, and he hit the send button. It doesn't make much sense to try and take responsibility away given his position, and direct involvement.

[@Apipoulai]

9:39 and which Nvidia employees that pushed this under your nose and caused so much damage to the company will be looking at Christmas without a job?

[@advertslaxxor]

Did Nvidia fire it's entire marketing department? No? Then they're not sorry.

[@BrettWidner]

"Lockdown Fatigue" Yeah, because your company making more than they've ever made while you get to primarily sit at home. Sooooo tiring. Out of here with that shiz.

[@firmman4505]

They're company making lots mean nothing. They still have to work at home.

[@alexjohnson5677]

Such a poor excuse. This isn't an apology because they didn't take ownership. Just blamed it on COVID

[@firmman4505]

@@alexjohnson5677 how do you know that it wasn't because of covid? How do you know that they weren't apologising?

[@BrettWidner]

@@firmman4505 This guy is a higher level Nvidia employee who has probably seen multiple and bigger bonuses this year because of how much Nvidia is raking in the profit. This is typical common practice for high level executive employees. "Lockdown Fatigue" isn't a thing when you're sitting pretty in your comfy home pulling in 6, maybe even 7 figures. Citing it was a cop out. Plain and simple.

[@alexjohnson5677]

@@firmman4505 Troll

[@frankytanky5076]

Nope, but the thing is the only way to hurt them is to not buy their products, and nobody is going to do that. Businesses that are untouchable in any sector act like this often.

[@michaelsurratt9593]

They may have “apologized” but, it will NEVER be forgotten.

[@dodgem259]

The biggest mistake that people make, not just the community but tech reviewers also is that they believe that BDR, Nvidia's head of Global PR would be writing and sending out the emails. No, only under specific circumstances and situations would a person of such high level within a company would personally write such emails. Such a task is actually handled by a specially trusted confidant, back in the day and sometimes still used today, this person would have been known as the 'private secretary'. The trusted confidant would be the one who takes on a lot of the daily mundane tasks away from the executive employee, things such as reading emails to determine which ones are considered important to pass on to the executive. This trusted confidant would also be tasked with responding on the executives behalf and would sign off any emails or documents on behalf of the executive. In my opinion BDR would have such a person on his staff. A private secretary or trusted confidant's job is to learn as much about the executive as they can, their likes and dislikes, their habits, what they like, don't like, their do's and don'ts because in doing so, they would be able to take on a lot of executives lesser important job roles. A very good private secretary/trusted confidant is one who would respond to emails to the point that the receiver of the email would believe that it actually came from the executive themselves. Also remember as well, when an executive wants an email written or a memo written, they will not do it themselves, they will communicate what they consider to be the important parts they want pointed out and then tell the private secretary/trusted confident to fill in the rest. This person will either do it themselves or they will hand off that task to a junior employee. Only when the crap hits the fan will you see an executive personally write an email or a memo. Therefore, in this case, in my opinion, only ONE of those emails was personally written by BDR, the others were written by others but with having the authorisation to sign it off as BDR. I've worked in a couple of multi-billion tech manufacturing companies and thus know how the system works when it comes to dealing with top senior executives and I can tell you, it is very rare that a person gets to actually deal with a senior executive directly in person, it is more common that you will deal with their private secretary/trusted confidant.

[@JXSnWp]

It feels like the powers that be st Nvidia are banking on peoples short memory's and assuming this is just another incident in a long line of "it will just blow over" attitude.

[@MiTaReX]

The saddest thing is that it works. The only thing we can do is document these events and remind everyone so people don't forget.

[@JXSnWp]

@@MiTaReX I feel the real tragedy here is this will hardly be a blip in the grand scheme of things. Nvidia still has the greatest market share for a reason. I really want AMD to take them down a peg. A whole peg.

[@zjunk4877]

I don't know, AMD trying to kill Zen3 support on 400 series boards blew over pretty quick, and that was before b550 even existed. Then 6000 series MSRP being fake on top of releasing far less cards than Nvidia. All these companies pull shady shit. Most of it gets ignored. We need to hold Intel and AMDs feet to the fire too.

[@dermilchmann25]

nvidia is behaving like arasaka at this point

[@glenjo0]

I've used Nvidia for a LONG, LONG time (20+ years), but my next card will be AMD unless Nvidia FIRES whoever REALLY did the email. Please pass that on the Nvidia.

[@starbutterflygaming8881]

bro, even boycotting doesn't help, people still using NVIDIA as you can see on the steam hardware survey. if the boycott is too much which is AMD more than NVIDIA on the steam hardware survey, then nvidia might respond publicly.

[@cavemanvi]

SO hilarious. He sent the email implying that he didn’t send it alone as a sideways sorry to the guy you were yelling expletives to. That energy changed a LOT.

[@Bob.isnotmyname]

it`s just time, and we all hail the hypnotoad

[@Valkires1]

Nvidia: "What are going to do about it, buy AMD. Ha, what a joke. Want to hear another one? Intel Graphics."

[@FireDarkness39]

Buy 6800xt. Its good. Stop eating a plate full of bullshit

[@pipnmaz]

Trying to build a new system currently and Nvidia cards are just flat out not available anywhere at the moment so apart from the bad press over this current situation they also seem unable to produce quantity of anything at the moment.

[@Mirinmaru]

Whether or not BDR "wrote" the email to begin with is completely irrelevant, I dont know why they bring it up. He is the one that should be held accountable regardless, since he's the one signing off the mail. But, I'm not saying he's the one we should be mad at. He's just the one that is responsible for the email.

[@aidanquiett668]

I'm not entirely sure he did personally write off on the first one. from my understanding of company policy in emails, its not too uncommon to have others write off or even fully write for you without your approval as a high up PR person, especially when it comes to something pretty unceremonious like removing a guy from your free samples list. the latter, given it sounds more like him, likely was him being forced to apologize for someone else screwing him over

[@nicolaim4275]

There is a difference between a specific toxic individual at a company doing something of their own volition and a toxic work culture forcing someone to sign a bad letter to prevent getting fired. They are both bad, but not in the same way.

[@shpadoinkle_wombat]

Big companies are not people, they cant be sorry in the same way people can. When big company say "I'm sorry" it means NOTHING. We can only judge them by their actual actions. Here, their action was to promise that HardwareUnboxed will be getting review cards, they just walked back their decision, they did nothing to repair the harm to the community. And people are right to be angry about it. And they are right to be angry at BDR, his name is signed under the email, if you sign something you take responsibility for it, period.

[@patbluetree4636]

RTX love it or something bad will happen to your review channel.

[@spyder000069]

If Jay and Silent Bob show up at your door wearing Nvidia jackets don't answer it.

[@varuunkaruk]

Everyone restart the video, and if youre on mobile keep tapping on linus' face. Hell get angry and yell at you

[@redryderaus]

Brian Del Rizzo's signature is on the email. He owns it 100%, whether he wrote the email or not.

[@Paul_Sleeping]

It's not about him currently. It is assumed that someone higher up than BDR is calling the shots and he is being used as a pawn in a worst possible way to shield the perpetrator. Sure it's easy for us to say if he has any personal integrity left to just quit but that is not right. We all need a job now and it's hard to come by. He is probably putting his head down and trying to get through this s***storm that is not of his doing.