BFG Tech now in liquidation
- Thread starter silenthill
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Rastalovich
New member
There's a good reason why BFG were one of the only companies to offer such compassion to customers, and why those that maybe don't are still around. It's more of an expensive exercise to offer what they did in the UK than it is in other countries, partially why the UK limited warranties are that much crappier than other countries' limited warranties. Most other companies made their changes, europe wide, a number of years ago and adapted.
A number of unknowns to the public are a factor as to why BFG got into trouble, internal decisions mostly, and they are-not alone. Financially overstretching doesn't help. Decisions made more than a couple of years ago. One or two people at the top need to look at themselves before they point any fingers - and they will be back in business under another guise before too long.
There are nvidia 400 series BFG packages already about, tho not in the stores in any great frequency since they had internal problems. You can blame the wicked green giant tho if it makes you feel any better.
A number of unknowns to the public are a factor as to why BFG got into trouble, internal decisions mostly, and they are-not alone. Financially overstretching doesn't help. Decisions made more than a couple of years ago. One or two people at the top need to look at themselves before they point any fingers - and they will be back in business under another guise before too long.
There are nvidia 400 series BFG packages already about, tho not in the stores in any great frequency since they had internal problems. You can blame the wicked green giant tho if it makes you feel any better.
alienware
Banned
I do.
They were the ones that released a broken driver that stopped the GPU fan from working. They were also the ones that stopped producing any cards at all for nearly seven months whilst they f**ked around with Fermi trying desperately to get it under control.
So that leaves BFG replacing countless cards that have all died due to heat, but not being given anything to replace them with.
I know for absolute certain that that's what killed my 280GTX. I know because I always rush to install new drivers as drivers are poo. I was given a 5770 as a replacement, something I am still really angry about now. Thank god I got away from Nvidia though.
All of the 'Nvidia partners' are under a lot of pressure right now. Doesn't help that Nvidia cocked up the 465 and ended up paying the price either.
Rastalovich
New member
From idle, on the desktop, the fan 'can' be turned off to get into winedows. From that point, and increase in temperature to a certain point, nominally 105 degrees and the card will shut down. Just like if you leave the fan off your cpu. (we do safety tests on these things)They did however screw up the drivers for a mobile chipset, which is basis of the story, but these were (or should've been) oem and not shipped. Although some advanced models did make it out where they perhaps shouldn't.
nVidia didn't stop making any cards at all. If they or AMD/Intel did, I'd've been twiddling my thumbs. Not many people have experienced the 300 series, but it was out there.
nVidia, whilst dropping market share for the last quarter, still produced revenue in the region of 800 million, in comparison to Intel's billions and AMD's 400 million or so. Both Intel & AMD also produce other stuff, cpus/chipset/components ofc.
5770 is a great card imo, I wouldn't hold a grudge tho, it's a business, not a personal world of tech. Money is the bread and butter. Decisions either make or break you.
People are criticizing XFX right now for not having a line of nVidia's out there as they want to keep XFX loyalty - XFX did have some pre-shelf 400 nVidia cards (despite what any rep might tell you) - but they made the business decision to go with AMD for a while atleast. I think it was a good idea for them, short term, long term I'm not so sure. Their customer service used to be great, but their service has also been sucky of late. But they are churning out the cards and making money. Which is what it's all about. Only the really big companies can afford to process for both red and green.
nVidia didn't stop making any cards at all. If they or AMD/Intel did, I'd've been twiddling my thumbs. Not many people have experienced the 300 series, but it was out there.
nVidia, whilst dropping market share for the last quarter, still produced revenue in the region of 800 million, in comparison to Intel's billions and AMD's 400 million or so. Both Intel & AMD also produce other stuff, cpus/chipset/components ofc.
5770 is a great card imo, I wouldn't hold a grudge tho, it's a business, not a personal world of tech. Money is the bread and butter. Decisions either make or break you.
People are criticizing XFX right now for not having a line of nVidia's out there as they want to keep XFX loyalty - XFX did have some pre-shelf 400 nVidia cards (despite what any rep might tell you) - but they made the business decision to go with AMD for a while atleast. I think it was a good idea for them, short term, long term I'm not so sure. Their customer service used to be great, but their service has also been sucky of late. But they are churning out the cards and making money. Which is what it's all about. Only the really big companies can afford to process for both red and green.
alienware
Banned
My card hit 107 once. Once was all it took. From there on it was a slippery slope downward. Constant crashing and artifacts until eventually it wouldn't work with the driver loaded. Now of course I had no idea what was causing this, so I just kept running it to destruction. And destruct it did. I got skanked on the RMA and only came to find out about this bad driver months after the fact, when it was too late. And I would imagine countless others were burned by the same thing. Thankfully two friends of mine who it also happened to did realise and got replacement cards. Me? I got conned.
Nvidia ended production of the 200 series cards (and 9 series) in around December. Did you look at stock levels of those cards on places like Scan? Try to get a 295 for January? I did. My 280 died in January of this year. To be exact, on my birthday. I looked around for a 280 right at that time because I was just about to go SLI 280 (that's why I got my Crosshair 2) but none were to be found. So I looked for something else suitable (the 250 GTS) none to be found. I was going to sell my 280 (had it sold) and buy three refurbed 250 GTS as I *really* didn't want to go DX11 at the time. But even they sold out and there were none to be had anywhere. That's why I got skanked on my 280 because the company I got it from just did not have any more of them to give.
That's also why BFG were buggered. I got an 8600 GTS brand spanking new that was DOA (was messing around with SLI in my older machine). I sent it back and two weeks later a 8600 GT showed up. I ended up having to send it back twice before getting some crusty repaired one. But it wasn't just me. As has been mentioned people with 280s were simply being sent their broken cards back because BFG simply did not have the cards to replace them with. Simply because Nvidia had stopped making them.
Then I move on to beg the question how. How can Nvidia release a driver that basically stops the fan working? A company that you say made all of these billions of pounds and they can't even check to see if the fan is working? So with that said I am well within my rights to think it was deliberate? Just like the time they accidentally (on purpose) released a driver set that allowed you to use an Nvidia card alongside a Radeon for physx?
I know how business works, and I know how cut throat it is. I sat and watched Nvidia cut 3DFX throat and then gleefully buy the company out for peanuts. Most of it was with advertising that made Geforce and TNT cards sound far superior to the 3DFX cards. Sadly they weren't really that much better and my 5500 AGP peed on the Geforce.
So my trust for Nvidia (if I ever had any because I never really liked their business ethics any way) is now all gone, finito. I know ATI's drivers are poo, but then TBH Nvidia have really 'caught up' with them in recent times !. Yes I am being 100% sarcastic because in all the years ATI's drivers have sucked on a front bottom they have never all out killed a card. So hats off to Nvidia for that one ! it's a doozy
Nvidia are very good at making the figures look good. They are also on the decline as you have said.
The 5770 is a great card but it's no match in DX9 with a 280GTX. It also wasn't worth the £185 I paid for my 280 either. As for holding a grudge? Well I got screwed by Nvidia due to a bad driver. I'll hold the grudge thanks, works out far cheaper in the long run. Infact, so pissed off am I that I truly think it was deliberate to pave the way for Fermi sales.Also, could it be considered business if I went around ripping people off? You know, it's for money and all that. If I burgled your house and told you it was for business you would be OK with that? I highly doubt it dude. Once bitten comes to mind.
Oddly enough my 280 was an XFX. I first sent it back to the shop I got it from and they said they did not have anything to replace it with. So, I went over their heads and phoned XFX at 60p a minute only for them to tell me that they had none either. So there you go. Not only did BFG not get a supply of cards but also XFX. I would imagine that's why they didn't go ahead and do a run of 4 series cards. Can't say I blame them either.
Rastalovich
New member
XFX.. that kinda explains a few things. To be fair to them (which I really don't want to do cos I've had to massage a fair few people through their rma process at the backend of their nVidia partnership) I believe they lost interest in co-operating with nVidia returns well before they officially announced not doing business with each other in the long run. Good business sense for them, not so good for the customer - who's left with a 'wtEf' look on their face and blaming the green people. Which aint really correct.
BFG didn't/haven't got the funds to request cards, XFX made a decision. Infact, I think if BFG did the XFX thing, they'd still be around but people would be complaining about their service as much as XFX and blaming them for not selling nVidia cards - it just goes round and round.
BFG didn't/haven't got the funds to request cards, XFX made a decision. Infact, I think if BFG did the XFX thing, they'd still be around but people would be complaining about their service as much as XFX and blaming them for not selling nVidia cards - it just goes round and round.
alienware
Banned
Well BFG were strictly an Nvidia partner. They even bragged about it. So to them there was no going to ATI as they had never been there before. Infact, I doubt ATI would have had much to do with them because when the 8800 series came out they gleefully boasted about how much better it was than the 3 series Radeons.
Now that *is* business. If you snuggle up to some one in bed so far that you create a rod for your own back? Then so be it. I am sure BFG were confident in what they were doing and confident in the big green giant, 'cos let's face it up until (IMO) the 200 series they had either made superior cards with superior drivers or simply blagged it. The 9 series was a blag (pretty mucht the 8 series in disguise) and the 250GTS was a blag (9800GTX in disguise). And even though magazines pointed this out (and probably hurt them from pulling wool over people's eyes) it was still a mere chink in the armor. It wasn't until the 200 series began to show what a lot of heat can do that things started to go badly wrong.
They have also released terrible chipset after terrible chipset. From Nforce 3 and on I have not come accross a single decent one made by Nvidia. Nforce 2 was nothing short of miraculous but in truth that was only because it worked and had the Athlon XP in, which was nothing short of revolutionary.
Now that *is* business. If you snuggle up to some one in bed so far that you create a rod for your own back? Then so be it. I am sure BFG were confident in what they were doing and confident in the big green giant, 'cos let's face it up until (IMO) the 200 series they had either made superior cards with superior drivers or simply blagged it. The 9 series was a blag (pretty mucht the 8 series in disguise) and the 250GTS was a blag (9800GTX in disguise). And even though magazines pointed this out (and probably hurt them from pulling wool over people's eyes) it was still a mere chink in the armor. It wasn't until the 200 series began to show what a lot of heat can do that things started to go badly wrong.
They have also released terrible chipset after terrible chipset. From Nforce 3 and on I have not come accross a single decent one made by Nvidia. Nforce 2 was nothing short of miraculous but in truth that was only because it worked and had the Athlon XP in, which was nothing short of revolutionary.
Rastalovich
New member
Don't start me on the nVidia chipset.. absolute spawn of Satan imo. The trouble I've had over the decades getting cards working in them.
What was amusing to me was that during the election we ordered/aquired 30+ Acer pcs, just some simple build, and they had nVidia chipsets.....
..... I thought they'd stopped all that..
Needless to say, there were a few prayers hailed in hope that they'd work ok for the duration. To my knowledge only 1 failed.
You really should snuggle up to any company in business unless you know your own house is in good order.
What was amusing to me was that during the election we ordered/aquired 30+ Acer pcs, just some simple build, and they had nVidia chipsets.....
..... I thought they'd stopped all that..
Needless to say, there were a few prayers hailed in hope that they'd work ok for the duration. To my knowledge only 1 failed.
You really should snuggle up to any company in business unless you know your own house is in good order.
alienware
Banned
Well it's very easy to become complacent really. That's what Cendyne did in 2003. Basically they were a brand new company knocking out rebadged Lite ons. They weren't cheap (infact they were expensive !) but they offered massive rebates. So much of a rebate that should you get it sent in you ended up paying about $5 for the drive (boxed retail too !).
Now they had done their research and realised that many Americans were lazy asses. Up until that point only about 25% of rebates had ever been filed so they thought it was a great idea to lure people in with this rebate scheme. Man, talk about backfire ! Something like 80% of rebates showed up bankrupting them from all the cheques they had to write
If I were BFG I would have had absolutely no reason to worry either. Time and time again Nvidia had proven their prowess to keep ATI at arms length, but it all went a bit wrong with the release of the 4xxx series. Head to head match to match the ATI cards won way too easily. 9800GT vs 4850? lose. The 4850 was not only faster and cooler, but £20 cheaper. 4870 vs 9800GTX was very close, but again the ATI was far cheaper. 4890 to 280GTX? six of one, half a dozen of the other. Yet the 4890 was £200 and the 280 was £350 at that time.
With that said I reakon EVGA will be likely the next to go. I don't think they offer enough products to help them survive the turmoil. I could be wrong, because in all honesty they're a brainwash company too, but I would be worried if Fermi was all I had to sell and try and profit from. Again, not saying Fermi is overly bad because it is fast, but it's absolutely miles short of what it should have been and what we were all expecting.
It's also (right up until the 460) hot. And the H word is no doubt going to rear its ugly head again in about a year's time when cards start to fail. And when you're not making the money from elsewhere to cover all of this then it could get very sticky. I mean yeah, they make boards. But then so did BFG (oddly the only one they made was the bad bad bad 680i) BFG also made some amazingly sexy PCs too, but it wasn't enough to save them. To stay safe they all need to be selling Radeons and whatever else they can get their hands on for a rainy day, but once again EVGA has made its bed and now has to lie in it, no matter what the outcome.
Just so you know I am not a fan of XFX either. I don't discriminate between brands. Right now my favorite GPU manu is Sapphire because they went the extra mile to keep the 3870x2 under control. And that's why I managed to buy one in perfectly working order recently. I am a person who is very usually happy with what he has until it's useless. I mean sure, I like to fiddle as much as the next man but I have thankfully been cured of the "got to be on the cutting edge" virus. Thus I want my purchases to last for what I see as a reasonable lasting time. And with the prices being charged (£350+ for a 480) I would want that bastard to last about ten bloody years !
Now they had done their research and realised that many Americans were lazy asses. Up until that point only about 25% of rebates had ever been filed so they thought it was a great idea to lure people in with this rebate scheme. Man, talk about backfire ! Something like 80% of rebates showed up bankrupting them from all the cheques they had to write
If I were BFG I would have had absolutely no reason to worry either. Time and time again Nvidia had proven their prowess to keep ATI at arms length, but it all went a bit wrong with the release of the 4xxx series. Head to head match to match the ATI cards won way too easily. 9800GT vs 4850? lose. The 4850 was not only faster and cooler, but £20 cheaper. 4870 vs 9800GTX was very close, but again the ATI was far cheaper. 4890 to 280GTX? six of one, half a dozen of the other. Yet the 4890 was £200 and the 280 was £350 at that time.
With that said I reakon EVGA will be likely the next to go. I don't think they offer enough products to help them survive the turmoil. I could be wrong, because in all honesty they're a brainwash company too, but I would be worried if Fermi was all I had to sell and try and profit from. Again, not saying Fermi is overly bad because it is fast, but it's absolutely miles short of what it should have been and what we were all expecting.
It's also (right up until the 460) hot. And the H word is no doubt going to rear its ugly head again in about a year's time when cards start to fail. And when you're not making the money from elsewhere to cover all of this then it could get very sticky. I mean yeah, they make boards. But then so did BFG (oddly the only one they made was the bad bad bad 680i) BFG also made some amazingly sexy PCs too, but it wasn't enough to save them. To stay safe they all need to be selling Radeons and whatever else they can get their hands on for a rainy day, but once again EVGA has made its bed and now has to lie in it, no matter what the outcome.
Just so you know I am not a fan of XFX either. I don't discriminate between brands. Right now my favorite GPU manu is Sapphire because they went the extra mile to keep the 3870x2 under control. And that's why I managed to buy one in perfectly working order recently. I am a person who is very usually happy with what he has until it's useless. I mean sure, I like to fiddle as much as the next man but I have thankfully been cured of the "got to be on the cutting edge" virus. Thus I want my purchases to last for what I see as a reasonable lasting time. And with the prices being charged (£350+ for a 480) I would want that bastard to last about ten bloody years !
Rastalovich
New member
hehe yeah that'd be nice. Unfortunately almost all consumer components only have approximately 5 years of life in them. That goes from kettles to tvs.
Fair few misconceptions you have there, but it's not my place to point you in the right directions. Just don't believe the hype, there's 99% of crap posted out on this internet, about all 3 gpu manufacturers - and one in particular is not the favorite as people don't like them. Simple as that.
All the gpu vendors have their place, from Intel and their oem, up to nVidia and their current cards that are ruling the performance stakes. World records and so forth, reference [hwbot] for a snipit. AMD gives you the budget with outstanding performance, and you have to credit that as it's needed, especially in the current climate.
Fair few misconceptions you have there, but it's not my place to point you in the right directions. Just don't believe the hype, there's 99% of crap posted out on this internet, about all 3 gpu manufacturers - and one in particular is not the favorite as people don't like them. Simple as that.
All the gpu vendors have their place, from Intel and their oem, up to nVidia and their current cards that are ruling the performance stakes. World records and so forth, reference [hwbot] for a snipit. AMD gives you the budget with outstanding performance, and you have to credit that as it's needed, especially in the current climate.
siravarice
New member
So glad I went to the Red side from the Green side. I think if Ati cards folded like the Nvidia ones, Nvidia would be crashing down right about now. Their only saviour may well be the GTX 460, which is a great card, but I think it's all a little bit too late. ATi are meant to have the 6xxx series cards out next year and Nvidia are only just polishing off their answer to the 5xxx series.
As for companies going under, it's pretty obvious that something like that was going to happen when Nvidia kept pushing the dates back on the fermi cards. Surely as a business you would recognise that your fabled product isn't going to come out when you need it, and make short term adjustments to compensate? I suppose the current financial climate didn't help with BFG, that and being based in the UK (always much more expensive) were probably the main factors along with Nvidia being totally useless.
Heck, they could of twinned a couple different GPU's for a short term solution until the Fermi came out, I'm sure that would of kept the punters happy, and I'm sure the retailers such as BFG and XFX wouldn't have gone under/run off to the dark side. It's bad when you hear about experiences the people have had, such as AlienALX's because it just puts you off buying anything from them, let alone a similar product.
As for companies going under, it's pretty obvious that something like that was going to happen when Nvidia kept pushing the dates back on the fermi cards. Surely as a business you would recognise that your fabled product isn't going to come out when you need it, and make short term adjustments to compensate? I suppose the current financial climate didn't help with BFG, that and being based in the UK (always much more expensive) were probably the main factors along with Nvidia being totally useless.
Heck, they could of twinned a couple different GPU's for a short term solution until the Fermi came out, I'm sure that would of kept the punters happy, and I'm sure the retailers such as BFG and XFX wouldn't have gone under/run off to the dark side. It's bad when you hear about experiences the people have had, such as AlienALX's because it just puts you off buying anything from them, let alone a similar product.
Rastalovich
New member
Word on the streets is:
KFA[sup]2[/sup] = BFG UK + Galaxy.
From what I hear tho, it's Galaxy's european venture - perhaps they are taking advantage of BFG assets as well.
Limited warranties tho me thinks.
Oh.. "Kicks Friggin Arse!" (very nVidia-y)
KFA[sup]2[/sup] = BFG UK + Galaxy.
From what I hear tho, it's Galaxy's european venture - perhaps they are taking advantage of BFG assets as well.
Limited warranties tho me thinks.
Oh.. "Kicks Friggin Arse!" (very nVidia-y)
