AMD has reportedly issued a statement to its partners warning against resellers and bots, listing ways for retailers to batten down the hatches to ensure AMD RX 6000 GPUs and Ryzen 5000 CPUs make their way into the hands of genuine consumers.
In the document, leaked by YouTube channel RedGamingTech (via Videocardz) and allegedly sent to AMD's retail partners, AMD lists multiple ways it recommends preventing bots and ensuring a smooth (as possible) launch. These include:
- Bot detection and management
- CAPTCHA implementation
- Purchase limits
- Reservations
- Manual order processing
- Limit reseller sales (B2B)
- Inventory-to-cart allocation
That reads more or less like a list of tactics that Nvidia has spoken about implementing on its webstore, or that its partners have rolled out, for the RTX 30-series. You can find the full document in the video from RedGamingTech below.
"Our top priority is to ensure gamers, enthusiasts and creators can easily purchase our AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series Graphics cards and AMD Ryzen 5000 Series processors at launch and thereafter," the alleged document says.
Clearly, if this document comes from where it says it does, AMD is hoping to avoid the pitfalls that tripped up the initial Nvidia RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 launches—those which are all too familiar for popular tech launches. Low supply, dodgy individual resellers, and hiked up prices are common occurrences for major launches, where demand often outstrips supply.
That's why there's still some doubt in my mind that AMD, or its partners, can really do anything to stop the inevitable stock crunch.
But at least AMD can say it tried, and if this document is genuine I would expect maintaining an image of actively combating resellers and bots would have been a consideration in crafting (and potentially leaking) a document such as this.
AMD's chief gaming architect, Frank Azor, was at least confident in AMD's ability to deliver more than a 'paper launch' with RDNA 2.
I look forward to taking your $10 :)September 24, 2020
The demand for AMD's RX 6000 series GPUs will all depend on whether they are up to scratch with the green team's Ampere generation. Early leaks would suggest some parity with the high-end Amperes, but how AMD's cards will finally measure up, and at what cost, is still a mystery. We're hopeful for decent performance out of second generation RDNA 2, at least.
We've reached out to our own contacts for confirmation of the AMD document and will update this article if we hear anything back.
