Master the Tube, and win a Radeon!

Brian Ambrozy 15 Nov, 2010 at 11:19am ET Article published in Tech

You know Icrontic. We love you, and we love technology. We also love gaming, and we just love everything about everything. To that end, we decided to share the love with you, those whom we love (?)

Alright, let’s start over.

We’re giving away EIGHT (8) AMD Radeon™ HD 6850 graphics cards. Yes, you heard that right:

You want this.

Here’s what you can do to win:

Meander your way over to GPUTube.com. There, you will find six investigative reports by top-notch reporter Jason Sparrow. In FIVE of the six videos, you will find a clue. A letter, in fact.

The five letters, when descrambled, will form a word. That word is your key to potential victory, both IRL and in-game (because you’ll have an AMD Radeon™ HD 6850, get it? Get it?)

Once you have the word, head on over to the official contest form and enter the word along with your information to be eligible to win. It’s that easy!

The contest runs today, Monday the 15th through Monday, November 29. Full rules can be found on the contest site, but the big one is this: US only (sorry!) No purchase necessary to win, and all that (see the legalese on the contest page).

Good luck! Watch the videos, find the clues, enter, and you’ll be eligible to win an awesome AMD Radeon™ HD 6850.

UPDATE Nov 16 at 12pm EST: Three more Radeon 6850s have been added to the prize pool, bringing the total to eight.

Comments

15 Nov 2010 ~ 11:36am Tushon O.oooooooooo do want! I'll be doing this when I get home.
15 Nov 2010 ~ 4:26pm Makke375 US only? I am From Finland D:
15 Nov 2010 ~ 4:31pm Makke375 my time is now 23:31
15 Nov 2010 ~ 4:42pm Tushon

is open only to legal residents of the 50 United States (including DC)
16 Nov 2010 ~ 12:24am Makke375 ok
16 Nov 2010 ~ 12:44am jhutch wait, this technically can be two words... what's goin on here?
16 Nov 2010 ~ 1:11am ziu US ONLY! After all this Bull****. Tell us up front when your going to pull this kind of cheap stunt. I'm from Canada, there's absolutely no reason, legal or financial, to exclude us. We're practically interchangeable with the US when it comes to this kind of thing. I already own a top end HD-5970 but I'm mad enough to go back to NVIDIA for my next GPU after this crap. Congratulations on a really well thought out, customer alienating, publicity stunt.
16 Nov 2010 ~ 3:34am Snarkasm Way to overreact.
16 Nov 2010 ~ 7:05am Optix

ziu wrote:

US ONLY! After all this Bull****. Tell us up front when your going to pull this kind of cheap stunt. I'm from Canada, there's absolutely no reason, legal or financial, to exclude us. We're practically interchangeable with the US when it comes to this kind of thing. I already own a top end HD-5970 but I'm mad enough to go back to NVIDIA for my next GPU after this crap. Congratulations on a really well thought out, customer alienating, publicity stunt.

Would you like some...

...with your whine?

Sheesh.

Good luck folks. Being from Canada as well it looks like I'll have to go about getting mine the other way....paying for it. Blech!
16 Nov 2010 ~ 10:08am primesuspect OH NO I DON'T GET FREE STUFF. I AM ENTITLED TO FREE STUFF> WAH WAH WAH
16 Nov 2010 ~ 10:23am Annes Entered! Those videos were pretty amusing
16 Nov 2010 ~ 11:58am GHoosdum Oddly enough, I go the word "IMAn00b" out of that.
16 Nov 2010 ~ 12:06pm Linc This just in: three more Radeon 6850s added to the prize pool. Oh snap!
16 Nov 2010 ~ 12:20pm BuddyJ OMG 8! That's like super Eyefinity!
16 Nov 2010 ~ 12:58pm Cyclonite Om nom nom nom...
16 Nov 2010 ~ 1:21pm Tushon Lol at the rage for being in Canada and excluded. Impressive!
16 Nov 2010 ~ 2:36pm shwaip I'm just brute-forcing the word. How many 5-letter words can there be?
16 Nov 2010 ~ 3:47pm QuadyTheTurnip To be honest, I hate it when contests are US-centric too.

Out of curiosity, how awesome is this card?
16 Nov 2010 ~ 4:08pm Thrax I'm sure we all hate contests that exclude us or many of our friends, but accounting for every country's taxation, privacy and data collection laws is simply untenable. I'm sure people understand.
16 Nov 2010 ~ 4:08pm Linc @shwaip How you underestimate my contest form.
16 Nov 2010 ~ 4:43pm Optix

Quady the Turnip wrote:

Out of curiosity, how awesome is this card?

Very. It can trounce the 5830 when overclocked properly and pushes close to 5850 territory all for under $180 here in Canada land.
16 Nov 2010 ~ 5:23pm Cliff_Forster

Optix wrote:

Very. It can trounce the 5830 when overclocked properly and pushes close to 5850 territory all for under $180 here in Canada land.

And the 6850 does this while drawing 30% less current under load, and AMD has idling efficiency down to an absolute are with this series.

That is where this card really shines, it makes high end graphics practical again.
16 Nov 2010 ~ 6:05pm _k wait. Shouldn't a 6850 be faster than a 5850??
16 Nov 2010 ~ 6:07pm Cliff_Forster

_k_ wrote:

wait. Shouldn't a 6850 be faster than a 5850??

One may think, but AMD decided to change the naming conventions. The 69XX Cards coming out on 12/13 are going to be the new high end.
16 Nov 2010 ~ 6:07pm Ryder

_k_ wrote:

wait. Shouldn't a 6850 be faster than a 5850??

Read the other thread, get up to speed.

Also............... OLD!!
16 Nov 2010 ~ 6:09pm _k

Cliff_Forster wrote:

One may think, but AMD decided to change the naming conventions. The 69XX Cards coming out on 12/13 are going to be the new high end.

That seems a little misleading, I just assumed the 6850 should be faster since thats what the previous naming conventions of AMD have told me.
16 Nov 2010 ~ 6:26pm Ryder http://icrontic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91103
16 Nov 2010 ~ 6:34pm _k Why do you have to ruin my fun? And letting thrax link to hard...tisk tisk.
17 Nov 2010 ~ 4:22pm MAGIC Just do what every sensical person would do and take each new generation of graphics cards as exactly that, a new generation. Make an educated decision based on what the product is, not the name...
17 Nov 2010 ~ 5:39pm Tushon

MAGIC wrote:

Just do what every sensical person would do and take each new generation of graphics cards as exactly that, a new generation. Make an educated decision based on what the product is, not the name...

But that is just so .... logical. While I admit there is a speck of merit to the claim that it should be "faster" because the number is higher, we and AMD has specifically stated what the differences are and a lack of intelligence doesn't make the company wrong. On the other hand, this is America.
17 Nov 2010 ~ 5:43pm Cliff_Forster

MAGIC wrote:

Just do what every sensical person would do and take each new generation of graphics cards as exactly that, a new generation. Make an educated decision based on what the product is, not the name...

I think there was some desire to get some differentiation between the 6850 and 6870 this time out.

Look at the 4850 vs. the 4870. Both reasonably high end when they released, but obviously different, the 4850 leveraged DDR 3, core was clocked a fair bit lower, only required a single six pin power connector, cost about $100 less, the 4870 used DDR5, a few more stream processors, core clocked significantly better. In graphics, more often than not the high end part is where the most margin is, so in a perfect world, thats what more people will buy, so, you kind of have to have some separation from that next product down in the chain, unless they are all priced so close that it is nearly pointless to have two models anyhow.

Now look at the 5850 / 5870 when they first came out. If memory serves the 5850 was $259 and the 5870 was $379. When you compare the two, they are fairly close performance wise, honestly, so much so that its fairly hard to command that 30+% price premium for the 5870. The 5850 was the talk of the town, high end gaming for less. Some guys who had massive power supplies and 790fx boards just figured, I'll get two 5850's and crossfire them, beat the pants off a single 5870, probably costing AMD precious margin.

Eventually AMD got wise, noticed the small performance/high price gap, (that they corrected by raising the price of the 5850 to about $319 for a while). Just for illustration say they sold ten thousand before they adjusted price, well you just left 600K laying on the table. Now, we all know Thrax is an expensive guy, but I'm sure that would pay his salary for at least a few years, so, someone in marketing decides, lets go back to the 4850 / 4870 model where we were not bastardizing the margin of our high end product.

Just conjecture....
17 Nov 2010 ~ 9:05pm BobbyDigi Good luck to the other 7 winners ;-)
17 Nov 2010 ~ 11:17pm Tushon

BobbyDigi wrote:

Good luck to the other 6 winners ;-)

:bigggrin:
21 Nov 2010 ~ 1:19pm Tim What is the word so I can enter without having to waste time watching the videos?
21 Nov 2010 ~ 1:21pm primesuspect It is "troll"
21 Nov 2010 ~ 11:19pm oh_fubar

primesuspect wrote:

It is "troll"

that reply was almost as funny as the videos

Thanks for the chance at the card Icrontic!!
22 Nov 2010 ~ 2:12pm Annes

Tim wrote:

What is the word so I can enter without having to waste time watching the videos?

If you were hosting a contest on your show would you want people to do this? Don't be a dick.
22 Nov 2010 ~ 3:03pm Tushon

Annes wrote:

If you were hosting IE6 on your WinXP would you want people to do this? Don't be a Tim.

Fixed it for you.
23 Nov 2010 ~ 7:13pm troll Damn such a great word... Canada though
29 Nov 2010 ~ 12:08am Garg I just bought another 5770 to Crossfire, but I'm sure I could find a happy home for a 6850 in my "work" rig (which would likely spend much more time playing Civ5 in Eyefinity than doing work from there on out).
29 Nov 2010 ~ 9:50am primesuspect This is the last day, friends. At 11:59pm EST the contest ends
29 Nov 2010 ~ 11:38am JPC Good luck all!
29 Nov 2010 ~ 10:38pm primesuspect One hour twenty minutes left!
29 Nov 2010 ~ 11:58pm primesuspect And that's that. I'll announce the winners shortly
30 Nov 2010 ~ 12:03am primesuspect Congratulations! The winners are:

Wilson Acosta
Satya Gandham
Tamuka Daniel Rwizi
Peter Gill
Nicholas Dubble
Chris Hoppman
Darren Fong
James Ingalls
30 Nov 2010 ~ 12:26am Tushon ugh I call fixed!
30 Nov 2010 ~ 3:54am Nick So I'm one of the winners ( woot!, I never win anything ) When are you sending these out?
30 Nov 2010 ~ 8:33am Optix US only?

Just kidding. I still think the freak out is hilarious.

Congrats folks!
30 Nov 2010 ~ 8:35am Kwitko Here's to the winners.
30 Nov 2010 ~ 9:31am Annes Congrats!
30 Nov 2010 ~ 5:57pm JM Congrats to all the winners!
30 Nov 2010 ~ 7:37pm shwaip What was the word? Gotta make sure I got it right :P
30 Nov 2010 ~ 7:51pm primesuspect The word was "BARTS", which is the codename for the Radeon 6x series of GPUs
30 Nov 2010 ~ 11:43pm BuddyJ Not "BRATS." Brats are delicious but have little to do with video cards.
30 Nov 2010 ~ 11:46pm ardichoke I have a sudden unexplained craving for cylindrical meat products.

Okay, maybe not so unexplained.
1 Dec 2010 ~ 12:36am primesuspect Soooo many people got it wrong. I was pretty surprised, actually.
1 Dec 2010 ~ 1:37am UPSLynx

primesuspect wrote:

Soooo many people got it wrong. I was pretty surprised, actually.

Lemmie guess - Brats?

Eggroll and I debated over that one for a good 15 minutes before I realized that I work for AMD and that I'm an idiot for not realizing it's BARTS.
1 Dec 2010 ~ 10:29am primesuspect The vast majority of entrants submitted "Brats", yes. Some went even worse. I saw several ATSBR (?) as well.
1 Dec 2010 ~ 11:11am Kwitko It's a tag on the side of the page and was there during the contest:
1 Dec 2010 ~ 11:43am primesuspect Reeding is hard
1 Dec 2010 ~ 11:49am Kwitko So is fluting.
1 Dec 2010 ~ 11:59am BobbyDigi

primesuspect wrote:

I saw several ATSBR (?) as well.

That was the order of the letters as they appeared in the videos.

Damn my scrabble minded head. Brats is the only word in the dictionary that can be made with those letters. One could argue it should have been implied that it was a combination of letters and not a word but I'm still on high from seeing Roger Waters last night so I'll just say Congrats! to the winners.
1 Dec 2010 ~ 1:17pm Garg I thought about submitting STABR. With the ridiculous trend of Web 2.0 services removing the final vowel, I figured I should get in front of the crowd and start claiming my web stabbing service.

iStab was already taken.
1 Dec 2010 ~ 1:58pm Tushon Lol at that link. Its tagline should be "The best in USB 2.0 personal defense"
1 Dec 2010 ~ 2:21pm Jingalls Mmmm Bratwurst...
3 Dec 2010 ~ 8:50pm Jingalls Will the winners receive shipping confirmation/tracking numbers?
3 Dec 2010 ~ 11:58pm Tushon

Jingalls wrote:

Will the winners receive shipping confirmation/tracking numbers?

Yes and it will look like this:
Tushon
123 Iwon Drive
You, Suck 66666
4 Dec 2010 ~ 2:35am Jingalls So will mine read:
Jingalls
1337 Me Too St
Oh, Really 90475
?
4 Dec 2010 ~ 3:10am Tushon No ... It won't be addressed to you.
4 Dec 2010 ~ 12:02pm MAGIC

UPSLynx wrote:

Lemmie guess - Brats?

Eggroll and I debated over that one for a good 15 minutes before I realized that I work for AMD and that I'm an idiot for not realizing it's BARTS.

Yeah, i guess i was thrown off by the instructions said it would be a word. and barts isn't a word.
4 Dec 2010 ~ 12:57pm GHoosdum

MAGIC wrote:

Yeah, i guess i was thrown off by the instructions said it would be a word. and barts isn't a word.

QFT.

I guess that's what I get for not being a hardware guy any more. Why, in my day...

Surprisingly, the $15 Radeon 4650 I have in my media center does everything I need it to do, including gaming... and all without needing to draw any more power than the PCIE slot can supply, a factor that I value highly. If only game designers would stop making them more graphically intense, I'd be set for life.
4 Dec 2010 ~ 2:21pm BuddyJ It's a real word. It's part of the Northern Islands GPU family which consists of GPUs named after the northern islands in the Carribean: (St.) Barts, Cayman and Antilles.
4 Dec 2010 ~ 2:25pm primesuspect I think this says it best:

Everybody who lost wrote:

I guess that's what I get for not being a hardware guy any more.
6 Dec 2010 ~ 1:12pm GHoosdum

Buddy J wrote:

It's a real word. It's part of the Northern Islands GPU family which consists of GPUs named after the northern islands in the Carribean: (St.) Barts, Cayman and Antilles.

That's a retcon. Originally, it was going to be a series of GPUs named after tubular meats. Someone in the lab made a typo, changing "BRATS" to "BARTS" on an early demo unit, and rather than change the whole series to being misspelled tubular meats (the next GPU would have been changed to "PERREPONI") they tried to make sense of it all by changing the series to being named after islands.
6 Dec 2010 ~ 1:43pm Garg I will invest in your tech company if you promise to make all your codewords misspelled tubular meats.
6 Dec 2010 ~ 1:45pm shwaip I hear that a dual-slot solution called pensi is in the future.
6 Dec 2010 ~ 1:51pm Kwitko I've met quite a few women who were rather adept at mastering the tube, but they too lost the game.