Rumor: AMD did not ban ASRock from selling GPUs in Europe

A couple of days ago, news hit the web that ASRock isn't allowed to sell AMD Radeon video cards in Europe. The comment reportedly came straight from an ASRock representative, so we saw no reason to doubt it.

However, Jason Evangelho, AMD's former Senior Technical Marketing Specialist, claims these reports aren't accurate. He points out ASRock got into the graphics card market to make money off of miners, and that AMD isn't banning ASRock from selling these cards in Europe. He received this comment from a representative handling ASRock's global PR business.

ASRock got into the GPU game with cryptocurrency mining in mind. Indeed, it was initially reported that they were launching mining-based SKUs. What I've been told -- and I confirmed this twice over the phone and again via email -- is that in Europe, ASRock has decided not to sell Phantom Gaming graphics cards commercially. They won't appear in online or brick-and-mortal PC retail shops. They are only intended for miners and industrial use. Furthermore, the minimum order quantity for these customers is 500 pieces.

So basically, two representatives and two different explanations.