One of the staff at TweakTown sent me over a link to the Hardware Secrets blog in regards to how NVIDIA had black listed the site due to a negative review. The first thing I have to say is, it’s not so much that I don’t like NVIDIA but more so what NVIDIA do. Outside of the politics between review websites and manufactures it’s things like not giving ATI users the ability to install a NVIDIA card next to that ATI one to use PhysX.
For me not doing this is just a failure in marketing, hello! has anyone seen the Mafia II video. How shit hot does PhysX look in that game. People won’t ditch the HD 5850, HD 5870 or HD 5970 for a GTX 470 or GTX 480 to get this experience. They would however buy a GTX 465 which is the new mid range card due soon to have the experience on their machine. I haven’t done a marketing course but I’m pretty sure that 1 sale of a lower end / mid range card is better than 0 sale of a high end one.
This post isn’t about that though; to be honest I understand why NVIDIA have done what they’ve done if it’s true they’ve been cut off for the reason Gabriel at HS is giving:
This time we have NVIDIA blacklisting us. After we published a review – without any support from them, N.B. – they complained that we didn’t talk about CUDA or PhysX. I replied saying that we weren’t going to talk about these subjects because we thought they were not relevant to the average user, and we usually don’t re-write reviews.
Video cards are my business; I took over as the dedicated writer to TweakTown on this subject a few years ago. Since the launch of PhysX and CUDA we’ve implemented the testing of these programs into our review, CUDA via Badaboom and PhysX via a couple of games.
It’s not my job to tell you what is relevant too you, it’s my job to lay everything on the table. Sure I add the score at the end of each review to give you a general idea of how the product lines up against others and that but really I offer you all the information possible so that you can make an informed decision.
I didn’t score the GTX 470 at launch because I didn’t have a GTX 480, this is a whole new issue but again not the place now. Really though it was hard to place the GTX 470 properly without having the GTX 480. Since launch we’ve reviewed the GTX 480, scored it and reviewed other GTX 470s and scored them.
I don’t hate the world and try to find good in everything and most the time it’s not hard, not if you really want to give an honest opinion. Sometimes reviewers have to look outside the elitist attitude that they sometimes have (This is not related to HS, I don’t know anyone there and to be honest I read very few Tech Sites outside of TweakTown) and realize that every product has a different market.
The fact that we don’t pay for our samples means that we don’t have to try and justify why we spent our hard earned dollars on it. The GTX 400 series has flaws, they’re being worked out but people who have bought the model are so defensive because they spent money on the product that they just choose to ignore clear flaws. The thing is these flaws only effect some people, the GTX 400 series run very warm, are very loud and draw large amounts of power. None of those issues might bother you, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist though.
Does the fact that HS chose to ignore CUDA and PhysX testing mean they deserve to be black listed? You know what I don’t really know and I don’t really care, it’s NVIDIAs decision and I’m sure they don’t just make it with haste since talking to all their partners about it takes time.
ATI ignored us for a long time as NVIDIA has at points, Galaxy cut us off at one point and threatened to sue TweakTown because we broke an NDA which we hadn’t signed or been given and PowerColor chucked a hissy fit and cut us off when I gave one of their graphics cards that used the disaster that was the old ThermalTake water cooling unit on a model a bad score.
No company is perfect. Some are just a bigger pain in the ass then others though.