Tom's Hardware says: NVIDIA and ATi, Game Over

[Spaceman-Spiff]

Today, Tom's Hardware has announced that they're tired of being jerked around by the video card manufacturers and are going to publish reviews on their own schedule rather than one dictated by ATI or NVidia. From the site: "Reviews of cards with pre-launch buggy drivers and yet-to-come updates do no service to the user. We explain why we will no longer play that game."
(copied from slashdot)

heh, i've stopped reading Tom's Hardware's reviews loooong time ago

 

[digitalwanderer]

Well it's a great move....a year or two late, but a great move.

 

[jb]

About time. I wish more sites would do this (present site excluded as the folks at B3D are above the curve in this case)

 

[John Reynolds]

The "carousel of chicanery". . .how alliterative.

It's hard to notice visual glitches when you're pouring over PR documents and pumping through your benchmarks.

 

[BRiT]

And here I was hoping this would be some news about PowerVR Series 5.

 

[Ante P]

I can surely understand them.
Some of these previews are painfully stressfull. (Especially for the smaller guys who get stuff late in rotation and can't keep stuff for very long etc.)


But in any case, I think thg seems to take these previews too seriously. Personally I'd never recommend a reader to base his or her choice of videocard on a preview only.
Previews are rather meant to be just that: previews. A glimpse of the future for the interested nerd.
I mean even if the reader was to base his purchase of the info in preview he probably can't since boards tend to not be available for a quite a long time after the "launch". And that is getting sillier by the minute. I mean I know loads of people here in Sweden who wants to buy a 6800U but there's nothing available still even though it's been months since it launched.

The span between launch and availability seems to increase each new generation too. (Whcih in turn means that previews have less and less to do with final products or at least performance/iq with shipping drivers)

oh well I never read thg anyways so I guess I should shut up now =)

 

[Dave Baumann]

Personally I'd never recommend a reader to base his or her choice of videocard on a preview only.

Probably few reviewers do, however probably about 90% of the lasting impression is garnered from these previews. (This is one case where not doing comparison reviews is very good!)

 

[russo121]

From EliteBastards - http://www.elitebastards.com/#news7321

"...Not one dollar will change hands between either side in an agreement on a title for that title to be included in the "The Way Its Meant To Be Played" program..."

Maybe we can apply here :
Not one dollar will change hands between either side in an agreement on a review for that review to be included in the "The Way Its Meant To Be Reviewed" program..."

Someone forgot to pay

 

[Geo]

Wait. . .what's that emotion I'm feeling? Could it be? I think it might --a small stirring of returning respect for Tom's Hardware. No one make any sudden moves, you might scare it.

 

[MasterBaiter]

Wait. . .what's that emotion I'm feeling? Could it be? I think it might --a small stirring of returning respect for Tom's Hardware. No one make any sudden moves, you might scare it.

Don't worry that emotion will most likely pass like sh*t through a goose.


It was a nice editorial though. I haven't been by THG in ages, but I don't think they're that bad. I hate to lump them together, but THG, [H]ardOCP, and Anand's all kinda fit a certain profile. I think mostly that they are all good sites, but everyone has their warts.

 

[nutball]

I have to say I'm very sceptical when I hear this coming from THG. Principle and Integrity are not words that I associate with that site. I'm sure there's another reason they're getting religion at this particular point in time.

It's a shame really, the message is one that needs to be sent to the industry. THG aren't the site to do it though.

 

[Fodder]

It's a shame really, the message is one that needs to be sent to the industry. THG aren't the site to do it though.

Only Tom, Kyle and Anand have the readership to muster any clout, and no one here seem to take any of them seriously.

 

[martrox]

With their past , just how can you that any of them seriously?

 

[Randell]

It's a shame really, the message is one that needs to be sent to the industry. THG aren't the site to do it though.

Only Tom, Kyle and Anand have the readership to muster any clout, and no one here seem to take any of them seriously.

I disagree, Kyle's viewpoint is his own, but the gpu reviews are excellent.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Only Tom, Kyle and Anand have the readership to muster any clout, and no one here seem to take any of them seriously.

Not entirely true, some of us still take [H]'s articles a bit serious, but that's due to Brent Justice being a hell of a reviewer no matter where he works and Kyle seems to be improving as of late.

I don't discount [H] straight out of hand, I read what they have to say first....they've earned that much respect from me at least.

Tom & Anand's I do, although I'm gonna keep an eye on THG to see how it develops in light of Tom's recent hissy-fit.

 

[Quitch]

Thank God for Tom's!

 

[digitalwanderer]

Thank God for Tom's!

No, no...you got that a bit mixed up, it's:

"Thank Tom's for God!", Tom told me so.

 

[thop]

Wait. . .what's that emotion I'm feeling? Could it be? I think it might --a small stirring of returning respect for Tom's Hardware. No one make any sudden moves, you might scare it.

I kinda felt the same thing. The last time i visited THG was when the Athlon came out and they had the unlocking tutorials and all.

 

[trinibwoy]

In spite of all the bad press that Tom's gets from forum goers (especially here) I find the site quite useful. Their articles on the early geforces and radeons really got me interested in 3D tech in the first place. Their recent article on filtering was also very good. And not to mention the variety and breadth of the topics that they cover. I would actually rate Tom's as a better hardware site than B3D.

 

[ZoinKs!]

I would actually rate Tom's as a better hardware site than B3D.

I was about to dispute this, then I noticed the emphasis on "hardware".