Caveat Lector: An Editorial

[pHaestus]

This is something that Joe and I have been talking about for a while and I have finally decided to make a public comment. The combination of the latest video card releases and the E3 coverage should make it clear to everyone that the PC hardware/gaming industry is pretty damn slimy. Am I the only person who cringes at the thought of hiring strippers to stand around mostly naked to try and generate interest for a computer game? Does anyone else feel a bit concerned that the supposedly impartial online reporters of hardware and gaming news are out drinking and carousing on the expense accounts of the companies they are being impartial towards? Let’s take NVIDIA for example. Free drinks and topless porn star at their “exclusive E3 party”. Sure, this is the wet dream of most teenage boys, but is this really the way that serious corporate entities behave? Is this how news reporters are entertained (god I hope not). And I fear that the attitude of “we’ll just give these geeks what they want and they will continue to be cheap marketing tools for us” is both pervasive and effective in our industry. After all, if you look around at the PC hardware scene it is by and large just free marketing and advertising. Four-five pages of info ripped directly from the manufacturer’s site, a few pictures of your free expensive hardware, and then some benchmarks. Oh well, you can’t fake benchmarks, right? So we’ll just skip the intro and go right to the graphs.

Let’s think about that attitude for a second. You CAN skew benchmarks to report anything that you want to. Take a suite of apps that are optimized for some card more than another. Take a particular operation that favors a certain architecture. When in doubt, the manufacturer can give you some guidance on what benches to run and with what settings. Here’s an example. I do this ALL the time at work when I want an analytical instrument that is a bit more expensive than another one I don’t want. Ask the mfgr and they are more than happy to provide specs that lock you into their brand. So even the numbers are pretty malleable if one is so inclined. Since that is the case, then integrity of a web site is the only thing consumers have to go upon. This is a site’s most precious commodity, and one would expect reader memory to be very long in the event of deception. However, this doesn’t appear to be the case at all in practice. Sites that have been busted for breaches of trust (www.hardocp.com and www.tomshardware.com LEAP to mind) continue to be the most popular spots on the web for hardware news. Reminds me a little of Reagan’s “Teflon” public image.

Look at the latest NVIDIA video card release; the GFFX 5900 Ultra. The card looked pretty nice, but my spidey sense started going haywire when I noticed something about the reviews. They weren’t shitting bricks at the price tag! $500US is way out of my price range, and I have more disposable income than the average teenager or college student gamer type. $500 buys you an Xbox, a GameCube, and a PS2, or any one of those consoles and a new 27” television to play games on. How can one consider such an expensive video card without taking its price tag into account when reviewing the card for an enthusiast site?

While on the topic of the NVIDIA card, I found it amazing that a larger deal wasn’t made out of their 3dmark “optimizations”. Think about the NV35 launch from NVIDIA’s perspective: they are in a position of needing a top end video card. It isn’t optional now; the NV30 flopped and this is do or die time. And (surprise!) their drivers just HAPPENED to not render everything in 3dmark and boost scores artificially as a result? It was just a bug. I laughed out loud when I read that response. Most other hardware sites just downplayed the issue rather than making a big stink: Kyle Bennett and HardOCP went even further by actively defending the “accidental fortuitous big” story. He of course tried to change the topic to the motives of Extreme Tech, who did excellent work in exposing the driver cheats. That is a pretty old method of spin doctors; when you can’t kill the message then muddy the reputation of the messenger. Nonetheless, the fact remains that driver enhancements gave NVIDIA an inflated score to make them look good at a crucial time. Kyle’s comments about the motives of ExtremeTech and the accidental nature of the score inflation make him look even more like a (marketing) tool than normal; no one with half a brain would buy that it was accidental. What is he trying to sell? Oh yea, $500 video cards to teenagers (and ad space to mfgrs). Almost forgot.

Caveat lector by the way means let the reader beware in latin. This is good advice to everyone. I have a three year old who immediately wants every product he sees in ads on TV. Marketing and advertising is pervasive in our world, and masking advertising as objective reviews is a pretty effective way to sell your product. Look at a website’s history, look at the correlation between their advertisers and the reviews that they write, and be intelligent. Don’t only look at what is said about a product, but what is not said and conspicuous in its absence. DO BE CRITICAL. They are after your spending money, after all.

And to nip things in the bud about MY motives. I am not jealous that other sites get money and hardware while I do not. I have all the computer stuff I need and a monthly budget quite capable of keeping my LAN upgraded. Even if I were sent tons of hardware, I wouldn't have the spare time to review it. I look at my time as my most valuable commodity, and benchmarking and comparing a lot of video cards or motherboards frankly is a bit of a bore and not high on my priority list. I DO have an agenda though. I wish the PC enthusiast community would grow up a bit and see when they are being used.

[gone_fishin]

Here, here. Dem bastards won't be gettin my five hundred.

[JSimmons]

I found it funny that nVidia claims that the 5900 was "designed for Doom3". I guess that's part of their marketing to teenagers that can rely on mommy and daddy's income.

[Blackeagle]

The sad fact is that much of what you write here pHaestus can be applied in other industry.

Sex sells, that has been known to be true for a long time now.

How about steroids in horse racing, dog racing, body building, NFL, world cup........................ Win by any means isn't new. When abuse of animals and even people (done by the individual themselves & encouraged by coaches) is as widespread as it is, why is a doctored benching score a surprise???????

The one thing I do find VERY strange is how those sites like [H] & THG continue to thrive. Once exposed for what they are, they should have been shuned by all. If reaction by the gaming buyers would have been strong & continued forcing economic impact to adjust the behavior the industry would be self correcting. Instead many sites post up pictures of the "booth babes" on their sites, good for site traffic and numbers of hits. Or remember how at times unregistered would joke to Joe here abuot having a babe of the day page to increase hits. While Bill was joking some sites do stoop to this. Why would you trust anything they say??????????


Without peer pressure all the other things you decry will continue. Worse, it will increase until the limit of the peer group is found. Look at other sites you go to, do they have pics of booth babes, girlie pages??? This is a serious site for tech info??? No, it's a cash cow for those behind it. So why wouldn't Kyle write a article for Nvidia defending the "benching bug"? From his perspective it's smart, he knows his readership doesn't care enough to abandon [H], just because the site is increasingly corrupt. And he will enjoy the fiscal rewards that I'm sure Nvidia will be sending him. And if someone were to object at [H] to his behavior? He'll ban them of course, then lie as to the reason for doing so. AND IT'S TOLERATED BY HIS READERSHIP!!!!!!!! Mass bannings, used as censorship, should have closed that site long ago. No wonder those readers tolerate everything else. They have no moral compass themselves, or they would not continue to be a part of that site.

pHaestus,

A good well thought out post. Everyone at this site however who still posts at [H] or other sites, known to be corrupt cash cows, should be asking themselves why they are helping keep them up and running.

[bigben2k]

I agree, most should have fled [H].

As I remember, this overpowered/overpriced video card market wasn't always like that. There was a time when the top line VC actually gave you something you could use, no matter what you were doing. It was also the time when 2D and 3D benchmarks were seperate. (Anyone remember?)

[pHaestus]

I stayed current with video card generations back in the tnt2ultra/gf1/gf2 days. The last video card I bought when it was top of the line was the Radeon 64mb vivo. But back then you could get the top end card for under $200 on sale by stacking coupons and such at buy.com or other stores. Then for a while I bought new cards whenever they dropped to the $150 price point. When it came time to upgrade my GF3ti200 though, the only card that had dropped really low in price was the GF4 ti4200. I couldn't see the real point in getting one of those; I couldnt think of a single game that would all the sudden blow me away with a GF4 that didnt run well already with the GF3. So I decided to wait on the next gen. Well now they are out, but it doesn't look like 9700pros are gonna get cheap any time soon and NVIDIA has nothing at the price I am willing to pay to compete. So I may just get a console for my 32" tv instead and forget about PC games for a while.

Halflife2 and Doom3 look amazing, but they will be every bit as amazing if I wait until I can actually afford a card that runs them with all eye candy on...

[cybrsamurai]

I don't know who is doing the marketing for these guys with 500 dollar cards! Even if I really really really wanted one I would have to strugle to afford it (not eat for a month). These current card prices are rediculus. If anyone is looking for a card deal check neweggs refurb stuff i got a radeon 9700 pro for $200. It took a while to find it but it did eventually show up.

As for [H] I think most of their users just take everything they say as gospel because they have so many users. When I worked with Falcon Northwest every other customer would call saying I saw this at H or I saw this at Toms. We would have to teach them that what they saw wasn't true and our tests show that this configuration is faster etc... People believe these places are reputable because they are so popular, I don't think there is much more to it.

[Zhentar]

I think anyone who buys a $500 gfx card is using their bong for something other than computer cooling....

It is a bit annoying how much companies target your penis instead of your brain; yet so many people go for it that I understand why.

And of course there wasn't a large deal about nVidia's optimizations- we have come to expect nothing less. Computer companies see no need to make a product quieter, faster, better, because just saying it is works just as well and is cheaper.

[taoofbean]

Incredible post Phae. I am apalled that Anand has not posted an article discussing this same issue. The funny thing about the blatantly homophobic/redneck Kyle Bennet is that his site gained in popularity when he started decrying Tom's Hardware Guide for blatant pandering. Kyle then made several anti pandering promises to his readers and promises to never have a review longer than 4 pages, ever.

Shame shame...

[pHaestus]

From what I read online (sour grapes?) everyone who received an advanced 5900 ultra card was hand picked by NVIDIA, flown to Cannes France for the release, and then returned home with the card and a fully functional version of Doom3. These are pretty big "perks" for a hardware website reviewer, and I suspect that they have a pretty big effect on one's willingness to cry foul play shortly afterwards. This is all hearsay of course and may be completely untrue.

[Zhentar]

pHaestus- I don't think thats true; id is being too protective of doom 3 to do something like that. I don't doubt that they got some perks (probably just a hand picked 5900) for it though; since the 5800 release was such a problem....

[pHaestus]

When beyond3d asked id for a copy of the benchmarking program they were told to "talk to NVIDIA"

Rumors abound of course and it is difficult to separate comments that people are making due to bad feelings from those that are really scandalous.

[bigben2k]

http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-158-1.htm