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Nvidia’s RTX 5060 review debacle should be a wake-up call for gamers and reviewers (www.theverge.com)
submitted 6 days ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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This week, the company reportedly attempted to delay, derail, and manipulate reviews of its $299 GeForce RTX 5060 graphics card, which would normally be its bestselling GPU of the generation. Nvidia has repeatedly and publicly said the budget 60-series cards are its most popular, and this year it reportedly tried to ensure it by withholding access and pressuring reviewers to paint them in the best light possible.

Here are the tactics that Nvidia reportedly just used to throw us off the 5060's true scent, as individually described by GamersNexus, VideoCardz, Hardware Unboxed, GameStar.de, Digital Foundry, and more:

  • Nvidia decided to launch its RTX 5060 on May 19th, when most reviewers would be at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan, rather than at their test beds at home.
  • Even if reviewers already had a GPU in hand before then, Nvidia cut off most reviewers' ability to test the RTX 5060 before May 19th by refusing to provide drivers until the card went on sale. (Gaming GPUs don't really work without them.)
  • And yet Nvidia allowed specific, cherry-picked reviewers to have early drivers anyhow if they agreed to a borderline unethical deal: they could only test five specific games, at 1080p resolution, with fixed graphics settings, against two weaker GPUs (the 3060 and 2060 Super) where the new card would be sure to win.
  • In some cases, Nvidia threatened to withhold future access unless reviewers published apples-to-oranges benchmark charts showing how the RTX 5060's "fake frames" MFG tech can produce more frames than earlier GPUs without it.
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[-] zurohki@aussie.zone 43 points 5 days ago

against two weaker GPUs (the 3060 and 2060 Super) where the new card would be sure to win.

IIRC they also insisted multi-frame generation be used, which the 3060 and 2060 Super don't support. That's why the 4060 isn't allowed, it does support MFG and it'd sink the plan to inflate 5060 benchmark results with fake frames.

The specific games using specific settings at 1080p bit is because in 2025 they have to carefully choose scenarios that won't overflow the tiny VRAM of the cards and tank performance to below the level of the 3060 12GB.

Shout out to Hardware Unboxed for getting a 5060 review done at Computex with some amazing B-roll

[-] Railcar8095@lemm.ee 26 points 5 days ago

Please name and shame reviewers who accepted these conditions.

[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 29 points 6 days ago

Disgusting.

This would be sad and highly unethical if coming from some small, relatively new company, struggling to keep up. But since it's coming from a large, monopolistic and 30yo old corporation it becomes way worse.

I'm glad I stopped buying their cards. My last one is an AMD, and I'm going Chinese for the next one (a decade or so from now).

[-] 30p87@feddit.org 22 points 6 days ago

In my honest opinion: Everyone that's not "woken up" by now, and already years earlier, is most likely metaphorically dead.

[-] Kichae@lemmy.ca 13 points 6 days ago

"Reviewers" need to understand that, unless they paid their own money, from a bog-standard store, on or after release day, they are not reviewers, they are hired spokespeople.

[-] ryannathans@aussie.zone 17 points 6 days ago

In the case of gamers nexus, who paid for their own, they were still pressured by nvidia

[-] megopie@beehaw.org 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Often times reviewers will get cards before release day without going through the manufacturer, as cards will ship to wear-houses and stores in preparation for launch day, and reviewers can get access to buy the cards early through contacts at those places.

One of the things nvidia did this time was they blocked reviewer’s access to drivers until release day, despite them having the cards through third parties.

[-] bl4kers@beehaw.org 7 points 6 days ago

People accused MKBHD for "killing" products with his reviews. Both cannot be true

[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 2 points 5 days ago

Yup. Customers gotta note and avoid the untrustworthy spokes people, otherwise there is no downside for the spokesperson.

this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
135 points (100.0% liked)

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