ShaneBaxtor.com

On closer inspection, the numbers that were provided to us by our source were outdated and at least one chap took offence to our earlier post and contacted us about it. He wasn’t happy, so we thought we would do some more fact checking and go over the numbers again for you.

While we are unsure if the following numbers are audited or not – they come right from the publishers media kits that they use to help sell ads. We thought we should do an update post and maybe clear things up a little.

What they didn’t know though is that the numbers we quoted were higher than they actually are according to their own media kits and information on their websites. What’s the issue then? I don’t know, but here we go.

PC User Australia 42,177 (ABC July 09 – Dec 09)
APC 32,191 (ABC July 09 – Dec 09)
PC Authority 26,349 (2010 media kit)
PC Power play 19,000 (ROY MORGAN DEC ’07 & YAS ’07)
Atomic 18,000 (2010 media kit)
ARN 10,315 (IDG website)

If you compare these numbers to the numbers in the other post, they are different, but not far off. We are sorry for the number errors. Having said that though, these numbers only go a way to show that TweakTown is now probably able to delivery almost four times as many readers as all of the top Australian magazines combined.

All of these numbers are publically available and we have taken screenshots of websites and documents for safe keeping.

On that note I do apologize for companies wanting to advertise with these magazines for making them look slightly better than they are. It’s nice to know that’s all been cleared up.

Tonight I found myself taking some photos of the new Gigabyte HD 5770 Super Overclock and it made me think of a few other companies out there and what there stand out series are. While companies like Sapphire have some stand out models unlike MSI and Gigabyte they don’t have the luxury of being able to offer users NVIDIA and ATI.

The HD 5770 SOC though seemed to really cement in my mind why it’s one of the best series. For me there’s two stand out series at the moment, the SOC from Gigabyte and the Lightning from MSI. While I like both series the SOC is the better one on the marketing side of things for the simple reason being that Gigabyte have chosen to take it outside of just the highest end models.

MSI have offered the Lightning in the HD 5870 from ATI, on the NV front we saw them last year give it to some of the higher end GTX 200 series. The next model we should see from them is the GTX 480.

Gigabyte on the other hand have attacked the HD 5770 recently and coming soon is the GTX 470. While we understand that MSI have chosen to reserve the Lightning series to only the best single GPU cards I get this feeling that they’re throwing opportunity away, much in the same way I feel Sapphire have done by not making full use of the ATOMIC series in the HD 5000 line up.

The HD 5870 Lightning was a very technical card and a lot went into it, the HD 5870 SOC on the other hand wasn’t as technical but the end result for many people was a card that was cheaper and faster thanks to the 950MHz core vs the 900MHz core.

Companies need to take advantage of the series that they create, Gigabyte started the SOC series a bit back and have really ran with it. At the same time they’re not just slapping the name onto any model, the HD 5770 is overclocked too 900MHz on the core which clearly warrants it.

Hopefully as time goes on we’ll see companies take more advantage of the series they have and give us even more choices to play with, because while overclocking isn’t hard there’s still a large amount of people out there who don’t want to do it or are just worried about doing it.

I really only participate on one forum and that’s Overclockers Australia. I’ve been a member for years but the problem is a few years ago the forums stopped being about computers and started being about everything else. The forums is ultimately a trade hub for Australians because multiple times the trade sections have been closed due to issues and each time the users have just left.

For a long time I really felt sorry for the advertisers here since while they advertised computer products majority of people where talking in other non related areas, and to be completely honest the advertisers on there don’t have the most aggressive pricing and as soon as someone asks where they should buy X product they just get pointed to the cheapest place, service and loyalty just never come into it. I really have no idea what the advertisers get out of advertising on the site, we need to start moving away from a banner only system which gets blocked or just ignored.

Lately though I’m feeling sorry for another group of people, the people that don’t know heaps about computers but are coming to OCAU to learn. For years the forums been full of people who think they know what they’re talking about but don’t, the good thing was though that regulars posted where able to at least inform people of the truth.

The has changed though, since the launch of the GTX 400 series you’ve got a lot of people who have spent money on the model and just tell lies about what happens to justify there purchase. I have a saying, “They who shout the loudest is most heard.” The problem is the forum is now becoming full of people who have too much time on their hands and can just ramble crap at every second.

Today I got banned again; it’s hardly the first time but here’s the reason.

You have been banned for the following reason:
24 hours for yet another video card fanboi argument.

Me! a fanboi!?!? I make a living off telling people about the latest graphics cards on the market, I’ll tell you right now, if I was a “fanboi” in any shape, way or form I wouldn’t have a job, and I wouldn’t have support from multiple companies because if I was a “fanboi” they know that nothing positive would be said about the product so it wouldn’t get sent to me. I offer an objective opinion on everything I review.

So what was this argument about? Well a forum member gave users the impression you could buy a HD 5770 and use it as a PhysX card. This user came back with excuses, oh it’s not what I meant, started dropping F bombs and what not. The bottom line is though he said he was going to buy a HD 5770 to go with his GTX 480, he didn’t say Could I get a HD 5770 to use as PhysX? This is one of those users who thinks they’re a real expert.

The thing is these users are everywhere but as OCAU has shifted from computing to everything else the smart to idiot ratio in the computing sections have shifted, and for the worse.

Honestly if you’re interested in talking to hardware enthusiasts you’re better off at forums like TweakTown and i4 Memory just going off my personal experience. Friends of mine have highly recommend [H], Guru3D and others as well though. If you want to talk about cars there’s plenty of car forums / clubs, Apple stuff? Well I discovered the MacTalk forums just the other day when I was just doing iPad searching.

OCAU is at a point where it’s Admins are like most the users, most of them don’t have an interest in computers anymore. That’s fine, no one says you have to like computers but when they’re the people deciding who should get banned and what should be deleted in the forums it’s hopeless, useful information gets deleted and lies stay because the Admins seem to base the decision on the tone of a post verse the information.

If you hate idiots and don’t feel like being silenced when you’re just trying to tell the truth check out some other forums. As for the advertisers there’s better deals out there, why be on a site where your banner is seen rarely and everyone just recommends the cheapest place.

People in Australia who are behind tech have been sitting on their asses for too long riding the wave, it’s time to shake it up and give Australian users, retailers and wholesalers a better deal!

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.

MMT or Multimedia Technology is an Australian distributor; while they do a lot of products the one we’ll be looking at today is the GTX 400 series. They’ve made a few points in an email; let’s diagnose it and help some of their customers really understand.

BOLD Statments are from the email.

Please find confirmed specs and pricing on New GTX480 and GTX470

Thanks; let’s look.

Here is where they are positioned.

Ok let’s find out.

It’s a mixed bag today and maybe driver related but in real world gaming:

I know it’s quite the mixed bag; and it’s not driver related. NVIDIA did have six months. It’s ok now you know though.

GTX470 is a little quicker than HD5850,

Arghhhhhhhhhhh – I hate to say it but it’s not all the time!

while at higher resolutions with 8AA or better, it even out performs HD5970.

Yeah; nah not really! At 2560 x 1600 we do see the HD 5850 pretty much win out every time. Maybe you should’ve focused on the lower resolution performance. The GTX 470 really wins out there. As for it beating the HD 5970 with 8x AA. The best game the GTX 470 performed in with AA for me personally was Far Cry 2 and while the MINIMUM matched the HD 5970 it’s average was a fair bit down compared to the model.

In my eyes its HD5850/HD5870 equivalent. Time will tell what consumers want.

Equivalent how? It’s better at some things and worse in others when compared to the HD 5850. Even NVIDIA say the model sit’s BETWEEN the HD 5850 and HD 5870. If it’s equivalent to anything it would be a HD 5850 OC. You’re right though time will tell what consumers want.

GTX480 overall is slightly less than HD5970, while clearly taking the fastest single GPU crown. At times it exceeds HD5970 well. However the price on GTX480 is much less.

Hate to break it to you champ but even NVIDIA haven’t compared the GTX 480 to the HD 5970 for a reason. The word slightly has been used a bit too loosely there. I haven’t had the pleasure of testing the GTX 480 myself though so I won’t say much else.

Stock will not be available for 2-3 weeks, pricing is likely to change (downward). Use the below pricing to help secure back orders and deposits from your customers.

Ouch! another 2 – 3 weeks for stock. Still not really a surprise. That’s for letting us know that price could be cheaper though.

When stock arrives you can either make more profit or pass on the saving if the price decreases.

That’s helpful – nice to know someone took Sales 101.

GTX480 and GTX470 will be in shortage, as are HD5870 and HD5970 from selected brands today. Shortage meaning if you order 500 pcs, you cant get 500 pcs.

Does NVIDIA know you’re using the word Shortage? I thought we have 480 CUDA cores now so we don’t have a shortage. NVIDIA even told me launch will be good; much better then there competitor. As for HD 5870 and HD 5970; stocks getting better every week, I understand you sell ATI products as well but maybe you make more from EVGA? Who knows.

Also what if we order 50pcs? or 5pcs? Will customers get that?

EVGA will release Reference Clocks, Superclock (SC), FTW (For The Win) and Waterblock editions of these cards within the next 2-3 weeks.

W00t!

Please do not discount heavily, these items will be shortage, you can make good money on shortage products. I have listed a guestimate for RRP, but this will also decrease as stock becomes readily available. As EVGA was first with pricing into Australia, the price you list will be a benchmark.

Roger that! Price Gauge. We’ve got it.

So what are the “Guestimate” prices?

Suggested RRP: around $859-879 or higher???

Suggested RRP: $589 inc or higher?

No problems; if we can price gouge enough we’ll go higher.

I’ve just got a couple of questions about the GTX 470. Since this is the more “Mainstream” model of the two this is probably what will be the most popular.

I heard that the card runs hot, loud and draws lots of power? You seemed to miss these in your little email. It’s ok I’ll answer them for you.

I get my temperature reading from the back of the card directly where the GPU fits. The temperature is grabbed during 3DMark Vantage. The GTX 470 came in at 76.1c; the HD 5850 came in at 59.2c and the HD 5870 63.1c. The heat will bother some but not others.

On the bright side the card mustn’t be very loud since it’s that warm; well I suppose that depends if 73.6dB at load is loud compared to 61.1dB and 62.6dB on the HD 5850 and HD 5870. From my review I made this note.

At between 55dB to 65dB you can’t tell a whole lot of difference between a card. When you get into the 70dB zone, though, you can clearly hear it over other things like ambient noise.

As for power; yes the GTX 470 sucks some juice. It draws about as much power as the HD 5970 which is a Dual GPU card from ATI. on our testbed which only uses the bare minimum that put’s the number at 397 Watt. You need to look out for spikes and other stuff like that though.

What I hate so much about this email though is the person behind it seems like an uneducated noob. And he’s the “Group Product Manager”

There’s so many good things about the GTX 470 and GTX 480 like CUDA Support; PhysX, Ray Tracing and more. There’s no mention of SLI performance, nothing about Surround Gaming or 3D Vision apart from in some of the “features” information where the GTX 470 and GTX 480 is described. Come on though; explain the tech a bit better, get people excited about it.

The reason the people in these computer stores know so little when it comes to the products they’re selling is because the people selling the product to them don’t know what they’re talking about. Please note I don’t mean all people in computers shops; I have a number of mates in stores that really know what they’re talking about.

Video Cards are full on; the trend changes a lot and there’s a huge range of models available so knowing all the models is on its own a very busy job.

Maybe next time a wholesaler might like me to do the email information out; sure I understand that you’re not going to show the negative things but come on. Some of this stuff is just pure fabrications, why is the performance @ 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050 completely ignored?

Feel free to drop us a line MMT or any other wholesaler for that matter; I’m sure I can help sales with just simple newsletters that have information that’ll get people excited about the product.

For those interested my GTX 470 review can be found here; and if you want to know some behind the scene stuff there’s a great article I did here. Yes I called my own article great!

When it came to naming this piece I was fighting with myself; I didn’t want to use the word breaking for the simple reason that the reviews I’ve done over the years that have been released before an NDA lifted we hadn’t signed an NDA.

Over the years we’ve released quite a few reviews before the NDA date for the simple reason we didn’t sign an actual NDA. We have a great relationship with companies like Gigabyte, Sapphire, Galaxy to name just a few but you have to be in contact with NVIDIA, Intel, AMD and what was then ATI.

The best way to get in contact with the big boys is for them to notice you, a company like Intel was never an issue. If a new product was coming we had a CPU and if need be a motherboard to go with it, VGA cards on the other hand where a bit hit and miss, 90% of the time we got the sample before NDA but other times we didn’t because NVIDIA or ATI hadn’t said to particular companies make sure TweakTown get a sample.

It was time to play ball; the 9000 series from NVIDIA was what started a small but strong line of early released graphics cards.

It all started with the review of the Galaxy 9600 GT. We released the review on the 15th of February 2008; the date the NDA lifted was the 21st. Hey we didn’t break any NDA, we didn’t have an NDA and it was time to get noticed.

This review was linked everywhere; and when I say everywhere I mean everywhere. We pissed a lot of people off with this review, the most obvious was Galaxy in which this was the last item we received from them for a long time; actually I remember a legal letter getting sent to the boss from them. Of course they didn’t have a leg to stand on since we hadn’t even talked about an NDA with the company and of course NVIDIA wasn’t in contact with us so we didn’t have a wide spread NDA that covered the model be it from any brand.

That review really ruffled some feathers though; so what happened? We got black listed! What’s that mean. Well it means that NVIDIA tell companies to not send any NVIDIA products to the site. It’s TweakTown though, and it only takes one company to say we’re not missing out on a review from TweakTown, in turn another company goes well it’s a bit unfair that there NV card gets reviewed and not ours so we’re also sending over a product.

So what happened? NV had us black listed wouldn’t talk to us and we end up with a 9800 GX2 before NDA date. So I did what I did best, busted out a review ASAP and got it online, this time the 9800 GX2 was published on TweakTown March 15th 2008, 3 days before the NDA was lifted. Boy did that drive people crazy, here you are with a site black listed by a chip manufacturer and they’re still releasing reviews of products before they’re even suppose too.

The problem was only 10 days later on the 25th of March 2008 before anything was able to really happen about that review we posted the 9800 GTX review which wasn’t suppose to get released until April 1st 2008.

While NVIDIA continued to be unhappy with us we formed a great relationship with ATI at this point. They saw what we were doing and knew that if you can’t beat them join them. Of course NDAs came through for their products, we got briefed on all the important information before hand and we’ve now been working with them for years. We deal with a number of ATI staff ranging from Australia to ASIA and the USA, we deal from PR people to product managers and we’re kept in the loop on everything important.

NVIDIA on the other hand is still a bit hit and miss, I’ve said that NVIDIA have a certain snobbishness that comes across when you talk to them and I don’t begrudge them for that, they’re one of the largest companies in this industry and if you can’t be proud of the company you work for then you truly can’t be happy. It’s probably the same reason people get a similar feel from me, I’m proud I work for TweakTown, I’ve worked at a few places before and I couldn’t care less about them; TweakTown is different though and if I come across as arrogant sometimes in regards to how I talk about the site it’s only because I’m proud I work there and some of the staff are not only great colleagues but my best friends.

NVIDIA don’t promise us anything; if I ask if we’ll get a GTX 470 and GTX 480 sample they won’t give me an answer, I’m sure we will as we deal with a lot of NV partners but everyone I speak to is worried about the cost of the product and the supply so again they don’t want to promise anything.

These days we talk to NVIDIA a little, we get information but they seem to want to update me on stupid ION technology something I don’t give a crap about instead of the GTX 400 series something I do give a crap about.

While there’s no real point to this whole post it just gives you an idea of another aspect of what I’ve done over the years and an understanding of why I did it. I hope you enjoyed it and learnt something else about the industry because to be honest reminiscing has bought a chuckle thinking about the ol’ days.

I deal with a large amount of people every day in regards to samples and getting information, these people in the marketing team have really large turn over off staff though. I’m not exactly sure why but it seems that they’re jumping from one company to another all the time.

Since the Global Finical Crisis hit though people are staying in their jobs for longer which has been fantastic as it’s given us a chance to really build stronger than ever relationships with the people we deal with.

Recently though one company bought in a new contact window for me, it wasn’t because the old person left but more so to help with the work load. Dealing with someone new doesn’t bother me I’ve done it so many times in the past. This one though is a complete pain, I’m not sure if it’s lack of experience in the industry or she just really has no idea what she’s doing but getting samples and having a conversation about current products is just painful.

A prime example was me getting a HD 5830 sample out of the company, normally I don’t even have to ask. I’m dealing with someone new though so I went to organise one. I don’t get a reply, so I talk to my old contact window and my new one comes back with the specifications of the model. If this person took the time to actually look at TweakTown she would’ve known that I already reviewed the reference model; specifications don’t help me. I need samples!

I’ve dealt with some of the best people in this industry and after being in it for so long it’s extremely frustrating when you get someone new in who doesn’t know what they’re doing. I understand that people need to learn the ropes. I don’t have time for that though, with 26 reviews already done this year I don’t have time to chase, chase, chase!

I’m now at the point where I don’t even want to deal with the company because it’s just so painful. Instead I’m using my old contact window which is a pain in the ass for me and a pain in the ass for her as she already has a large list of websites to look after.

These companies need to either train the people for longer before getting into the job or just hire people with more experience. There’s so many in Taiwan that know what they’re doing that it just seems stupid in day and age that I’m dealing with people who don’t know what’s going on.

Hopefully the problem gets sorted but this would be a good opportunity for companies who don’t get a lot of reviews from me to really pounce on the opportunity.

It’s a tough question and really you have to think if you’ve waited months and months for the GTX 400 series what is another month? At the moment we know the product is going to launch at PAX 2010 on March the 26th.

While it’s clear that come March 26th, if you’re lucky enough to be at PAX 2010 you’ll have a chance to play with the GTX 470 and GTX 480. It’s not so clear that I’ll be playing with it at that stage for the simple reason no one has been able to lock in a sample with most companies not wanting to send reference cards.

So will we see reviews as the stage show kicks off? We should. I’m not sure how many you’re going to see but if that is the official launch date as NVIDIA suggest then reviews should be going up the same time.

Paper launches are long gone, no longer do we have an NDA lifted without the ability to buy the product. Saying that though we do have an NDA lift which is then followed by extremely short supply. Is the GTX 400 series going to hold this fate as well? Absolutely, and not just because of the delays we’ve had and issues we’ve heard. High end products are just in short supply come launch day, sure the HD 5800 series was available but you did pay a premium to own one and it wasn’t long before you got an email saying you’re purchase will be sent out in the next batch.

To be honest though if you’ve held out for a new video card this long though another month isn’t going to kill you. Well I hope not anyway. Waiting is ultimately win win for you.

For starters if the price we received on the GTX 470 is right with it lining up with the HD 5850 yet it offers performance better then a HD 5870 this will become a great buy. Throw in the fact you have CUDA, PhysX, 3DVision and those other features and you’ll probably find yourself extremely happy.

Secondly if you’ve got the money and the GTX 480 does become the top single GPU card on the market you’ll be glad that you’re the owner of that model.

Thirdly, if NVIDIA do decide to be semi aggressive with pricing then ATI will probably become hyper aggressive, to think they would’ve had almost 6 months worth of good profits from the HD 5800 series, if they have to drop the % a bit now who cares. The HD 5800 series has a better run then most other models in recent years.

Finally stock is pretty good these days on the HD 5800 series, but between now and March 26th we should see the 2GB model of the HD 5870, the HD 5830 will launch and more stock to help bring price a little lower. So in the event the GTX 400 series does suck you’ll be able to pick up a HD 5800 series card for a good price.

If you bought a HD 5800 series in the first month or two of launch you’ve been able to enjoy the best video cards on the market for months. Even if the GTX 400 series does come out and spank the HD 5800 series you’ve had an awesome run, and at the end of the day the release of the GTX 400 series isn’t going to make the HD 5800 series performance worse, it’ll simply make it look worse. Personally while I think NV can make it look worse in the performance numbers I think that the ATI models will still retain the massive value for money perception.

Wait, Don’t Wait; it really doesn’t matter. If the GTX 470 perform the same as the HD 5850 and the GTX 480 performs the same as the HD 5870 it has to be cheaper, if they’re faster they can only be slightly more expensive.

If you want something that’s budget orientated though then you’ve got the HD 5700 series and below. Considering NVIDIA hasn’t shown us anything about mid range cards if you’re tossing up between getting a HD 5770 or lower or waiting for NVIDIA; do yourself a favour and don’t wait. Go buy a new card now and enjoy the power from it today.

Over the years we’ve seen video card manufactures offer us more and more memory on our video cards as they become faster, there’s no denying that 1GB and 2GB of memory has its place in high resolution gaming but when you’re paying more then you need too just because you want to say you have a 1GB graphics card there’s something wrong.

This is a topic that’s been on my mind for a long time and I always try to increase awareness that some models don’t need as much memory. The HD 5570 was released today and the Sapphire version I received carried with it 1GB of memory which for this model is really too much.

Having a look at Newegg.com you can get a HD 5670 with 512MB of memory for $92.99, if you want to double that RAM you’re looking at $109.99. For an extra $17 you’re really getting virtually no extra performance as I discovered in a recent review of the HD 5670 512MB here.

Now if you’re happy to spend an extra $17 for what is essentially going to do nothing when it comes to extra performance why don’t you spend another $20 on top of that and buy a HD 5750 for $129.99. The good news is that if you really want 1GB of memory it’s only going to cost you an extra $10, and again while you won’t see a performance increase at least you can say you have 1GB of memory. The problem is if you’re going to buy a 1GB HD 5750 for $139.99 for an extra $5 you could get a HD 5770 512MB for $144.99.

Up to the HD 5770 a 512MB card is going to be best, compared to the 1GB counterpart it will be cheaper and offer almost identical performance. For only slightly more you can get a 512MB version of the next model up when compared to the 1GB version of the lower model.

I can make a 1GB model show higher numbers then a 512MB card, if I bench two mid range cards at 2560 x 1600 the 1GB model will put out a higher number, so here you say to yourself, well I see there’s a performance improvement with the 1GB version. The problem is at this resolution it doesn’t matter if the card has 4GB of memory you’re not going to be able to get a minimum FPS that represents a playable frame rate.

Too often we see companies advertise a system with a 1GB graphics card and not the model itself. The sad thing is your friend who has a bit more knowledge can buy something that’s faster for less money. There’s a place for high MB models, but it’s not in this mid range segment. Maybe I’ll get some cards together and do an article to give you a better idea of how everything looks in a graph and look at this topic more. Think twice though the next time you go and buy a mid range model, why pay for more memory then you need?

I try to be careful when I organise my video card samples, it’s hopeless getting in a bunch of cards that carry with it the same clocks and all that changes is the cooler. For the most part why should I waste my time benching a card that is going to give the same results, waste your time with results that are going to be similar and TweakTowns money with a review that’s not going to bring traffic.

Now there are some exceptions to this rule, if that model is part of a higher profile series like IceQ and iCooler from HIS or Vapor-X from Sapphire; due to the nature of these cards they get happily tested across all games even though they may carry with it the same or similar results in FPS related tests. People will Google these particular variations of models though and they shouldn’t have to look at a standalone review on a reference card just to know the performance.

On the other hand if Sapphire and HIS send two cards in at launch, slightly different coolers but both don’t slot into one of the aforementioned categories the excitement level isn’t high for card number two. So we do two reviews with these cards, the first is a standard single card review with card one. Who is card one? Well it’s generally the person who arrives first, in the case they both arrive at the same time it’s the person that told me they were sending it first.

For card number two though since it’s reference clocks and follows the reference PCB design to mix it up a bit I’ll make that second article a CrossFire or SLI one. This does a few things, one it makes the review different from the first, second we still get cooling numbers and noise levels off the card and finally it’s something a bit more interesting for you to read.

Recently though I had a company complain to me that the review looked like it was a CrossFire one and not on their card, to be honest I must’ve missed the part where I wrote about their package, card, cooler, included their names in all the graphs, wrote about the temperature and heat difference and wrapped it all up in a conclusion which covered both the technology and the card.

This company will now have a few options, the first is, unless they can be the first company to send a card before NDA they won’t get a standalone review, secondly they can just not send a card that has reference clocks if they’re not interested in being tested in a different fashion, instead they can just wait till OC models come out. Thirdly they can step back a second and realize I know what I’m doing after seven years when making sure that I give each company as much exposure as possible.

If the company doesn’t want to be included in a CF article many other companies will, after I have two reference cards I ultimately stop trying to organise any more until OC ones are available. Sure they can send an OC model which will get a standalone review but that company now misses out on a review on TweakTown, instead of getting two they now only have one. Since I make sure I don’t organise crap that also means the company will more then likely miss out on an award, that’s fine for me someone else can pick it up instead.

I’ve been doing TweakTown for over 7 years and this writing gig for even longer. These companies need to know that how I represent their product in a review is the best way for them. CrossFire and SLI articles are a way to mix it up a bit, it means I learn more about the performance and you do as well. It means that if someone on a forum goes, I’m thinking about having CF or SLI *insert mid range model* that forum goers can link to the article and say this is what you can expect.

After reading this I hope the company realizes that I do what I feel is the best for them. If they don’t though there’s someone else who is always happy to take the spot and get the exposure. As for other readers of my blog, this just gives you a bit of an idea of what we deal with behind the scenes, it’s one thing whinging because they don’t like the score, but to get an award, a high score and then complain that they don’t like how it’s tested; come on!