ShaneBaxtor.com

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.

I can’t speak for the rest of the world but in Australia we’re seeing IT Magazines slowly die off; over the recent years we’ve seen some of the most popular mags come down to just a few full time staff compared to an office full. For the last few years I worked for APC which is one of Australia’s Largest Tech Magazines. Looking through the magazine you can see why it’s one of the most popular; even as someone who spends a huge amount of time on the internet I love reading APC because it keeps me up to date on things that I like but forget about; for example peripherals like Printers. I’m not about to spend a day on a printer review site but I can open up the APC and see some of the latest printers, based on their words I can then at least give someone a bit of a recommendation.

The other day though I received a list from an advertising company that ranked the Australian magazines (Based on circulation); to be honest the rankings didn’t surprise me. What did surprise though was a few years ago you would’ve had circulation numbers, instead these days you just have a rank. The reason for this is that circulation numbers have dropped, subscription numbers have dropped and honestly TweakTown delivers more content to more users in a span of days then every Tech Magazine in Australia does in a month at no cost to you, the same goes for other major tech sites.

Magazines find themself in a hard position, they’re in a position where they have a website but can’t push content on to it before the release or soon after the release of the issue as people wouldn’t buy it. Recently one company linked me to a review of a reference mid range video card review on a tech magazines website; it was a direct copy of the magazine review, just months afterwards. The problem was on the site it gave the impression it just came out although it was four months old and new models had been released around it.

Australian magazines will have to implement a system like the New York Times in where you’ll be able to subscribe to the magazines via your iPad and receive content that way. This is a very expensive process though and it’s safe to say that only a few magazines will be able to offer this. The question is will they offer it before it’s too late?

Resellers and Wholesalers need to understand that in Australia the magazine is a dieing breed for them; one manufacturer told me the other day they just advertise in these magazines because it’s not worth arguing with the wholesalers who sell their product that there’s no real value in it anymore.

TweakTown is launching a new review style soon for certain categories; I just finished the first review today that will fall under this new category. The idea is that TT will be offering Magazine style reviews on certain products. What that means is a single page with a word count up to about 1,000. In the Magazine world that would equate to 1 1/2 to 2 pages which is a number reserved for only big launches. Every word that is written in a review at TweakTown or a post here isn’t constrained to word counts for the simple reason that it doesn’t cost us to print a single page; yes it costs money to produce with wages and hosting but if TweakTown had to print what was done on the site in a monthly magazine it would be 100s of pages in length and $100s of dollars for you to buy.

What we’ll be able to do is offer companies more reviews, more in depth reviews and readers just more content in general. That’s good for you! It doesn’t matter what site you visit the idea is to make sure you’re happy.

At the moment I’m experimenting in the back end of sb.com to setup a magazine style review system; the idea isn’t to take on TweakTown or any other tech site. It’s to take on the magazines in Australia. I don’t want to be compared to other tech sites; my whole aim is to be compared to magazines specifically in Australia. The pricing will be Australian and the places you can purchase from will be in Australia.

What’s so fantastic though is that the words around a few names of wholesalers, resellers and prices are still relevant to everyone in the world. In much the way Australians read tech sites based in the US; US people can read a review based on a site from Australia.

This post is essentially a shout out to Manufactures, Wholesalers and Retailers. These companies are so blinded by the “Magazine” label that ShaneBaxtor.com isn’t a website, it’s a paperless Magazine. What we’ll be able to offer is something that paper magazines at the moment in Australia can’t!

1) Content delivered to you when an NDA is lifted.
2) More room then you’ve ever had in a paper magazine so people can really know your product.
3) The ability to link to wholesalers and retailers of items.
4) More reviews then you’ve ever had; I can fit more than one of your products in my paperless magazine each month.
5) The fastest turnaround times you’ve seen; we don’t need to send our reviews off to any printer, wait for them to be packaged up and shipped out to local news stores.

While at the same time saving the environment by not using paper.

Currently we’re completely iPhone compatible; if you go to this site on any iPhone, iPod Touch, Google Android Smartphone, Palm Pre and many other smart phones you’ll see the site in a easy to read format. Love or hate the iPad it’s setting the benchmark for the future of content delivery thanks to its large screen. Slate devices are going to be a big thing in the coming years and making sure we’re 100% compatible with those devices is going to be a priority. You should be able to read a review or news; anywhere, anytime on any device.

I’ll be making sure that I attack every layer in my own layered marketing plan. Manufacturers, Wholesalers, Retailers and End Users. I know what all four layers want and I intend to offer it.

The future of Australian Tech is here; and if you’re obsessed with the word “Magazine” then you’re visiting not a website but a Paperless “Magazine”; and why wouldn’t you want to do that, unless you hate the environment! Do you hate the environment?

Word is that a GTX 465 is nothing more than a GTX 470 with a bios flash that disables some of the stream processors. If that sounds kind of confusing then it probably is because it seems someone over at Galaxy got a little confused.

Someone over on the [H] forums picked up there new GTX 470 OC GC version to discover it was a GTX 465. Instead of being a wolf in sheeps clothing it seems this person got more a sheep in wolfs clothing.

It does tell us the information we need to know about the GTX 465.

264 Unified Stream Processors, 608MHz Core Clock, 1215MHz Shader Clock and a 3208MHz QDR clock on the 1GB of GDDR5 memory. You can also see that the card supports CUDA which was rumoured to not be in the model at one stage.

It seems alarm bells started going off in the users head when he couldn’t install the normal Forceware drivers.

No doubt the user will get his GTX 470 that he intended but it’s all very interesting none the less.

You can check out the [H] thread here.

KitGuru broke a story only recently that the GTX 470 could become discontinued; for the moment it seemed that the model which has become a bit of a favourite of mine is becoming hard to get a hold off.

Throwing on the detective cap it was time to see what’s going on with this story and if it holds any truth. Chasing up our own contacts it seems that NVIDIA are making way for a dual GPU based Fermi card as KitGuru later updated in their post. It seems this isn’t coming at the cost of the GTX 470 but at the cost of GTX 470 supply.

What it seems is that these will be going towards the new dual core model coming out; while no official name has been said the mumbles are it’ll be called the GTX 490. At the moment though we find ourselves a little disappointed.

It seems that the GTX 470 PCB has gone over to the GTX 465 while the cores go over to a new PCB which will create the GTX 490. Unlike ATI though who opted for the best core which was used on the HD 5870 and then clocked the card down to HD 5850 speeds it seems that NVIDIA are going to opt for the second best core (GTX 470) and we’re sure they’ll also clock the model slightly down which means it’ll be slower than a GTX 470 SLI setup.

Of course you throw overclocking into the mix but the same can be said about the HD 5970; at least that was based on the higher spec chip when it came to stream processors and other goodies.

With all that said it doesn’t seem like the GTX 470 is going anywhere; not in the short term anyway. It seems that NVIDIA probably just want to move the cores temporarily over to its new high end model; as yield increases we’ll no doubt see the GTX 470 back in force.

If you find yourself wanting to get into the GTX 400 series fun but disappointed with the high price tag of the current top two models good news is just around the corner. Well to be more precise good news is in the paragraph below but owning one is just around the corner.

The GTX 465 which some people thought would be known as the GTX 460 is due to come out on the 1st of June. Details on the model are a bit sketchy at the moment with very little known. What I can tell you thought is that stock doesn’t look like it’s going to be an issue.

With the model still weeks away we’ve been told by multiple manufacteres that they already have stock and samples will be ready to ship this week.

What this means is that we’ll probably start seeing leaked results show up in the next week but please remember with so long before the official launch date a new driver helping performance shouldn’t be far off. I know once I get mine it won’t be slid into the testbed till closer to launch just to make sure we’re using the most up to date driver.

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!

Yesterday one manufacturer let me know that they had hoped to get the GTX 400 series in stock by April 2nd; talking to a few more today though it seems that this is the date NVIDIA will be shipping stock to its partners.

The latest date for retail is April 12th; with that said supply could swing either way as we know that companies are going to want to get the model out there as soon as possible. While the “delayed” retail date is April 12th there doesn’t seem to be any paperwork tied into this date. So what that means is if the cards come in earlier companies will be able to sell them earlier.

At the moment it looks like Europe and the USA could be waiting the longest from purely a logistical stand point; with the cards shipping out of ASIA you’ll see places like Hong Kong and China get soon after that April 2nd date. From there you’ll see places like Australia get stock due to the distance from ASIA not being all that far. Finally stock will arrive on US and Europe soil.

Since most companies tend to talk US; as in US $ and US time frame we figure the April 12th date is the US date for stock to arrive and probably a worst case scenario.

You have to remember as well it’s not just a matter of getting the card and then shipping to its distribution channel; these companies have to pack the cards and prepare the package which also takes time.

Reviewers have GTX 400 series cards and no doubt that within the community of them talk is happening on what we think of the models. It would come as no surprise to know that now ATI probably have a fair idea about how the GTX 400 series competes against their current line up of video cards.

Word floating about was that if need be a price drop would take place to combat the new cards from NVIDIA; as for a refresh one might be ready but we haven’t heard anything all that solid on that. For now ATI still need to get the Eyefinity6 model launched.

As far as a price drop goes though it seems ATI and its partners are comfortable with how the models sit and with stock becoming a non issue for the cards; they don’t have anything to worry about it seems.

The GTX 400 series has been plagued with issues but within only days we’ll know exactly how the two models perform. There’s no doubt that ATI have a fair idea of how the models perform against their current crop of cards though.

Speaking to partners it’s become clear that ATI are preparing for a price drop on its high end models including the HD 5850, HD 5870 and HD 5970. In turn we would probably also see some smaller price drops on the HD 5830 and below to simply keep the value of these products in line with everything else.

What’s interesting though is I’m hearing that the price drop will only happen if they feel threatened by NVIDIA and its new GTX 470 and GTX 480 products. There’s a few thing that need to happen with the new GTX 400 series for this price drop to happen.

First the products have to be competitive against the HD 5850, HD 5870 and HD 5970.

Secondly the stock has to be available or at least the impression that mass stock is coming.

While everyone loves a good price drop it’s clear that ATI are only going to do it if they need too. At the end of the day they’re a business and there’s no need to drop the price if the GTX 400 series doesn’t compete against the HD 5000 series.