-
Competitor rules
Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.
MSI and ASUS Send VGA Review Samples with Higher Clocks than Retail Cards
- Thread starter Kaapstad
- Start date
Journalism shouldn't be about inciting outrage, but being informative. Let the readers decide whether or not it's something to be properly angry about or just mildly disappointed or completely indifferent or whatever.
Of course I could, though the MSI program which lets you swap modes was a terrible bit of software, that caused my core voltage to be on maximum at all times, even when idle on the desktop!
At the end of the day, I expect to get an identical card to what the reviewers get. Not a card with a different BIOS with lower clocks speeds.
The whole needing to download a piece of software to achieve the max out of the box clock thing is incredibly dumb. Obviously the card has been tested at the OC speed to make sure it can achieve that so that they can advertise it as such, so just have the damn out of the box speed be that. If you still must have a silly little app, make it underclock the card for quieter operation or something.
Lazy and lax journalism is the issue. Many it would seem have not bothered to check the basics or cover them in reviews giving anyone reading a false impression.
M.S.I and Asus have hardly helped that processes by sending out cards with non-consumer bios. But they of course have the excuse that they are doing it because of poor reporting and zero investigative skills on the part of reviewers.
Journalists conversely will seek to pin all the blame on the manufacturer.
They are both at fault but it is seriously lax journalism that seems to be the root issue.
Associate
- Joined
- 22 Oct 2012
- Posts
- 1,258
The most honest thing to do would be to give them the Gaming software, retail BIOS and some emailed instructions. Shipping a non retail BIOS to reviewers is pretty dark place to go.
Agreed but I'm just posting in a forum, not being a journalist right now.
You don't have to use the software though. MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision are common overclocking tools used by many users on this forum.
I think you're being a bit over-dramatic there!
The retail BIOS isn't always available if the card is being tested before release. The BIOS can change a number of times before release and after. The same applies to motherboards. Reviewers quite often get engineers samples with a Beta BIOS. Review sites sometimes mention that.
The element Oxygen, found in the air, is commonly breathed by users on this forum.
I, and many others, dislike having to use separate software programs to obtain the performance shown in the reviews. It's the start of a slippery slope that no sensible or logical person wants to become to the norm.
isnt the difference here the fact that you need to use the software because it offers DIFFERENT BIOS'?
It is a bit naughty to do that but when you want your card to stand above the rest, I guess dirty tricks ensue. Not really fair on the guys who buy the cards and don't get that performance but the Mhz are so measly, it wouldn't bother me.
Yeah but you do if you use the enclosed software or as many do on this forum overclock manually. The three MSI cards I have owned have all run at the OC setting reliably (as advertised) but have also run a good deal faster when overclocked.
I'm not really sure why this is a big issue on a forum that discusses overclocking on a daily basis.
Maybe the reviewers need to clearly state (I know some do) that a card can be run in various modes so people like yourself who just want the easiest vanilla setup can make the right choice.
No you can manually clock the card to it's various levels.
From memory of my 290 gaming, changing to OC mode in the software doesn't change the bios. So the bios differences between the cards would be purely anecdotal and is probably a case of it being a pre release bios.
I still don't understand why people are getting their pants in a twist.
The card they reviewed has the 3 modes, with OC out of the box.
The card you buy has the same 3 modes, with Gaming mode out of the box.
In both cases you can change the mode with software. Your card is guaranteed to run in OC mode, if it doesn't it's faulty. You are getting the same card as them, you just need to take an extra step to get there.
I don't read reviews on graphics cards and the complain that I don't get the same performance cause I haven't installed the driver. So stop complaining that you are not getting the same performance cause you haven't installed the software.
If anything it's lazy reviewing.
I still don't understand why people are getting their pants in a twist.
The card they reviewed has the 3 modes, with OC out of the box.
The card you buy has the same 3 modes, with Gaming mode out of the box.
In both cases you can change the mode with software. Your card is guaranteed to run in OC mode, if it doesn't it's faulty. You are getting the same card as them, you just need to take an extra step to get there.
I don't read reviews on graphics cards and the complain that I don't get the same performance cause I haven't installed the driver. So stop complaining that you are not getting the same performance cause you haven't installed the software.
If anything it's lazy reviewing.
Tbh you should need no other software then the nvidia driver to get the advertised clock speed's (no matter what difference there is) nor should there be part of your gpu locked behind installing another app. (not counting overclocking as that is a choice not a necessity and you can you a lot of apps for that)
Just abit of a silly move tbh as msi and asus will now look bad.
Just abit of a silly move tbh as msi and asus will now look bad.
The point is YOU DO GET the advertised clockspeed. There are THREE advertised so only ONE of them can be the default.
People need to fully research what they are buying and not just believe what is written in a review. The manufacturers website is a good place to start.
Soldato
- Joined
- 9 Jan 2008
- Posts
- 6,521
- Location
- London/Camberley
To me, it just seems like TPU aren't doing their jobs properly. First thing they should have done is to check whether their sample was running at the advertised speed, not discover this after years of testing...
If indeed they had found a discrepancy, they could have let the manufacturers know but at the same time test the cards at their advertised speeds.
If indeed they had found a discrepancy, they could have let the manufacturers know but at the same time test the cards at their advertised speeds.