Wow, Nvidia have banned Hardware Unboxed from receiving review samples...

[Chuk_Chuk]

so are all reviewers against ray tracing? why do they dislike it so much?

Nobodies against it. As far as the majority of people are concerned, the hardware isn't fast enough to run it and the trade off isn't worth it.

 

[Wrinkly]

Buddy I am not in the delusional camp such as @Wrinkly @Stanners, that feel the necessity to bring the dirty laundry of a company to justify the wrong doing of another.

i agree with you as while tech industry, but that is no excuse for what Nvidia was trying to pull on HU.

I will say this once and last time. Any company that gets caught doing this sort of things to an unbiased review channel is not ok. Any company who is doing it without being caught doing it to any review channel is wrong. Any company who is manipulating the review channel by their rrp pricing or selective review sample to review channels is wrong.
That concludes my view point of this matter. Can therefore @Wrinkly @Stanners clearly steak where they stand on all of the above?

As far as the subject matter concerned, I see @Wrinkly is a fanboy @Stanners is a fence sitter saying debate is important and needs to be impartial yet ruled in his own will to be partial and irrelevant. Forgive me for calling them out but if I see BS I will call it out regardless if they are mods or not.

I have been clear on this. Any company having it's products trashed by a reivew site turned influencer should have ties cut. I don't care what company it is. I don't have shares in Nvidia or AMD. Nvidia made the reviewers (who make money from Nvidia) take notice with this. If these 'reviewers' influence consumers to believe a product is not ready or worth it then you have to understand the manufacturer/Nvidia will cut ties.

 

[r7slayer]

so are all reviewers against ray tracing? why do they dislike it so much?

Because at the moment Ray tracing's implementation in games is some what basic. But even at that it's still very computationally demanding to which for a somewhat small benefit to ingame visual up lift the performance impact is still great. And the fact that while it had a very small game base when nvidia implemented RTX. It's only grown slightly, so no one is against it and most know games will go this way. It's just nothing to scream about at the moment where rasterization is still the main focus in games. Hardware Unboxed's review reflected this to which Nvidia did not like and they decided to get slimy. To which when other reviewers got wind took to their channels to express their dissatisfaction of Nvidia as a company and their practices.

 

[jonneymendoza]

Nobodies against it. As far as the majority of people are concerned, the hardware isn't fast enough to run it and the trade off isn't worth it.

This

 

[Nablaoperator]

Did you even read what I wrote?

yes.. i will list down few logical fallacies:

Fallacy 1

• you are okay with linus talking about nvidia's sales dependency
• but then you say that he neednt mention his own earnings because everyone with "half a brain" knows about it

Fallacy 2
"The whole point of stating that fact was to demonstrate the difference between "availability and cost" as you put it,
to make it absolutely clear that reviewers need review samples because of availability and not because of cost."

Check the italics..he didnt mention anything about reviewers needing review samples.. he has been pretty much clear about why he does reviews
"to inform the manufacturers consumer base about the product and thus help them maximise sales".. because the rest can be omitted under "law of half brains".

Add up the above fallacies and check if your arguments are still coherent.

I have also looked at the video and blessed with enough intuition to clearly discern his message, paraphrased below. sorry i dont have "half a brain", so this is the full brains version
"I am doing these reviews for the benefit of nvidia and its consumers as a good samaritan. I have no stake whatsoever in this"
with an additional threat:
"if you dont give me those cards i can still buy them (and then god save you)"
followed by an appeal
"internet peasants help me, your benevolent lord, wage a battle on the evil corporation"
internet peasants:
"Linus is a good samaritan with no vested interest and look how emotionally charged he is, we should be helping him"

 

[Cyber-Mav]

with an additional threat:
"if you dont give me those cards i can still buy them (and then god save you)"

So he is only reviewing since he gets the cards for free and if he had to pay for the cards then he would put out negative reviews (even if the product is good) till he gets free stuff again?

Shady tactic but if if gets you thousands of quids worth if free stuff......

 

[Scougar]

Nobodies against it. As far as the majority of people are concerned, the hardware isn't fast enough to run it and the trade off isn't worth it.

Plus, the games it is actually in are limited in number.

As you say, people don't dislike it at all, just the hardware not being able to run it well enough.

Tech is going on the right direction, I am pleased Nvidia is running with the concept.

 

[Nablaoperator]

Shady tactic but if if gets you thousands of quids worth if free stuff......

Nope, if he doesnt get those cards on time it might mean a much bigger loss to him and all reviewers of his stature
The cost of those cards is immaterial, he can even buy one at twice or thrice or even five times the price, if he can smuggle one before official release
He is clearly protecting his livelihood and that of the reviewer mafia, and wants to do so by evoking public sentiments on the interwebs than taking the moral high ground and negotiating with nvidia privately.
I am still okay with him leveraging public support, but he needs to come clean with the messaging.. tell us exactly what is at stake over here for him to waste his precious time on a rant video, just so that the interwebs peasantry can form an independent opinion.
I dont need to tell you who in my opinion is the "bigger evil" in this movie

 

[Vish Petrol]

Hopefully when there are more than 2 games which really benefit from and can implement raytracing, it will have an influence on which GPU I buy. Its good to see that Nvidia retracted their position.

 

[Gerard]

So he is only reviewing since he gets the cards for free and if he had to pay for the cards then he would put out negative reviews (even if the product is good) till he gets free stuff again?

Shady tactic but if if gets you thousands of quids worth if free stuff......

You havnt much of a clue what was going on at all it would seem...par for the course.

 

[EastCoastHandle]

HU doubles down

Clearly, reviewers know this is no isolated incidence, but it was very arrogant of Nvidia to write an entire email explaining you could either get in line with their views, or else.
...

Attacking press freedom is always a lose-lose-lose scenario: reviewers, customers, and businesses are all impacted negatively. Shortly after Steve went public with Nvidia's email, he's seen overwhelming support from the tech community. Not just fans of Hardware Unboxed, or viewers and readers, but numerous tech outlets who understand that this is not just about Steve or Hardware Unboxed, but it's about principle.
...
Less than 48 hours later, Steve received the good news.

Nvidia apologized and walked everything back. Great news indeed, but let's be clear this wouldn't have happened if not for the support of the community at large and key people in the tech space that have such an enormous influence that it was too much for Nvidia to ignore. Linus from LinusTechTips (his angry rant on the WAN Show embedded above is pure gold) and Steve from Gamers Nexus, were two of those persons.
...

https://www.techspot.com/amp/news/87946-ugly-side-nvidia-rollercoaster-ride-shows-when-big.html

Looks like this scandal continues

 

[Nablaoperator]

I dont see how this is an attack on press freedom, the tech press can source these samples from normal channels and then still publish reviews.
But i fully understand that this might result in loss of revenues for the press.. as the coverage wont grab as much attention as launch day reviews
Also there seems to be a sizeable segment of the market that will still purchase these products before reviews are out..
This might result in further cannibalization of press revenues because some of the early adopters can publish their own reviews long before the press has the opportunity to do so.

 

[EastCoastHandle]

I love it when nvidia tries to be evil then meets resistance then they coward down.

 

[Gerard]

I dont see how this is an attack on press freedom, the tech press can source these samples from normal channels and then still publish reviews.
But i fully understand that this might result in loss of revenues for the press.. as the coverage wont grab as much attention as launch day reviews
Also there seems to be a sizeable segment of the market that will still purchase these products before reviews are out..
This might result in further cannibalization of press revenues because some of the early adopters can publish their own reviews long before the press has the opportunity to do so.

Or you could watch the first 40- minutes of the linus review which clearly state why it has a detrimental effect on the reviewer..

 

[Cyber-Mav]

Because at the moment Ray tracing's implementation in games is some what basic. But even at that it's still very computationally demanding to which for a somewhat small benefit to ingame visual up lift the performance impact is still great. And the fact that while it had a very small game base when nvidia implemented RTX. It's only grown slightly, so no one is against it and most know games will go this way. It's just nothing to scream about at the moment where rasterization is still the main focus in games. Hardware Unboxed's review reflected this to which Nvidia did not like and they decided to get slimy. To which when other reviewers got wind took to their channels to express their dissatisfaction of Nvidia as a company and their practices.

This is where the personal opinions of reviewers cause issues. Just because the reviewer doesnt like rtx on doesnt mean everyone wont like it so the reviewer slates the tech.
Its just as bad as someone reviewing a tesla and doesnt like the autopilot and slates it in a review where other consumers would like the feature.
Guess from now on i will skip all these reviews and just look at the numbers unless they become gimped by reviewers too.

I should have expected this mega bias from all reviewers since they all loved cyberpunk but in my actual experience i found it to be a buggy mess.

Good on nvidia for pointing out these corrupt reviewers who only want the masses to believe what they say.

 

[Gerard]

Good on nvidia for pointing out these corrupt reviewers who only want the masses to believe what they say.

They're so corrupt that nvidia have apologised and reversed their decision.....do try and keep up Mav...

 

[wyvern_cs]

Watching Linus' reaction on WAN show was rather entertaining lol

 

[Cardinal_Fang]

It'll all academic now - Nvidia has achieved what it set out to do and get lots of free advertising for ray tracing and DLSS, and have now done a U-turn and walked everything back.

 

[Hotwired]

Can't believe some people are posting drivel grade views on the matter while obviously having read none of the evidence but are doing fine making up an argument based on their imagination of what happened.

Goddam graphics card sub forum.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

They're so corrupt that nvidia have apologised and reversed their decision.....do try and keep up Mav...

Iv only seen that jay2cent video linked further up in this thread so im not fully updated on this but from what iv worked out from my point of view is nvidia sent free review cards hardware unboxed done partial review missing out rtx etc and not showing all of the products capabilities. Nvidia then said they not gonna send hardware unboxed any more cards. Hardware unboxed is upset and flames nvidia on the interwebs.

I side with nvidia in this case.
Its like ford sending a f150 to a reviewer who runs it around nurburgring and says the handling is crap but doesnt showcase its towing abilities.