Question Are Tom's 7/7/19 & 10/8/19 X570 performance results comparable?

[computershopper12357]

Although these 2 reviews seem to be using the same CPU, GPU, even Graphics driver version, the differences in performance, especially in the MS Office Excel & Powerpoint scores and in the PCMark 10 Productivity Writing scores, are suspicious.

For example, the 3 Excel scores in the 7/7/19 review were 18,504, 18,127, and 17,980, while the 2 scores in the 10/8/19 review were only 16,695 and 16,808. This is a difference of almost 11% max.

Or are there other, unmentioned factors, that account for this discrepancy? Like the versions of the MS Office tests, the versions of Windows, the Windows vulnerabilities fixes in place, the speed the boards were running the 3700X or the DRAM?

It's fine to compare boards within a review, but sometimes you need to compare across reviews. In this case, the newer ASUS Hero and ASRock Phantom Gaming X look pretty bad compared to the older, but not significantly more expensive, ASRock Taichi, MSI MEG ACE, and the Gigabyte Aorus Master.

I'd appreciate clarity about any of this, and about the general issue of comparability of performance testing across Tom's reviews.

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
Or are there other, unmentioned factors, that account for this discrepancy? Like the versions of the MS Office tests, the versions of Windows, the Windows vulnerabilities fixes in place, the speed the boards were running the 3700X or the DRAM?
...

....or is it the video drivers...chip set drivers...BIOS...AGESA. The possibilities go on and on, you hit the nail right on the head which is why you simply can not compare across reviews unless you've baselined system configuration.

Go watch some GamersNexus YouTube reviews...or just read his testing methodology. Steve is meticulous about locking down a system configuration baseline, even to the point of lab environmentals, so he can compare across reviews.

 

[computershopper12357]

....or is it the video drivers...chip set drivers...BIOS...AGESA. The possibilities go on and on, you hit the nail right on the head which is why you simply can not compare across reviews unless you've baselined system configuration.

Go watch some GamersNexus YouTube reviews...or just read his testing methodology. Steve is meticulous about locking down a system configuration baseline, even to the point of lab environmentals, so he can compare across reviews.

Dear Drea,
Thank you very much for the quick reply. I'll try your suggestion.

At the same time, can't we get Tom's to be consistent about at least specifying the full system configuration in their reviews?

 

[drea.drechsler]

Dear Drea,
Thank you very much for the quick reply. I'll try your suggestion.

At the same time, can't we get Tom's to be consistent about at least specifying the full system configuration in their reviews?

That would be nice, but I don't think of Toms as the heavy-hitting technical analysis kind of review site some others are. They're more of a performance show-case of products so we get an idea of what it's about kind of tech reviews.

Not all fluff and reading from the tech marketing literature, to be sure, but still yet not the kind of deep-dive tech review so you can compare products across all mfr's. Steve even takes hardware apart to show us...and the manufacturer...where they're off-base and missing the mark with competition.

 

[computershopper12357]

That would be nice, but I don't think of Toms as the heavy-hitting technical analysis kind of review site some others are. They're more of a performance show-case of products so we get an idea of what it's about kind of tech reviews.

Not all fluff and reading from the tech marketing literature, to be sure, but still yet not the kind of deep-dive tech review so you can compare products across all mfr's. Steve even takes hardware apart to show us...and the manufacturer...where they're off-base and missing the mark with competition.

Dear Drea,

Thanks again. I'll read some reviews on Gamers Nexus. Are there any other top-notch hardware or software review sites you'd recommend?