[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]This product will not be available for Christmas, so any reference to bows, holiday sales figures, or Santa unfortunately doesn’t really apply.[/citation]
Uh, yes it does, you're helping to affect Xmas sales of a competing product by (p)reviewing a non-existant product that you know won't arrive in time for Xmas sales just before the other customer is ready to sell their product. EVERYONE knows that the 3 major sales periods for graphics cards are just before summer break, just at return to school, and Xmas. Telling people,'HEY HEY WE Have something coming soon, don't spend your money now!', let's nVidia influence the market without actually having a product on the shelf, just the same as the rumours of their 55nm part in the fall season which never came, people wait, and then they put off their buying, just when companies are planning their launches, and regardless of actual pricing and real deals, people say, Oh, but something else is around the corner and they're already reviewing it so it must be coming soon and in volume.
[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]This preview is not a review. Says so right in the title. Moreover, it’s stated in the story itself that this is engineering sample hardware, which could very well change by the time it hits retail, hence the disclaimer.[/citation]
How many people do you think that read yours or any (p)review will appreciate it's just a preview, and not just jump to the results pages. Even in comprehensive new hardware reviews people don't read squat they flip to the pretty pictures/benchies, this should not come as a surprise we see it every day.
How many of the people reading will know what a paper launch is (how many even know of the old days where both companies would paper launch at each other [the stopping of that practice blamed for the fall of the pulp industry as it's biggest buyer of paper]). Where it got so bad people would include pictures of many boxes ready for shipping to prove that the products were there on official launch day not weeks/monnths later. It's like intel's multi-year DX10 driver promise to keep people hoping/expecting instead of buying something else. Always extend the people hope and promises if you don't have actual product to sell them.
[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]the only way I am able to do my job is to maintain objectivity to the very best of my ability. My assessment of Nvidia’s branded software development efforts is just that—and nobody needs to pay me for my opinion except Tom’s Hardware. The data provided in this piece was run and provided in order to be informational. If you didn’t get anything out of it, I’m sorry, but as a hardware enthusiast myself, I am *always* interested in getting more insight into whatever is just over the horizon. Hopefully you’ll feel differently when it’s AMD under the microscope rather than Intel/Nvidia.[/citation]
No I wouldn't feel better whomever it was.
You miss the point, it's not that your objectivity is in question, it's your critical thinking and situational awareness that seems questionable, in publishing a paper-launch preview into one of the largest (if not the largest) buying seasons of the year. People don't need to be purposely biased, they can be unwitting tools of the mfr who knows how to manipulate their pawns with free stuff and previews. And both ATi and nVidia are savvy with that form of PR manipulation.
Understand it's less to do with the content of the review than the timing of a paper-launch preview of a product most of us have known is 'eventually coming' once the 55nm parts start appearing, but we also understand it will be in extremely low quantity and will also be met with a price cut similar to every other launch by ATi and nVidia.
I don't question your objectivity in reviewing, but I do question your judgment in posting this (p)review which is light on technical information and heavy on benchmarks that are covered in asterix and achieve just one thing, to put PR out there when there's no physical product to advertise at this time.
Ask yourself just WHY you got a preview part for this buying season from a company that, like ATi, clams up and says "we don't comment on unreleased products" unless it's strategically advantageous for them to 'leak' and early (p)review parts. They both do this, and it lessened for a while because people called them on it. Regardless of the naming of it, it's a paper-launch and it has one role, the same as it ever was, to stifle competition's sales, and yes the timing is meant to hurt the competition's sales more than give people a peek at what's behind the current. That's why Xmas is an issue, because nV is trying to be the Grinch to ATi's sales (which is funny cause it would be the first Xmas in 4 years that would have ATi on top of the single card list [X1900 launch in January, the low volume GF7800Ultra {*cough* (ouch) GTX-512} was launched for that season]). You may have been unaware of the significance of the season and the motivation of this otherwise rare (p)review of an unreleased product, but I'm certain nVidia was fully aware of their timing.
[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]Hope your ribs feel better soon; careful for those trees.[/citation]
Thanks, it wasn't the trees (trees are our friends, glades are great) it was a ledge at Revelstoke that spontaneously 'grew' out of the mountain and jumped in front of me. Flat light sucks in deep powder !
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