HardOCP failing hard with latest review?

[Madcatatlas]

HardOCP has been given alot of credit by me personally. Ive enjoyed their reviews and their review methods. Just last week i praised their methodology among other things in the Sapphire 6950 Toxic review.

Im not selling cards, nor am i in marketting, but i do say what i think about this and that.

Hardocps latest review, link :http://hardocp.com/article/2011/09/07/galaxy_geforce_gtx560_ti_mdt_x5_video_card_review

of the Galaxy 560 Ti is what i call "digging your own grave".

The card itself looks great, and introduces functionality not seen on any Nvidia based GPU as of yet. It can power 5 displays at the same time, even though only 4 can be used for gaming at once and then at resolutions that are below 1080.

The review however is lacking so much. This must be the first GPU review i see where there is no competition even mentioned in the text. What is this, some advertisement thing Hardocp does for Galaxy?

Look at the graphs showing the cards performance at various 3 screen benches, doesnt it lack ...a competing product, a referance point...something that tells you how good or bad it really performs?
To me it does. Its lacking.


Im not going to diss the card or galaxy, but Hardocp really dropped the ball on this one, and i cant understand the reasoning for this Gold award in light of their reasons for giving and not giving Gold awards in the past.

So, TLDR: HardOcp can fail aswell, and they indeed did with this review.

 

[Mistwalker]

They defend the fact that "for an Nvidia card, Galaxy really took it upon themselves to offer features thus far exclusive to AMD offerings" in the Hard Forums as well.

Basically, some users think the card is fine and all but nowhere near deserving a Gold Editor's Choice (particularly since it falls short of the cheaper 6950 in virtually every conceivable way, from features to performance); Kyle says they're placing massive value on innovation with this one and is sticking to the Gold decision.

Doubt you're going to change any minds over this, love 'em or hate 'em [H] tends to stick to its own reasoning for things.

 

[Lonyo]

It's marginally more innovative than the existing 3 display cards that have been made based on NV GPUs. And it's a terrible hack job that produces barely usable results.
Nice idea, but really it just doesn't work on a practical level.

 

[AnandThenMan]

What an odd review, what happened? Only one card in the charts, huh? In Soviet Russia, vote for the best party. Only one party.

 

[BladeVenom]

What an odd review, what happened? Only one card in the charts, huh? In Soviet Russia, vote for the best party. Only one party.

They can't compare it to the equivalent AMD cards since the AMD card would blow it away.

The other Nvidia cards can't do what it can, so they can't compare those either.

 

[sandorski]

Haven't read this Review nor have I really paid any attention to the 560, but the performance is likely the same as other 560's. Given the unique features of this card and that the 560 in general seems to be popular for Price/Performance, amongst the many looking for a 560 this kind of award seems appropriate.

 

[BladeVenom]

Given the unique features of this card and that the 560 in general seems to be popular for Price/Performance, amongst the many looking for a 560 this kind of award seems appropriate.

You can get those features in almost any AMD card. The Galaxy 560 Ti Multi display costs an extra $100 over the regular Galaxy 560 Ti, which means its price/performance ratio sucks. It costs more than a 6950 does, but doesn't preform near as well.

 

[sandorski]

You can get those features in almost any AMD card. The Galaxy 560 Ti Multi display costs an extra $100 over the regular Galaxy 560 Ti, which means its price/performance ratio sucks. It costs more than a 6950 does, but doesn't preform near as well.

I realize all that, but for those going for a 560, for whatever reason, this award makes sense.

 

[AnandThenMan]

I realize all that, but for those going for a 560, for whatever reason, this award makes sense.

But that's not the standard for giving out these awards, is it? You give out awards based on what is out in the market. Otherwise you could give a "GOLD" award to anything, and come up with reasons as to why.

 

[sandorski]

But that's not the standard for giving out these awards, is it? You give out awards based on what is out in the market. Otherwise you could give a "GOLD" award to anything, and come up with reasons as to why.

I dunno. It could be the way they do it, especially if they are focused on one particular Product Line.

 

[Keysplayr]

Looks like they were reviewing a product. Not really a shootout.

Says so in the articles title:

"Galaxy GeForce GTX560 Ti MDT X5 Video Card Review"

It would have been nice for them to include a comparable 5 output AMD card though. It think it is expected. But I'm assuming Kyle just doesn't do things to sate AMD fans for the hell of it. He reports what he wants to report. Whether it's right or wrong in the majority's eyes.

 

[Spikesoldier]

niche card

those wanting performance would go elsewhere

 

[Spikesoldier]

Doubt you're going to change any minds over this, love 'em or hate 'em [H] tends to stick to its own reasoning for things.

yes and if you dont like it, they show you the door.

the H has long been a joke for nearly a decade.

 

[pugh]

You want a joke? Check out Tom's.... While no one is perfect. [H] is far from a joke...

 

[Spikesoldier]

You want a joke? Check out Tom's.... While no one is perfect. [H] is far from a joke...

agree. tom's lost their rep before the H did. kinda explains why so many of us are still here at AT.

 

[max347]

I realize all that, but for those going for a 560, for whatever reason, this award makes sense.

What does this even mean? Thats like saying

CPU A > CPU B in performance and is cheaper than B

CPU B wins award

Why?

Well it makes sense for people who want CPU B.

WTF? So this award makes sense for people with bad decision making skills.

I came into this thread to defend H because I am over there all the time, but this is absolute garbage. No fair comparison = H was paid

 

[nenforcer]

The could have at least mentioned this XFX Radeon HD 5770 Eyefinity 5 edition

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150566

even though they really aren't in the same class.

 

[amenx]

They can't compare it to the equivalent AMD cards since the AMD card would blow it away.

The other Nvidia cards can't do what it can, so they can't compare those either.

Other than Crysis and Metro where the extra memory of the 6950 gives it an advantage, the 560ti compares well with it.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=330

 

[Silverforce11]

Ofcourse the 6950 will kill it in 3 monitor performance, its just to highlight that it can be done on NV gpus. So galaxy gets the award for being very creative.

 

[3DVagabond]

I don't have a problem with [H] praising Galaxy for the initiative. Galaxy are trying to offer something to their customers to separate themselves from the other board partners. It's a major feature for AMD that nVidia doesn't offer either. I think it's a pretty big deal and praise worthy.

So, it's obvious surround can be done on one GPU. Why does nVidia force customers to buy two cards if they want surround support? As good as it is for Galaxy to do this, it's not the same as official support from nVidia or AMD. Does Galaxy have a driver team that's going to work on drivers for that card for years like nVidia and AMD do? If their are any kind of game or application bugs that appear, does Galaxy have the resources to squash them with long term updates?

 

[sandorski]

What does this even mean? Thats like saying

CPU A > CPU B in performance and is cheaper than B

CPU B wins award

Why?

Well it makes sense for people who want CPU B.

WTF? So this award makes sense for people with bad decision making skills.

I came into this thread to defend H because I am over there all the time, but this is absolute garbage. No fair comparison = H was paid

What can I say to make my point? I'm an AMD fan, so don't get me wrong, but the 560 Ti is very popular and highly recommended for/by many. So as far as 560's are concerned, this particular Card stands out amongst its' peers. A certain segment of the Market is going to buy a 560 Ti, regardless of what the 6950 is capable of. For them, this Card gives them some unique features. :shrug:

 

[Obsoleet]

I stopped using HardOCPs RSS feed and checking their site due to their crude humor (homophobic) in their news postings. Some people (Steve at HardOCP) either hate gay people or think it's OK to use that as "ammunition" but I find it pretty tasteless so I quit checking the site.
My prerogative, and I'm sure they won't miss 1 more view.. or 1 more view.. or 1 more view...

 

[VirtualLarry]

the H has long been a joke for nearly a decade.

This.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

H is only useful for its forum. Honestly this forum for tech stuff is a bit... ehhh... There are far more experts on H, and other boards like OCForums or overclock.net or XS.

AT may have good benches, but the OC community here is very limited. And even if there's a crowd, the number of experts is limited.

When I have questions I do hop over to H, Overclock.net and XS a lot.

As for reviews H is a joke.

 

[BrentJ]

I don't have a problem with [H] praising Galaxy for the initiative. Galaxy are trying to offer something to their customers to separate themselves from the other board partners. It's a major feature for AMD that nVidia doesn't offer either. I think it's a pretty big deal and praise worthy.

So, it's obvious surround can be done on one GPU. Why does nVidia force customers to buy two cards if they want surround support? As good as it is for Galaxy to do this, it's not the same as official support from nVidia or AMD. Does Galaxy have a driver team that's going to work on drivers for that card for years like nVidia and AMD do? If their are any kind of game or application bugs that appear, does Galaxy have the resources to squash them with long term updates?

Thank you for understanding the review

Note, NV Surround, the technology is not being used here. In order to achieve the multi-display spanned gaming, Galaxy is using a custom chipset for the HDMI connectors that supports multi-display spanned gaming. It is not an inherent capability GTX 560 Ti video cards. Any partner could include this support, if they added the chip, which is a third party chip. Galaxy is the first and only one to do it.

There is no setup in drivers, no having to enable "NV Surround" because NV Surround is not what's being used. Basically, Galaxy has added on this extra functionality.

We are aware AMD cards have been able to do this for years, we noted this on the very first page. However, they only allow up to 3x1, per card, while this one can do 5 displays, as well as 4x1 and 2x2 stacked modes. Its functionality is greater. Of course not its performance, but that's not the point. I personally gamed on this video card, and enjoyed gaming in a 3x1 setup, even at 5040x1050. The point, and focus, was on this video card, which is unique, it is in its own price range, and has its own market, it is very much a niche product, and we evaluated it as such.