What is going on with Anandtech[Missing reviews]?

[Phynaz]

Since it was sold to Purch, it had been a downhill slide.
http://www.legitreviews.com/anandtech-sold-purch-now-owns-toms-hardware-anandtech_155413

I think you have the cause and effect backwards. The sale Purch didn't cause the site to tank. Anand was a smart guy and saw what was coming and sold to Purch.

 

[Rifter]

Since it was sold to Purch, it had been a downhill slide.
http://www.legitreviews.com/anandtech-sold-purch-now-owns-toms-hardware-anandtech_155413

Yeah since anand literally sold out it has been downhill like a landslide.

 

[happy medium]

I think you have the cause and effect backwards. The sale Purch didn't cause the site to tank. Anand was a smart guy and saw what was coming and sold to Purch.

I think mabe Purch focuses on Tom's for reviews and AT for forums?
They own both.

 

[Ketchup]

Yeah, when the founders no longer want the site, you know the nail is in the coffin. Even the forums are dying, to an extent, unless you are extremely political and love to expound on your views.

 

[happy medium]

Yeah, when the founders no longer want the site, you know the nail is in the coffin

I remember Anand had a job offer with Intel or something and mabe thought he couldn't handle both?

 

[tential]

I remember Anand had a job offer with Intel or something and mabe thought he couldn't handle both?

Apple....
You don't remember how much Anand loved apple products? Not that the mobile cpus weren't good, but Anand has a love affair with Apple.

 

[happy medium]

Apple....
You don't remember how much Anand loved apple products? Not that the mobile cpus weren't good, but Anand has a love affair with Apple.

thanks , now I remember

 

[borandi]

Give @IanCutress a shout on twitter if there's a problem with CPU reviews not coming out on time. As far as I can tell AnandTech has hit every launch day for CPUs for the last two years, including Broadwell with eDRAM, and with more CPUs than everyone else.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Apple....
You don't remember how much Anand loved apple products? Not that the mobile cpus weren't good, but Anand has a love affair with Apple.

He appreciated Apple's design chops but he wasn't afraid to call them out when they would ship something regressive (which Apple does all the time). No one in the current marketplace criticizes Apple like Anand used to.

And frankly it is easy to see why- Apple operates like the KGB. You say something nice about them? You get a press pass to the big event. Say something not nice (even if true)? Welcome to the blacklist.

It has created this army of sycophants sites like iMore that don't just avoid criticising Apple, they avoid even saying sane and reasonable things about Apple.

King of iMore Rene Ritchie has said and written things so ludicrous you have to assume if Apple has paid-for astroturfers they use his content as a training guide. I will never forget when he said "Well you know Apple actually popularized the phablet phone" on Twit. I drove my car off the road I was so upset. So isn't just Anandtech, the whole industry is losing its credibility.

For GPU reviews written in English I tend to like Hardware Canucks because I like the writing and the testing method of never using game provided benchmarks and making sure the GPUs have a warm up period.

 

[tential]

He appreciated Apple's design chops but he wasn't afraid to call them out when they would ship something regressive (which Apple does all the time). No one in the current marketplace criticizes Apple like Anand used to.

And frankly it is easy to see why- Apple operates like the KGB. You say something nice about them? You get a press pass to the big event. Say something not nice (even if true)? Welcome to the blacklist.

It has created this army of sycophants sites like iMore that don't just avoid criticising Apple, they avoid even saying sane and reasonable things about Apple.

King of iMore Rene Ritchie has said and written things so ludicrous you have to assume if Apple has paid-for astroturfers they use his content as a training guide. I will never forget when he said "Well you know Apple actually popularized the phablet phone" on Twit. I drove my car off the road I was so upset. So isn't just Anandtech, the whole industry is losing its credibility.

For GPU reviews written in English I tend to like Hardware Canucks because I like the writing and the testing method of never using game provided benchmarks and making sure the GPUs have a warm up period.

I actually like hardocps testing methodology the most. It's the most helpful for me anyway to realize the gpus are actually a setting or two apart. They just try to get playable fps and see what settings they end up with. They pretty much own that niche while everyone else is doing pretty much the same thing.

If hardocp had better staff it would be my favorite site. And if they were more regular and tested more gpus.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I actually like hardocps testing methodology the most. It's the most helpful for me anyway to realize the gpus are actually a setting or two apart. They just try to get playable fps and see what settings they end up with. They pretty much own that niche while everyone else is doing pretty much the same thing.

So every card has different settings? How do you compare GPUs with each other that way? I must have misunderstood.

I mean, that seems helpful for people buying the game because they learn what settings are the best, but it seems worthless if that is the case for the horse race of what GPU is "better."

Or is that why you like it? Because it can't be used as ammo in a never ending war of colors? I could see that.

 

[DaveSimmons]

So every card has different settings? How do you compare GPUs with each other that way? I must have misunderstood.

I mean, that seems helpful for people buying the game because they learn what settings are the best, but it seems worthless if that is the case for the horse race of what GPU is "better."

Or is that why you like it? Because it can't be used as ammo in a never ending war of colors? I could see that.

It tells you what settings are playable for each GPU, so of course you can compare them.

Game A:
GPU 1 - 1080p at Ultra - 60 fps
GPU 2 - 1080p at Medium + Fluffy Shadows - 62 fps

Which GPU is better? Clearly it is GPU 1. And it tells you that GPU 2 can still play the game if you lower settings to Medium. Do that for 10 games and you have a pretty good picture of what compromises you'll face picking GPU 2.

It just doesn't give you "GPU 1 is 10.357% faster on average."

 

[HurleyBird]

The issue of course is that different GPUs can be, and to some extent always are, bottle-necked in different ways. Between two competitors that are close in overall performance but have different characteristics, I can make whichever one I want to look faster than the other by deciding the order with which I enable features and increase settings.

And absolutely everyone has some amount of internal bias that will affect things like that. If you have a strident scientific testing process that you follow, it makes it more difficult for your biases to show up in your evaluation. If you focus on intangibles like how things feel, then it's much easier for that bias to creep in.

 

[Elixer]

Give @IanCutress a shout on twitter if there's a problem with CPU reviews not coming out on time. As far as I can tell AnandTech has hit every launch day for CPUs for the last two years, including Broadwell with eDRAM, and with more CPUs than everyone else.

CPUs come out less frequent than GPUs, and the issue here was the lack of GPU reviews with no real explanation on what went wrong.
They were supposed to be ready, then we were supposed to see (for example) the 480 before the 10xx, then something went on, and the reviews never came, and to this date, 0 Polaris reviews.
They did update the news about "Relive", but, no GPU reviews based on Polaris.

This really don't look like a Purch issue, both Purch sites have the hardware that is given to them, what is missing are the people to dig into the hardware in a timely manner.
I suppose it is possible that both sites could merge, but, not sure if that will help that much in the overall scheme of things.

 

[zinfamous]

King of iMore Rene Ritchie has said and written things so ludicrous you have to assume if Apple has paid-for astroturfers they use his content as a training guide. I will never forget when he said "Well you know Apple actually popularized the phablet phone" on Twit. I drove my car off the road I was so upset. So isn't just Anandtech, the whole industry is losing its credibility.

I laughed.

 

[tential]

So every card has different settings? How do you compare GPUs with each other that way? I must have misunderstood.

I mean, that seems helpful for people buying the game because they learn what settings are the best, but it seems worthless if that is the case for the horse race of what GPU is "better."

Or is that why you like it? Because it can't be used as ammo in a never ending war of colors? I could see that.

They do apples as well as highest playable settings. Well, they did do it in a "decent" way before. Now they show the highest playable settings for ONE card.... completely useless, the point was that you could see highest playable settings for the 290 vs 970(not real life example just 2 random cards from both vendors in teh same bracket), and realize that the difference between the cards is like one shadow setting or something. Or is a lot, in some cases it could be that one card needs to be at medium settings while anotehr can be at ultra.

But it's a moot point. HardOCP reviews are meh now. No wonder no one links them recently and why I hadn't even realized they weren't putting out reviews anyone here seems to care to mention anymore.

 

[Elixer]

Doesn't seem like we will ever see those missing reviews. RIP Polaris, and the rest of them.
[braintfart]
I found this strange though, why is Ryan's article (on Vega) on Pcper now?
Was there a buyout of pcper by Purch as well?
https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/AMD-Vega-GPU-Architecture-Preview-Redesigned-Memory-Architecture [/brainfart]

 

[Bacon1]

I actually like hardocps testing methodology the most. It's the most helpful for me anyway to realize the gpus are actually a setting or two apart.

While that part is good, they don't show exactly how "unplayable" the weaker card is. It could be 10 fps difference, or 2 fps, but its up to their opinion on whether they think the game is playable or not. And that changes from game to game and I honestly can't see what their criteria is anymore. It used to be solid 60 fps. Now some games their top card averages like 40 fps and their settings seem arbitrary. Plus their commentary and bias really shows in their wording for how they describe when amd is faster and when nvidia is. It would be nice if they picked what settings they thought were playable, then showed the fps from both cards in both settings and let the reader decide if the fps drop / gain is worth it over the IQ gain/loss.

 

[NTMBK]

I found this strange though, why is Ryan's article (on Vega) on Pcper now?
Was there a buyout of pcper by Purch as well?
https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graph...ecture-Preview-Redesigned-Memory-Architecture

I think you're getting your Ryans muddled up

 

[Mondozei]

Doesn't seem like we will ever see those missing reviews. RIP Polaris, and the rest of them.

Seems so. We should at least get a semi-coherent explanation as to why standards have fallen so drastically and what the plan is, if there even is one, to remedy the situation.

 

[tential]

While that part is good, they don't show exactly how "unplayable" the weaker card is. It could be 10 fps difference, or 2 fps, but its up to their opinion on whether they think the game is playable or not. And that changes from game to game and I honestly can't see what their criteria is anymore. It used to be solid 60 fps. Now some games their top card averages like 40 fps and their settings seem arbitrary. Plus their commentary and bias really shows in their wording for how they describe when amd is faster and when nvidia is. It would be nice if they picked what settings they thought were playable, then showed the fps from both cards in both settings and let the reader decide if the fps drop / gain is worth it over the IQ gain/loss.

It's gotten terrible now. Their reviews are beyond trash now. I just read the recent ones and am just kind boggled. They used to have at least some decent saving grace. There isn't a reason for them to even exist in their current review state. Their info and usefulness has severely regressed in the last year or so.

How often do you see hardocp graphs and reviews linked now compared to the r9 290,kepler and Maxwell gpus? Now nothing since the 970/980 releases has been good from hardocp.

 

[zinfamous]

Seems so. We should at least get a semi-coherent explanation as to why standards have fallen so drastically and what the plan is, if there even is one, to remedy the situation.

My guess is that AT is both short-staffed and Purch simply has a new direction (mobile and all things Apple whatsits). Ryan isn't just the GPU/VP or whatever guy now--he's trying to both do Anand's old job as well as be the GPU guy from what I can tell. Rather than work on his own testing and writing, he has to edit and/or approve all the other copy that comes across his desk. This is probably one of the reasons we see mostly keyboard reviews--quick to test, short articles thin on any kind of new information from keyboard to keyboard--I mean, they're keyboards, what can you really talk about from one to the next?--so much easier to approve and publish.

 

[Elixer]

I think you're getting your Ryans muddled up

Yes..right you are. Had a brainfart moment.

 

[Elixer]

Amazed that there was a 1080TI review... does this mean the missing reviews will finally show up as well?

 

[bigboxes]

I remember when this place had motherboard roundups. I'm glad that they're covering mechanical keyboards, but surely we can cover something regularly like video card releases. I'm happy when there's an in depth at launch date. However, I'd sure like to see reviews on different models/makes of video cards/power supplies/motherboards once again. There's just not a steady release of new products like there used to be. I don't want to have to go to other sites just to get hardware reviews.