Wednesday, January 29th 2020
Support TechPowerUp on Patreon, Unlock New Features
People have often asked how to thank us through donations, to show their appreciation for our PC enthusiast content, free software and databases, but we could never find a good mechanism for that. Today we're officially launching our Patreon page, which gives you an easy method to financially support us in a simple way, and get some nifty site-wide features as our own way of saying thank you.
Over the past weeks I've worked on site engine changes to include additional benefits with Patreon membership, so you can actually enjoy tangible returns for your contribution. If you've never heard of Patreon before, it's a platform that lets creators receive voluntary payments for their work directly from the audience — a virtual tip jar. This does not mean TPU is in financial trouble, quite the opposite, we're doing better than ever, and our readership keeps growing — we're not going away. Some forum members have already discovered our Patreon campaign in the test phase and have contributed to it, and we greatly appreciate all the feedback they provided in the past few months that has helped shape this platform.
You can help us do what we do best, by supporting TechPowerUp on Patreon.
I've created three pledge levels that each unlock incremental features, so you may choose according to your financial situation. As always, we appreciate your time and consideration here, even if you are not able to sign up at this time.
Over the past weeks I've worked on site engine changes to include additional benefits with Patreon membership, so you can actually enjoy tangible returns for your contribution. If you've never heard of Patreon before, it's a platform that lets creators receive voluntary payments for their work directly from the audience — a virtual tip jar. This does not mean TPU is in financial trouble, quite the opposite, we're doing better than ever, and our readership keeps growing — we're not going away. Some forum members have already discovered our Patreon campaign in the test phase and have contributed to it, and we greatly appreciate all the feedback they provided in the past few months that has helped shape this platform.
You can help us do what we do best, by supporting TechPowerUp on Patreon.
I've created three pledge levels that each unlock incremental features, so you may choose according to your financial situation. As always, we appreciate your time and consideration here, even if you are not able to sign up at this time.
- Bronze: For as little as $4 a month, the entry-level tier, all ads on TechPowerUp are removed, including banners and sponsored content. You also receive a shiny new "Supporter" badge for our forums, and can access the otherwise hidden Patron-only forum where you're free to discuss anything.
- Silver: Take it up a notch for $7 per month. In addition to all the features of the "Bronze" tier, you get the "single page view" feature in our reviews and articles. You can now read them seamlessly, by simply scrolling down, no more clicking "next page." We also let you pick a custom user title on TechPowerUp Forums.
- Gold: This $9 per month tier brings with it early access to most of our unpublished reviews. Read coverage of products to help make your purchase decisions before others! You also get all the features of the "Bronze" and "Silver" tier.
206 Comments on Support TechPowerUp on Patreon, Unlock New Features
However, it also seems reasonable, to support something/someone only if a certain criteria is met. After all, that how it is usually done. I don't purchase a piece of software, hoping that it would one day have the feature I need.
Both seem perfectly sensible approaches to me. Different people have different views.
Besides, if TPU is already doing really well, that would mean that any additional funds from Patreon would not be critically important to the site's survival, so there is little incentive for the TPU staff to listen to the Patrons for feedback, which is perfectly fine, as it is W1zzard's project, and he isn't obliged to change things, unless he wants to. However, that also means that if people have an issue with the site and/or its staff that is a deal-breaker when it comes to donations, and they don't think their pledge would change anything (as outlined above), they have every right to withhold said donations.
I'm generally for this change, as (like I already stated earlier) I believe the additional funds can help the site grow and/or be not as constrained by various written or unwritten rules, restrictions, limitations, NDAs, etc. in the industry.
However, everyone decides how to spend their money.
Going back again to the Borderlands 3 review I honestly don't know how in the world does it help saying that a RTX 2080 Ti gets 43.4 FPS at 4K Ultra when no one in their right mind would play at those settings. Or, for instance, those not working at all in the lowest end.
Used a few myself, but even that was in the early 90's.Considering the content is "free" unlike your comparison with software, I can't really make the connection you're trying to make.
Survival vs. adding more/new types of content aren't the same thing though, are they?
I would look at this as an opportunity to influence the site, as on top of the money, you have now an exclusive channel to contact the site and give them your opinions. It's also much more likely they'll care about those opinions from someone that's contributing financially to the site, no? Unlike what you're trying to insinuate.
But then again, I guess you know nothing about @W1zzard since you are relatively new here and don't seem to spend much time here.
I've known him since before TPU even existed, but hey, who's counting...
You're right though, the whole patreon thing is voluntary, but if people are going to come and claim that they want X, Y and Z before they're willing to contribute financially, then I think I have the right to call them out and ask on what grounds they feel they're entitled to ask for said features, if they're not willing to contribute.
Would this pay for an editor? If so, I'll put my money where my big yap is too... not a monthly thing, naaaa, but I'll drop some coin if it reels in some of the excess and tighten things up. GPU reviews are second to none. Motherboard reviews are, now, solid (since he was urged to run them properly - but not like when Dave did it), case reviews are borderline yikes (they are unboxings and the author doesn't seem to respond to many posts at all). A lot of this can be improved without additional money.
The sky is the limit here, and I am ready to see TPU go to the next level...hopefully patreons can help MTPUGA. :)
With the amount of traffic this site gets...is monetization of the current assets optimal?
Now, I get your point, you want GPUs tested in their optimal/intended use cases so you know what performance you are going to get when playing games. But doing so would be a tremendous amount of work, because not only would you not use an RX 570 at Ultra, you most likely wouldn't pair it with a 9900k either. In an ideal world, you'd have both sets of tests, but that's not realistic. Imo, the comparison between different GPUs is more beneficial to the buyer than benching for the ideal setting.
I've spent about a decade of my life testing hardware for various publications and although test methodologies improve and new tests are being used, you need to compare apples with apples, otherwise you're just wasting your time and come up with flawed conclusions.
You seems to want some kind of testing that would just end up being nonsense.
If anything, it seems like what you want, is a new addition to the tests that tells you what quality settings and resolution in each games gives you playable frame rate with whatever card is being tested at the various resolutions. But this is an entirely different thing and doesn't involve comparative benchmarks.
As for your Borderlands 3 question, it tells people that they shouldn't expect to be able to play said game at said resolution with said hardware. It's as simple as that. See again above, as that seems to be what you're asking for and not benchmark figures.Now see, this is at least some constructive criticism and I even agree on a lot of those points. But the difference is that you never said you want those things before you'd be willing to contribute, which is what my point was.
If I thought it was just w1zzard and not that journalism frankly is just hard work, I'd still be sending out resumed. I'm not.
But yeah, I'd throw down a dono if I knew the cash is going towards an editor to clean up some of the content. Otherwise, its the same thing. I don't care about the features being a patreon brings... as a EIC/editor/reviewer and site owner myself, the blog content and toxic AF back-end is what needs cleaned up (for me). :)
If Person X starts a Patreon for some bonus funding to an already well functioning project, why would that Person X care much about the opinion of Person Y if Person Y's contribution is insignificant? Who cares about that one-digit amount from a single person? It's a drop in the ocean.Your smugness kind of proves my point, I think.
Maybe some users don't know W1zzard as well. Maybe they are more recent members/users who have seen multiple gaffs from TPU, and maybe they believe they could've been handled better, so they wouldn't be as confident in TPU's staff as more frequent and/or long-time users.There is nothing wrong with asking those people why they wouldn't contribute. There is something wrong with trying to shame and/or guilt them into donating. Their reasons for not donating are their own. To you, their reasons may be silly; to them, they are not.
"Borderlands 3 is quite stressful at Badass settings on the currently most powerful consumer card at the moment"
"to get a playable, yet enjoyable experience, you would need to lower your settings"
"this video card is better than this one when at these settings"
Off-topic, but FWIW, I can get around 100 to 120 FPS on a mix of High and Ultra settings on a reference RX 5700 XT. I can pound on 144 FPS on mostly Ultra settings on a RTX 2080 Super. If I use the RX 5700 XT settings on the 2080 Super, I only get drops to around 114 FPS (from what I remember) in extremely crowded fights.
The only thing I keep at "Medium" is the stupid volumetric fog. No real visual changes when setting this higher or such.
It was a scary place that smelled bad. But it was home, and I miss it.
What patreon unlocks will affect the mobile TPU app? "Reviews" tab is already formatted to a single-page layout.
And since it would seem I am incapable of understanding the situation (or maybe you know something I don't), care to enlighten me, kind sir?
Because in the end that's what reviews at TPU feel like a ranking repeated over and over and over. The summary would be something like this: "This new YYY card is slightly better than XXX but slightly worse than ZZZ. Will you get a nice experience from it? Go figure it yourself"."Borderlands 3 is quite stressful at Badass settings on the currently most powerful consumer card at the moment but that won't stop us from running it at unplayable settings"
"Is the IQ improvement worth it? Don't ask me, my middle name is "Ultra"."to get a playable, yet enjoyable experience, you would need to lower your settings. Now go and find them yourself""this video card is better than this one when at these pointless settings"These couple sentences are more helpful than the whole BL3 review here.
Figuring out how a particular GPU will perform on your system will then require some extrapolation. Is it perfect? No. Does it work? Yes.
Or just move the non facts from the news and create a new section...
If you want real world usage, it would be best for you to experiment with the settings in the game itself. These are not purely game reviews.