Alright, I've been reading through this thread for a bit now. Just want to say a few things. W1zzard & Btarunr are awesome. This site rocks and has always had great reviews, and is considered one of the best on the web. The performance per dollar, performance per watt, and all the added bonuses to more recent and this latest gtx480 review that take up plenty of time are very nice to have. Such a comprehensive review takes plenty of hard work and man hours, no doubt. I consider them perks to visiting this site. Don't take everyone's criticism of this review as hate.
(W1z, please don't give up this awesome work, go relax, buy an orange lambo or something JK
).
However, as many others have already mentioned, this review sucks. There is too much content to give justice to in a week or two of preparation. This is the biggest review TPU or any GPU hardware review site will publish of the past 9 months and next 9 months. It's obvious who prepared and who did not. The most important review of a year and a half. 9.12 on all the older ati benches skew the output of all the new wonderful bonus review content making the review seem VERY outdated compared to the rest of the web's review content. 10.3 preview came out in early feb, 10.3 final came out march 2nd, 10.3a came out march 13, opengl4 preview march 23, and 10.3b march 25th. Why put all the effort into the added features, and not use the newest drivers?
So you can listen to this thread's and other "places on the interweb"s criticism of this huge important TPU review, and moan right back.
Or quit your job as you said earlier and sell the website for cash.
Or just leave it as it is: a very thorough review done with old drivers and old benchmarks.
Or amend some benches within the review (as is what seems might be happening today)
Or redo a current modern review in the TRADITIONAL TPU BADASSEDNESS with only the newest and most relevant drivers, benches, games, cards, resolutions, and settings.
Take all the time you want, and just release it when you're good and ready, and the review doesn't have to include Riva TNT2 ultras, voodoo banshees, and 7600GS's at 640x480. Your fanbase isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but a dozen or so more old ass reviews will surely deter some of your readers as evidenced already in the first 14 pages of this thread.
Pros of the review: Excellent written content, great photos, Wizzards overclocking section, his high definition photos of the pcb, 4 methods of power consumption tested directly on the card, a thorough card disassembly, his actual measured voltage readings, his additions and creation of gpu-z database, the most games and most cards tested (although a drawback as time progresses and drivers are 4 months old). I love seeing hundreds of games tested at 5 resolutions on 30 cards and the relative performance graphs (but face it, that probably isn't possible every time without a month or more of preparation).
Cons: Old drivers. (Should be 10.3, 10.3a, 10.3b)
Anyways, Cheers W1zzard & Btarunr. This site is excellent, and the forums are packed with laid back people. It's really cool to see you an active member of the forums with good tech knowledge. It's cool to see you on TPU and XS forums. And your contributions go way back. GPU-Z rocks. RBE & BAGGZLASh rock, the popular and current news section is great. Community is cool, Reviews are good, and I'm sure there's dozens of other great attributes to TPU I've yet to explore. I'm glad to be a member here and recommend it to lots of people. It's a good place to be, even if this review is getting the criticism it deserves. Thanks for all your hard work over the years. Not enough people can give you praises. Regretfully, I never praise anyone or anything, and here I am, in conclusion, sending (IMO a great deal of) praise to you. Take that for what it's worth.
Cheers
-Jared