What on earth does publicly delaying achieve other than to draw attention to the fact that you don't want reviews available before they go on sale?
Because potential buyers won't see people like me in forums (or rational/like-minded youtubers using ACTUAL PLAYABILITY NUMBERS/DIFFERENCES) dismantling the absolute piss out of it before they make a snap-judgement to purchase it based on
jaded trusted reviewers. It is
EXACTLY that.
You know, I know it. The 'old-guard' reviewer/audience disparity has never been wider in terms of being faithful to nVIDIA's marketing, and in this case I don't know if even certain reviewers will save them.
The 4080 was always a great card that cost way too damn much. This will be a good card that still will have a tough time justifying itself versus a 7900xtx, albeit in a less-transparent way than 4070 tititititi 16gb.
nVIDIA doesn't like when people understand that an OC 7900xtx has similar avg RT to a 4080 (which is good-enough in most situations either would be playable, largely now due to RT being done in more games through compute and not just nVIDIA's proprietary tech or rt/compute ratio) when their products' raster is worse, has less ram, AND are more expensive. They also have a more difficult time justifying DLSS vs FSR at 4k (because both look good), which both those products are aimed.
When people are informed, or have time to digest the information (or have someone else do it and/or explain it to them) by the consensus of the commonwealth, not just HU/DF, nVIDIA loses sales.
It
truly is that. No need for a question: You in-fact already know the answer as posed by your question.
Gotta say, this is amusing. Usually nVIDIA's marketing is well-disguised; obtuse and confusing for those less technically-inclinded. This? This REEKS of desperation, and EVERYONE can see it.
Frankly, I expected more from nVIDIA's bullshit. Nobody needs a decoder ring to understand what they're trying to do here.
Maybe they're waiting to review/bundle it with codes for TSSKTJL.....a game many are surely just chomping at the bit to get a code (day of release) and praise to high-heavens.