Companies should be called out for this

[ir_cow]

I dont think I'd go that far off to write him off.. he just kind of spitballs, atleast for his more general content. He's certainly gotten alot more knowledgable over the years. I don't see what's surprising though about the whole 'he appeals to the average computer users who are afraid of touching the insides of a computer' part. Isn't that literally almost every single tech YouTuber? And even in that regard, I think YouTubers like Linus are more applicable. It's a much easier demographic to target than those already seasoned with electronics.

As for Jay's knowledge in other regards, he seems to centre his area of expertise on cooling. Don't know if I'd go as far as to call him a expert but that's what he has said is his best area (or what he's 'known' for I guess by his own words).

I'm not writing him off, but I do place him in the bucket of people who don't know what they are doing. whether he spitballs, or actually doesn't know what is up or down, he never researches anything. Thus his videos are basically him dicking around for 30 minutes. Like a said, great for a PR firm, pretty useless as a tech reviewer.

 

[Scattergrunt]

Exactly - if you get threatened of getting blacklisted, that's a juicy topic for your next video right there. And you bet the public will side with you, not with the evil giant corporation.

Ohhhh yea. Despite what people seem like, nobody likes a big corporations. Lets not forget the many times in history random people in public have joined in on the dogpiling of corporations getting backlash for doing something bad. Such as when New Coke! dropped a long time ago and the Coca Cola corporation got so much backlash from it that they completely got rid of New Coke.

Regardless of what you think about that product (if you were alive to experience it), studies showed that many of the people participating in the dogpiling against Coca Cola were actually mostly doing it just to see a corporation suffer. You can see a modern example with what was going on with Tesla, too.

I wouldn't be surprised if a similar thing could happen in the GPU market. I guess you could argue the GTX 970 situation was almost that.

 

[Endymio]

Ohhhh yea. Despite what people seem like, nobody likes a big corporations. Lets not forget the many times in history random people in public have joined in on the dogpiling of corporations getting backlash for doing something bad. Such as when New Coke! dropped a long time ago and the Coca Cola corporation got so much backlash from it that they completely got rid of New Coke.

Great example! Luckily, a grass-roots movement of virtuous individuals rose up in the nick of time to halt that incipient fascism, else today we'd all be goose-stepping around, holding our cans of New Coke and shouting Lebensraum für koks at the top of our lungs.

 

[iameatingjam]

I stopped following LTT when they almost drove a small niche waterblock manufacturer into oblivion. I have all their videos and channels perma blocked.

J2C, I still watch and criticize to an extent. I mainly critique when he steps into keyboard reviews, he should stick with his strong suit of builds and hardware - leave the keyboard and mice reviews up to Boardzy and other KB enthusiasts.

I still hold a grudge against linus for that too. I didn't go quite so far as to block his channel but I definitely watch him like 90% less and am more skeptical of the things he says. However, I did like it how he refused to play nvidia's games with 5060 ti review though he did do it in a way that would net him a lot of views so I suppose it was self serving in that sense... still better than just rushing a 16gb review and ignoring the 8gb card imo.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

A bit off topic but also on topic.

What i can say is i do not sugarcoat or change my reviews to placate companies. I do however, work very hard to be professional in my critiques. Being a poor broke dude who loves PCs and swears like a pirate maintaining that professionalism is quite difficult for me but is absolutely mandatory. One of the benefits of being honest regardless of emotional aspect of being human is I have over time with so many reviews gotten to the point that here at TPU that @W1zzard trusts me to do my job and do it well. If I want to change things I run it by the big man we work out solutions see if it works etc etc. But as far as the companies themselves they have never made demands of me. If they did I would not respond to said demands they put forth for a sample.

What you get in reviews I have done be it Desktop / Laptop / Mini-PC / Coolers is my honest assessment of the product. How I view it and its place in the market at that time. I will say that yes over time with larger data sets my opinion may change. But, I can only offer constructive feedback and information based on the data I have. About the time I need to bow to a company to get a sample and adhere to demands where I can't be honest is the day I retire from reviewing. Thus I am thankful to do reviews at Techpowerup because over the nearly 13 years I have been here doing reviews I have never been put into a situation where I needed to meet any outside demands. I have never attended a trade show, I have never met a single contact for any company in person. I am just a random nobody on the internet and yet over my reviewing career I have never had to compromise any of my values or my integrity.

The team here is excellent and my honest feeling is we have one of if not the best team on the web doing written content. Being here has been a tremendous asset to my own personal growth and I can also speak to the tremendous support everyone here has provided me. Different views, different ways of solving problems, aspects I may have forgotten to touch on. That is all just work-based. In my personal life they have been a source of support during a lot of crazy things that have happened. Family deaths, losing my first home, personal injury, there has never been a moment where I was told "I don't care" "Get it done". Instead, it was always "What can we do to get things back on track." Just something to think about as before I came to TPU my experience was the exact opposite i wasn't part of the team i was a replaceable component.

And yes I know we are talking about shady review things but figured the above was still worth mentioning.

Also for shits and giggles one of my first reviews for a trip down memory lane (i would suggest reading the installation page): https://www.techpowerup.com/review/coolink-corator-ds-lga2011/

 

[blinnbanir]

This should have been called out when Nvidia threatened Hardware Unboxed all those years ago. Just look at how every single review focused on RT performance for the 9070/XT GPUs became so attractive as "they caught up to Nvidia". The best though is how upscaling is used as a bludgeon "No DLSS support". The fact that no reviewer talks about the REAL benefits of using AMD software is glaring. I could even use the example that Hyper RX does the exact same thing as DLSS with even Games that have no FSR support. The worst though is people who compare the 40/5090 to 7900 chips when they are 25% of the price of those GPUs but you are not reminded of that. It is so insane that Techpowerup has a NVcleaninstall tool but there is no need for that on AMD but that is not talked about. The absolute best though is that you can buy a 5070 based Pre built for the same cost as a 5080. Yes I know that a 5080 is much faster but is it available?

 

[Zach_01]

Don't spread disinformation. What the marketing team actually did was ask:

a) Was the reviewer going to review the specific design features of this AIB, or simply compare raw GPU power?
b) Were they going to compare it only to the 4070, or prior gen cards as well?

Both are reasonable: a request for the reviewer to give his audience more information, not less, and neither is even implying the reviewer should alter his opinion or control whether the review is positive or negative. Claiming this is somehow unethical is asinine. Saying "we'll give you a free card if you give your opinion on the card's custom design itself, not the gpu alone, and also compare performance to older cards potential upgrade buyers already have" is fine. Saying "we'll give you a free card if you promise to rate it highly" is not.

Makers of other products routinely set format restrictions on review samples -- try asking Moet for a free case of Dom Perignon, so you can taste-test it against Budweiser, White Claw, and homemade moonshine. See where that gets you.

You are simplifying the questions too much…

That AIB wanted the reviewer to not expose certain information so the cards would look better in the eyes of the consumer.



They said:
why to compare the 5060s with the previous gen cards? Like 4060/4070. You can’t buy those anyway…
And then later they say to compare them with 2-3 gens back because most users don’t upgrade every gen.
Like those 2-3 gens back cards are more available than the 4000… it’s absurd!

This AIB message is an insult to the reviewer intelligence in the try to convince him to make the cards look better because of the small generational performance uplift, and make him focus on the features (like DLSS) more.

 

[rusty caterpillar]

I also believe reviewers should be called out for being complicit in what these companies are pushing.

Very old news. Even channels like GN was too late in starting to buy their hardware, for reviewing, under false names so it won't be tracked to them.

 

[Zazigalka]

I find it funny that no one in here wanted to reply.

Few care about YouTube reviews, they have always been more like product advertisements, unlike reviews we get on enthusiast sites like TPU/PCGH. People who get their product reviews from YouTube are like those who get their news from Facebook,what you're really watching is algorhythm driven confirmation bias.

I kind of just assumed it was common knowledge.

Exactly. Finding out today that YT reviews aren't trustworthy is more about you being slow, it's been like that for years.

 

[R-T-B]

Few care about YouTube reviews

Oh how I wish this were true...

 

[Zazigalka]

Oh how I wish this were true...

I mean few here on TPU forum

 

[R-T-B]

I mean few here on TPU forum

I understood that, I think, but just wanted to emphasize these things do have a significant viewbase sadly.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I understood that, I think, but just wanted to emphasize these things do have a significant viewbase sadly.

My wife and kids make fun of me for viewing forums.... I'm old they say

 

[R-T-B]

My wife and kids make fun of me for viewing forums.... I'm old they say

All print or even digitally written media is rapidly going to be viewed that way. We are not better for this. But the ship sailed long ago, really.

 

[AsRock]

To be honest, as much of a Nascar fan I am, I'll never understand the power of advertising and sponsorships. Like, ok, the no.11 car has a big FedEx logo on it, but so what? It won't make me rely on FedEx's services any more or less.

But it worked, you thought about it.

 

[AusWolf]

But it worked, you thought about it.

That's what I didn't get. Thinking about something and buying a product or service are very different things. But it's been discussed already.

 

[Zazigalka]

My wife and kids make fun of me for viewing forums.... I'm old they say

Wisdom comes with age.