NVIDIA and ATi: Game Over

Looks like Tom’s Hardware has decided to take the high-moral ground with the new GeForce 6200. After reading their reasoning behind their new approach to these rush-to-market cards, I have to give them a big thumbs up. What am I talking about, read all about it for yourself.

Today, NVIDIA is launching its GeForce 6200. We were told of the launch at the last minute with only a few days to prepare and to deal with the usual last minute changes that follow these rushed launches. This has happened four or five times in the past year. It’s always the same, with no time to do thorough testing, constant last minute changes, and a rush to print. If we were cynical, we’d have to think that the companies involved do not want us to have time to do thorough testing.

Often the product’s drivers are not ready, special editions or in beta stage and testers are struggling to keep up with last minute updates. Almost every instance results in what we now believe to be a disservice to the consumer.

Today, we announce that we are not going to play that game again.

# It is a disservice to our readers to rush testing just because a vendor wants to get a big PR launch.
# It is a disservice to our readers to constantly deal with last minute, rushed products that may have little to do with finally shipping products -
# It is a disservice to our readers to constantly deal with products weeks or months before the products become available to the market.
# It is a disservice to our readers to cave in to the pressure that comes from the expectation by vendors that every online review will appear on a single day giving them a big bang opening day.