5 ms·

based on what I heard from insiders, two batches of reviews for AMD's new chips, those released now are the ones from sites traditionally happy to provide overw

based on what I heard from insiders, two batches of reviews for AMD's new chips, those released now are the ones from sites traditionally happy to provide overwhelmingly positive reviews, those going to be released tomorrow are the ones which usually provide more balanced reviews. good PR tricks - they just sign NDA agreements with different reviewers with slightly different embargo lift dates.

Tepix 4y ago
Heise Online has released their review (alas, behind a paywall) and it starts very positive. I'm pretty sure they are the most trusted reviewers in the german language.
pedrocr 4y ago
The Anandtech review is also out. I had them as pretty balanced at least in the past.
- dis-sys 4y ago
  surely Anandtech is in a different category - why would the PR dept of AMD or Intel mess with Anandtech. sadly, the same can't be said for hundreds/thousands other much smaller reviewers.
  - hipnoizz 4y ago
    As this specific review is from Phoronix - do you have some proof that their reviews are (heavily) biased? I'm looking at reviews in more details only when I want to buy something, other than that I skip them or just have a quick look. I haven't did any serious comparison either, but I remember Michael Larabel from Phoronix criticising various parties. Many of his reviews are basically measures/benchmarks with some summary on top of that - his benchmarking methodology may be or may be not flawed, I don't remember him shilling for AMD. AMD has probably some goodwill from the Linux community since they open source or provide various specs for their graphics card. At least that used to be the case.
    - dis-sys 4y ago
      I was just passing on something claimed by the largest computer parts review site in China. They claimed that their site has been required not to release their review until tomorrow, the owner of the site further claimed that there are two batches of reviews and his site is in the second batch for obvious reasons. See the url in my replies.
      - michaellarabel 4y ago
        FWIW, at the AMD event in Texas last month where the Ryzen 7000 series was announced, everyone was given the same embargo date... Mostly all the US and EU reviewers there. Maybe the China/Asia review briefings or so are going with a different date based on different retail availability or so? Hadn't heard of some reviewers getting a different embargo date, typically see that usually only for different geo availability or if getting a sample from a motherboard OEM / other partner and not the CPU company review embargo.
        yxhuvud 4y ago
        Could also be a TZ issue, where they have a clock time, and that clock time ends up ending up at different dates in practice.
- MikusR 4y ago
  Their Desktop and Mobile CPU reviewers both quit.
saiya-jin 4y ago
Everybody is doing dirty PR tricks these days, cash flow is above morals for a long time. People overall don't mind so don't expect change for the better. Anyway, enough ranting, nobody sane decides on these 0day benchmarks but waits at least few weeks for overall conclusions, quirks, not so common issues etc. And even better is to wait few months for more stable motherboards and drivers, better availability of compatible RAM etc.
Teifion 4y ago
Can you suggest some of these less positive reviewers please? I like to have a broad range of reviews before deciding and all the ones I normally look at came out today (though were not overwhelmingly positive in every area).
- dis-sys 4y ago
  No, I don't have such list. The source of the claim is from here (in Chinese) - https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2445527-1-4.html https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2445527-1-4.html chiphell is the largest computer parts review site in China, and that nApoleon guy posting this two batches of review story is the owner of the site. In a more recent thread, he confirmed again that his site has completed their own review and he had read it, yet they are not allowed to post it until tomorrow. https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2446331-1-1.html https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2446331-1-1.html In a separate thread he posted today, he mentioned that based on their tests, the temp of the zen4 chip is always 95 degrees celsius - no matter whether you use a shitty cheap cooler or a fancy kick ass one. https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2446302-1-1.html https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2446302-1-1.html
  - rjsw 4y ago
    Would be interesting to know if benchmarks run faster with a better cooler. It could be at the thermal limit in both cases, just at different clock speeds.
    - wmf 4y ago
      It will run faster with more cooling. We'll probably see some air vs. water benchmarks in the coming weeks.
  - fomine3 4y ago
    Interesting but is delaying negative reviews works? It seems that GN posts review with temperature criticism today (see also thumbnail). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRaJXZMOMPU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRaJXZMOMPU
  - 4y ago
halotrope 4y ago
What are you talking about? E.g Anandtech and GamersNexus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRaJXZMOMPU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRaJXZMOMPU) are hardly examples of being "overwhelmingly positive" towards anyone.

Tepix 4y ago

Heise Online has released their review (alas, behind a paywall) and it starts very positive. I'm pretty sure they are the most trusted reviewers in the german language.

pedrocr 4y ago

The Anandtech review is also out. I had them as pretty balanced at least in the past.

dis-sys 4y ago
surely Anandtech is in a different category - why would the PR dept of AMD or Intel mess with Anandtech. sadly, the same can't be said for hundreds/thousands other much smaller reviewers.
- hipnoizz 4y ago
  As this specific review is from Phoronix - do you have some proof that their reviews are (heavily) biased? I'm looking at reviews in more details only when I want to buy something, other than that I skip them or just have a quick look. I haven't did any serious comparison either, but I remember Michael Larabel from Phoronix criticising various parties. Many of his reviews are basically measures/benchmarks with some summary on top of that - his benchmarking methodology may be or may be not flawed, I don't remember him shilling for AMD. AMD has probably some goodwill from the Linux community since they open source or provide various specs for their graphics card. At least that used to be the case.
  - dis-sys 4y ago
    I was just passing on something claimed by the largest computer parts review site in China. They claimed that their site has been required not to release their review until tomorrow, the owner of the site further claimed that there are two batches of reviews and his site is in the second batch for obvious reasons. See the url in my replies.
    - michaellarabel 4y ago
      FWIW, at the AMD event in Texas last month where the Ryzen 7000 series was announced, everyone was given the same embargo date... Mostly all the US and EU reviewers there. Maybe the China/Asia review briefings or so are going with a different date based on different retail availability or so? Hadn't heard of some reviewers getting a different embargo date, typically see that usually only for different geo availability or if getting a sample from a motherboard OEM / other partner and not the CPU company review embargo.
      - yxhuvud 4y ago
        Could also be a TZ issue, where they have a clock time, and that clock time ends up ending up at different dates in practice.
MikusR 4y ago
Their Desktop and Mobile CPU reviewers both quit.

saiya-jin 4y ago

Everybody is doing dirty PR tricks these days, cash flow is above morals for a long time. People overall don't mind so don't expect change for the better. Anyway, enough ranting, nobody sane decides on these 0day benchmarks but waits at least few weeks for overall conclusions, quirks, not so common issues etc. And even better is to wait few months for more stable motherboards and drivers, better availability of compatible RAM etc.

Teifion 4y ago

Can you suggest some of these less positive reviewers please? I like to have a broad range of reviews before deciding and all the ones I normally look at came out today (though were not overwhelmingly positive in every area).

dis-sys 4y ago
No, I don't have such list. The source of the claim is from here (in Chinese) - https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2445527-1-4.html https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2445527-1-4.html chiphell is the largest computer parts review site in China, and that nApoleon guy posting this two batches of review story is the owner of the site. In a more recent thread, he confirmed again that his site has completed their own review and he had read it, yet they are not allowed to post it until tomorrow. https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2446331-1-1.html https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2446331-1-1.html In a separate thread he posted today, he mentioned that based on their tests, the temp of the zen4 chip is always 95 degrees celsius - no matter whether you use a shitty cheap cooler or a fancy kick ass one. https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2446302-1-1.html https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2446302-1-1.html
- rjsw 4y ago
  Would be interesting to know if benchmarks run faster with a better cooler. It could be at the thermal limit in both cases, just at different clock speeds.
  - wmf 4y ago
    It will run faster with more cooling. We'll probably see some air vs. water benchmarks in the coming weeks.
- fomine3 4y ago
  Interesting but is delaying negative reviews works? It seems that GN posts review with temperature criticism today (see also thumbnail). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRaJXZMOMPU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRaJXZMOMPU
- 4y ago

halotrope 4y ago

What are you talking about? E.g Anandtech and GamersNexus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRaJXZMOMPU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRaJXZMOMPU) are hardly examples of being "overwhelmingly positive" towards anyone.