Video Card Reviews In General

[Major_A]

Obviously yesterday was the announcement of the ATi HD 5670 video card. Virtually all noteworthy review sites had their review of the card up on their respective websites at the same time. However, they are all tested the exact same way.
1 - Here is the new card and it's tech.
2 - Here is brand X and what is included in the box.
3 - Put the card through basically the same set of games at the same resolutions.
4 - List the cards overclocking potential, power consumption and heat output.
5 - Draw a conclusion and final verdict.

This was fine a few years ago, but video cards are quickly becoming more than just for playing video games. With the advent of CUDA, STREAM, and Direct Compute video cards are quickly taking on new roles. Maybe because I own a HTPC I really would like to see some HD video results. Does the card play HD content? How well does it handle the load of various Blu Ray video formats? How is the IQ? What type of noise does the fan make from 10 feet away housed in a smaller case? Does the card produce full HD sound through it's HDMI output? Is this video card faster at re-encoding a movie than my CPU using a program like Cyberlink's MediaShow Espresso?

If nothing else having tested these options differentiates your review from all others. Feel free to run with these ideas if you would like to use them.

[pwcmed]

I have to agree, I was waiting for this card to throw into my HTPC. But the thing with almost all new video cards is that the majority will play HD content, at least ATI stuff will. I'm really don't pay to much attention to Nvidia's low end stuff. Hell my 780G with a 4850E plays everything I throw at it.

This is what I would like from your list

re-encoding
Various bluray software

my list

Various HD file, ie. MKV
CoreAVC with MPC player
HD Flash with the beta version that uses the GPU

[pastorjay]

The biggest hindrance to doing a lot of what you are asking for is time. There are times when Nate (and other sites I am sure) only get the card 24-48 in advance, and there is just not the time to do all of the testing for every little aspect. The companies really need to get there acts together and provide review samples further in advance to get a proper review done. Many sites will do the best they can with the reviews with the time they have.

[pwcmed]

I don't blame the review sites. I know it takes time and to save time you guys have a setup with a list of games that you benchmark. Maybe you guys can add HTPC applications to some of the lower end cards only. Maybe anything that doesn't require an extremal power connector. I wonder if an audiophile has tested the sound quality of an ATI card?

[FZ1]

I think Nate had all of one day to install, do the benches, digest the data, write and publish the review. This is why sometimes there are follow up articles on overclocking them etc. But I do think it is a valid question and maybe something that can be incorporated in reviews where we have more time or as follow up articles if there is enough demand for it.

[Major_A]

I know that the reviews were written under tight time constraints but I had no idea was only a day or two. Makes a lot of sense to have the reviews "standardized".

[skier]

I know that the reviews were written under tight time constraints but I had no idea was only a day or two. Makes a lot of sense to have the reviews "standardized".

and you have to also take into account multiple cards, each one can take up to an hour to finish tests depending which ones you run, how you test certain games and how fast the card completes benches. that time adds up fast, in addition to writing pages of text

[Major_A]

Hopefully they have other cards already in an Excel file so they don't have to re-review them.

[skier]

Hopefully they have other cards already in an Excel file so they don't have to re-review them.

that is usually the case, but not always, with the one i'm working on, i just tested 3 cards in addition to what i had already tested, and if you have a major hardware upgrade to your test system, that means testing every card over again to keep consistent results

on another note, take Folding @ Home comparisons, with constantly changing work units(they change daily and sometimes more than once per day) you're forced to test every card in the review every time(which is annoying because waiting for it to fold a certain % you have to basically just stare at your monitor and keep checking the progress in the taskbar, and if it finishes the unit before you're done testing cards, you might be totally screwed and get a different unit and have to do it all again) which is why most reviews simply don't include them at all

[Apoptosis]

I just now saw this thread... sorry I've been sick and way behind on things.

For this review I got the card at 5pm on Wed Jan 13th and had the review up and online at 11pm on Thur Jan 14th. Mind you I was in Vegas for Storage Visions, CES and then a GF100 deep dive from Jan 4th to Jan 12th. Coming home from being in a hotel for 8 days and having just a day to review not one, but two video cards that you haven't seen or touched before is a mad dash to say the least.

All the pictures had to be taken and edited, video cards tested, charts made, review written and then posted. It's tough to do much more than what I did with such a short time line. I still think that Legit Reviews does more than many sites as we include thermal testing and overclocking results in all of our GPU reviews.

As for Major_A comments on testing CUDA, STREAM, and Direct Compute can you give me some applications that give an apple to apple comparison when comparing ATI versus NVIDIA? I'd love to do this, but most of the video applications I see have different image quality outputs thanks to the CUDA or STREAM profiles in the application itself.