Why Review Embargo and Pre-Testing Is Important
In all of my time reviewing hardware, I have rarely seen this move, and it is usually for reasons not benefiting the consumer. In this editorial news article, I am going to discuss some opinions about review embargo dates and times with pre-testing and some other interesting information. If you are unaware, NVIDIA announced the upcoming GeForce RTX 5060 right before the hardware launch of the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti on April 21st; however, while the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti made its debut, the GeForce RTX 5060 was said to be released sometime in May. Well, now we know when in May.
Typically, from when hardware is received in hand up until this launch date, reviewers would have the opportunity to benchmark the video card, write their reviews, and then all of us publish them at the same embargo date and time. This finalized embargo date/time was a great equalizer, gave no one an advantage, and allowed reviews to be published in a high-quality form. This is if everyone has the driver to actually test the card before the review embargo lifts.
Imagine, for example, if there were no embargo date/times with any lead time for pre-testing, well then the goal would be for the first person to get their review out as quickly and sloppily as possible, just to be first. This would encourage sloppy reviews, with data that has errors and is inaccurate. It isn’t good for the hardware manufacturer, and it certainly isn’t good for the consumer.
We also need to speak on the idea of pre-testing, or having lead time to test hardware. In this configuration, reviewers have the opportunity to encounter problems that often arise on new hardware launches, either driver, game, or hardware-related. The lead time before the embargo lifts gives reviewers the chance to work out potential software or hardware issues with the manufacturers, which can often benefit the final product when purchased. Given the proper time, we can take our time to diagnose issues, and really learn the ins and outs of a piece of hardware, that is, if you aren’t rushing to get it finished because it’s already been launched.
Therefore, the idea of having a firm embargo date and time, with lead time and pre-testing of hardware for reviews to publish, makes sense for everyone and is the way it has been done for ages. That is, of course, assuming we, the reviewer, have access to the driver to actually test the cards pre-embargo date/time lifting.
No Pre-Testing Performance Before Launch
For the GeForce RTX 5060 launch, however, that is allegedly not going to be the case this generation, a great departure from past GeForce RTX xx60 series GPUs launches. If you have been following news around the web, you’ll find several articles published this evening, notably one from [igor’sLAB], as well as YouTube videos now popping up across YouTube as I write this from popular YouTube channels. I’ll link a few here for your convenience: [Daniel Owen] [JayzTwoCents], and I’m sure more will pop up. You can also check out the Hardware Unboxed X thread here: [Hardware Unboxed] The news is spreading. Here are some other outlets as well reporting on this: [VideoCardz] [TweakTown] [wccftech] [tom’s Hardware] [PCGamesN] [OC3D] [XDA].
These articles and videos specify that the GeForce RTX 5060 driver will not be available to reviewers until the launch day of May 19th, despite reviewers now directly having video cards in their hands at the moment. We will confirm that we currently have a GeForce RTX 5060 in hand, and it is currently sitting on the desk, not able to be reviewed at the moment.
This also potentially hurts consumers, as they will have no third-party, independently verified benchmarks and gaming performance to base their purchasing decisions on. If one were to wander into a retial store, see this card during the first week of it being launched, and see that it is brand new, and think “it must be good” and don’t have any independent reviews to back that up, it could encourage a consumer to make a bad purchasing decision for them. At the very least, it removes any kind of comparative analysis compared to other video cards that may be available around the same price point, they might be interested in.
We also need to speak toward the other reviewers as well, with Computex 2025 about to get started, many reviewers, including our own David Schroth, will be at Computex when this driver is allegedly released. That means reviewers at Computex are simply not going to be able to benchmark and review this video card till after their Computex visit, delaying reviews for quite a long while. Again, this only hurts consumers as they will have very few independently verified third-party benchmarks to evaluate. This also hurts views and analytics for YouTube creators and review outlets as a side effect.
We just wanted to post this editorial news article, to explain what we’ve seen, and so that you can also hear and see the thoughts and opinions of other creators and reviewers, so check out the links above for that content, and I’m sure more will pop up over the coming days, so be on the lookout for more news articles, check your favorite popular YouTube channels and news outlets. We will work on our GeForce RTX 5060 review, well, when we can. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯