Facepalm: As Computex 2025 is about to unfold in Taipei, a lot of the tech world’s consideration will likely be understandably drawn to new improvements and massive bulletins on the present. But, amid the excitement, a extra troubling story is taking part in out behind the scenes – one which raises critical issues about transparency, media integrity, and the trustworthiness of GPU launch protection. The problem? Nvidia’s launch technique for the GeForce RTX 5060, and the way the corporate is manipulating public notion by means of tightly managed media “previews.”
{Hardware} Unboxed has discovered loads of success success on YouTube and has develop into a trusted voice within the PC {hardware} group. As it’s possible you’ll know, Steve and Tim run HUB independently, and we’re proud to have them proceed collaborating with TechSpot to deliver their opinions to our viewers. Steve has been reviewing PC {hardware} for over 20 years right here, and even earlier than that on a private tech weblog earlier than we teamed up.
Most lately, Steve and Tim have raised alarms about what they view as an unprecedented stage of media management within the lead-up to the RTX 5060’s launch. Not like earlier launches, Nvidia seems to have averted issuing early evaluate drivers to unbiased reviewers. We reported about that, as an extension of Nvidia’s questionable launch of a brand new era of GPUs with solely 8GB of VRAM, however issues go a lot deeper than that.
The corporate is favoring a handful of extra “pleasant” retailers with early entry, below strict circumstances. These retailers got preview drivers – however solely below pointers that make their merchandise shine past what’s real-world testing would conclude. To quote two examples:
- One of many restrictions will not be evaluating the brand new RTX 5060 to the RTX 4060. Do not even want to clarify than one.
- One other restriction or heavy-handed suggestion: run the RTX 5060 with 4x multi-frame era turned on, inflating FPS outcomes, whereas older GPUs that do not assist MFG look significantly worse in charts.
The consequence: glowing previews revealed simply days earlier than the official launch, creating a primary impression primarily based nearly fully on Nvidia’s advertising and marketing narrative.
These previews will not be conventional opinions. They arrive with important constraints, together with obligatory testing at 1080p, strict sport lists, and the required use of DLSS with multi-frame era enabled. Extra troubling, comparisons are restricted to older playing cards just like the RTX 3060 and 2060 Tremendous – merchandise that do not assist body era.
This permits Nvidia to showcase dramatically inflated efficiency deltas, usually 3 – 4× increased, attributable to artificial benefits that do not translate to precise, uncooked efficiency.
What Nvidia’s dream ‘unbiased’ tech evaluate appears like: pic.twitter.com/pePA2WEABw
– {Hardware} Unboxed (@HardwareUnboxed) Could 17, 2025
What makes this example significantly egregious is the absence of actual opinions to counterbalance the spin. Not like with the RTX 5070 launch, the place deceptive previews had been rapidly adopted by unbiased opinions from retailers like {Hardware} Unboxed and Players Nexus, the RTX 5060 lacks such stability. Nvidia has not launched the mandatory drivers to most unbiased reviewers, particularly these attending Computex.
It isn’t the primary time Nvidia has tried to lean on its relationships with media to form early perceptions. From the 8K “meme” advertising and marketing of the RTX 3090 to the fastidiously framed 4K-only benchmarks of the RTX 3080, {Hardware} Unboxed traces a transparent sample: Nvidia is keen to make use of its affect to selectively showcase best-case situations and bury much less flattering realities.
However the RTX 5060 seems to mark a brand new low. That is the primary time Nvidia has actively excluded nearly all unbiased opinions and voices from taking part within the launch narrative of a mass-market GPU.
This technique has troubling implications…
- First, it threatens the belief shoppers place within the evaluate course of.
- Second, it units a precedent the place solely media keen to toe the company line achieve entry – marginalizing unbiased, crucial protection in favor of promotional fluff.
- Third, it dangers reshaping search algorithms and public opinion, as glowing previews dominate on-line discourse in the course of the launch window, earlier than skeptical opinions actually have a likelihood to seem.
It should be mentioned that these issues will not be born out of private grievance, despite the fact that there’s some historical past there between {Hardware} Unboxed and Nvidia.
In a non-public assembly in 2019, Nvidia supplied {Hardware} Unboxed cash to supply favorable DLSS content material. Steve declined – and a few yr later, he was excluded from Nvidia’s evaluate packages.
On the time, Nvidia claimed his opinions “targeted an excessive amount of on rasterization as an alternative of ray tracing” – in different phrases, he wasn’t aligning with the corporate’s most well-liked messaging. After this was made public and the tech group rallied in assist of {Hardware} Unboxed, Nvidia issued an apology simply days later, walked again its calls for for tailor-made testing, and successfully lifted the imposed restrictions.
This is not a conspiracy principle. It is a systemic shift in how media manipulation works in tech. It isn’t at all times about specific bribery. Typically, it is about entry, publicity, and a refined however highly effective trade of favors that compromises journalistic integrity.
That is additionally taking place at a time when Nvidia is a extra highly effective entity than ever earlier than. Now one of many three largest corporations on the earth, with a market cap of $3.3 trillion, its main income comes from knowledge heart gross sales and AI acceleration – fields the place Nvidia’s GPUs have develop into the {hardware} of selection for powering fashions like ChatGPT and nearly each main push into generative AI.
As compared, PC gaming represents solely a small fraction of Nvidia’s total enterprise. That is why it is tough to reconcile their aggressive media techniques with their broader company message. If their {hardware} is really one of the best, why resort to such heavy-handed methods?
At this scale, the chance of backlash or reputational injury – particularly now that Nvidia is a family identify past the PC fanatic house – may outweigh any perceived advertising and marketing positive factors.
As for the RTX 5060, the recommendation is straightforward for all our readers: don’t purchase the RTX 5060 primarily based on present preview protection. Look forward to actual opinions. Make knowledgeable selections primarily based on complete, unbiased testing – not on early-access impressions designed to promote a story.
A month in the past, when Nvidia formally launched the 5060 Ti 16GB, 5060 Ti 8GB, and the 5060, they advised us that the $200 RTX 5060 wasn’t aimed toward fans who learn opinions at TechSpot or YouTube channels like {Hardware} Unboxed, so launch-day opinions had been much less essential.
This isn’t solely inaccurate – it is also a weak excuse. Our viewers is not simply rich avid gamers shopping for RTX 5090s. Loads of individuals who try our opinions are mainstream avid gamers buying mid-range graphics playing cards. Absolutely Nvidia did not count on us to simply accept this reasoning, particularly when, in the identical briefing, in addition they claimed that “avid gamers love the 60 collection.” So which is it? Players adore it, however fanatic avid gamers do not care about mainstream GPU opinions?The messaging was utterly contradictory.
You would perhaps make that argument for ultra-budget $150 playing cards – however not for what’s traditionally the preferred GPU tier in Nvidia’s lineup every era – simply take a look at the Steam survey and you may simply conclude it is all pointless excuses.
This example is a wake-up name. As tech fans, we depend on trustworthy protection to information our purchases. We should demand transparency and assist retailers that prioritize reality over advertising and marketing. As a result of if this pattern continues unchecked, the following era of avid gamers would possibly discover themselves drowning in polished PR, with out even realizing they’re being offered a fantasy.
