Thursday, May 8th 2025
NVIDIA Reportedly Limiting Press Access to GeForce RTX 5060 Drivers - Suggesting Late Arrival of Reviews
The Hardware Unboxed team has unleashed some of its sarcastic Aussie wit; in response to an alleged manipulation of GeForce RTX 5060 (non-Ti) review day conditions. In an online dig—directed at Team Green leadership—the Australian media outlet's social media account parodied NVIDIA new product decision-making: "we're not hiding the RTX 5060, we're very proud of it and gamers will love it. Also, we're going to launch the RTX 5060 on May 19th during Computex, and although reviewers have cards right now, we won't be releasing the driver until they go on sale." Mid-way through April, Hardware Unboxed's Tim Schiesser voiced his displeasure regarding a complete lack of GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB evaluation samples—only 16 GB variants were sent out to testers. Curious professional reviewers opted into buying these cheaper variants (out of pocket), including TechPowerUp's W1zzard. Our head honcho's reckoning—of a custom Gainward effort—pointed out far too many compromises.
In a follow-up post, Hardware Unboxed's social media rep took a more measured approach with their disapproval of "controlled conditions." Clarifying the "context" of their earlier rant, they explained: "NVIDIA are trying to hide the RTX 5060, just as they did the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB. The strategy here is to release it the week of Computex when most of the tech media are in Taiwan attending the show. They're also blocking reviewers from accessing the driver early to evaluate the RTX 5060 and provide reviews at the time of release. So as it stands I have multiple RTX 5060 samples, and I won't be able to review any of them until about a week after they go on sale." VideoCardz, and other critics/watchers believe that a rumored "rushed" development of GeForce RTX 5060-series cards (Ti and non-Ti) resulted in an uninspiring repeat rollout of 8 GB and 16 GB VRAM configurations—albeit upgraded to GDDR7 standards.
Similarly, igor'sLAB contributed their personal dissatisfaction: "to avoid misunderstandings and unnecessary waiting; I will not (be able to) publish a review of the GeForce RTX 5060 here at the official launch. Not because the sample is missing—it's already on the table—but because NVIDIA has decided not to provide any press drivers until the launch. However, a new GPU cannot be thoroughly tested without a functioning, final driver. Especially with a new architecture or a changed memory configuration—the GeForce RTX 5060 is known to come with a 'gigantic' 8 GB of VRAM—clean and reproducible measurements are simply not possible without an official software basis. In an environment that is increasingly characterized by pre-filtered PR communication anyway, I cannot and do not want to engage in pure data rate or leak recycling, even if you could get evaluation drivers that at least allow a rough performance estimate...There is also a very practical problem. I am not in the lab at the time of this upcoming driver release, but in Taipei at Computex. According to NVIDIA, the public driver will not be released together with the card until May 19, which is exactly the day I will be away and unable to return to the test environment until May 26. In plain language, this means: no early access, no pre-tests, no benchmarking for the sales launch."
Sources:
HardwareUnboxed Tweet #1, HardwareUnboxed Tweet #2, Igor's Lab, VideoCardz
In a follow-up post, Hardware Unboxed's social media rep took a more measured approach with their disapproval of "controlled conditions." Clarifying the "context" of their earlier rant, they explained: "NVIDIA are trying to hide the RTX 5060, just as they did the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB. The strategy here is to release it the week of Computex when most of the tech media are in Taiwan attending the show. They're also blocking reviewers from accessing the driver early to evaluate the RTX 5060 and provide reviews at the time of release. So as it stands I have multiple RTX 5060 samples, and I won't be able to review any of them until about a week after they go on sale." VideoCardz, and other critics/watchers believe that a rumored "rushed" development of GeForce RTX 5060-series cards (Ti and non-Ti) resulted in an uninspiring repeat rollout of 8 GB and 16 GB VRAM configurations—albeit upgraded to GDDR7 standards.
62 Comments on NVIDIA Reportedly Limiting Press Access to GeForce RTX 5060 Drivers - Suggesting Late Arrival of Reviews
Strap up, 8SS incoming... (caution advised)
Especially, jmo, HUB would be making a video specifically about this, not.... digging a hole and hiding the news in a social media post, just to post an excuse about their review delay. No harsh wordings in their posts, and obviously no exclusive video about this(best case scenario they will hide it in one of their Q&A where they will be smiling uncomfortably because they will have to comment on the matter without, as usual, provoking Nvidia).
Oh, yeah yeah, absolutely, HUB is glazing NV 24/7 and has never used them as a chewing toy in their rev…
…oh. Well…
There is no objectively denying it, NVIDIA is completely focused on AI and Data centers.
Not even doing the bare minimum on the gaming / creator sides of the business is a reality that shows. They're trying to cover it up, just as half-assed.
They are always careful with Nvidia, even in those videos you post, where they just post what the average user thinks. And they are not the only ones. Tech sites/channels will use completely different wording when they have to deal with Nvidia. They will report it, they will side with the consumer, but the wording will be more like "it shucks, but that's how it is anyway".
At the low end, while the products get lukewarm reviews, what are your options, really? A RX 7600? :roll:
RTX 3050 6GB from 165 euros (for use in systems with low power consumption only is probably a good choice)
RX 6600 from 190 euros
RTX 3050 8GB from 195 euros
Intel B570 from 240 euros
RX 7600 8GB from 250 euros
RTX 3060 12GB from 280 euros
Intel B580 from 290 euros
RTX 4060 from around 290 euros.
In my opinion the options someone should consider are those above that I have in bold.
Plenty of options, NONE new from Nvidia, only that old 12GB 3060 makes sense.
If RTX 5060 comes at a price of over 300 euros it's NOT low end. And it will probably be selling for over that price, because other than the RX 7600 16GB, there is nothing selling there. RX 7700 is over 400 euros and 4060 Ti 16GB non existent. But it will not be LOW END. NOT in price, only in performance.
The market segement that made them. That's fair enough - they are a business after all. But the time for apologising for Nvidia's desktop GPU strategy is over. You said it yourself - they just don't care anymore.
I have flicked through a couple of them in the past but honestly I just can't do long videos for reviews... with a strong preference for the TPU aesthetic with quick, no fluff info and indexed content so I can just click and engage at my own pace. Glad each of his vids uses timestamps... thats a useful feature. But those titles... dramatic, yes, but surprisingly not all that different from my own thoughts. Then again, from a consumer POV, the current GPU market has earned every bit of criticism it gets.
Yeah, sadly, I don’t see those pockets deflating any time soon either. Even if we woke up tomorrow to a 50:50 mindshare split, the gaming segment is still completely dwarfed by AI and data centre revenues (etc) - not enough impact to influence pricing strategies unless the competition gets real down and dirty.
Sad that in retrospect I feel like my near MSRP 4090 was a sweet deal lmao at the time I felt it was a rip off but that the 4080 sucked B@!!$....
Why am I surprised, I should have known...Well as john_ clearly showed when nvidia already offers more vram - better RT - better upscalers and long term support for older products (the 12gb 5year old 3060 gets dlss 4, the 2 year old 8gb 7600 doesn't get the new fsr) they already outcompete everyone without even trying.
Why "reportedly"?
Aren't you reviewers, so you can confirm or deny these allegations first hand? Not brave enough to take on the largest company on Earth?
It seems to me there's a lot of people now pushing the agenda that all Nvidia criticism is just YouTube tech influencers phishing for attention, and that they should be punished for that - why should Nvidia send them cards? Why should they receive drivers prior to common people, if they use them to tell us the products aren't good? Why can't they just let the people do their own research?
:p
Lots of people were looking forward to the reviews of the $300 RTX 5040 :D
And when one of those companies thinks that they gain nothing by providing free samples etc then they will stop doing that. As anybody would in their position. Put yourself in their shoes, would you spend money out of your own pocket for soemthing that you don't gain any benefit out of? Or even worse, it actually causes damage to you? Absolutely not.
When you say YT'ers live off these things, you're blurring the fact they were used by Nvidia/AMD for marketing purposes in the first place. Tech companies created the environment for these (YT'er) channels to flourish. And our desire (as tech consumers) has kept them going (by the various marketing sponsors that pay per click or per ad, etc).