TechPowerUp Selects PNY as Graphics Card Provider for Review Test Systems

[btarunr]

TechPowerUp is proud to announce a partnership with PNY, in which PNY XLR8 GeForce RTX graphics cards will power the hardware review test benches featured throughout the site. With a rich history as a key graphics vendor for professionals, PNY has established a longstanding partnership with NVIDIA, serving as a provider of high-end graphics cards and datacenter GPUs. They are also providing memory solutions for professional photographers and creators. More recently the company specialized into gaming graphics with its XLR8 GeForce graphics card series. Over the past two generations, the company has taken product design and development for these cards completely in-house, ensuring that gamers receive top-quality products.

The latest generation of PNY XLR8 GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards have been extensively tested by TechPowerUp, showcasing exceptional noise levels, low cooler temperatures, ample overclocking potential, efficient power management, and outstanding overall performance. We were so impressed by our first PNY RTX 40-series graphics cards, especially their fan-tuning and thermals, that we decided to incorporate PNY graphics cards as the baseline for our review test beds across the site. Our partnership with PNY will see various models of PNY XLR8 GeForce RTX graphics cards form the VGA component of the test benches, across our review test setups for CPUs, motherboards, cases, memory, SSDs, CPU coolers, and more. However, it's important to note that for graphics card reviews, the baseline values continue to be obtained from reference design graphics cards.



Update 19:31 UTC: Just to clarify, this will not affect our review scoring in any way. We will continue to test AMD-based graphics cards, we will test GPUs from other manufacturers, and we will review every product in the same exact same way like we've done in the past 20 years. We simply needed a bunch of graphics cards for the test systems listed, and PNY was willing to provide them.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[DBGT]

Is that means that we won't see other reviews from other nvidia partners?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Is that means that we won't see other reviews from other nvidia partners?

No, this means that all the non graphics card reviews will use PNY cards.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

No, this means that all the non graphics card reviews will use PNY cards.

No AMD version of a CPU review? *sadface*

It does make a difference on low-end hardware.

 

[W1zzard]

No AMD version of a CPU review? *sadface*

Not sure if I've ever done such a review. But yes, I could certainly do a review like that, there is no rules here that forbid it

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Not sure if I've ever done such a review. But yes, I could certainly do a review like that, there is no rules here that forbid it

You make the rules anyways...

I believe TechSpot does both an AMD and a Nvidia card if the CPU is on the low end. There are some driver and hardware differences that do affect framerates due to CPU overhead.

Just throwing that out there FWIW.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Some of my first Nvidia GPUs were PNY. Never had issues with them. Hopefully all goes well.

 

[Fergutor]

I hope this doesn't affect the conclusion in the video card reviews, especially when it comes to criticize PNY possible defects or weak points.

 

[dj-electric]

Smart choice and good job to... Palit, who actually engineers those PCBs and coolers as the contractor. Always loved them.

 

[the54thvoid]

This will leave the door wide open for criticism of review bias. No matter how rigorous the reviewers are with their tests, to have a sponsored product from a manufacturer who doesn't do red, will have a sting for some. Though perhaps it will settle the score for those that accuse TPU of an AMD bias?

 

[Ownedtbh]

PNY is a cool name

 

[Kapone33]

This will leave the door wide open for criticism of review bias. No matter how rigorous the reviewers are with their tests, to have a sponsored product from a manufacturer who doesn't do red, will have a sting for some. Though perhaps it will settle the score for those that accuse TPU of an AMD bias?

There is also the fact that though people like to use Software, there are other hardware changes like DP specification between Nvidia and AMD that are becoming more relevant.

 

[W1zzard]

I hope this doesn't affect the conclusion in the video card reviews, especially when it comes to criticize PNY possible defects or weak points.

Of course not

This will leave the door wide open for criticism of review bias. No matter how rigorous the reviewers are with their tests, to have a sponsored product from a manufacturer who doesn't do red, will have a sting for some. Though perhaps it will settle the score for those that accuse TPU of an AMD bias?

Bias in which way? We use PNY cards in reviews where we're using an NVIDIA card anyway, and PNY good or bad doesn't matter.

Any theories how a case review could become biased?

Graphics card reviews will continue using reference cards, no change here, as mentioned

 

[the54thvoid]

Of course not


Bias in which way? We use PNY cards in reviews where we're using an NVIDIA card anyway, and PNY good or bad doesn't matter.

Any theories how a case review could become biased?

The simple act of entering a sponsored product deal puts impartiality in the crosshairs. Even when I know the staff team don't have any agenda to prejudice results.

Optics, my dear man. It's all about the optics.

As for a biased case review, see above comment on optics. It doesn't matter what you're reviewing as a tech site, if you've made a deal with a vendor who doesn't make cards for team red, there will be a level of suspicion. You can't avoid that.

 

[Kapone33]

Of course not


Bias in which way? We use PNY cards in reviews where we're using an NVIDIA card anyway, and PNY good or bad doesn't matter.

Any theories how a case review could become biased?

Graphics card reviews will continue using reference cards, no change here, as mentioned

Does this mean we will never see AMD cards in CPU reviews? If so what information will you use to get that?

 

[Lew Zealand]

You make the rules anyways...

I believe TechSpot does both an AMD and a Nvidia card if the CPU is on the low end. There are some driver and hardware differences that do affect framerates due to CPU overhead.

Just throwing that out there FWIW.

This is true however TechSpot needs to match up the hardware properly. When reviewing a lower end CPU specifically for this overhead issue, the GPU shouldn't be a 3090/4090/7900 XTX. It should be a 4060 Ti and 3060 Ti along with a 6700 XT and 7700 XT, something likely to be matched with a 13100 or 3600 by someone cheaping out on CPU to prioritize GPU performance. The differences are still there, giving AMD GPUs a small boost in those CPU-limited conditions but the increased overhead of 16000 cores vs 4000 is magnifying a problem which may be pretty minimal.

And their test is older now, with the differences being seen with a 3070 vs 5700 XT in an R5 1600, 2600 and i3 10100. Still relevant for that hardware but there are new low end options with more power and it'd be nice to see if the restrictions are still as bad.

 

[W1zzard]

Does this mean we will never see AMD cards in CPU reviews? If so what information will you use to get that?

If a 7950 XTX beats the 4090 I'll definitely consider it for CPU reviews

It basically depends on their future offerings and market share/relevance. PNY has nothing to do with it.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

If a 7950 XTX beats the 4090 I'll definitely consider it for CPU reviews

My point was more of that a Radeon card could have higher FPS on a CPU-limited scenario, not that the top card outperforms the top GeForce.

 

[W1zzard]

You guys are realizing that most of the hardware in our systems is provided by the mfgr?

 

[Kapone33]

You guys are realizing that most of the hardware in our systems is provided by the mfgr?

Of course you do not have a review of the 7900X3D. Like other review sites you only really review what comes to you. That is why now that Corsair and Arctic have 420MM AIOs they may seem new but are at least 5 years past Alphacool. I do believe that you try to be as objective as possible but I guess you can only have 1 test system. I wish you did where one of you had an all AMD best of system to make these a little more objective.

 

[natr0n]

I believe pny makes official/reference cards for nvidia.

Good partnership.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Respect to PNY.

I still remember when they stepped in to warranty BFG cards when BFG closed its doors.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

This is true however TechSpot needs to match up the hardware properly. When reviewing a lower end CPU specifically for this overhead issue, the GPU shouldn't be a 3090/4090/7900 XTX. It should be a 4060 Ti and 3060 Ti along with a 6700 XT and 7700 XT, something likely to be matched with a 13100 or 3600 by someone cheaping out on CPU to prioritize GPU performance. The differences are still there, giving AMD GPUs a small boost in those CPU-limited conditions but the increased overhead of 16000 cores vs 4000 is magnifying a problem which may be pretty minimal.

And their test is older now, with the differences being seen with a 3070 vs 5700 XT in an R5 1600, 2600 and i3 10100. Still relevant for that hardware but there are new low end options with more power and it'd be nice to see if the restrictions are still as bad.

If your purpose is to measure driver overhead, gimping your test bench isnt the way to do it chief.

Of course you do not have a review of the 7900X3D. Like other review sites you only really review what comes to you. That is why now that Corsair and Arctic have 420MM AIOs they may seem new but are at least 5 years past Alphacool. I do believe that you try to be as objective as possible but I guess you can only have 1 test system. I wish you did where one of you had an all AMD best of system to make these a little more objective.

Fell free to send W1zz a 7900x3d and motherboard for him to test, I'm sure he would be very appreciative!

 

[W1zzard]

Of course you do not have a review of the 7900X3D. Like other review sites you only really review what comes to you

I do buy stuff from time to time, like 4060 16 gb, several intel cpus. This comes out of my own pocket, so i need to have a reason to throw that money away

Fell free to send W1zz a 7900x3d and motherboard for him to test, I'm sure he would be very appreciative!

Just the cpu will do, happy to test it

 

[lowrider_05]

I´ll just wonder how the next "unbiased" Review of an PNY gpu in the future will look like or won´t there be any PNY reviews in the future?