Nvidia significantly influences early tests of the GeForce RTX 5060

The GeForce RTX 5060 goes on sale today, May 19, probably at 3 pm. Reports about Nvidia's alleged influence on the coverage are making waves in the run-up to the launch: Apparently, only selected media have received test samples and a compatible graphics driver in advance to be able to test the new card before it goes on sale.

As reported by Gamestar and other media, Nvidia only provided the driver in return for considerable concessions. The manufacturer also made extensive specifications regarding test conditions. This would not allow for a differentiated analysis.

Games, settings, and comparison graphics cards specified

Those who comply with the specifications are only allowed to test the graphics card with certain games: “Avowed”, “Cyberpunk 2077”, “Doom: The Dark Ages”, “Hogwarts Legacy” and “Marvel Rivals”. They all support quadruple multi-frame generation (MFG), i.e., three artificially interpolated images between two actually rendered frames.

And according to company specifications, this quadruple MFG must apparently always be switched on with the GeForce RTX 5060 in the preliminary reports. In addition, Nvidia should limit the comparison to the GeForce RTX 3060 and RTX 2060 Super. As both do not support MFG, the RTX 5060's lead appears to be enormous.

Comparisons with its direct predecessor, the GeForce RTX 4060, are explicitly not permitted. After all, this model is capable of dual MFG. However, most PC games do not support MFG at all – where the gap between the generations is correspondingly much smaller.

On paper, the computing power of the GeForce RTX 5060 is above average compared to its predecessor. While some larger models such as the RTX 5060 Ti do not even achieve +10 percent, the RTX 5060 achieves +27 percent compared to the RTX 4060. However, the 8 GB of memory could be a bottleneck – here in particular, mandatory specifications conceal potential problems.

In Germany, Gamestar was the only medium to publish a preliminary report on the GeForce RTX 5060. The conditions are openly communicated in the report. Internationally, Gamesradar and Tom's Guide, among others, are included.

Independence at the expense of punctuality

The US YouTube channel “Gamersnexus” reports that the company has been trying to influence test reports more strongly over the past six months. According to the report, the company has repeatedly threatened to stop sampling and withdraw access to developers if Gamersnexus does not comply with requests to carry out tests. Even then, comparisons with MFG on new graphics cards against old models without MFG were said to be unfair.

For years, c't and heise online have no longer published test reports on GeForce graphics cards before they go on sale. In 2018, Nvidia introduced a far-reaching non-disclosure agreement (NDA) as a prerequisite for advance information. The editorial teams of c't and heise online never signed this NDA. Tests are therefore carried out with a time delay using purchased graphics cards or models provided by partner manufacturers.

(mma)