Second Hand Smoke: The Demise of Objective Benchmarking

The most interesting fallout from the recent AMD/ATI acquisition is going to be the impact it has on reviewers. Although I doubt that there will be any immediate impact on traditional benchmarking scenarios, I don’t doubt that objective comparisons through performance testing will cease to have much relevance to the greater population in the near future.

First, it is hard to do an objective platform to platform comparison. It is arguable that direct comparisons of one graphics chip,or CPU, against another are really that objective to begin with, but add the complexity of a mix of components in the platform arena and the issues are far too complex to address. Don’t get me wrong, testing and benchmarking does not disappear, but it will remain highly subjective, as it is in the area of mobile products such as laptops and notebooks.

Continue reading in Omid’s blog : The Demise of Objective Benchmarking