Nvidia just prevented me from testing the GeForce RTX 5060 before it comes out

I’ve just hit a big snag with my plan to test the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 next week, as it turns out I won’t actually be able to publish a review of Team Jensen’s new $299 graphics card before it comes out. That’s because Nvidia has taken the extraordinary step not to issue the press with a pre-release driver. In fact, an Nvidia rep just told me that the first driver I’ll be able to use is the public one that comes out on May 19, which is the GPU’s launch day.

Nvidia hasn’t given me its reasoning for the decision, but it looks like a big flag covered in bright red dye to me. Does Nvidia think gamers won’t buy the new GPU on the RTX 5060 release date if they actually know how it performs? Has Nvidia realized that this 8GB GPU is likely to fall over in some of the latest games at top settings, making its $299 price look a bit silly? I genuinely can’t think of a single good reason why you’d refuse to give the press a driver so they can test it before release.