Caveat emptor. You can use sevices like fakespot to help weed out the fake reviews on a site like Amazon. And you can weigh the legitimacy of vine reviews and the like, based on the reviewer's history. Afterall, they recieve free products in exchange for their "honest" opinions. The only fakespot service for the forums is experience and skepticism. And just as with e.g. vine reviewers, you can review their history to discern if they are able to remain objective, or succumb to the "bribes". Viral marketers in forums are similar to groups that infiltrate peaceful protests and try, with varying levels of success, to turn them violent. With similar end results, the authorities end up being forced to clean up the mess. With everyone suffering for it.
Brand fans are a different animal, and should not be taken seriously. Only other fanatics ( "marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion", what fan is short for, remember? ) get in rivalries that amount to shouting across the court at the other sides' bleachers.
Tech site reviews have become the equivalent of the political memes on facebook, that one "friend" spammed until you blocked them from your feed. They are so varied and plentiful, they can be used to support any position.
Allow me to give you a glimpse of what it is like for those of us that do not reside in the reality distortion field. And, have no horse in the race, either emotionally or financially. Sites like TPU that are spammed here, are of only moderate value. Their testing is supposed to reflect scientific experimental controls. But they end up with far too few variables to be useful for many gamers/consumers. While it is a negative, it is understandable. The amount of time and kit necessary to test with hardware and settings pertinent to a particular demographic would be as impractical for a site, as it is unprofitable. That is what we are for, more on that below.
The end result however, is that the bar graphs should not be troted out as some kind of definitive evidence, the way they always are. Why? Take the 470 review they just did. The controls to eliminate variables results in eliminating most the potential buyers hardware in the process. A $200 card is not going to end up in very many high end platforms like the test system. The CPUs, resolution, and necessary graphics settings to make a game an enjoyable playing experience are inevitably lost more oft than not. And a bunch of canned tests, are not gameplay and playability. While there are various issues with recording and playback of gameplay videos, they are very useful when accompanying a reviewer's game testing.
Why did I derail to testing methodology, when this is about hostility between members? Because the bar graphs are more useful as propaganda than useful advice for many prospective purchasers. A major contributor to why this forum is compared to P&N.
The member above that suggested we spend more time with user to user results and experiences, nailed it. Instead of a thread asking if you are buying a particular card/series or extolling the virtues of one over another based on the "memes"? We should be concentrating on asking owners of said graphics cards to share what hardware they paired it with, and what the optimal settings for any particular game are. The OP could keep track of data with help from other members, and produce lists with playable settings for various CPUs, clock speeds, etc. that a review site simply cannot provide. A potential buyer could peruse the lists, find a setup similar, and know what to expect from the card, in a much more real sense than a bar graph provides. Because that is why I joined tech forums, to provided user to user help and experiences. Not to shake pom poms, audition for "regional head of marketing", or vent my negative emotions.
In conclusion: And to use an analogy based on what was opined by another member in this thread - We need to blow away the smoke, build the fires ourselves, and stop relying on what amounts to, the smudge fires, review sites make, when we do it. Because what we all can most use, is what amount of effort is involved getting it started, and how much warmth and light is provided with minimal smoke. All the misinformation, disinformation, obfuscation, and pom pom shaking drama, could, IF WE CHOOSE, become background noise. Even the most prolific trolls would die of neglect, if we ignored them, instead of feeding them. It won't happen, but I can dream.