Friday, May 4th 2018
NVIDIA Ends Controversial GeForce Partner Program (GPP)
NVIDIA late Friday announced that it is ending the controversial GeForce Partner Program (GPP). The "program" was a revision in the terms of sale of NVIDIA graphics processors to AIC (add in card) partners (such as EVGA, ASUS, GIGABYTE, etc.), which in regulator-baiting language, called for AIC partners to keep their gaming-centric brands (such as ASUS ROG, GIGABYTE Aorus, MSI Gaming, etc.) exclusive to NVIDIA GeForce GPUs, thereby de-listing AMD Radeon GPUs. Companies like ASUS went as far as stripping its AMD Radeon products of even the "ASUS" brand, relegating them to a new "AREZ" brand.
Apparently the blow-back was harder than expected, and NVIDIA buckled. The main forces behind NVIDIA withdrawing GPP may not be fear of government regulators, but OEMs, such as Dell and HP, refusing to sign up. AMD is known in the OEM circles for great pricing, which is what scores it design wins with giants such as Apple. That's something big OEMs would never want to let go of. Had Dell, for example, signed up for GPP, it would have meant the end of AMD Radeon GPUs in Alienware desktops.
Far from sounding apologetic, NVIDIA's announcement of "pulling the plug" on GPP reads of the company begrudgingly ending the program, defending its "benefits to gamers" to the very end. NVIDIA didn't even give the announcement the dignity of a formal press-release, but a blog post, pasted verbatim:
Apparently the blow-back was harder than expected, and NVIDIA buckled. The main forces behind NVIDIA withdrawing GPP may not be fear of government regulators, but OEMs, such as Dell and HP, refusing to sign up. AMD is known in the OEM circles for great pricing, which is what scores it design wins with giants such as Apple. That's something big OEMs would never want to let go of. Had Dell, for example, signed up for GPP, it would have meant the end of AMD Radeon GPUs in Alienware desktops.
A lot has been said recently about our GeForce Partner Program. The rumors, conjecture and mistruths go far beyond its intent. Rather than battling misinformation, we have decided to cancel the program.No, NVIDIA, this isn't the way it's meant to be played.
GPP had a simple goal - ensuring that gamers know what they are buying and can make a clear choice.
NVIDIA creates cutting-edge technologies for gamers. We have dedicated our lives to it. We do our work at a crazy intense level - investing billions to invent the future and ensure that amazing NVIDIA tech keeps coming. We do this work because we know gamers love it and appreciate it. Gamers want the best GPU tech. GPP was about making sure gamers who want NVIDIA tech get NVIDIA tech.
With GPP, we asked our partners to brand their products in a way that would be crystal clear. The choice of GPU greatly defines a gaming platform. So, the GPU brand should be clearly transparent - no substitute GPUs hidden behind a pile of techno-jargon.
Most partners agreed. They own their brands and GPP didn't change that. They decide how they want to convey their product promise to gamers. Still, today we are pulling the plug on GPP to avoid any distraction from the super exciting work we're doing to bring amazing advances to PC gaming.
This is a great time to be a GeForce partner and be part of the fastest growing gaming platform in the world. The GeForce gaming platform is rich with the most advanced technology. And with GeForce Experience, it is "the way it's meant to be played."
149 Comments on NVIDIA Ends Controversial GeForce Partner Program (GPP)
Without him, maybe the OEM's might not have had customer unrest on their sides...
meanwhile i don't use adblocker when visiting HardOCP maybe they'll still get some money from ads to survive...
"no matter how right or wrong hardocp is, but if hardocp vanishes they only have themselves to blame, not nvidia, at all" what r u smoking? give me also maybe that'll convince me they were wrong and who's to be blamed..
put TPU or other similar site in their place; all of them shall vanish because they dare to publish the truth no matter how inconvenient is? we're not living in North Korea
if they'll be under further pressure i'll expect all other tech sites to stand up for them; what will do nv if nobody will review their cards?
NVIDIA has reached the pinnacle of arrogance and clearly has no respect not only for its partners and competitors in the industry, but for its customers. Even in their press release announcing that the program is canceled they still adamantly insist that everyone's concerns are invalid.
I was also an editor working for DH. I got axed for a cited analogy between the stock market crash of the dot com bubble and how Nvidia may sit at a similar upswing, like Qualcomm back in the day. I was dismissed the next day, so I can relate pretty well...
www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/nvidia-ends-gpp.243911/#post-3837766
......ok guys I'm bored ....any new ideas on how else we can troll the entire industry again.