XFX Abandons GeForce GTX 400 Series

[btarunr]

XFX is getting cozier with AMD by the day, which is an eyesore for NVIDIA. Amidst the launch of GeForce GTX 400 series, XFX did what could have been unimaginable a few months ago: abandon NVIDIA's high-end GPU launch. That's right, XFX has decided against making and selling GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 470 graphics cards, saying that it favours high-end GPUs from AMD, instead. This comes even as XFX seemed to have been ready with its own product art. Apart from making new non-reference design SKUs for pretty-much every Radeon HD 5000 series GPU, the company is working on even more premium graphics cards targeted at NVIDIA's high-end GPUs.

The rift between XFX and NVIDIA became quite apparent when XFX outright bashed NVIDIA's high-end lineup in a recent press communication about a new high-end Radeon-based graphics card it's designing. "XFX have always developed the most powerful, versatile Gaming weapons in the world - and have just stepped up to the gaming plate and launched something spectacular that may well literally blow the current NVIDIA offerings clean away," adding "GTX480 and GTX470 are upon us, but perhaps the time has come to Ferm up who really has the big Guns." The move may come to the disappointment of some potential buyers of GTX 400 series, as XFX's popular Double Lifetime Warranty scheme would be missed. XFX however, maintains that it may choose to work on lower-end Fermi-derivatives.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Paintface]

I guess XFX wants to stick with producing videocards instead of fancy looking roomheaters

 

[aCid888*]

It's good its on the front page but this was posted yesterday and has been pretty active.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=118801

 

[Fourstaff]

How many will follow suit?

 

[afw]

How many will follow suit?

This article says two including XFX ---> http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/video/xfx-jumps-gtx-480-gtx-470-ship/

I think its because of warranty issues .... :shadedshu

 

[DigitalUK]

maybe XFX knows something we dont or maybe not, bfg and evga has no problems bringing the heat..

 

[gumpty]

Wouldn't it be interesting to know the actual reasons behind this. Is it a calculated business move which ties in with their strategic business plan? Or is it something subtler, like seeing flaws in the Fermi chip itself (maybe heat?), and didn't want to get involved with a chip that was likely (pure speculation) to cause them lots of RMA trouble in the future?

 

[TheOnlyHero]

I dont care about XFX, its there choice. There a lot of companys like xfx ( Asus,Inno3d,Galaxy...) ho makes Nvidia videocards , so it isnt a big shock for me .XFX goes against mother nature

 

[Fourstaff]

Yeah, I think the warranty is going to be a problem for them, since that they offer generous warranty services.

 

[gumpty]

I dont care about XFX, its there choice. There a lot of companys like xfx ( Asus,Inno3d,Galaxy...) ho makes Nvidia videocards , so it isnt a big shock for me .XFX goes against mother nature

I think the 'shocking' thing about this is that ... iirc ... XFX were an Nvidia-only company as little as 12 months ago. To wholly switch teams so quickly, within one new generation of GPUs, is the surprising part. For me at least.

 

[DigitalUK]

warranty is everything ,specially when you are paying that sort of money on a card. 1 year later you could have a dead card with nothing you can do about it.

a card that can run at 100c wont be lasting years. if most of use saw those temps we would be crying/rebuilding or rma'ing

 

[Velvet Wafer]

someone with big influence at XFX knews something, Nvidia doesnt want regular customers to know, i believe
anyway, Evga is Nvidia exclusive till today, and that really pisses me off

 

[qwerty_lesh]

I think the 'shocking' thing about this is that ... iirc ... XFX were an Nvidia-only company as little as 12 months ago. To wholly switch teams so quickly, within one new generation of GPUs, is the surprising part. For me at least.

yeah, thats extremely common for consumer buying trends (to follow a brand thats doing the best value/performance at the current times) but not for manufacturers or manufacturing partners.

 

[gumpty]

Yeah, I think the warranty is going to be a problem for them, since that they offer generous warranty services.

Yeah, which would be worse PR for Nvidia's Fermi brand: XFX not making the cards at all, or XFX only offering, say a 1 or 2 year warranty - when they offer a lifetime warranty on everything else? It would make everyone wonder about the safety of buying such a GPU.

Bearing that in mind, I wonder if Nvidia politely asked XFX to not make any at all when they told them they would only do a limited warranty - knowing that pulling out totally, and just keeping mum about the reasons, would be the better choice for Fermi's reputation.

This is all wild speculation though.

 

[LiveOrDie]

they end up shiping both in time so who cares

 

[Yukikaze]

That's a sort of a: , but the colors on the smileys need to be reversed...

 

[ArkanHell]

XFX is just afraid of the low sales that could have if they take out the 480, and you know why.

 

[Hayder_Master]

i think nvidia who is losing XFX, maybe people now know the best brand is EVGA it's right but nvidia known as durable and powerful cards cuz the XFX


and i think it's nvidia new GPU's problem, high heat mean GPU take more and that's point to new nvidia GPU's have bad quality

 

[DigitalUK]

XFX has always released Nvidia cards in all flavours , there has to be a very good reason to drop NV now like a bad smell.
at the end of the day we need Nvidia to come through tho or we will be paying through the nose for cards, ive noticed over last few days since the release that the ati 58xx cards seem to be going up in price and not down.

 

[gumpty]

XFX has always released Nvidia cards in all flavours , there has to be a very good reason to drop NV now like a bad smell.
at the end of the day we need Nvidia to come through tho or we will be paying through the nose for cards, ive noticed over last few days since the release the the ati 58xx cards seem to be going up in price and not down.

QFT

 

[OnBoard]

Hope no-one buys them and they are soon 50% off. I wouldn't mind playing with one if it was cheap

Not that it's going to happen, if there is already shortage of them :/
http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/18277/1/

 

[crow1001]

Guess them 5000 cards XFX are selling are doing really well for them, they have basically gave the finger to Nvidia which looks really bad for them, ATI fanbois are gonna love this.

 

[gumpty]

Not that it's going to happen, if there is already shortage of them :/
http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/18277/1/

This could also be a likely reason why XFX pulled out. They couldn't get Nvidia to guarantee they'd be supplied with enough chips to make the whole manufacturing/branding/marketing thing worthwhile; so they just said feck-it, don't bother.

 

[HalfAHertz]

This could also be a likely reason why XFX pulled out. They couldn't get Nvidia to guarantee they'd be supplied with enough chips to make the whole manufacturing/branding/marketing thing worthwhile; so they just said feck-it, don't bother.

Sounds like the most logical reason

 

[Semi-Lobster]

Fudzilla is saying that it was Nvidia who's breaking up with XFX and not the other way around

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/18278/1/

This is sort of the exact opposite of what every other site is saying and they seem to be the only ones claiming this