In Aftermath of NVIDIA GPP, ASUS Creates AREZ Brand for Radeon Graphics Cards

[the54thvoid]

I agree with what you said about us who know about hardware, but if it wasn't important why nVidia "forced" AIBs to make all those changes? And especially now that they lose marketshare from AMD? Marketing is a big tool in business if used properly. We all know that and should stop underestimate those unticustomer practices from whatever company. We are customers first of all no matter what company we like better. Many ignorants will fall for that trick with branding as usual in every market. Let's hope the news are spread fast and enough to not allow them to succeed. Or else much worse tricks will come after this.

In my workplace, we're not allowed to sell Pepsi from our Coke vending machine. It's not anti trust, it's cold, callous business.

If AMD make a fantastic gfx card, and it has an awesome cooler and still carries the 'Frozr' name, it won't make it less appealing. Likewise, an Nvidia card that underperforms but has a 'Gaming' tag, won't make it a hit. Price/Performance dictate the success. The branding is used by AIB/AIC to flog us any old crap.

Frankly it's less confusing to the uninformed if MSI Gaming X, doesn't apply to both Nvidia and AMD. I always liked Asus 'Ares' and 'Mars' branding, cleverly, the same God under different times.

 

[RejZoR]

In my workplace, we're not allowed to sell Pepsi from our Coke vending machine. It's not anti trust, it's cold, callous business.

If AMD make a fantastic gfx card, and it has an awesome cooler and still carries the 'Frozr' name, it won't make it less appealing. Likewise, an Nvidia card that underperforms but has a 'Gaming' tag, won't make it a hit. Price/Performance dictate the success. The branding is used by AIB/AIC to flog us any old crap.

Frankly it's less confusing to the uninformed if MSI Gaming X, doesn't apply to both Nvidia and AMD. I always liked Asus 'Ares' and 'Mars' branding, cleverly, the same God under different times.

That's not the same. Coca Cola owns the Coca Cola brand and that particular vending machine. NVIDIA doesn't own ASUS to demand their GeForce cards to be only sold under Strix brand. Unless they extort ASUS into submission with "Do it our way or you'll regret it".

 

[IceScreamer]

In my workplace, we're not allowed to sell Pepsi from our Coke vending machine. It's not anti trust, it's cold, callous business.

If AMD make a fantastic gfx card, and it has an awesome cooler and still carries the 'Frozr' name, it won't make it less appealing. Likewise, an Nvidia card that underperforms but has a 'Gaming' tag, won't make it a hit. Price/Performance dictate the success. The branding is used by AIB/AIC to flog us any old crap.

Frankly it's less confusing to the uninformed if MSI Gaming X, doesn't apply to both Nvidia and AMD. I always liked Asus 'Ares' and 'Mars' branding, cleverly, the same God under different times.

I get what you're saying about price/performance, but only a limited number of people actually do the research when buying graphics cards.
For an example, in a store, you see two cards next to each other, an ASUS Geforce ROG GTX XXX, and an AREZ Radeon XXX, what will you buy, a card from ASUS, a company you've heard of, or AREZ a new name (even though the card, or the cooling itself, is just as good or better?).
If you follow the PC industry, you'll see through the branding and you can make a rational decision and buy whichever has the price/performance, or whatever you're after, regardless of the branding. But if you're just a customer buying a card for that new "gamer" rig, I'm guessing you go for the stuff for "gamers", in this case you get ASUS ROG.

 

[sith'ari]

PR stunt. Do not buy Asus or any of the other turds.

Where exactly is the problem here ? (*i'm not referring to you personally, just used your comment in order to make a general comment)
Why are we all so "stunned" ? All these years there have been companies that support ONLY ONE manufacturer.
Palit, Zotac, Gainward etc they support ONLY nVidia , while Sapphire, Asrock(*new addition to the market) etc , they do support ONLY AMD.
So, apparently now, other companies that -untill now- they have been supplying both manufacturers, they are now adjusting their strategy.
Why haven't we been complaining all these past years about Sapphire which only supports AMD, or Zotac which only supports nVidia? If these have the right to support only 1, then why exactly ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI etc, don't have the right to revise their policy at some point as well , if they feel that this revision will serve their interests better?

 

[toxic80]

So, ROG will be just for nVidia video cards!
What will happen with ROG Intel or AMD motherboard or everything else?

 

[BiggieShady]

What really happened? Brands of the board makers gained recognition enough to matter in driving customer decision. So nvidia realized how they do not want to be mixed with competition under the same brand for obvious reasons.

 

[HD64G]

In my workplace, we're not allowed to sell Pepsi from our Coke vending machine. It's not anti trust, it's cold, callous business.

If AMD make a fantastic gfx card, and it has an awesome cooler and still carries the 'Frozr' name, it won't make it less appealing. Likewise, an Nvidia card that underperforms but has a 'Gaming' tag, won't make it a hit. Price/Performance dictate the success. The branding is used by AIB/AIC to flog us any old crap.

Frankly it's less confusing to the uninformed if MSI Gaming X, doesn't apply to both Nvidia and AMD. I always liked Asus 'Ares' and 'Mars' branding, cleverly, the same God under different times.

You keep talking from your perspective when I put in question the whole marketing-sale connection that is a real thing effecting sales greatly in any mass product market for over 50 years now. I wonder if you are just as ignorant of this as your posts show or you are just trying to heavily underestimate (for what reason really?) this truly bad for us anticustomer practice that nVidia and AIB's started recently.

 

[Xzibit]

W O W .......... the amount of nonsense in this comment section is disturbing to say the least !!!

So you all complain because you are going to get the same product under a different name/branding ?

Oh how silly am i ............. TOTALY FORGOT WE ARE IN 2018 ........ PEOPLES ( read kids ) BUY STUFF BECAUSE THEY LIKE THE NAME ON THE BOX NOT WHAT'S INSIDE ........... EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE NOW !!!

You didnt know.

GeForce Partner Program Helps Gamers Know What They’re Buying

Publicly thats what Nvidia is alluding to.

Darn those misleading boxes.

meme time

 

[the54thvoid]

What really happened? Brands of the board makers gained recognition enough to matter in driving customer decision. So nvidia realized how they do not want to be mixed with competition under the same brand for obvious reasons.

Yup. It's called business, a lot of people reacting unreasonably to it even though it surrounds us.

The only thing that can be said against Nvidia for this is if they do starve supply to those not in the GPP. If so, yes, they should be absolutely hammered by the regulators.

 

[sith'ari]

..................
meme time

What about making a similar meme about the "Radeon" logo ? Once upon a time it was ATI's logo, and one day ,-just like you said in the meme-, AMD said :

I made this !!

 

[sutyi]

This just sad... What is even more sad that nVIDIA can get away with this type for strong-arming BS towards its partners.

Launching a subsidiary with zero brand recognition to keep the only competitors cards in production is the answer to GPP? Dear lord...

Wonder what sort of lawsuits will unfold in the wake of this "superb" GPP program.

 

[Fluffmeister]

The meme misses the first part of the chain.

I made this "with your fast efficient popular GPUs"

 

[Xzibit]

The meme misses the first part of the chain.

I made this "with your fast efficient popular GPUs"

Nope. Asus RoG started with motherboards

The ROG story begins with the Crosshair, which set a new standard for enthusiast motherboards in the era of dual-core Athlon 64 processors for Socket AM2

 

[oxidized]

We can, but like 90 % of gamers won't: they buy brand names. They might had good experience with the brand in the past, or somebody recommended it to them. If you put a ASUS card and a AREZ card on the shelf, AREZ cards will be bought only if they are significantly cheaper, or maybe if ASUS would launch a massive advertising campaign stating ASUS quality = AREZ quality. But that will cost loads of cash and it might not even be true (we will see when the cards start selling).

This change might be minor for enthusiasts, but it will have a massive impact on sales.

I, as an old school gamer, am really offended by your misuse of the "gamer" word.

This just sad... What is even more sad that nVIDIA can get away with this type for strong-arming BS towards its partners.

Launching a subsidiary with zero brand recognition to keep the only competitors cards in production is the answer to GPP? Dear lord...

Wonder what sort of lawsuits will unfold in the wake of this "superb" GPP program.

Man it's not like they were forced to accept it, this isn't only on nvidia, it's also on those partners who accepted this contract.

Also, i'd like to point out that again that none of this has been confirmed yet...It's true there have been some subtle signals from many different sources, some of them being GPP partners themselves, but nothing 100% sure yet, again too fast jumping the gun.

 

[Fluffmeister]

Nope. Asus RoG started with motherboards

Then ASUS aren't very clear with their marketing, I can see why Nvidia would want the products THEY MAKE differentiated in some way.

 

[RejZoR]

Yup. It's called business, a lot of people reacting unreasonably to it even though it surrounds us.

The only thing that can be said against Nvidia for this is if they do starve supply to those not in the GPP. If so, yes, they should be absolutely hammered by the regulators.

It's not unreasonable reaction. ASUS created Strix brand do differentiate premium gaming products from the ones for peasants. Now NVIDIA walked in and demands ASUS's general premium brand to become NVIDIA only brand. Because stciking NVIDIA GeForce on the box isn't enough, they want to take over entire Strix brand which till now covered both, AMD and NVIDIA brands (along with AMD and Intel). So, yeah, it's a dirty tactic.

 

[bug]

Interestingly enough, when news surfaced about some manufacturer switching memory chips on their video cards, several people here were very vocal about it. Now that Nvidia and AMD cards get their separate lines there's public outcry again.

I've said from the start, GPP doesn't prevent anyone from offering AMD hardware. It just asks for Nvidia hardware to have a dedicated branding. Though if I were Asus, I would have kept AMD under the ROG moniker and came up with something else for Nvidia. At least that's what would have made more sense to me.

 

[oxidized]

Yup. It's called business, a lot of people reacting unreasonably to it even though it surrounds us.

The only thing that can be said against Nvidia for this is if they do starve supply to those not in the GPP. If so, yes, they should be absolutely hammered by the regulators.

I guess GPP includes that, priority of supplying partners first, and it actually makes sense too.

Interestingly enough, when new surfaced about some manufacturer switching memory chips on their video cards, several people here were very vocal about it. Now that Nvidia and AMD cards get their separate lines there's public outcry again.

I've said from the start, GPP doesn't prevent anyone from offering AMD hardware. It just asks for Nvidia hardware to have a dedicated branding. Though if I were Asus, I would have kept AMD under the ROG moniker and came up with something else for Nvidia. At least that's what would have made more sense to me.

That kills the very goal of nvidia, exploiting the well know branding of a certain manufacturer in order to gain (as if they don't have already) further market advantage, since many would blindly buy some card with X brand, giving more weight to the "X brand" than to the card itself.
So yeah if nvidia asked partners just to differentiate their product from their competition's, and asus thought would be wise enough to give their top brand to nvidia and move AMD to something else, then i'd say it's completely on asus. On the other hand if nvidia asked esplicitly to be assigned of ROG or STRIX brand, well...

 

[Fluffmeister]

Interestingly enough, when new surfaced about some manufacturer switching memory chips on their video cards, several people here were very vocal about it. Now that Nvidia and AMD cards get their separate lines there's public outcry again.

I've said from the start, GPP doesn't prevent anyone from offering AMD hardware. It just asks for Nvidia hardware to have a dedicated branding. Though if I were Asus, I would have kept AMD under the ROG moniker and came up with something else for Nvidia. At least that's what would have made more sense to me.

I'd be more than happy for AMD to keep the RoG branding, I for one didn't realise people here were so precious about it. I'd happily buy a Arez GTX 1180 if it is cheaper than the ASUS RoG equivalent.

I guess that is why i don't download GPU-Z with the RoG skin.

 

[sergionography]

Im using them as examples, Sapphire and XFX are AMD Exclusive, just like how Zotac and EVGA are

Exclusivity and the new nvidia program are 2 different things. Exclusivity is simply dependent on the board company and is something open and negotiable with amd/nvidia as they see fit for their best interest or so, and if those exclusive companies such as sapphire get any perks from AMD for being exclusive then its strictly something sapphire nagotiated with AMD and settled on. The nvidia program on the other hand does things the other way, where instead of the board company deciding and negotiating what is best for them, you have nvidia blackmailing them or pressuring them into submission, with threats of having second tier service/supply if they dont cooperate(basically forcing them to be exclusive).

 

[sutyi]

Man it's not like they were forced to accept it, this isn't only on nvidia, it's also on those partners who accepted this contract.

Also, i'd like to point out that again that none of this has been confirmed yet...It's true there have been some subtle signals from many different sources, some of them being GPP partners themselves, but nothing 100% sure yet, again too fast jumping the gun.

You are forced to accept these terms, it is one of the main reasons GPP was launched for.

Anyone who falls behind is left behind. Get on the bandwagon or start waving good bye to your priority in chip distribution, samples ahead of product launches, or God knows what other benefits you might had prior to GPP. It is a multi-billion dollar segment so you can't afford to get chips per-se 3 months late compared to someone with GPP access.

If Gigabyte, MSI, etc. are on the the GPP express train heading to Gamersmoneyvill, sure as hell ASUS can't afford to follow them on a handcar, if you get my drift...

 

[Vayra86]

You keep talking from your perspective when I put in question the whole marketing-sale connection that is a real thing effecting sales greatly in any mass product market for over 50 years now. I wonder if you are just as ignorant of this as your posts show or you are just trying to heavily underestimate (for what reason really?) this truly bad for us anticustomer practice that nVidia and AIB's started recently.

This person is one of the few who really gets it. You can sprinkle your personal purchase behaviour on top but it doesn't change the reality that branding works, its a money maker and improves the value of stuff that comes out of the same factory. Its the same reason people buy similar priced, equal in performance Nvidia cards over the AMD alternative as well. Let's not sugar coat this...

AMD historically has tremendous problems extracting a profit from its graphics division and this GPP only pushes them further down the drain. Now, I will agree that AMD is letting us down on the GPU side of things (they are more than a full gen behind reality, let's face it), but saying this is 'business as usual' simply is not correct. This is a marketplace with very scarce competition already.

What we have now is Nvidia taking all the premium branding and 'owning' it across the entire marketplace, while AMD product gets relegated to lazy knockoff brands that are just being re-used from the past. Ares was Asus' dual-GPU branding. Now they stuck a Z in there (to appeal to fifteen year olds and no one else, so is that the target market instead of the wealthy 25-35 age group??) and they sell any kind of AMD GPU under that similar branding. Where is the logic? Where is the marketing concept? It just doesn't exist. Its a cheap stand in and that is how many people will perceive it.


I will say I was never a big fan of Asus because its overpriced while not being any better in any way and their branding doesn't appeal to me in the slightest, but many people know Asus as one of the few brands of PC parts, its a company that has been around since forever and their branding has gained a LOT of traction.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

It makes zero sense for ASUS to create this cheap sounding brand instead of using the ARES brand they already have unless they are taking all the gaming brands. The GPP seems to be going beyond even what was previously reported. Nvidia is going to have all the main brands and AMD is going to be relegated to cheap knock-off brand names.

I hope Nvidia is sued for this program and fast.

This is a blatant group boycott and likely illegal per se (inherently illegal). I expect AMD to be building a case getting documents and testimony from the complicit parties (MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, etc.).

Edit: https://www.hardocp.com/article/2018/03/08/geforce_partner_program_impacts_consumer_choice

Before we go any further, in the effort to be as transparent as possible, we need to let you know that AMD came to us and presented us with "this story." AMD shopped this story with other websites as well. However, with the information that was presented to us by AMD, there was no story to be told, but it surely pointed to one that was worth looking into. There needed to be some legwork done in collecting facts and interviews.

So basically AMD wanted journalists to prod where they legally couldn't (because someone like MSI sees AMD calling about GPP, MSI is obligated to hang up on them). Mission accomplished, I'd say, and now AIBs are bending over backwards for NVIDIA evidencing that the alleged pressure was likely applied.


In the inevitable lawsuit, I hope AMD adds NVIDIA's using software features to lock consumers into NVIDIA hardware as well. NVIDIA said this was in their intent as well:

The GeForce Partner Program is designed to ensure that gamers have full transparency into the GPU platform and software they're being sold, and can confidently select products that carry the NVIDIA GeForce promise.

NVIDIA has been inching in this direction for a very long time and it's past time for AMD to use due process to put an end to it.

 

[oxidized]

You are forced to accept these terms, it is one of the main reasons GPP was launched for.

Anyone who falls behind is left behind. Get on the bandwagon or start waving good bye to your priority in chip distribution, samples ahead of product launches, or God knows what other benefits you might had prior to GPP. It is a multi-billion dollar segment so you can't afford to get chips per-se 3 months late compared to someone with GPP access.

If Gigabyte, MSI, etc. are on the the GPP express train heading to Gamersmoneyvill, sure as hell ASUS can't afford to follow them on a handcar, if you get my drift...

I don't think nvidia would not ship chips to those who don't join GPP, it makes no sense, they would be hurting themselves too. They accept the contract they also accept all the terms that's normal.

 

[kruk]

I, as an old school gamer, am really offended by your misuse of the "gamer" word.

And, I, as an old school gamer, am really offended by your elitism. A (video) gamer is a person who plays (video) games, period. To me, it doesn't matter what games does he (or she) play or what hardware is used in the process ...

I don't think nvidia would not ship chips to those who don't join GPP, it makes no sense, they would be hurting themselves too. They accept the contract they also accept all the terms that's normal.

He wrote priority. They will still give chips to ones that didn't get into the GPP program, but If you don't get the chips first, you will miss out on massive amount of cash. And AIBs won't risk it.