Legendary Overclocker KINGPIN Leaves EVGA and Joins PNY to Develop Next-Generation GPUs for Extreme OC

[Chomiq]

Is it just me or didn't Kingpin say in the video that nothing is finalized yet?

 

[Ferrum Master]

That's only a tank, without gas/liquid... yeah... hard times with reasoning...

 

[chrcoluk]

According to GN, Kingpin already left EVGA over a year ago (along with all their motherboard bios developers). Story now seems jumbled up.

 

[nguyen]

That's only a tank, without gas/liquid... yeah... hard times with reasoning...

I think you inhaled too much dry ice , LN2 overclocking is obviously out of your league

 

[Pooch]

Firstly this guy doesnt design gpus, its the board he works on. And Secondsly they dont actually have him design anything. Hes a face for a sector of a company that is struggling to find ways to sell video cards in a saturated, hard to navigate market, but they are looking to FILL THAT GAP of expensive video cards? To me there are two types of cards, the affordable ones that have reasonable decent power, EG gtx 660 gtx 1660 super rtx 3060. funny how they seem to land on 60 for anything that is in this range, the reasonable range, and then there is really anything above that takes it usually at least $100 more than the alternative. so now we are talking more than the price of a current gen console. and once you go over that price point, its a lot harder to move them. And as far as high end cards go and the availability of them, i dont know what they are talking about.

 

[Why_Me]

EVGA died a quick death once they decided to forego Team Green. The power of Nvidia is real.

 

[ty_ger]

He's a brand name. He's the face of a larger department. He didn't do it on his own. He's an overclocker; and not even the best overclocker. I wish him luck, but I think he will continue to struggle in this changing market.
All the fanbois in the video comments saying 'Let's Gooooo!' and stuff, get a life. Getting hyped about a brand name is mental.

 

[Nater]

Sure, GPU's don't have headroom like they used to, but I look forward to the build quality that comes out of partnerships like this. How many teardown video's have we seen where thermal pads aren't even touching memory, heatsinks aren't flat, etc. Guys like this on the payroll can put the brakes on that shit quick, and paying extra for the "brand" actually means something again. *stares in ASUS*

 

[Dr. Dro]

EVGA died a quick death once they decided to forego Team Green. The power of Nvidia is real.

This has nothing to do with Nvidia. Imagine if McDonald's decided to stop selling burgers, or KFC stopped selling chicken. It's the same thing EVGA did, they, primarily a graphics card company, stopped selling graphics cards.

EVGA's downfall is its own management's fault. They have been doing things wrong for a long time and eventually it was no longer sustainable. The CEO clearly does not care and is letting the company die a very slow death. It will eventually completely wind down all of its operations and close up shop. It`s one step from that point right now.

He's a brand name. He's the face of a larger department. He didn't do it on his own. He's an overclocker; and not even the best overclocker. I wish him luck, but I think he will continue to struggle in this changing market.
All the fanbois in the video comments saying 'Let's Gooooo!' and stuff, get a life. Getting hyped about a brand name is mental.

We will see. It remains that EVGA Kingpin cards were some of the best in class, up there with the ASUS Matrix and the Galax OC Lab cards. It is worth noting that PNY doesn't seem to have any particular skill in AIB design, they sell reference design boards and some models that are repackaged from China (their Uprising 4090 is the same one Manli sells in China, for example). That, and they distribute the professional cards in the Americas for NVIDIA (Leadtek does this in the EU, iirc).

 

[Knight47]

I don't really care about overpriced Kingpin stuff, but he should've partnered with Palit instead or tune the he'll out of the XFX 7900 GRE

 

[evernessince]

ALL the XOC Radeon Cards have died..... Asus Ares, Sapphire Toxic, MSI lightning.....

I really wish I could have gotten a Lightning 290X but didn't want to wait got the Sapphire Vapor X which was fine....

You don't see as many on the Nvidia side either though.... Most cards have zero headroom or at best 5% these days so no point. The last one I owned was a Kingpin 980ti probably should have kept it but I used it to get a free 1080 with EVGAs step up program.

All the of the top premium SKUs in general from ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte are exclusive to Nvidia now. Nvidia fully implemented the GeForce partner program and the tech news media didn't give a crap.

A collective shrug as Nvidia continues to tighten it's grip on the market.

 

[freeagent]

A collective shrug as Nvidia continues to tighten it's grip on the market.

Who is stepping up to stop them?

The answer is no one.

 

[evernessince]

EVGA's downfall is its own management's fault. They have been doing things wrong for a long time and eventually it was no longer sustainable. The CEO clearly does not care and is letting the company die a very slow death. It will eventually completely wind down all of its operations and close up shop. It`s one step from that point right now.

What you say is contrary to the evidence. GN did multiple videos on the subject and every partner places the blame on Nvidia. EVGA decided to stop selling GPUs because it was fed up with Nvidia, not because of something they themselves did.

I swear, some people act like it's illegal to blame Nvidia for anything.

Who is stepping up to stop them?

The answer is no one.

Good luck to anyone trying to stop a 3 trillion dollar company with a massive penchant for anti-competitive practices.

 

[freeagent]

Good luck to anyone trying to stop a 3 trillion dollar company with a massive penchant for anti-competitive practices.

From the early 2000s on, they pretty much created the market.. everyone else has been playing catchup.. the entire time..

 

[Dirt Chip]

In order to really OC GPU today you must go with a very good water loop so enough voltage increase, on selected samples only, will be possible (he said so himself in the GN video). That come with a massive extra cost, if NV will ever allow it for an AIB.
If not that, all you can do is make the GPU cooler and\or quiter within the same preferences level.

Much luck to KP, but it will be expensive as f***

 

[nguyen]

In order ot really OC GPU today you must go with a very good water loop so a enough voltage increase, on selected samples only, is possible (he said so himself in the GN video). That come with a massive extra cost, if NV will ever allow it for an AIB.
If not that, all you can do is make the GPU cooler and\or quiter within the same preferences level.

Much luck to KP, but it will be expensive as f***

You also need to live in one of the coldest place on earth too , there is no way to keep the 4090 below 31C on watercooling/aircooling

 

[chrcoluk]

Firstly this guy doesnt design gpus, its the board he works on. And Secondsly they dont actually have him design anything. Hes a face for a sector of a company that is struggling to find ways to sell video cards in a saturated, hard to navigate market, but they are looking to FILL THAT GAP of expensive video cards? To me there are two types of cards, the affordable ones that have reasonable decent power, EG gtx 660 gtx 1660 super rtx 3060. funny how they seem to land on 60 for anything that is in this range, the reasonable range, and then there is really anything above that takes it usually at least $100 more than the alternative. so now we are talking more than the price of a current gen console. and once you go over that price point, its a lot harder to move them. And as far as high end cards go and the availability of them, i dont know what they are talking about.

A good point, I am curious where is this gap in the market now $800-2000 is on existing products already.

 

[evernessince]

From the early 2000s on, they pretty much created the market.. everyone else has been playing catchup.. the entire time..

There is no everyone else since 3DFX went out of business. There is only AMD (and formally ATI) and they were near bankrupt for a good chunk of that time. It's not like Nvidia was necessarily passive towards competition either, they actively went out of their way to enable ecosystem lock-in and harm competitor performance in games where possible. Nvidia leads the market like how Microsoft or Apple leads the market. They have their innovations but their control over the market greatly stifles innovation overall, is actively anti-consumer, and makes it extremely hard to choose anything but Nvidia. Think about how hard it is to enter the GPU market with the current amount of software lock-in that's present. It's in essentially every piece of software from games to the professional space.


On the article itself, I'm not a super fan of PNY given they don't have a transferabble warranty. There's no reason to invalidate a warranty due to a change of owners other than to reduce liability. I'd rather they just increase price if needed to include a better warranty policy.

 

[freeagent]

There is no everyone else since 3DFX went out of business.

Nvidia bought them.

Think about how hard it is to enter the GPU market with the current amount of software lock-in that's present. It's in essentially every piece of software from games to the professional space.

I don't have to, just look at how China is progressing on their own, not an easy task.

There's no reason to invalidate a warranty due to a change of owners

Maybe I am lucky, I really have not needed warranty. My stuff just seems to work.

 

[ty_ger]

We will see. It remains that EVGA Kingpin cards were some of the best in class, up there with the ASUS Matrix and the Galax OC Lab cards. It is worth noting that PNY doesn't seem to have any particular skill in AIB design, they sell reference design boards and some models that are repackaged from China (their Uprising 4090 is the same one Manli sells in China, for example). That, and they distribute the professional cards in the Americas for NVIDIA (Leadtek does this in the EU, iirc).

See, that's just it. I don't think Kingpin has any particular skill in AIB design either. From what I could tell, TiN (and probably others) was what was behind the technical design. That's why I don't understand why people are hyped about just the brand name, unless they also announce hiring technically skilled individuals.
All the guides explaining the product, the software, the switches, the functionality, and the reasoning were not written by Kingpin. I think he will really struggle on his own. And I think others deserve a lot more credit than this 'legendary' face to a brand name.

 

[evernessince]

Maybe I am lucky, I really have not needed warranty. My stuff just seems to work.

Hopefully you never do. It's a hassle to have to go through the RMA process but at the current price of GPUs it's important to be covered should anything go wrong.

See, that's just it. I don't think Kingpin has any particular skill in AIB design either. From what I could tell, TiN (and probably others) was what was behind the technical design. That's why I don't understand why people are hyped about just the brand name, unless they also announce hiring technically skilled individuals.

Think about it like this: Kingpin knows the recipe, ingredients, and steps of what go into an XOC video card. The engineers are the one's that know the precise amounts and actually have the skill to pull the recipe off. At the end of the day Kingpin is bringing valuable knowledge and skill to an area PNY is weak in.

 

[chrcoluk]

See, that's just it. I don't think Kingpin has any particular skill in AIB design either. From what I could tell, TiN (and probably others) was what was behind the technical design. That's why I don't understand why people are hyped about just the brand name, unless they also announce hiring technically skilled individuals.
All the guides explaining the product, the software, the switches, the functionality, and the reasoning were not written by Kingpin. I think he will really struggle on his own. And I think others deserve a lot more credit than this 'legendary' face to a brand name.

From what I taken in from the video is he affects GPU production primarily in two ways.

1 - The drive for a better product, he mentioned having access to his own team of engineers, and he can then push them to use specific components, place things in a certain way, the GPU bios, that sort of thing.
2 - He has input on the cooling, he even claimed the EVGA kingpin cooling are his own designs.

 

[Panther_Seraphin]

Kingpin was always about making sure that the boards had exactly what they needed to be the best without bean counters coming in and demanding lower quailty parts/lower numbers of phases etc be used to meet a price point.

So they were always pricy, but they offered the best of the best that class of card could offer with only the silicon lottery being the only thing he couldnt control.

I could honestly imagine that the Kingpin 4090 would have been a 2 slot AIO card from the start AND 2 power connecters coming out in the normal location and not the top that nVidia wanted everyone to use.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Who is stepping up to stop them?

The answer is no one.

If you can't beat them, join them. Nvidia for all

 

[Bones]

I'm thinking this will be a boost to his own website/shop, Kingpin Cooling.
They currently don't have any GPU pots for sale but that should change before too long and even help boost his CPU pot line (T-Rex) as well.

I've got a T-Rex v1 and it's what I use for most of what I do for that purpose - Great pot to use when going for it.