
Pulling the Plug on GeForce Partner Program - malmaud
https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2018/05/04/gpp/
======
ysleepy
It was a huge dick move from the beginning.

Requiring Partners to make their gaming brands Nvidia exclusive way obviously
intended to hurt AMD.

Maybe they got a serious call from the FTC about anticompetitive practices.

Also see:
[https://www.hardocp.com/article/2018/03/08/geforce_partner_p...](https://www.hardocp.com/article/2018/03/08/geforce_partner_program_impacts_consumer_choice)

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mediocrejoker
I find it hypocritical that NVIDIA is trying to spin this as an effort at
"clear branding" when they also do things like releasing a lower power version
of the MX150 without changing the branding.

[https://www.anandtech.com/show/12565/nvidia-silently-
rolls-o...](https://www.anandtech.com/show/12565/nvidia-silently-rolls-out-
slower-mx150-for-ultrabooks)

~~~
kuwze
also[0].

[0]: [https://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-has-been-sneaking-in-
sl...](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-has-been-sneaking-in-slower-
GeForce-MX150-1D12-variant-onto-some-Ultrabooks.289358.0.html)

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kankroc
Good riddance, it was a terrible anticompetitive idea and I would rather see
Nvidia innovate instead of relying on such methods.

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dawnerd
> Rather than battling misinformation, we have decided to cancel the program.

I find that hilarious. Trying to make themselves sound like the victim here.

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cmiles74
The Register claims that the FTC and the European Commission were looking into
it.

"Last month, some of those who had complained claimed in online forums that
they had been contacted by regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) and European Commission, and had been told the authorities were looking
into the reports."

[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/04/nvidia_gpp_axed/](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/04/nvidia_gpp_axed/)

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jacquesm
Does this give any hope that if enough pressure is put on Nvidia that they
will cave? If so someone ought to point out to regulators what they have done
with that ridiculous 'forbidden in datacenters' clause.

~~~
MrEldritch
Please don't. I like being able to afford GPUs for my gaming PC. If the price
equilibrated to be somewhere between current absurdly-underpriced "gaming"
GPUs and absurdly-overpriced "datacenter" GPUs, I would not be able to afford
them.

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gervase
It isn't clear to me from this press release what "leaning into GeForce"
means. Will partners need to include the GeForce name as part of their product
names, in addition to the product numbers?

Anyway, I'm a little surprised that Nvidia didn't ride out the complaints and
press their current GPU advantage, but I assume they're working with a more
complete picture of the landscape than I am.

~~~
jsnell
Oh, they absolutely didn't do this just due to PR reasons. This barely even
showed up on the radar even for people who follow gaming technology, let alone
the bigger market. Seems pretty obvious they realized they'd totally
miscalculated things and this was going to be a legal nightmare for them in
the EU. And you don't ride out the complaints anti-competition regulators.

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TazeTSchnitzel
Are they _actually_ pulling it? Maybe they're just trying to avoid negative
publicity.

If they are pulling it, I wonder why. I suppose it probably meant all their
AIB partners hated them.

~~~
slumberlust
They're pulling it because it already did its damage. That and to make GPP2.0
w/ nda/gag orders built in.

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wmf
Has anyone heard of "substitute [presumably AMD] GPUs hidden behind a pile of
techno-jargon"?

~~~
garyfirestorm
that did make me laugh.

user: i would like to order ummmmmm....a GPU seller: we got this high
performance gaming GPU that is compatible with direct X, uses DDR5 8gig memory
and base clocked at 1600 MHz, memory speed is 10gbps, supports open gl has
high bandwidth memory. we call it {asus/msi/...} GPX10000000x user: i just
want the one with Nvidia Pascal. thx. ;)

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21
I don't understand anything at all from this press release.

Could somebody TL;DR the situation to someone who doesn't follow GPU markets?

~~~
ztjio
The best summary is an example. Prior to the GPP muscling, ASUS sold both
nVidia and AMD cards under its ASUS brand, using sub-brands like ROG, nonsense
branding terms like Strix, etc. But they were all ASUS on the box.

After capitulating to the GPP requirements from nVidia, all of ASUS’s AMD card
offerings are rebranded under the name AREZ. The boxes hide the ASUS branding
in dim gray, off in the corner, where you won’t notice it at all. It looks
like an entirely different company and makes it look to a casual observer like
ASUS (a famous brand like it or not) doesn’t even sell AMD cards. Only nVidia.
And of course, AREZ is just some new no-name brand who can even trust it? And
all they sell is AMD, probably some budget garbage right?

It’s stupid. nVidia makes it sound like they were innocently trying to promote
their products when they were actually forcing well known brands to entirely
divorce their trusted names from AMD products. No matter what way nVidia tries
to spin this, the outcome was anticompetitive in every way.

~~~
wnevets
>After capitulating to the GPP requirements from nVidia, all of ASUS’s AMD
card offerings are rebranded under the name AREZ.

source that one caused the other?

~~~
opencl
By sheer coincidence, within hours of the announcement of GPP ending they have
ROG-branded AMD cards back on their website and AREZ has disappeared.

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aphextron
Anyone who thinks Nvidia was being anti-competitive here is delusional. There
is no competition in the GPU market simply because there are no competitors.
Nvidia GPUs are so far beyond AMD in terms of performance that they are
qualitatively different products, which serve entirely different markets. The
market could be called a duopoloy at best, but any notion of free market
competition is absurd when you factor the sunk cost of trying to catch up with
Nvidia.

We're not talking about commodity widget makers vying for market share here.
This is a company at the absolute forefront of computer science and
engineering, pushing the boundaries of what is possible for humanity.

~~~
vvanders
> pushing the boundaries of what is possible for humanity.

Oh please.

There's a _ton_ of competition in the GPU space, heck Nvidia isn't even in one
of the more popular modern consoles. There's other GPU markets as well where
Nvidia is far from the dominant player.

~~~
aphextron
Who? Who else is selling top end consumer GPUs?

~~~
vvanders
> no competition in the GPU market

There will be no goalpost moving here.

AMD, ARM, Qualcomm and PowerVR all build compelling GPU solutions.

~~~
aphextron
Ok, so go build a gaming rig with an ARM GPU

My point from the very beginning is that there is only one viable option for a
top end consumer GPU, as would be desired by the gaming community.

