Asus, Gigabyte and MSI apparently removing AMD gaming branded cards due to GPP??

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Looks like the amd gpu based gaming branded products are now quietly disappearing(allegedly):

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comment...t&utm_name=Amd

It seems the AIB partners have closed ranks :

https://out.reddit.com/t3_85nidj?url...ame=reddit.com

Now I will see how this pans out over the next six months,but if Asus,MSI or Gigabyte are REALLY doing this I will be at least at a personal level avoiding their products where possible or recommending other companies cards and laptops instead for AMD/Nvidia based builds.

Edit!!

If this happens it worries me what happens with their motherboards too so AMD needs to really not let this slide.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems not even distributors cannot talk about GPP even anonymously:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comment...utor_in_sa_is/

Gigabyte tries to worm itself out of what it has done when questioned by computerbase.de:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comment...80_gaming_box/

German website ComputerBase asked Gigabyte why their RX 580 eGPU box is not branded "Aorus". Their reply:

ComputerBase hat bei Gigabyte nachgefragt, warum das Modell mit Radeon RX 580 als einziges der Serie nicht unter Gigabytes Marke für Spieler „Aorus“ läuft. Der Hersteller erklärt, der Fokus liege in diesem Fall nicht auf Spielern. Mit der Produktseite ist das allerdings nicht in Einklang zu bringen, deren erste Überschriften „Turn Your Ultrabook to Gaming Platform“ und „Upgrade the Game Experience“ lauten.

https://www.computerbase.de/2018-03/...x-580/#update1

Rough translation:

ComputerBase asked Gigabyte why the model with Radeon RX 580 is the only in the series which does not come with the "Aorus" gaming branding. The manufacturer states that the product is not gamer focused. This however is inconsistent with the product page, whose headings are "Turn Your Ultrabook to Gaming Platform" and "Upgrade the Game Experience".

Forbes,is one of the first big news sites to pick up on the recent events:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonev.../#c030d404c6a1

When viewing the MSI products page for AMD GPUs, however, their "Gaming X" branded Radeon cards are conspicuously absent. All that remains are reference versions of Polaris 500 series and Vega cards, or MSI's "Armor" lineup. That's beyond interesting.

[Millennium]

gosh darn it AMD you need to fight back you're already the smaller player

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This was mentioned a few days ago too:

https://hothardware.com/news/nvidia-...artner-program

We have to remember, however, that these are allegations surrounding GPP at this point, and none of NVIDIA's partners have officially gone on the record just yet, whether out of fear for backlash or other reasons. However, we'll add that we have reached out to a handful of board partners, OEMs, and ODMs, and -- off the record -- some do share Bennett's concerns. We also reached out to NVIDIA for comment and were pointed to the blog post referenced earlier for guidance on what the GeForce Partner Program entails, and also that the company doesn't comment on "rumors." We will of course update this story should NVIDIA decide to offer further commentary.

Linus made some very strong hints about how his contacts have all closed ranks too,a few days ago.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This was posted on OcUK forums:



It looks like Newegg has de-listed ALL the MSI Radeon Gaming and Gaming-X cards.

Edit!!

Gigabyte ones are still up though,so will wait and see if this is a "glitch" or not.

[Percy1983]

All the more reasons to stick with Sapphire where possible.

With that my current card isn't called gaming... its Nitro+

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Jason Evangelho from Forbes:

"I had 3 companies lined up to talk to me. All have stopped responding, even for off the record conversations."

[Output]

It might still be classed as a rumour, but the events since then heavily imply that there is a lot of truth to it. CAT's quote from the Forbes reporter above certainly continues that.

I can't see there being any way of Nvidia coming out of this in even a remotely positive light, especially as it already seems too late now to backtrack on it with the claim that how it appears was never the intention.

With that said though, I fully expect there to still be a backtrack by Nvidia, it's just too much negative PR for them to keep going with it.

[DanceswithUnix]

With that said though, I fully expect there to still be a backtrack by Nvidia, it's just too much negative PR for them to keep going with it.

From the company that tried to claim something held together by wood screws was their new card? Nah, that takes respect and Nvidia treat their customers like cattle.

[kompukare]

Surely not admitting to defective solder bumps in bumpgate in the 65/55nm era was a far more sinister thing which actually affected millions of customers.
The press mostly let them get away with it, so need for them to change unfortunately.

[kalniel]

All the more reasons to stick with Sapphire where possible.

With that my current card isn't called gaming... its Nitro+

Sapphire are just the AMD brand of PC partners. They also make Zotac nVidia cards. Be interesting to see what they do about all this.

[scaryjim]

Sapphire are just the AMD brand of PC partners. They also make Zotac nVidia cards. Be interesting to see what they do about all this.

That's not what Sapphire's website - or PC Partners - says. If there are links between them they're not publicised and Sapphire is clearly being run as a separate company. So I don't think there'll be any issue there.

[kalniel]

Ok, they make the parts for Sapphire, and have a non-controlling equity stake, but Sapphire is registered as a different company.

The Group manufactures products for brands like AMD and Sapphire
and owns 3 brands, namely, ZOTAC, Inno3D and Manli

http://www.pcpartner.com/upload/pres...0111_Final.pdf

Plus there is the Hexus news article...

http://hexus.net/business/news/compo...it-pc-partner/

PC Partner, likewise, markets its graphics cards in sub-brands. It uses a slightly different approach, it manufactures and specialises in AMD tech graphics cards under the Sapphire brand and Nvidia graphics under the Zotac brand.

[Pob255]

I'd say that this isn't as bad as some people are making it out to be . . . But it is amazingly scummy!

Nvidia don't seem to be stopping any one selling amd cards, just holding them to ransom to only do geforce cards in their "gamer" branded lines.
I don't buy stuff because of "gamer" branding, I buy for function and feature. However that's not to say that people don't and money and time has gone into promoting and building these "gamer" brands.

What makes this so scummy is the way nvidia are doing it, they are using their market position and the supply/demand issues we currently have to ride rough shod over their "partners" and dictate terms.

We really need more players in the tech hardware development market But we've hit the time where development is so complex and the few companies that rule the market are so big that no one new can get in.

Tech is not the only sector this is happening but it is one of the more obvious ones.