First Rule of GPP: Don't Talk About GPP

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rgMekanic

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Just over two weeks after Kyle broke the story of the Geforce Partner Program and its potential anti-consumer policies, the silence from Nvidia and it's partners has been deafening. Forbes published an article today, in which writer Jason Evangelho outlines that is isn't just Kyle who has been getting the cold shoulder. Jason states that while performing his own follow-up to the HardOCP investigation, all of his contacts have gone dark, including a few who had agreed to speak off the record. However Jason does state "I had two brief conversations that made it obvious the program was troublesome, to put it mildly."

Jason also points out a Reddit thread that was posted today, pointing out the GPP had claimed its "first victim." Further digging found nothing amiss at Asus' website, with plenty of ROG Radeon offerings. However the MSI product page for their "Gaming X" branded GPUs are devoid of Radeon cards. As well Gigabyte has released a new external GPU enclosure, housing an RX 580, which is suspiciously devoid of any AUROS branding, unlike the NVIDIA counterparts. ComputerBase.de reached out to Gigabyte about why this model was not under the brand for "players," and were told by Gigabyte that the focus of the RX 580 enclosure is not on "players."

It is quite telling how many outlets, as well as YouTubers have picked up on this story, without one official response from NVIDIA or any AIB partners. Personally it makes me wonder if they are hoping that the outrage will blow over, or if they are preparing for possible litigation. When you have outlets like Forbes, Jayztwocents, and AdoredTV all investigating and keeping the GPP in the news, the lack of response is disconcerting.
 
Well you are likely going to get nothing form the AIBs because saying anything would be as damaging as any other move. So if you aint going to say it with lawyers, keep quiet until it's time ot break out the lawyers.

NVIDIA isn't going to say anything because there's nothing good to say. Best case, it's unpopular, but they believe it is legally defensible. Nothing they can say will make that look good.
 
It is stuff like this that makes me not want to buy Nvidia products.

The last big one was the locking out of hardware PhysX in systems that have ATI/AMD video cards along side of Nvidia cards. Oh, and the purposeful performance crippling of software PhysX.
 
I was skeptical about this (still am, frankly) but it's becoming harder to ignore. A statement from Nvidia and partners would go a long way.
 
Am I the only one that thinks jayztwocents is an idiot?

edit: not talking specifically about the geforce video. I mean that, in general, any video I have ever seen of this guy he is an idiot that knows less about computers than my dog.
 
upload_2018-3-20_16-56-42.png
 
So, let me get this straight...

Vendors can only profit in a price fixed market by way of OEM rebates and kickbacks. In order to further establish reliable OEM support (the only way to justify competing at these "low" prices), vendors are now agreeing to give up their premium marketing sub-brands (gamer-focused branding) as nVidia exclusive.

nVidia is just claiming massive chunks of other companies marketing efforts, which they are basically forced to hand over, lest they are "frowned upon" by the OEM with the handouts. That's so fucked.
 
heatlesssun said:
Curious, did this get changed recently? The RX 580s still show Aorus branding: https://www.aorus.com/product-list.php?p=2&t=17&t2=54&
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I think at least part of the problem here is that we're talking about premium brands (Aorus, ROG, etc) and AMD is incredibly weak with premium GPUs. Gigabyte doesn't even have Vega listed anywhere on their site. Does GB even make Vega cards? It's not manufacturers' fault that AMD makes shitty top-end GPUs.
 
DTabakov said:
You probably see a cached version or sth, or it could be straight from the "location" As I am not from the US and went to the Aorus site via the "Official Gigabyte" site from my location.

But still...look at this:

https://www.aorus.com/product-list.php?p=4&t=17&
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Both the MSI and Gigabyte sites are (sporadically) missing cards, at the same time, and only with the Gaming X / Aorus AMD cards. It definitely looks like we're seeing the start of these cards being phased out.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
Both the MSI and Gigabyte sites are (sporadically) missing cards, at the same time, and only with the Gaming X / Aorus AMD cards. It definitely looks like we're seeing the start of these cards being phased out.
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I read about the Gaming X in the article from Forbes, and this is why I did not mentioned it. However, the Aorus was not expected to phase them out so fast.
 
There is too little information and too much speculation. This could be part of a massive conspiracy or it could be products being phased out by both sides or some market rebranding.

Hell the profit margins are better on crypto mining so maybe they are gearing up for an add campaign in that direction.
 
The correct translation for these "players" you refer too is just "gamers". Kind of obvious, right?
 
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".
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https://www.computerbase.de/2018-03/gigabyte-gaming-box-rx-580/#update1

So a 'gaming box' isn't for gamers, according to Gigabyte.
 
Lakados said:
There is too little information and too much speculation. This could be part of a massive conspiracy or it could be products being phased out by both sides or some market rebranding.

Hell the profit margins are better on crypto mining so maybe they are gearing up for an add campaign in that direction.
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Jesus man, how much of the koolaid did you drink?!
 
Honest question for you guys. What do you honestly foresee down the road if this type of trend and behavior continues down the road for Nvidia and does not change? How will this affect the future of gaming and the bitcoin market?
 
A quote from one of my favorite band's 1976 concert film:

Kid to an officer: "How do you feel about what just happened?"

Officer(smiling): "No comment"

Kid: "No comment can be more incriminating than 'a' comment"

Officer(smiling more so): "No comment"
 
It's obvious what is happening when you read the Computerbase article and the interview with Gigabyte. They asked why the gaming brand is no longer with the Radeon cards, and Gigabyte says "it's not focused for gaming/gamers"...

This is clear as day that NV's arm twisting has taken effect. From now onwards, Gaming = Geforce, that's it. NV wants gamers to associate with them only, nobody else.

These tactics disgust me and I will NEVER touch anything NV again, period.
 
Don't care for Nvidia's usual tactics that do nothing but hurt the industry as a whole.

But what if Nvidia face turned and blocked crypto mining (in some form) going forward, realigning their cards with gamers and available for gamers.

I think many people would be conflicted.
 
I'm sure it will be soon that we will hear an announcement. Just have to rgb all the things to confuse everyone.
 
Krazy925 said:
I'd quit Nvidia if AMD gave me something to quit them for.

Same with Intel.

Same with Microsoft.

Same with Apple.


Sooooooo basically can someone do something about this?
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I never understand why people such as yourself are willing to gain short term benefit at the expense of severe long term detriments. It's why we are in the position we are in now. Do you expect some magical fairy to give AMD more money for R&D so they can compete with Nvidia? Does it even matter if someone did? When ATI/AMD had the better products, people still bought Nvidia over them. AMD is in a far worse position than they have ever been. The market wasn't flooded with monitors that are locked to Nvidia graphics cards at the time and Gameworks wasn't an industry standard
 
variant said:
I never understand why people such as yourself are willing to gain short term benefit at the expense of severe long term detriments. It's why we are in the position we are in now.
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So we should wait 1.5 years after Volta comes out for AMD to launch Navi, which ends up being a worse performer for the same price or more. It was a reasonable debate with old cards like the 4870 vs 280, even the 7970 vs 680 to a degree. It doesn't hold water anymore with Vega. Nvidia had a much cleaner slate pre-2015 (ish), too. People started paying attention after VRAM-gate.

AMD doesn't actually offer an upgrade path for my OC'd 980 Ti, even if I wanted to. Which means if I wait for Navi it will be a total of 4 YEARS between cards before an upgrade even exists.
 
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TaintedSquirrel said:
So we should wait 1.5 years after Volta comes out for AMD to launch Navi, which ends up being a worse performer for the same price or more. It was a reasonable debate with old cards like the 4870 vs 280, even the 7970 vs 770 to a degree. It doesn't hold water anymore with Vega.

Nvidia had a much cleaner slate pre-2015 (ish), too. People started paying attention after VRAM-gate.
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Let's keep digging the hole, maybe someone will cover everyone with pixie dust so we can fly out of it.
 
variant said:
I never understand why people such as yourself are willing to gain short term benefit at the expense of severe long term detriments. It's why we are in the position we are in now. Do you expect some magical fairy to give AMD more money for R&D so they can compete with Nvidia? Does it even matter if someone did? When ATI/AMD had the better products, people still bought Nvidia over them.
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Its not the consumer's fault when the competition is unable to provide a compelling product. Prior to Ryzen and Threadripper AMD's CPUs were shit for years. Its not up to the consumer to take pity on a company. A consumer should be concerned with buying the best product for their needs, whatever those needs may be. I find things like company loyalty and pitying the underdog just because they're the underdog to be utterly retarded.
 
Honestly, GPP is great for AMD! I currently own over 10 AMD cards and 3 Geforce cards. Drivers are improving big time on AMD cards. AMD stand to rake in the big bucks! If Nvidia wishes to shoot themselves in the foot, by all means go ahead!

Geforce may have the lead in gaming, but it is not enough for me to refuse AMD. Competition is necessary to calm down greed!
 
Derangel said:
Its not the consumer's fault when the competition is unable to provide a compelling product. Prior to Ryzen and Threadripper AMD's CPUs were shit for years. Its not up to the consumer to take pity on a company. A consumer should be concerned with buying the best product for their needs, whatever those needs may be. I find things like company loyalty and pitying the underdog just because they're the underdog to be utterly retarded.
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Not buying from a company like Intel that utilizes illegal shady monopolistic tactics is not taking pity on their competition. You buy their competition because it's an alternative to buying from a company that is bad for the industry and consumers as a whole. A consumer that is only concerned with short term benefit is a stupid consumer. Consumers as you describe deserve the monopolies and everything bad that comes with them and have no right to whine about such monopolies.
 
If/when I do my next build I've already stated that I'll likely be using an AMD CPU. [H]'s impressive reviews won me over on them. GPU's, not so much. Pitying the underdog doesn't help when I have to keep dialing back my settings to play my games. Might as well go back to console if that's the case and not likely I'll do that either. I understand if their resources don't allow for a truly superior card to NV's top of the line. If that's the bottom line then pursue a different strategy such as true Mgpu support that doesn't rely on drivers and dev. support. People like me would gladly pony up the extra $$$ for a couple or three of AMD's best to avoid NV.

A company like AMD that's been so proud of how differently it approaches the field compared to its competitors should seriously consider that. Just in terms of display's, the adoption rate for free-sync seems to be going thru the roof. I've recently even read of possibilities of T.V.'s starting to adopt it. Couple that with the number of consoles Sony & MS(there was also a mention of X-box enabling free-sync soon) plus the partnership with Intel and I find it difficult to believe how they're not in a position to pounce NV. Despite the disagreements I've seen on this thread I'm not reading anyone saying team green or death, quite the opposite actually.
 
variant said:
Not buying from a company like Intel that utilizes illegal shady monopolistic tactics is not taking pity on their competition. You buy their competition because it's an alternative to buying from a company that is bad for the industry and consumers as a whole. A consumer that is only concerned with short term benefit is a stupid consumer. Consumers as you describe deserve the monopolies and everything bad that comes with them and have no right to whine about such monopolies.
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I am not going to intentionally cripple my computer with bad hardware. AMD's current situation was not entirely the fault of their competition. AMD has done a damn good job of fucking themselves over quite often. I'd love if AMD had GPUs that were viable alternatives to what I have. They don't and I refuse to cripple to my performance in order to "support" them. My next CPU will probably be AMD because they finally have CPUs and a platform worth a damn and their prices are more compelling for what I'll likely be looking at.
 
variant said:
I never understand why people such as yourself are willing to gain short term benefit at the expense of severe long term detriments. It's why we are in the position we are in now. Do you expect some magical fairy to give AMD more money for R&D so they can compete with Nvidia? Does it even matter if someone did? When ATI/AMD had the better products, people still bought Nvidia over them. AMD is in a far worse position than they have ever been. The market wasn't flooded with monitors that are locked to Nvidia graphics cards at the time and Gameworks wasn't an industry standard
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Yeah you can claim that but I bought an 8150 and that shit was doodoo. Before the 780? Dual 7950s. Now? 980ti because I got it much cheaper used than I could get an AMD equiv.

They still gotta earn that money. I switch teams when it make sense. I switch teams to what the best value is for my use. Plus the high end AMD cards were all sporting CLCs the last time I bought a card. I have a full loop, and I guess I could get a block but just seems weird to do that.
 
Derangel said:
I am not going to intentionally cripple my computer with bad hardware. AMD's current situation was not entirely the fault of their competition. AMD has done a damn good job of fucking themselves over quite often. I'd love if AMD had GPUs that were viable alternatives to what I have. They don't and I refuse to cripple to my performance in order to "support" them. My next CPU will probably be AMD because they finally have CPUs and a platform worth a damn and their prices are more compelling for what I'll likely be looking at.
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You are intentionally crippling your PC. You just aren't realizing it. Buy Nvidia, let this continue on and the GPU market will be a mirror image of the CPU market where advances come slower and slower. Short term benefit over severe long term detriment.

Krazy925 said:
Yeah you can claim that but I bought an 8150 and that shit was doodoo. Before the 780? Dual 7950s. Now? 980ti because I got it much cheaper used than I could get an AMD equiv.

They still gotta earn that money. I switch teams when it make sense. I switch teams to what the best value is for my use. Plus the high end AMD cards were all sporting CLCs the last time I bought a card. I have a full loop, and I guess I could get a block but just seems weird to do that.
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A people without self awareness, morality, or long term perspective deserve the hell hole they create.
 
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Well, if they were removed, that have been re-added at both MSI and Gigabyte..
 
Krazy925 said:
Yeah you can claim that but I bought an 8150 and that shit was doodoo. Before the 780? Dual 7950s. Now? 980ti because I got it much cheaper used than I could get an AMD equiv.

They still gotta earn that money. I switch teams when it make sense. I switch teams to what the best value is for my use. Plus the high end AMD cards were all sporting CLCs the last time I bought a card. I have a full loop, and I guess I could get a block but just seems weird to do that.
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if all your cards have been water cooled then i'd figure you were going to buy a block anyway.

apparently that would be wrong even though you bought a block you your 980ti.

the GPP is fucking terrible. i can't see one upside to it at all.
 
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