NVIDIA Enters Retail with Direct Sales at Best Buy @ [H]

§kynet;1036262135 said:
You seem to have made it your mission to post this is a temp deal, have seen it on 3 or 4 forums at least. (slow day). Why do you feel the need to emphasize that this is only for a short time?

It's almost like you are trying to fight the perception that this is not a good move.
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Probably for the same reason that it's on dozens of website forums. :rolleyes:

This place is turning into the inquirer with all the speculation, it's even moving into the articles themselves.
 
kd5ywa said:
Probably for the same reason that it's on dozens of website forums. :rolleyes:
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Generally people don't copy and paste the exact same post on multiple forums.
This place is turning into the inquirer with all the speculation, it's even moving into the articles themselves.
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Then don't come here, problem solved.
 
As an English educator, it is my duty to point out that the word you were going for there, Kyle, was 'discrete,' not 'discreet.' The graphics cards are separate, rather than integrated, but they aren't really noted for their subtlety. :D
 
Whoever works at nVidia's partner companies has the kind of skill that will ensure they won't suffer the economic decline.

Where as, if nVidia is fair, their making more money by building their own cards could mean less greed in pricing, where it matters to consumers.

Or maybe not. Just m 2 Cents.
 
maxius said:
http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/10/05/why-nvidia-killing-their-partners-branded-cards/

again the nail in nv's coffin they are heading towards 3dfx status and i bet intel buys them in the end
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should have seen this coming. but remember that Charlie usually pretty well anti Nvidia (to put it mildly). for instance he states that Nvidia killed BFG when we know that BFG was by and by responsible for their own demise. (and we do know, we have had the former employees around here and even they blame the upper management)
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
bestbuy sets the pricing.. odds are nvidia sold them the cards at msrp and there ya get the insane mark up..
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That is not how it happens.

nobody_here said:
note grammar error:
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My bad on that. I corrected the error much earlier today. We apparently have a server caching issue. I will get it fixed.

IcarusSC said:
As an English educator, it is my duty to point out that the word you were going for there, Kyle, was 'discrete,' not 'discreet.' The graphics cards are separate, rather than integrated, but they aren't really noted for their subtlety. :D
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I will have to own that one. Sorry.
 
Yeah, well all I know is that if you're gonna charge me extra for your card because it's got "Platinum Support" the first time I call somebody up they'd better be in Texas, Be an avid case modder and design graphics processors just for fun.

The second call better get the guy to my house on a Lear Jet with a couple of buxom Bikini models to keep me entertained while he re-engineers my Fermi to run at sub-arctic temperatures and give me 500FPS in anything I want to play!

:cool:
 
Most consumers are impulse buyers. Afraid to buy online, or simply ill-informed. I buy my electronics on newegg and never pay retail price for anything if I can avoid it.
 
I don't have a problem with nVidia doing this in priniple at all. ATi has been doing this forever.

There is always ATi branded reference cards for sale at Future Shop (owned now by BB, same king of store in Canada but more annoying with commisioned sales people) They are usually overpriced, but its great for joe sixpack because they recognize the ATi brand and it gives them something to put in their box brand PC.

Also, with them being so overpriced, I don't think it hurt AiB companies because we will still all buy their cheaper/better stuff anyway.

If Best Buy wants to MSRP the nV branded boards next to brandx that joe sixpack doesn't recognize (PNY, Zotac, etc.) then its these AIB companies that should have their volume sales people contact BB and ask their marketing group WTF is wrong with them.

I really appreciate Kyle's main point and I'm not annoyed by it being overstated. If I bought a "real" nV card that said it was built by them and had "Platinum" support I would expect it to be at least assembled by Americans (like my Mustang) and I'd be talking to an American if I needed help.

If I want to support our friends south of the border and their ailing economy (I'm in Canada) I should be able to make that choice and not be misled.

Sure, in the end, many of us don't give a flying f*** because we know better and don't shop at BB, but who is going to stick up for the semi-informed consumer if a stink isn't made about it?

The original 1.1GHz P!!! was pulled because it was defective, but not until toms made a big stink years ago. The original Pentium wasn't pulled until magazines made a stink about its bug too.

Making a stink about what geeks care about is one of the reasons why I started site reading sites like this and is why I trust sources such as this to make informed purchases and recommendations to my customers.

So, Readers Digest version, thank you HardOCP.

PS I do shop at places like FS and BB because every once in a while they have doorcrashers that price video cards cheaper than even Newegg. I bought my EVGA GTX 260 about 2 months after its launch at Futureshop for $80 cheaper than any site I could find online. Retail doesn't always mean expensive :p They also price match NCI and Newegg if you ask. Maybe Amazon too.
 
Its probably not such a big mystery that Nvidia sells some cards directly. Nvidia has admitted that their cards are not selling as well as expected and they also have an inventory buildup. AIB's are probably ordering less cards, to reduce the risk of having a lot of cards they can't sell.
AIB's don't want lots of cards piling up, Nvidia doesn't want a lot of chips piling up, so Nvidia sells them directly instead.
Nice way for Nvidia to get rid of some excess inventory. :)
 
VIC-20 said:
I don't have a problem with nVidia doing this in priniple at all. ATi has been doing this forever.

There is always ATi branded reference cards for sale at Future Shop (owned now by BB, same king of store in Canada but more annoying with commisioned sales people) They are usually overpriced, but its great for joe sixpack because they recognize the ATi brand and it gives them something to put in their box brand PC.

Also, with them being so overpriced, I don't think it hurt AiB companies because we will still all buy their cheaper/better stuff anyway.

PS I do shop at places like FS and BB because every once in a while they have doorcrashers that price video cards cheaper than even Newegg. I bought my EVGA GTX 260 about 2 months after its launch at Futureshop for $80 cheaper than any site I could find online. Retail doesn't always mean expensive :p They also price match NCI and Newegg if you ask. Maybe Amazon too.
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sigh, futureshop does NOT sell ATI branded video cards. If u check the web, it shows they r ati branded, but what u receive are diamond cards. Heck, go to the store and look, all they have are diamond.

i do agree with your PS though. Futureshop does some some crazy deals sometimes. I got 2 5770 DIAMOND cards on a price error in the flyer for 70 bucks each which i turned around and sold them for 220 and 200 bucks a week later :)
 
I don't have a problem with nVidia doing this in priniple at all. ATi has been doing this forever.
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The difference is that ATI used do it. I understand they stopped it a few years back. I guess it wasn't wildly successfule since they stopped it. The problem now is that NVIDIA is entering the retail space and at the same time requires it's partners to disclose all kinds of marketing / sales plans. A bit of conflict of interests you think?
 
ragejg said:
Fact: Best Buy ASKED NVIDIA for this, just for the holidays; a sales attractant if you will. This is no effort on NVIDIA's part to "become another Apple", to "shake up AIBs" or any other crap. This is also not replacing ANY partner SKUs.
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If so, then why is "Thank You" printed in nearly a dozen languages on the inside of the box? Kinda odd for a product that is being marketed for Best Buy in the USA only. I suppose it could be a stylistic/design thing...but I believe it points to deeper intentions.

Seems to me like Nvidia is using Best Buy to test the waters to see if it would make sense for them to start marketing their own branded products world wide. In my opinion, if they are successfully with this, you can pretty much kiss all the AIBs goodbye.
 
Seems to me like Nvidia is using Best Buy to test the waters to see if it would make sense for them to start marketing their own branded products world wide. In my opinion, if they are successfully with this, you can pretty much kiss all the AIBs goodbye.
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Seems to me, sales are one thing..........but support and RMA/repair are quite another.

Unless nvidia has stellar support and RMA structure, going to BestBuy as an outlet could be a huge mistake.......the target audience is much less enthusiastic than those who frequent this forum.
 
nobody_here said:
note grammar error:



and on the topic....the only thing i took exception to in this article is that you spent WAAAYYY too long going on and on about how it says "built by Nvidia" when it technically is not.

i would offer to you that everyone i know buying video cards in Best Buy has a complete skewed perception of brands, manufacturers and distributors....they dont even recognize the supply chain bro....i was online playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 with two friends online the other night. they are avid online PC gamers, but not technology geeks....they think you can argue a PNY card is better than a Gigabyte card. they did not even once in the argument use the word "Nvidia" or "GPU"....not once....when i asked what kind of GPU it had they responded with "Intel" and when i explained that i asked GPU on the video card, not CPU......the response was "it's the 512Mb one"........and when i was experiencing some high pings in game one of them told me it was "most likely my graphics card"

these guys are not dumb, they have decent rigs and play online a lot.....but they ARE exactly who shops at Best Buy for video cards and let me tell you expressly without a doubt and with no exception....they give a F-ALL who made it, who it says made it, or who actually made it.....they wouldn't even commit it to memory if you explained it all to them that a bunch of suicidal people at Foxxconn built them along side iPhones.....they immediately throw the box away and would never even call tech support.......

people simply dont give a F these days. you feel pointing out; nay.....putting it up on the marquee, that Nvidia didn't actually build these cards is a noble cause, but to be honest, the only people paying attention are the ones that know better anyways...

i think this article was pretty pointless honestly and a big to-do about nothing

Nvidia is trying to break into other markets like media streaming Boxees and mobile devices. they are trying to create a larger brand name presence. it is working obviously because what would have gone passed on as a nothing occurrence is now on the front page more than once in 24 hours....no doubt driving page hits and in turn ad revenue, but to learn what? Nvidia is marketing their own product? really?
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LOL, you description of your friends is perfect. I know a few people like that..

Seems like a pretty on the mark asessment of this whole thing.
 
GoodBoy said:
LOL, you description of your friends is perfect. I know a few people like that..

Seems like a pretty on the mark asessment of this whole thing.
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I know a few of them too. I've learned to just NOT talk tech around them, because things get so jumbled up and confusing between them that it mostly seems like they're just talking to hear themselves.

I wonder what the exact ratio is of gaming graphics cards who post on tech forums vs those who do not.
 
Correct me if I am wrong but didn't nvidia buy and use the sli technology from another 3d board company that went under and on the way down started making their own boards? 3dfx anyone? I wonder if the same guy responsible for that debacle is leading nvidia down that same rabbit hole of doom?
 
V nice article Kyle(don't hold back next time m8 :) :) ) - i have to say, i've bn disappointed with NVs attitude towards us all(I paid way too much for a GTX280 but because I lived in Aus, no rebate, when it was offered to others, such is life), AIBs and end-users together - whom is this 'marketing' aimed at? Joe who buys a lets say,, fruit theemd phone or Pc, won't know what to do with a vidcard on it's own...where 's the screen? how do i plug it in?? Let alone 2, even in the hands of a semi-competent will, as you predict end up RMAed, it's just the way it is, here in Aussie 2 with those type of retailer ...
As for built by NV, a statement not worth the paper it's printed on? Or are they thechniclly telling a truish??? Don't care, it's still MiC...some good stuff is MiC, we get heaps here in Aus, however there is a fair share of QC affected material as well...too much methinks..I suppose my opinion is a bit skewed - these cards, this program, seems to be @$$$aware peeps...but...??? I'm far from a market analyst myself but I hope this does not b/fire on NV - I really like my GTX480/RE3 combo, yes i know it's a sin to say so - we have had the coldest winter in 15yrs, it hasnt even warmed the room enough to handle more than 1 hour before me hands freeze up, so temps is a non-issue @this time..
Anyway, sorry to rant on, my wife is in hospital, I'm, a bit tipsy and i needed an outlet to forget my world for a bit...thnx for the read:cool::cool:,

PS :
this vidcard/package looks like my GTX280 XFX packaging...;);)
 
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by nobody_there

'i would offer to you that everyone i know buying video cards in Best Buy has a complete skewed perception of brands, manufacturers and distributors....they dont even recognize the supply chain bro....i was online playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 with two friends online the other night. they are avid online PC gamers, but not technology geeks....they think you can argue a PNY card is better than a Gigabyte card. they did not even once in the argument use the word "Nvidia" or "GPU"....not once....when i asked what kind of GPU it had they responded with "Intel" and when i explained that i asked GPU on the video card, not CPU......the response was "it's the 512Mb one"........and when i was experiencing some high pings in game one of them told me it was "most likely my graphics card"''


hehe, this is gold @ 3.50am:p:p:p:p:p:p:p, thnx m8, i need a laugh;);)
lol, a lot!!!! This reminds me, I hate to say it, of most of the peeps I have played BF2 with from ,err my own country....great bunny hoppers, wack you with the chopper but NFI when it comes to anything tech....'awww, Intel i think', with 2 gigaboots:eek::eek::eek:
 
I think it depends on what volume Nvidia and Best Buy are looking at. If it is large and they can keep supplying them there is of course a price advantage for Best Buy.

If it is just name recognition then it might be not that important, maybe they made deals regarding shelf space.

This is how the console wars are played. Sony and MS pay a lot of money for shelf space in stores.
 
In a separate, extremely remote but macro-scale development related to the industry itself. Before somebody says it, this is not prediction, this is already evident on the market and natural development, business-wise.

1. Notice Apple,Google, and all Intel-based partners are rapidly and relentlessly advancing the new media player push. You bet another big player is not far behind.

2. There will be 2 camps, the HTPC/FileServer camp that buys and rips, and if all aligns, the pure streaming camp. Both have their places.

So while the A & N observers are perfecting speculation elsewhere, others are working on pie-sharing.

Cheers
 
lightp2 said:
In a separate, extremely remote but macro-scale development related to the industry itself. Before somebody says it, this is not prediction, this is already evident on the market and natural development, business-wise.

1. Notice Apple,Google, and all Intel-based partners are rapidly and relentlessly advancing the new media player push. You bet another big player is not far behind.

2. There will be 2 camps, the HTPC/FileServer camp that buys and rips, and if all aligns, the pure streaming camp. Both have their places.

So while the A & N observers are perfecting speculation elsewhere, others are working on pie-sharing.

Cheers
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you see beyond the spec video cards, dishonest expensive boxes and best buy!!??? blasphemy! ;)
 
I suggest a favorite game back in the days of MS-DOS era. I am not sure about revision in the modern time. This game is perfect for IT industry video card players :)

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms"
 
Grimlaking said:
Correct me if I am wrong but didn't nvidia buy and use the sli technology from another 3d board company that went under and on the way down started making their own boards? 3dfx anyone? I wonder if the same guy responsible for that debacle is leading nvidia down that same rabbit hole of doom?
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Not the same as 3dfx. 3dfx outright bought a manufacture and literally did make their own cards. That was just one of their big mistakes though. Nvidia is simply getting reference boards from Foxconn (who makes a lot of the reference PCBs for video cards) and slapping their branding on it and putting it in a box. This is exactly like what ATI used to do when they sold ATI branded cards.
 
SpeedyVV said:
So the cool thing is I went to BestBuy.ca to see if they were selling NVidia cards. Nope.

But look what they are selling? ATI cards.

I checked the US site, and it does not look like they sell any there.

So, is ATI f*$#ing their AIBs too?
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$550 for a 5870? What kind of crack cocaine are they smoking north of the border?!
 
Can we say 'BFG" ?? Looks like they are trying to become BFG which as recently they had to bail out of direct product video card making /sales. BFG is an AIB but the effect of making the cards and direct sales effect is still the same.

Direct compete with smaller AIB, is not good business as we see how long term it effected BFG's history. Early on they were good strong card makers, but eventually fell to the way side as BFG pricing was always to "premium" so sales fell out as time goes on. Seems Nvidia pricing will fall into the same function.

Other senario possibility - Just opinion no facts here just conjectur - did nvidia secretly buy / rent BFG's card making wharehouse and is just rebranding it thier own since BFG was a pure nvidia maker they never did ATI cards. They have a retail nvidia card plant up for sale, they took their resources and just pushed these new cards from them. BFG was also a direct Best Buy seller, so the business processes where in place as well.

Or did nvidia just copy that info and cough up the cash / fabrication resouces within their own infrastructure to package cards for retail. Me suspects BFG's old card business is in play here for these new cards as far as manufacturing to retail part of it. No facts but wouldnt suprise me if this is the way the out of card business BFG did move was in fact to sell it off to nvidia for their use later, some insider folks made some moves.

Again no facts just a suspition thought that occured while reading this.
 
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this looks like TWIWMTBP 2.0 and for whatever reason it looks like best buy is behind this according to ryan

http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=9333

apparently best buy want to a brand to sell pc's and pc gaming i hope this is not true since essentially amd is being cut from the market that they are a huge player in.
 
I wonder how concerned Evga will be if Nvidia decides to expand into the motherboard market? They're already backing the losing horse,and as other partners have learned,this horse has a nasty habit of kicking you in the head when you turn your back.
 
After the 750 / 780, NVIDIA would have to pay ME to buy another one of their chipsets. I know it's not the same as NVIDIA building an X58 motherboard, but they left such a bad taste in my mouth they'd have to blow reviewers away for two generations of boards before I'd even consider them.

EVGA, however, makes very good motherboards.
 
Please forgive me for asking, but what does A. I. B. Stand for? I can think of some words that fit, but they're not polite.

Thanks.
 
hesho said:
sigh, futureshop does NOT sell ATI branded video cards. If u check the web, it shows they r ati branded, but what u receive are diamond cards. Heck, go to the store and look, all they have are diamond.

i do agree with your PS though. Futureshop does some some crazy deals sometimes. I got 2 5770 DIAMOND cards on a price error in the flyer for 70 bucks each which i turned around and sold them for 220 and 200 bucks a week later :)
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YES THEY DO. Just because your local FutureShop has the Diamond branded cards in-stock, it doesn't mean that they all don't. Also, FutureShop isn't the only Canadian chain carrying these cards either.

I just went to London Drugs in Medicine Hat, Alberta and they have 2 ATi branded 5750 cards on the self. You are partly right, they are Diamond cards as they say "A Diamond multimedia product" written on the side of the box in a small font, but they are not Diamond's normal black box with Diamond plastered on the front.

Here is Diamond normal box on Newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103087

The cards I'm referring to use the graphics from ATi's website on the front of the box, the same as FutureShop's website. This is as close to actual reference cards as it gets. This is the actual box here I just had in my hands...

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/prod...spx?path=2ffb2d06c214fc9447024bbb607ce091en13

While the card is being made by Diamond and has a normal Diamond part number, the card is being marketed as an ATi card in a different box. Sure, its not quite the same as the old "Built by ATi" program that ended with the HD2900XT, but on a practical sense is no different than nVidia branded Foxconn cards.

Anyone that doesn't read the fine print on the side would be fooled into thinking these are "real" ATi cards and obviously this would be unfair to Sapphire/PowerColor/etc for using their own name and graphics.

One last note, PC Partner, who owns Diamond Multimedia, made the "Built by ATi" reference cards that exsisted until the 3000 series came out.
 
....................

no, they are diamond because friend bought one online from them expecting it to be ati branded but it was diamond branded which he ended up returning because of it. The front doesn't have any mention of diamond, but the back does and so does all the material inside.
 
hesho said:
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no, they are diamond because friend bought one online from them expecting it to be ati branded but it was diamond branded which he ended up returning because of it. The front doesn't have any mention of diamond, but the back does and so does all the material inside.
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Did you read the end of my post? Diamond cards and the old "Built by ATi" reference cards came out of the same factory. They are one and the same. ATi used to just hide that fact better, but with these special boxes they are still obviously making an effort to have their own retail presence. They are just giving some credit to Diamond this time around and they are leaving Diamond to support them.

It's not as blatant as what nV is doing, but to joe average and to your friend (until the card arrived and he happened to be aware of Diamond as a brand) ATi is still branding. You may not be fooled, but the main point of the article is about the average best buy shopper being misled, which these ATi boxed Diamond would fool. Stop looking at it from an informed perspecive and you'll understand.
 
VIC-20 said:
Did you read the end of my post? Diamond cards and the old "Built by ATi" reference cards came out of the same factory. They are one and the same. ATi used to just hide that fact better, but with these special boxes they are still obviously making an effort to have their own retail presence. They are just giving some credit to Diamond this time around and they are leaving Diamond to support them.

It's not as blatant as what nV is doing, but to joe average and to your friend (until the card arrived and he happened to be aware of Diamond as a brand) ATi is still branding. You may not be fooled, but the main point of the article is about the average best buy shopper being misled, which these ATi boxed Diamond would fool. Stop looking at it from an informed perspecive and you'll understand.
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yes, sapphire makes the boards (at least they used to). So, sapphire makes the board, diamond puts their sticker on it = ati selling in retail??
 
AMD still does some "Built by ATI" cards, but not in North America to my knowledge but in the grand scheme of things, the quantities are very low. These cards are basically sold where AIBs were not servicing or servicing well. And for the record, those are NOT built by ATI. Technically ATI has not existed for a while now.
 
If they want to scoop the sales made by the droolling noob who just goes into BB yelling "I WANT AN NVIDIA" they can. the average discrete GPU shopper won't care. Its going to be the same as just another AIB: compete on price, warranty and design. If nvidia sticks to their reference board, at the same general price then they'd better have excellent support. either that or they'd have to undercut on price by quite a bit.

i dont think EVGA has anything to worry about
 
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